''Agro's Cartoon Connection'' is an Australian

children's television Children's television series (or children's television shows) are Television show, television programs designed specifically for Child, children. They are typically characterised by easy-going content devoid of sensitive or adult themes and are ...

show that aired on the

Seven Network Seven Network (stylised 7Network, and commonly known as Channel Seven or simply Seven) is an Australian commercial free-to-air Television broadcasting in Australia, television network. It is owned by Seven West Media, Seven West Media Limited, ...

from 1990 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 1990 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 Ann-Maree Biggar is an Australian television presenter. Career Biggar's career began in 1988 at World Expo 88 on a show called ''The Breaky Bash'' with Sean James as commander Super K and his robot dog K9 and Brett. In 1989, Biggar began hosti ...

, Terasa Livingstone,

Holly Brisley Holly Brisley (born 11 January 1978) is an Australian actress and television presenter. She began her career at the age of 16 on '' Agro's Cartoon Connection'' (1994–97) and more recently portrayed Amanda Vale-Baker on ''Home and Away'' (200 ...

, Michael R Gibson (who was known to the audience by the nickname "Gibbo") and guest hosts Ian Calder and Stacey Thomson. Its origins can be traced back to ''Seven's Super Saturday'', later becoming ''The Super Saturday Show'' in 1989, which only aired on Saturday mornings and was originally only broadcast in

Brisbane Brisbane ( ; ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the States and territories of Australia, state of Queensland and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia, with a ...

. It followed on from a show called '' The 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 A cartoon is a type of visual art that is typically drawn, frequently Animation, animated, in an realism (arts), unrealistic or semi-realistic style. The specific meaning has evolved, but the modern usage usually refers to either: an image or s ...

including ''

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'' and ''

Magic Knight Rayearth is a Japanese manga series created by CLAMP. Appearing as a serial in the manga magazine ''Nakayoshi'' from the November 1993 issue to the February 1995 issue, the chapters of ''Magic Knight Rayearth'' were collected into three bound volu ...

'' 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

in an aggressive manner asking questions to anyone he met. Other shows presented during the series' run included '' G.I. Joe Extreme'', '' The Bots Master'', '' Bob in a Bottle'', '' Mega Man: The Animated Series'',

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, Toxic Crusaders, James Bond Jr.,

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, ''Hello Kitty's Furry Tale Theater'',

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, Magilla Gorilla, Speed Buggy,

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, The New Yogi Bear Show,

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, She-Ra: Princess of Power,

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, The Legend of Prince Valiant,

The Brave Frog , also known as ''Demetan the Frog'' and ''The Brave Frog'', is a 39-episode anime series by Tatsunoko Production that first aired in 1973. Overview The story is about Demetan (Jonathan in the English version), a poor young frog living in Rainb ...

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, Yogi's Gang, The Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers,

Quick Draw McGraw Quick Draw McGraw is the protagonist and title character of '' The Quick Draw McGraw Show''. He is an anthropomorphic white horse wearing a red Stetson cowboy hat, a red holster belt, a light blue bandana, and occasionally spurs, he was origina ...

The Scooby-Doo Show ''The Scooby-Doo Show'' is an American animated mystery comedy series. The title of the series is an umbrella term for episodes of the third incarnation of Hanna-Barbera's ''Scooby-Doo'' franchise. A total of 40 episodes ran for three seasons, ...

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, The New Fred and Barney Show, The Bots Master, Jin Jin and the Panda Patrol,

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, Captain N: The Game Master, Phantom 2040,

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, Bumpety Boo,

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, Galtar and the Golden Lance, The Thirteen Ghosts of Scooby-Doo, SilverHawks,

Shirt Tales ''Shirt Tales'' are characters that were created in 1980 by greeting card designer Janet Elizabeth Manco and were featured on Hallmark Cards greeting cards. The characters were adapted into a 1982–1983 animated series for television, by Hanna- ...

The Adventures of Don Coyote and Sancho Panda ''The'' is a grammatical article in English, denoting nouns that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The ...

