The title of the latest exhibition at the Museum of Comic Book and Cartoon Art (MoCCA) is inaccurate. Even though “Saturday Morning: Art and Artifacts from a Golden Age of Television” would seem to be about the art and artistry of Saturday morning animation, it includes a number of animated TV shows that were never aired on Saturday mornings, or which hit the airwaves outside the Golden Age between 1966 and 1990.
This is about the only serious complaint that can be made about the exhibition.
“Saturday Morning” truly surveys the history of televised animation, from Jay Ward’s pioneering Crusader Rabbit all the way to Spongebob Squarepants and the Powerpuff Girls. The show makes full use of MoCCA’s limited gallery space, filling all the walls of the exhibition area with drawings, animation cels, and cross-marketed material like posters, advertisements, and comic books. The show is organized chronologically, with the museum’s layout providing a logical flow through the entire exhibition that winds along one wall and then loops back to the entrance.
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