Saturday morning TV watching at our home fell into one of two camps: cartoons or Gerry.

For Canadians soccer fans, there was no question: we always welcomed Gerry Dobson, the voice of the beautiful game on Sportsnet for the better part of the last two decades and his coverage of the English Premier League, into our living room over Bugs Bunny.

But after 18 years at the helm of all of the network’s soccer coverage, Dobson will call his last game Saturday night when Toronto FC visits the Chicago Fire.

“I’m in a good place about the decision I’ve made,” Dobson told the Star this week. “I’m going to miss it. I’m looking forward to Saturday to see how I do actually feel when I’m calling the game, when we get toward the end of it.”

His retirement has come gently, Dobson said. Originally, he planned to leave after the last EPL season ended in May.

But when Sportsnet president Scott Moore, who offered Dobson the gig in the first place, asked him to stay on for 10 Toronto FC games over the summer, he agreed.

Dobson has already done his last Saturday morning broadcast with longtime colleague Craig Forrest. He called his final game at BMO Field in early August. The Premier League show kicked off in the middle of that month with Dobson’s successor, James Sharman, in the host chair.

Saturday is just the final milestone in the retirement tour.

Dobson was stunned by the outpouring of well wishes from fans after he announced his plan May 2.

He chalks it up to the unique nature of soccer fans in this country, who band together while supporting a game that was long considered the poor cousin to other Canadian sports.

“I think because of that, people get very defensive of the sport and people who cover the sport, so there’s a loyalty that’s built up there,” he said.

Forrest wasn’t surprised by the reaction. But Dobson’s decision to retire came out of the blue for the former Canadian goalkeeper, too.

“He was like, ‘Well, I’m 63. I’m ready to retire.’ I was just like, ‘What are you talking about, you’re ready to retire? You’ve got years left in you,’ ” he said.

No longer working with Dobson on a regular basis will mean some “major adjustments” for the man who sat next to him for 14 years, but Forrest is glad it’s Dobson who is calling time on his own legendary career.

“The brilliant thing is not many people have a chance to go out on their own terms in the business. Retiring isn’t usually something people do very often.”

Sharman, who has subbed in on Sportnet’s soccer desk as both an analyst and the host over the past couple years, feels some pressure over filling Dobson’s boots.

But he has tips and tricks from the supportive veteran to help him along the way.

“Having that chance to sit as the analyst beside the host, that was like going back to school. It really was. Had I not done that, jumping into this seat would have been a lot more difficult,” he said.

If Toronto FC wins Saturday, it will be the fifth game in a row Dobson has called a victory. That’s an unprecedented streak for the broadcaster, even though he has called Toronto’s games since the Reds’ first match back in 2007.

The success of the once-maligned TFC franchise and the increase in soccer programming ― from one game Saturday at 10 a.m. to matches nearly every day ― best indicate the growth of the game in Canada, Dobson said.

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“To see a stadium now filled with nearly 30,000 people week in and week out on Toronto’s waterfront to watch a soccer game is truly incredible.”

Dobson is leaving the game professionally but still plans to keep an eye on it, if not as religiously as he has done for all these years.

“If it’s Stoke versus Middlesborough, with all due respect to Stoke and Middlesborough, on a Saturday morning I might take a pass on that game.”