That 80s Cartoon Nomination Thread

Cat Man

New member
Hey all,

In light of the recent "Best of Animation" list, I wanted to work on putting together a proper list that represents the rabroad Community.

Here's how this works:

I am going to pick one decade and allow one whole week to everyone to nominate a series from that decade and discuss it.

The next week, I'll follow up with a poll of all series nominated.

In an effort to not spawn too many threads for this project and to allow ample discussion for each decade, I'll only concentrate on one decade at a time, thus, each poll will take two weeks. One week for nominations and then one week for voting.

At the end of all of this, we'll have one massive poll covering the top nominations from each decade.

Depending on momentium and how big the list is, I may extend the length of the nominations.

What's Required to Nominate:

The focus of this poll is Animation in the North America. Thus, we are largely looking for things that were broadcast in the North America.

In order to qualify it must have:

  1. Have a proper, legal, legit English Dub.
  2. The complete and proper name of the series is required for nomination. (Example: Nominate Superman: The Animated Series, not Superman: TAS or STAS.)
  3. The series must have been legally and legitimately available to North American Audiences in one of the following ways between 1980 to 1989.
    • The series must have had been broadcast in the US on any channel (Including premium channels such as HBO and Cinemax).
    • The series must have had a Direct to Video release in North America available in retail brick and mortar stores.
    • The series must have had a legal streaming feed directed towards a North American audiences through (Including Pay-per-view, Comcast OnDemand, Youtube, Hulu).
    • Availible in a Brick and Mortar store.
  4. The series must have STARTED between 1980 and 1989. A series with an extended break will be weighted on their own. This includes:
    • Series Restarts: A series that had an extended break and returns with different writing staff or animation staff. (Example: Jonny Quest 1960s vs Jonny Quest 1980s. They both have the same animation style, but the 1980s version was meant to immitate the 1960s version.)
    • Series Reboots: A series that intentionally restarts, re-introducing and re-estabashing characters and storyline elements. (TMNT 1980s version vs TMNT 2000s version).
  5. Movies are only considered series in their own right if they are based directly on a series broadcast in North American and was produced while the series was still in premier utilizing characters and or events from that series. (Example: Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie: Pyramid of Light is considered part of the Yu-Gi-Oh series but Green Lantern: First Flight is considered its own series because it has no established series or continuity with any other series).
  6. Series will be Alphabetized and divided into categories for the poll. (Example: Comedy, Action, Adventure etc)
What's Helpful to add:

Although it's not required, a link to the rabroad Wiki, Wikipedia and TV.com is extremely helpful.

It is my intent to create a master list of series while doing this and provide voters with sources to make an informed decision.

I would also like to include introdutions to series to remind voters about the series before voting.

Here's how Poll Enteries will look

Example:

  1. Superman: The Animated Series [Intro] [rabroad] [Wiki] [TV.com]
Help make a complete List:

In order for this poll to be as accurate as possible, I'd like to make this as complete as possible. Please don't just nominate shows you like, please also try to nominate all shows you can think of.

Discussion:

Use this thread not only to nominate series but also to disuss each series. Talk to your fellow posters about all the things that you felt really made the series and really diminished the series.

Also, discuss how well you believe the series aged. Has it lasted the test of time? Is it still watchable and enjoyable over 20 years later or have newer series dominated it and spoiled you?

Most of all, have fun with this! There's an ENORMOUS library of series out there. There's no doubt that everyone here can enjoy talking with their fellow forumers about how series affeted their life or how much they enjoyed watching the series both then and now.

Voting:

Due to lack of features available on vBulletin, I'm going to host the voting through a Gdocs form hosted in this thread. Once all the nominations are made, everyone will be able to cast votes.

Everyone will be able to cast 1 vote per genre and then 3 votes across all nominates series.


Note:

I am going to prorate one series and one series only: Simpsons will be the only exception to the decade rule. This will go into the 90s voting thread even though it started in 1989. This is because the majority of the series in so far only last 2-3 years were as Simpsons is litterally the longest consecutive running animated series in US History. The majority of its episodes have been made in the 90s (so far).
 
HTML clipboardAll nominated shows can be found on this Google Docs Spreadsheet, if you would like to directly edit it, please send me a PM.

