WEEKEND TV : First Batch of New ‘Toons to Hit the Air

Wake up, kids! Grab the Fruit Loops and the Captain Crunch. The new Saturday morning cartoons are here today.

Both Fox and ABC roll out their new cartoon lineups beginning at 7 a.m. ABC’s (7)(3)(10)(42) new entries include the dinosaur-laden “Land of the Lost” at 7:30; “Darkwing Duck,” featuring a wisecracking, crime-fighting duck, follows at 8; “Hammerman,” based on pop star M.C. Hammer, airs at 9, and the environmentally correct “The Pirates of Dark Water” zooms in at 9:30.

Fox’s (11)(6) lineup features the debut of “Taz-mania,” starring a lovable Tazmanian Devil from the land down under, at 8:30 followed at 9 by “Little Shop,” based on the movie “Little Shop of Horrors” and starring a human-eating plant.

CBS and NBC will showcase their new animated programs next Saturday, including cartoons based on the movies “Back to the Future” and “Home Alone.”

Adults can tune in a “Firing Line Debate” on the issue of politically correct speech at 1 p.m. Sunday on Channel 28. Among the panelists discussing whether the so-called “P.C. police” are endangering freedom of thought and expression on American college campuses are: Catharine Stimpson, Ronald Walters, Stanley Fish, Leon Botstein, Dinesh D’Souza, Glenn C. Loury, John Silber and William F. Buckley Jr.