Agro's Cartoon Connection

Agro's Cartoon Connection
Genre	Children's Variety
Presented by	Agro Ann-Maree Biggar (1989-1994) Terasa Livingstone (1995-1997)
Country of origin	Australia
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	9
Production
Production location(s)	Brisbane, Queensland (1989-1996) Sydney, New South Wales (1997)
Running time	90 minutes
Release
Original network	Seven Network
Picture format	4:3 PAL
Audio format	Stereo
Original release	1989 – 19 December 1997

Agro's Cartoon Connection was an Australian children's television show that aired on the Seven Network from 1989 to 1997. Shown on weekday mornings, it was primarily hosted by Agro, a puppet played by comedian Jamie Dunn. It was originally filmed at BTQ7 from 1989 to 1996, after which it moved to ATN7 in 1997.

History

Over the years the show had a number of co-hosts including Ann-Maree Biggar, Terasa Livingstone, Holly Brisley, Michael R Gibson and guest hosts Ian Calder and Stacey Thomson.

It began as Seven's Super Saturday, later becoming the Super Saturday Show, which only aired on Saturday mornings and was originally only broadcast in Brisbane.

It followed on from a show called Cartoon Connection which had been hosted for many years previously by Michael Horrocks and Alex Wileman, Wileman went on to do New South Wales lottery broadcasts.

The show consisted of playing a variety of cartoons Popeye and Son, Samurai Pizza Cats and Sailor Moon while including small editorials presented between the cartoons in a variety of segments. One such example included Ian Calder appearing in a regular segment acting as a character, one of his more popular being Crikey the Clown where he would walk around the streets of Brisbane in an aggressive manner asking questions to anyone he met.

Other shows presented during the series' run included G.I. Joe, The Bots Master, Sonic the Hedgehog, A Pup Named Scooby Doo and Mega Man. The Sunday morning edition of the program ran under the name The Super Sunday Show and included skits performed by the regulars, as well as presenting the UK sci-fi program UFO.

Notably the show's humour was sometimes provocative but always done in a way that would escape the notice of the show's primary audience of children. The program was criticized in Parliament for including product sponsorship within the program itself, rather than simply running commercial breaks.

In its final years the show lost in the ratings to its competitor Cheez TV, causing the Seven Network to cut its running time and funding until it was cancelled. Ultimately, after several experiments, 7 decided not to continue aiming its breakfast programming at children, and eventually created the successful Sunrise program instead. This program currently occupies the morning timeslot.

Cast

Agro (a puppet played by comedian Jamie Dunn) hosted the show throughout the show's duration. He was co-hosted by Ann-Maree Biggar (1989 - 1994), then Terasa Livingstone (1995-97).

The show had various regular guests and reporter. They include: Holly Brisley (1995 - 1997), Michael R Gibson, Ian Calder (as Crikey the Clown) and Stacey Thomson.

Awards

The show received 7 consecutive Logie Awards for Most Popular Children's Program from 1991 to 1997.

See also

• List of Australian television series

External links

• Agro's Cartoon Connection at IMDb