The cartoons of my youth can be divided into Saturday morning cartoons I only saw once a week, and syndicated cartoons that were on every day. Saturday morning cartoons I enjoyed included Dungeons and Dragons, the Smurfs, Looney Tunes, Saturday Morning Supercade, the Superfriends, and many others. Syndicated cartoons, ones that we on television essentially every day, included things like the Pink Panther, Tom and Jerry, Hercules, Casper, the Groovie Ghoulies, Popeye, Scooby Doo, The Flinstones, The Jetsons, Rocky and Bullwinkle, and of course, Woody Woodpecker.

Few if any of these cartoons are shown on regular cable these days. Some incarnation of Scooby Doo still airs and a couple of the others air on some of our extended digital cable stations, but most of them will never see broadcast television again. Like most kids today my children love watching SpongeBob, but I feel like they are really missing out on some of the great cartoons of my youth. Fortunately many of those old cartoon shows are available on DVD … which brings us to Woody Woodpecker and Friends.

The Woody Woodpecker and Friends Classic Cartoon Collection is a three-disc DVD set containing 75 cartoons starring Woody Woodpecker and his friends. Approximately 2/3 of the included cartoons feature Woody Woodpecker; the other third star his pals Chilly Willy the Penguin, Andy Panda, Wally Walrus, and others. The collection covers most of Woody’s earlier cartoons (up to the early 1950s). According to Wikipedia there were close to 200 Woody Woodpecker cartoons, so this collection of 75 would be less than half. The set’s original 2007 list price was $40, but it’s available (used) on Amazon for $10.

The kids and I watched most of the set this past weekend, and for the most part we all enjoyed it. Woody is a bit more violent (in a cartoon way, not unlike the Three Stooges) than most of the cartoons my kids are used to watching, although I’m pretty sure it won’t turn them into monsters. While the violence didn’t bother me at all, what did make me squirm were some of the racial stereotypes. Let’s just say what’s acceptable has changed drastically over the past 60-70 years.

One thing the kids really enjoyed was all the great musical numbers.

Here’s some dumb trivia for you. The first person to voice Woody Woodpecker was none other than Mel Blanc (1940–1941). The person who performed Woody the longest was Grace Stafford (1950–1985), wife of Woody creator Walter Lantz. For The New Woody Woodpecker Show, which aired on Fox Kids from 1999–2002, Woody’s voice was provided by great voice actor Billy West — better known for providing the voice for cartoon characters such as both Ren and Stimpy, and Philip J. Fry, Professor Hubert Farnsworth and Dr. Zoidberg, all from Futurama. Woody Woodpecker also has his own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

I’ve spent several years accumulating cartoon collections from my youth. The kids enjoy watching them, up to a point; after that, it’s out with the old, and back in with the new.