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, Pancho and Rancho,

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, and

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. The show also featured many children's movies including Dot Goes to Hollywood, Dennis the Menace in Mayday for Mother, The Little Troll Prince,

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, Yogi and the Invasion of the Space Bears,

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, The Good, the Bad, and Huckleberry Hound, Yabba Dabba Doo! The Happy World of Hanna-Barbera, Top Cat and the Beverly Hills Cats and

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. Christmas specials included The Greatest Adventure: Stories from the Bible,

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, Mole's Christmas, and Silent Night, Holy Night (film). 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 animated program ''

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'' and the science fiction program ''

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''. 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 criticised in Parliament for including product sponsorship within the program itself, rather than simply running commercial breaks. From 1995, the show fiercely competed with ''

Cheez TV ''Cheez TV'' is an Australian children's cartoon show hosted by Ryan Lappin and Jade Gatt that aired on weekday mornings on Network Ten. It began broadcasting on 10 July 1995 and it ended on 31 December 2004 with the presenters leaving. After ...

'' on

Network Ten Network 10 (commonly known as the 10 Network, Channel 10 or simply 10) is an Australian commercial television network. It is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Paramount Global's Paramount Networks UK & Australia, UK & Australia division and is o ...

. In an attempt to boost ratings against ''Cheez TV'', Seven replaced Gibson & Thomson with Brad Hills in 1997. In December of that year, Agro and all of the show's hosts were removed, with the programme rebranded simply to ''Cartoon Connection'' and only showing cartoons. ''Cartoon Connection'' was eventually cancelled in 1999. Following the show's cancellation, Seven attempted several experiments to revive its breakfast programming for children. Eventually in 2000 Seven shifted the timeslot's focus towards early morning news, occupied by the ''

Sunrise Sunrise (or sunup) is the moment when the upper rim of the Sun appears on the horizon in the morning, at the start of the Sun path. The term can also refer to the entire process of the solar disk crossing the horizon. Terminology Although the S ...

'' programme instead. Co-host Michael 'Gibbo' Gibson passed away on 10 June 2024.

Cast

Awards

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1991 It was the final year of the Cold War, which had begun in 1947. During the year, the Soviet Union Dissolution of the Soviet Union, collapsed, leaving Post-soviet states, fifteen sovereign republics and the Commonwealth of Independent State ...

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Logie Awards The TV Week Logie Awards (known colloquially as The Logies) is an annual ceremony celebrating and honouring the best shows and stars in Australian television, sponsored and organised by the magazine ''TV Week''. The event is telecast live and ...

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1992 1992 was designated as International Space Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 – Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt replaces Javier Pérez de Cuéllar of Peru as United Nations Secretary-General. * January 6 ** The Republ ...

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1993 The United Nations General Assembly, General Assembly of the United Nations designated 1993 as: * International Year for the World's Indigenous People The year 1993 in the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands had only 364 days, since its ...

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1994 The year 1994 was designated as the " International Year of the Family" and the "International Year of Sport and the Olympic Ideal" by the United Nations. In the Line Islands and Phoenix Islands of Kiribati, 1994 had only 364 days, omitti ...

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1995 1995 was designated as: * United Nations Year for Tolerance * World Year of Peoples' Commemoration of the Victims of the Second World War This was the first year that the Internet was entirely privatized, with the United States government ...

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1996 1996 was designated as: * International Year for the Eradication of Poverty Events January * January 8 – A Zairean cargo plane crashes into a crowded market in the center of the capital city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo ...

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1997 Events January * January 1 – The Emergency Alert System is introduced in the United States. * January 11 – Turkey threatens Cyprus on account of a deal to buy Russian S-300 missiles, prompting the Cypriot Missile Crisis. * January 1 ...

, ,

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, id=0135720, title=Agro's Cartoon Connection Seven Network original programming 1990 Australian television series debuts 1997 Australian television series endings Television programming blocks in Australia Australian children's television series Australian television shows featuring puppetry Television shows set in Brisbane Television shows set in Sydney Australian English-language television shows 1990s Australian comedy television series Samurai Pizza Cats

History

Cast

Awards

See also

References

External links