Before Saturdays became an infomertial waste land and after school time became the Dr Pill/Oprah power hours, TV stations in North America used to run cartoons for kids.
Any that you enjoyed? Hated?
Or were you a more mature kid who would rather watch reruns of Gilligan’s Island, Mary Tyler Moore, Get Smart or Rat Patrol? Or The McLaughlin Group?
I was a nerd (big shock) so I preferred Jonny Quest and Flash Gordon on Saturdays. For some reason I didn’t like the Smurfs yet watched them endlessly (go figure.)
As for afternoon shows, I was fond of heavily edited shows of Japanese anime series Macross and Ninja Science Team Gatachaman aka Robotech and Battle of the Planets.
Thanks to the joys of Youtube, I can watch these series and question my younger self’s tastes and intelligence.
So many shows… lots of them were Japanese. Cats Eye, Samurai Pizza Cats, Sailor Moon, Dragonball Z, Escaflowne, Cardcaptor Sakura etc.
Japanimation was always hit or miss with me or even too surreal for my brain to take.
I think I was more attracted to the transforming robots…
Jonny Quest was awesome. The Alex Toth designs were outstanding, and the theme song is still close to the best cartoon theme song ever (Duck Tales is #1 of course). I of course have all the Hanna-Barbera cartoons on DVD.
Second favorite was Space Ghost, followed by Herculoids. Again, Alex Toth designs. I can still watch them simply because the minimalist artwork is so amazing.
Super Friends holds a special place in my heart. Filmation had done some superheroes before my time, but Super Friends was the first mass-market super hero cartoon I ever got to experience from the jump. The first season still holds up, but it went into a decline until we got to Super Friends: Galactic Guardians.
On the Marvel side, the old Spider-Man cartoon has some charm, but the 90s version was top-notch. I still enjoy the first Fantastic Four cartoon with plots ripped straight from the comics.
The original Scooby-Doo is still one of my favorites, which you can probably tell from my Halloween decorations.
Disney Afterschool was probably one of the best cartoon blocks ever made, with Duck Tales, Talespin, and Rescue Rangers. Not strictly Saturday morning though.
Other 90s and aughts cartoons that were superb: Men in Black (WAY better than the movie or the comics), The Real Ghostbusters (early J. Michael Straczynski) and, of course, the best cartoon ever made, Batman: The Animated Series.
All of the DC Animated Universe ranges from good to excellent (Superman: The Animated Series, Justice League, Justice League Unlimited, Batman Beyond) and it forms a coherent narrative that should be the absolute standard for comics.
What else you want to know?
I loved the animated Men in Black! Batman Beyond was great too. Darkwing Duck, Tales from the Crypt Creeper, Freaky Stories, Samurai Jack… so many are resurfacing.
Samurai Jack was awesome.
Forgot about Space Ghost!
The DC Batman series was one I watched as an… er, adult. It was a hell of a lot more entertaining than the Joel Schumacher Batman movies of the same era.
Absolutely. It’s amazing what an incredible job Dini and Timm did considering how much meddling must have occurred from Warner Brothers.
Mighty Heroes
Never saw that one before.
So Ralph Bakshi did that one before he went work in Toronto (briefly) as head of Spiderman (the OG series) and Canadian Cult Cartoon Rocket Robin Hood (where both shared the same episode story lines in an attempt to save money and writer’s block apparently.)
When I was all grown up, for some reason I ran across the Saturday morning cartoon The Tick, and I will demand all bow to the majesty, power, and mercy of The Tick.
There have been a couple of live action remakes which never really worked, because the producers never understood that it only really works as a cartoon. At one point The Tick faces off against a Russian studies graduate student inspired by Josef Stalin who goes by the name Stalin Grad. And also a man eating cow.
A friend of mine got me hooked on the comic book series, but for some reason I didn’t mesh with the various TV series.