Comedy
A story that tells about a series of funny or comical events, intended to make the audience laugh. It a is very open genre, and thus crosses over with many other genres on a frequent basis.

  • AlfTales (NBC 1988 - 1990 Production?) [Intro] [Wiki] [TVcom]
  • Beetlejuice (ABC 1989 - 1991 by WB) [Intro] [Wiki] [TV]
  • California Raisins: Sold Out, The (Sync 1988 Production?) [Intro] [Wiki] [TVcom]
  • Camp Candy (NBC 1989 - 1990 Production?) [Intro] [Wiki] [TVcom]
  • Captain Caveman and Son (ABC 1986 - 1987 HB) [Intro] [Wiki] [TVcom]
  • Dennis the Menace (CBS 1986 - 1988 DiC) [Intro] [Wiki] [TVcom]
  • Flintstone Kids (CBS 1986 - 1988 HB) [Intro] [Wiki] [TVcom]
  • Garfield and Friends (CBS 1988 - 1994 by Paws) [Intro] [Wiki] [TV]
  • Gary Coleman Show, The (Network? 1982 - 1983 Production?) [Intro] [Wiki] [TVcom]
  • Galaxy High (CBS 1986 Production?) [Intro] [Wiki] [TV]
  • Heathcliff and the Catillac Cats (Syn. 1984 - 1985 DiC) [Intro] [Wiki] [TV]
  • Inspector Gadget (Syn. 1983 - 1986 by DIC) [Intro] [Wiki] [TV]
  • Jetsons (Network 1984 - 1987 HB) [Intro] [Wiki] [TVcom]
  • Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures (CBS / Fox 1987 - 1989 Filmation) [Intro] [Wiki] [TVcom]
  • Muppet Babies (CBS 1984 - 1990 Jim Henson Producions) [Intro] [Wiki] [TVcom]
  • New Archies, The (NBC 1987 DiC) [Intro] [Wiki] [TVcom]
  • Police Academy: The Series (WB 1988 - 1989 RS & WB) [Intro] [Wiki] [TVcom]
  • Popeye and Son (CBS 1987 HB) [Intro] [Wiki] [TVcom]
  • Richie Rich Show (Network 1983 - 1984 HB) [Intro] [Wiki] [TVcom]
  • Teen Wolf: The Animated Series (CBS 1986 - 1987 South Star Productions) [Intro] [Wiki] [TVcom]
  • This is America, Charlie Brown (CBS 1988 - 1989 Production?) [Intro] [Wiki] [TVcom]
Adventure
A story about a protagonist who journeys to epic or distant places to accomplish something. It can have many other genre elements included within it, because it is a very open genre.

