I just learned that this morning was the first Saturday morning in at least fifty years with no cartoons on broadcast television. While I don’t think I have personally spent much time watching regularly-scheduled animated programming on Saturday mornings since we all wondered if the Smurfs had any sort of copyright claim against the Snorks, I can’t help but feel wistful that an era is ending.

I also can’t help but realize that I actually remember the PSAs that ran during commercial breaks better than the cartoons—this is almost certainly due to repetition, since I would’ve seen the “hanker for a hunk of cheese guy” way more often than any one episode of The Herculoids or Turbo Teen. (Okay, seriously, how f—d up was the basic concept of Turbo Teen? What happens if one of the headlights gets smashed? Does he lose an eye???) Anyway, since I don’t seem to have anything else to do this morning—I’m certainly not going to be watching any cartoons!!!—here are a few old memories for my fellow Gen-Xers who maybe thought the nostalgia segments of Reality Bites were ahead of their time.

Of course, we have the “hunk of cheese” guy:

I don’t know if anyone remembers the singing bean and grain of rice:

Or the weird recipe for a “Saturday”:

Here are some intros and stuff:

Here’s one you probably don’t remember (technically it’s not a cartoon, but it did air on Saturday mornings). It had Benji in it:

Of course, we need a primer on our legislative process:

And these parodies:

The Daily Show‘s tribute to the 2002 midterm elections:

^This is funny and all, but remember it’s from 2002. Vote in November, assholes.

Then there’s this bit from The Simpsons:

Okay, that’s all, folks. (Sorry.)