Where Has ‘Fillmore!’ Gone?
The launch of Disney+ contains a glaring omission from those of us who grew up in the twlight of Saturday morning cartoons.
I’ve always been someone that’s been early to rise, no matter how late I stay up. My body’s always been wired that way. I owe a large part of that to Cookie Crisp cereal and Saturday morning cartoons. When most kids my age were sleeping in on the weekends, I was up at the crack of dawn, pouring a massive bowl of cereal and tuning our rabbit-eared television to ABC for some early morning entertainment. I lived out in a small, blink-and-you-miss-it town without even a gas station. Needless to say, cable and satellite wasn’t an option. Saturday morning cartoons were my only source of entertainment. And the best of that entertainment was Fillmore!.
For the uninitiated, Fillmore! was the last Saturday morning cartoon made, and was produced by Walt Disney Animation for ABC, later going to Disney Channel. It follows the adventures of Cornelius Fillmore, a former juvenile delinquent who joins the safety patrol and fights crime at X Middle School with his partner, Ingrid Third. A razor sharp parody of 70s police procedurals, Fillmore! had something to offer both children and adults. Criminal kids smuggle tartar sauce, counterfeit trading cards, or vandalize bathroom stalls…