  • Captain N: The Game Master (NBC 1989 - 1991 by DiC) [Intro] [Wiki] [TV]
  • Denver, the Last Dinosaur (Syn. 1988 Production?) [Intro] [Wiki] [TVcom]
  • Donkey Kong Jr. (Saturday Supercade) (CBS 1983 - 1985 RS) [Intro] [Wiki] [TVcom]
  • Dragon's Lair (ABC 1984 - 1985 RS) [Intro] [Wiki] [TVcom]
  • Dungeons & Dragons (CBS 1983 - 1985 TRS & Marvel) [Intro] [Wiki] [TVcom]
  • Frogger (Saturday Supercade) (CBS 1983 - 1985 RS) [Intro] [Wiki] [TVcom]
  • Jem (and the Holograms) (Syn. 1985 - 1988 Hasbro) [Intro] [Wiki] [TVcom]
  • Kidd Video (NBC 1984-1986 by DIC) [Intro] [Wiki] [TV]
  • The Legend of Zelda (Syn. 1989 by DiC) [Intro] [Wiki] [TV]
  • The Mysterious Cities of Gold (? 1983 - 1984 by Saban) [Intro] [Wiki] [TV]
  • Pitfall (Saturday Supercade) (CBS 1983 - 1985 RS) [Intro] [Wiki] [TVcom]
  • The Power Team (Syn. 1989 - 1990 by Bohbot) [Intro] [Wiki] [TV]
  • Q*Bert (Saturday Supercade) (CBS 1983 - 1985 RS) [Intro] [Wiki] [TVcom]
  • Rubik, the Amazing Cube (ABC 1983 - 1984 RS) [Intro] [Wiki] [TVcom]
  • Super Mario Brothers Super Show (Syn. 1989 by DiC) [Intro] [Wiki] [TV]
Action
A story, similar to Adventure, but the protagonist usually takes a risky turn, which leads to desperate situations (including explosions, fight scenes, daring escapes, etc.).
  • C.O.P.S. (Syn. 1989 by DiC) [Intro] [Wiki] [TV]
  • Defenders of the Earth (Syn. 1986 - 1987 Marvel?) [Intro] [Wiki] [TVcom]
  • G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero (Syn. 1985 - 1986 by Sunbow & Marvel) [Intro] [Wiki] [TV]
  • He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (Syn. 1989 by Filmation & Mattel) [Intro] [Wiki] [TV]
  • Inhumanoids (Syn. 1986 by Sunbow & Marvel) [Intro] [Wiki] [TV]
  • Karate Kid (NBC 1989 - 1990 DiC) [Intro] [Wiki] [TVcom]
  • The Kid Super Power Hour with Shazam (NBC Start - End Filmation) [Intro] [Wiki] [TVcom]
  • Lazer Tag Academy (1986-87)(NBC 1986 - 1987 RS) [Intro] [Wiki] [TVcom]
  • M.A.S.K. (Syn. 1985 - 1986 by DiC) [Intro] [Wiki] [TV]
  • Mr. T (NBC 1983 - 1986 RS) [Intro] [Wiki] [TVcom]
  • Pole Position (CBS 1984 by DIC) [Intro] [Wiki] [TV]
  • Pryde of the X-Men (Syn. 1989 by Marvel) [Intro] [Wiki] [TV]
  • Rambo and the Forces of Freedom (Syn. 1986 by Marvel) [Intro] [Wiki] [TV]
  • The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest (Syn. 1986 - 1987 HB) [Intro] [Wiki] [TVcom] (Feel free to find a better intro >..
 
So in an effort to help everyone make as informed decisions as possible, I have been working on my Google Docs Spreadsheet for this.

I've been noticing some interesting trends I'd like to share and talk about.

Let's start with Saturday Morning Cartoons by network.

  • ABC had 19 series for Saturday mornings.
  • CBS had 19 series for Saturday mornings.
  • NBC had 14 series for Saturday mornings, its worth noting many of them last several seasons.
  • 47 other Series were Syndicated.
Here are the series that had over 100 episodes (and generally multiple seasons).

  1. Smurfs - 421 Shorts across 9 seasons.
  2. Garfield and Friends - 381 shorts across 8 seasons.
  3. TMNT - 193 over 10 seasons
  4. G.I. Joe - 141 episodes over FOUR seasons (this is just Sunbow's version).
  5. The Real Ghostbusters - 140 episodes over 7 seasons.
  6. Thundercats - 130 episodes over TWO seasons.
  7. He-Man and the Maters of the Universe - 130 episodes over TWO seasons. (Compare that to the mere 39 episodes the remake got :()
  8. Voltron: Defender of the Universe - 126 episodes over 3 seasons.
  9. Care Bears - 114 episodes over 7 seasons.
  10. Beatlejuice - 109 episodes over 4 seasons.
  11. Muppet Babies - 108 episodes over 7 seasons.
Transformers just missed the 100 episode mark with 98 episodes over 4 seasons.
Here's series that went straight for Syndication with the magical 65 episode count. The 65 episode count was important as it was the number of episodes a series 'successfully' required to syndicate. It allowed a series to show a new episode every weekday for 3 months straight without a repeat.

  1. Challenge of the Gobots
  2. Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers
  3. Space Stars
  4. Filmation's Ghostbusters
  5. Centurions: Power Extreme, The
  6. Spiral Zone
  7. Silver Hawks
  8. Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors
  9. Dinosaurcers
  10. Bionic Six
  11. Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers
  12. Rambo and the Forces of Freedom
  13. C.O.P.S.
  14. Super Mario Brothers Super Show
  15. Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears
  16. Jem (and the Holograms)
  17. Police Academy: The Series
  18. Defenders of the Earth
  19. Duck Tales (Had 89 Episodes)
  20. M.A.S.K. had 65 episodes and was then renewed by USA Network for another 10 episodes.
Here are the series that hit 13 episodes. 13 episodes is/was the magical number for a series to last 1 season on Saturday mornings allowing it to run 3 months straight without repeating an episode. Generally these series ran from Sept - Dec in premier then repeated Jan - Mar, Apr - Jun and Jul - Sept.