The cartoon series is absolutely the best (I have it on DVD as well) but the live action series have their own charms. Problem is you can’t really embrace the full batshit crazy of the Tick on a CGI budget. Dinosaur Neil just can’t be done in live action.
Speaking of surreal, one was the Space Angel series which meshed human lips with animated cells to “save” money. I liked it…
Trivia note: A number of the cast ended up doing voices for the various Xtian “Focus On Family” animated shows (thanks Wiki.)
Surreal like: Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat or Rocco’s Modern Life?
Like Conan O’Brian surreal who revived it when doing fake celebrity interviews.
As the youngest I never got to pick what we watched. My brother always chose the Three Stooges, my sisters usually opted for Bugs Bunny. I was fine with both of those.
Both classics!
I watched both the cartoons and the sitcoms. I was particularly fond of the old Hanna Barbera cartoons.
I remember really liking the Beetlejuice cartoon and then as an adult watching the movie and being like wow they totally removed the creeper stalker obsession he had with teenage her.
I guess they had to or it would have been awkward.
Produced in Toronto by Nelvana.
Also loved Gargoyles and the X-Men animated series.
Yessssss Gargoyles!!! We used to pretend to be gargoyles by tying crochet blankets around our necks and sticking our fingers through the holes in the corners to create wings. I 💜 Demona
Got those on DVD as well. The series went off the rails when creator Greg Weisman left, but it was outstanding until then. Weisman also produced Spectacular Spider-Man and Young Justice, both very good cartoons.
I did not know that most of the cast of Star Trek: TNG was voicing them. I learned that from my sister (a big fan of them.)
I also remember when I was really little and couldn’t tell the difference between Saturday and Sunday. I’d wake up on Sunday and look for cartoons and all the TV had was Christian stuff like Jot and Davey and Goliath.
I think those shows help explain my feelings about Christianity today. Bunch of bait and switch con artists even then.
I admit I found this Mad TV parody hilarious.
Yeah, I saw those too. I thought Davey was too much of a dipshit.
Sundays here in MN meant Church TV, or The Wild Wild West, Grizzly Adams, Kung Fu, and then AWA wrestling;
Saturday was Hulk’s cartoon, and I forgot about the Ewoks!
If anyone is watching college football tonight, this LSU/Ole Miss game is amazing.
anyone remember the car of tomorow?
i offended most of oppo with it once……it really was a regular on tv for me growing up tho…..cartoon network had it
used to be the full episode was available on youtube…….that one would probably get me banned tho..so maybe its for the best youtube got a little woker…lol
What’s the deal with the car with the big butt?
sexism probably….that toon had all the isms
it was a series too…there was at least a house of tomorow and a tv of tomorow that i remember
Speed Buggy, Land Of The Lost, Wonderbug, Looney Toones, Woody Woodpecker, Tom & Jerry, Popeye, Underdog, Hanna-Barbera’s stuff, Rocky & Bullwinkle, Fat Albert, and Schoolhouse Rock were what I remember from when I was *really* young (along with the Flintstones & Scooby-Doo reruns).
When I was a bit older, it was the *PRIME* cartoon era–He Man & She-Ra, Transformers (yes, I AM still miffed, that Bumblebee was made a “badass” car in the movies–he was a Beetle with a big ‘ol chip on his shoulder, ffs!!!!), and the Go Bots, Jem & the Holograms, The Smurfs, Rescue Rangers, Inspector Gadget, the Care Bears, the “Sissy Yellow Spandex” version of Wolverine who hung out with all the other X-Men, The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Gummy Bears (bouncing here & there and *everywhere*, high adventure that’s beyond comapre…”), My Little Pony The Real Ghostbusters & Beetlejuice–as others mentioned–GI Joe….
We had ALL the great cartoons, in that stretch from the late 1970’s, through the early/mid 90’s!
ever wonder if you spend too much time on youtube?
Scoobie Doo and Josie and the Pussycats.