It doesn’t matter whether you like sports or not, the Super Bowl is one of the biggest entertainment events of the year. The estimated 111.3 million viewers Sunday night made it the most watched television show of all time.

A big highlight from the night, at least for me, was the commercial presented by MetLife. The insurance company’s “Everyone” ad featured a bevy of classic cartoon characters.

A great aspect of the nostalgia-inducing spot was its use of B-list stars. Sure, the Peanuts characters common with MetLife advertising were present but so too were Saturday Morning heroes long forgotten. You could easily see popular ’70s and ’80s figures like Voltron, He-Man, and The Jetsons. Also on hand were lesser-knowns like Jabberjaw, Hong Kong Phooey, and Magilla Gorilla.

MetLife’s Facebook page has bios of most of them but cartoonist Mark Anderson has an exhaustive list in chronological order. Anderson even corrected MetLife’s mention of Captain Caveman to his doppelgangers Rock and Gravel Slag.

If you missed the ad, watch it below and then seek out the excellent coverage by Anderson. The Facebook page also has a few “behind the scenes” videos to check out. Oh, and see if you can find the numerous inclusions of the stripe shirt-wearing Waldo.

Know any 70’s cartoon fans and need a last-minute gift idea? Check out this Mystery Machine Van Replica that Warner Bros. has released, containing 41 episodes from the original Scooby-Doo Where Are You! series. I’m a sucker for collectible DVD packages, and this one is pretty awesome. It’s the first DVD set I’ve seen that actually holds it’s own on a shelf next to your other collectibles as far as coolness-factor goes.

You know what to expect from the cartoon itself: pure 70s Hanna-Barbera camp. That’s not a bad thing by any means. Scooby-Doo Where Are You! became a template of sorts for HB cartoons in the 70s and 80s, but none of the other shows really captured the goofiness and fun of watching Shaggy, Scooby, and the gang solve mysteries every week.

Read More