The Secret Saturdays evokes a Saturday morning cartoon sensibility. Doc, Drew and Zak Saturday with "gorilla-cat" Fiskerton are world-saving adventure scientists. All images © Cartoon Network.

There's something nostalgic about Saturday morning cartoons and those days when kids woke up early to watch their favorite animated adventures. And while Cartoon Network's new original offering The Secret Saturdays airs on Friday nights in the 8:00 p.m. slot, there's something about it that evokes that Saturday morning sensibility -- and it's not just the name.

In the show, Doc, Drew and Zak Saturday are a family of world-saving adventure scientists called The Secret Saturdays. They live in a hidden base and are part of a network of scientists who protect against all the underlying evil in the world. To the Saturdays, ordinary folk-tales are not just legends, but real-life mysteries and adventures. Traveling from the Gobi Desert to the Marianas Trench, the Saturdays explore ancient temples and bottomless caves, tangle with twisted villains and scour the globe in search of cryptids: mysterious creatures that live undercover all over the world.

"I think of the Saturdays as pulp-style adventure heroes, in the same mold as The Phantom, Indiana Jones, Challengers of the Unknown, The Rocketeer, Doc Savage and the Shadow," says creator Jay Stephens. "But I can't help it if my love of vintage Marvel Comics leaks into the mix."

Stephens began his career creating independent comic books such as Atomic City Tales, The Land of Nod and Jetcat Clubhouse, which he later made into an animated short. The short was featured in the Nickelodeon animated series KaBlam that helped propel a transition into animation and earned Stephens an Annie Award nomination. Stephens has also won two Daytime Emmy Awards for his international animated series Tutenstein on NBC and Discovery Kids.

Trawling for Cryptids
Twenty-six episodes of The Secret Saturdays are currently in production at PorchLight Ent. in Los Angeles, with Fred Schaefer as series producer. However, Stephens first conceived of the show some five years ago, and it was originally called Cryptids.

"I think my first sketches of what would become the Saturdays date back to 2003, when it was tentatively titled Cryptids, and was a funny (mysterious) animal show," Stephens recalls. "It's been a long and winding road to television! Once I had a cohesive pitch for the show ready, I took it around to the studios, trawling for interest. Cartoon Network eventually took the bait."

Saturdays' creator Jay Stephens started as a comic book creator and drew upon his background and skills when developing the concept.

Stephens found working with Cartoon Network to be a positive experience. "I never felt that Cartoon Network wanted anything other than a cool, successful show out of The Secret Saturdays, and the bulk of their input was not only easy to accommodate, but, more often than not, improved the series," he says. "After having gone through the more difficult process of having my comic book characters adapted to animation (Jetcat for Nickelodeon and Tutenstein for Discovery Kids), I found developing something specifically for TV much easier. The concept was more naturally fluid and malleable."

"I did freak out over a couple of points like a possible name change to the series and the color of the Saturdays' suits, for example," Stephens notes. "I had to live up to the 'difficult creator' expectations at least a little."

Stephens drew upon his comic-book background and skills when developing the concept. "I wish I'd had a background in animation, to tell you the truth," Stephens confesses. "Would've come in handy. I turned my meager skills into an advantage by deciding that the series should have a 'comic book' look. I did have a very solid concept of how the show should look right from the start and kept my hands dirty throughout production on character designs, color schemes, background notes and the like."

Stephens was also involved with the writing during the early stages. "I did a lot of writing during development, but was eager and willing to pass that chore onto someone else if we could find someone who 'got' the show and was super-talented," he says. "Fortunately, story editor Brandon Sawyer fit the bill and was available. We hit it off right from the start."