old TV memories Archives - Retro Reminiscing Video and Pictures

The New Casper Cartoon Show: The Ending We Remember

If you watched The New Casper Cartoon Show on Saturday mornings, the ending probably brings back just as many memories as the opening.

These are the Casper episodes I’m most familiar with, so seeing the closing again feels like finding an old piece of childhood TV you forgot was still tucked away somewhere. Casper was never the scary kind of ghost. He was gentle, lonely, and always just trying to make a friend.

The show first aired on ABC Saturday mornings in 1963, with new cartoons made for TV along with older Casper shorts. It gave Casper a regular place in the Saturday morning lineup, alongside characters like Wendy the Good Little Witch, The Ghostly Trio, Spooky, and Nightmare the ghost horse.

The ending has that simple old-TV charm. No big production, no loud cliffhanger, just a friendly goodbye from a cartoon that was never trying to be too wild or too scary.

For many of us, this version of Casper is the one that stuck: cereal bowl nearby, TV glowing, and a friendly ghost reminding us that sometimes the nicest character on television was the one everyone else was supposed to be afraid of.

The New Casper Cartoon Show

These are the Casper episodes I’m most familiar with, and it’s good to see them all once again.

The New Casper Cartoon Show first aired on ABC Saturday mornings in 1963, with its original run continuing into early 1964. It included 26 new Casper cartoons made for TV, along with older theatrical cartoons that helped keep Casper on television for years afterward.

Casper had already been around before this show, appearing in theatrical cartoons and Harvey Comics, but this version gave him a regular Saturday morning home. Unlike most ghosts, Casper didn’t want to scare anyone. He just wanted friends, which made him one of the gentler cartoon characters of the era.

The show also featured familiar Harvey characters like Wendy the Good Little Witch, The Ghostly Trio, Spooky, and Nightmare the ghost horse.

Casper would return in later forms too, including Casper and the Angels in the late 1970s and other Harvey cartoon packages that kept him alive for new generations of kids. But for many of us, The New Casper Cartoon Show is the version that feels like Saturday morning: cereal, pajamas, and a friendly ghost who was never too scary.

Organ Music Made Soap Operas So Dramatic

Soap operas got their name because the early daytime radio dramas were often sponsored by soap and household-product companies. The “opera” part came from the big emotions, dramatic turns, heartbreak, secrets, and cliffhangers. Basically, it was everyday life turned way up.

That old organ music became part of the soap-opera sound, especially in radio and early television. A live organist could underline a romantic moment, a shocking reveal, or that famous “tune in tomorrow” cliffhanger. One dramatic organ sting could make a raised eyebrow feel like a family emergency.

The Secret Storm was one of the long-running CBS daytime soaps. It aired from February 1, 1954, to February 8, 1974, and followed the Ames family through all the marriages, heartbreaks, secrets, and tragedies you’d expect from a classic soap. It was created by Roy Winsor, who also created Search for Tomorrow and Love of Life.

For a lot of us, that organ music is half the memory. You could be in the next room and still know somebody on TV had just gotten terrible news.

N-E-S-T-L-E-S… Nestlé’s makes the very best…

I have vague memories of Farfel the dog himself, but that Nestlé’s jingle? That’s burned in there for life.

You know exactly what I’m talking about.

🎵 “N-E-S-T-L-E-S… Nestlé’s makes the very best…” 🎵
…and then that voice comes in to finish it…
“…chaaawwwwclit.”

Come on… you just heard it in your head, didn’t you?

That’s the part that stuck. Not the puppet, not even the commercial itself half the time… just that drawn-out delivery that somehow made it impossible to forget.

Now Farfel, for those who might not remember him as clearly, was this floppy-eared puppet dog created and voiced by Jimmy Nelson. He wasn’t flashy, wasn’t over-the-top… just kind of laid back, almost like he couldn’t be bothered to finish the word properly. And funny enough, that “lazy” delivery wasn’t even planned—it came from a mistake where the puppet’s mouth snapped shut early, and instead of fixing it, they kept it. Best decision they ever made.

And here’s something I was thinking about… back then, puppets didn’t creep us out the way they seem to today. You look at some of the comments online now and kids are like, “That thing is nightmare fuel!” Meanwhile, we were sitting there in the living room, probably on the floor, completely fine with it. No second thought. It was just part of the show.

Different time. Different mindset.

The commercial itself was simple. No crazy effects, no fast cuts, no overproduction. Just a catchy jingle, a memorable voice, and a brand like Nestlé making sure you never forgot their name. And it worked—because here we are, decades later, still singing it like it aired yesterday.

And that’s really the magic of those old commercials. They didn’t need to hit you over the head… they just slipped in, nice and easy, and stayed there.

Now I’ve got to ask… do you remember Farfel more, or is it the jingle that stuck with you like it did with me?