Discussing this further with Giselle, my imaginary French girlfriend (she thinks we Americans are so foolish, by the way), I realized that what I really liked about those kid shows were the theme songs. In some cases, the theme songs were pretty much my whole reason for watching those shows (like the only reason I used to watch Lancelot Link, Secret Chimp was for the swirly psychadelic effects on the episode titles). One series I particularly liked was on WXON channel 20, in the afternoon. It showed cartoons based on different Marvel superheroes. The animation was practically nonexistent, but I like each different superhero’s theme song.
And, having spent all tonight searching the Internet for copies of those songs, I put together this video of those songs.
And I might post some other favorites later.
P.S. I was going to say my one favorite show I used to watch in the mornings was The Dick Van Dyke Show which channel 9 in Windsor (CBET) used to play; but it just occurred to me that I forgot all about Rocky and Bullwinkle, which is witty and silly enough to still be very enjoyable.