  1. Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians
  2. Herculoids: Spacestars
  3. Turbo Teen
  4. Karate Kid
  5. Robocop: The Animated Series
  6. Dragon's Lair
  7. Rubik, the Amazing Cube
  8. Droids: The Adventures of R2-D2 and C3P0
  9. Mighty Orbots
  10. Galaxy High
  11. Popeye and Son
  12. Pole Position
  13. Gary Coleman Show, The
  14. New Archies, The
  15. Lazer Tag Academy
  16. Incredible Hulk, The
  17. Legend of Zelda, The (Ran on Fridays in most markets)
  18. Inhumanoids
  19. Real Adventures of Jonny Quest, The
  20. Sky Commanders
  21. StarCom: The U.S. Space Force
  22. Visionaries: Knights of the Magical Light
  23. 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo
  24. Macross
  25. Dino-Riders
  26. Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Show
  27. Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels
Here are the series that managed to last 2 seasons in Weekend morning Lineups.

  1. Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures
  2. Camp Candy
  3. AlfTales
  4. Thunderbirds 2086
  5. Ewoks, The
  6. Thundarr the Barbarian
  7. Superman (1988)
  8. Kidd Video
  9. Fantastic Max
  10. Paw Paws
  11. Dungeons & Dragons
  12. Mr. T
  13. The Littles
  14. The Little Rascals
  15. Flintstone Kids
Then, finally, we have our rare series that hit 3 seasons in a Weekend morning line up.

  1. Captain N: The Game Master
  2. Kid Super Power Hour with Shazam, The
  3. Mysterious Cities of Gold, The
  4. Pac-Man
  5. Adventures of the Little Koala
  6. Denver, the Last Dinosaur
  7. Saber Rider and the Star Sheriffs
  8. Jetsons
 
I want to nominate

The Mysterious Cities of Gold [Intro] [Wiki]

This show had it all: a setting that is rarely use, morally grey characters, mysteries, adventure, danger, secret treasures, a giant golden condor, and it was well written too. Unlike a lot of stuff from the 80s it holds up incredibly well today.
 
Wow, I actually didn't realize Smurfs went NINE seasons.

In trying to stay out of the major series that everyone knows, here's a few good ones to throw on:

Pole Position (NBC 1984 by DIC) [Intro] [rabroad] [Wiki] [TV.com]
Pole Position probably has the distinct honor of having one of the best 80s intros having a very good plot outlined and then just failing as a series.
Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors (Syndicated 1989 - 1991 by DIC) [Intro] [rabroad] [Wiki] [TV.com]
What is this? A SERIES WITH DIRECT CONTIUNITY? IN THE 80s? This is truly a series that was FAR, FAR, FAR beyond it's time. It probably didn't take off largely because it was too complex for when it was originally produced. I think this series might go down as the best written series of the 80s though.
Inhumanoids (Syndicated 1986 by Publisher Unknown) [Intro] [rabroad] [Wiki] [TV.com]
Inhumanoids never made it out of the mini-series circuit, but what a mini-series. It had all the best one could expect from G.I. Joe, The Centerions and Swamp Thing all wrapped into one! It had a very complete arch that neatly opened and settled all plot points. To simply call this a good mini-series probably doesn't examine how well constructed the series was.
 
Its getting hard to resist starting to throw out the main stays, but I certainly want to make sure we're seeing some of the lesser viewed series in this poll.

Filmation's Ghostbusters
(Syn. 1986 by Filmation) [Intro] [rabroad] [Wiki] [TV.com]
Who you gonna call? Not the Real Ghostbusters if Filmation had their way! This series was direct competition with The Real Ghostbusters but was a completely differnet take on the ghost scene. This series paints Ghosts as a muh more logical and organized fighting force then its competition.
Spiral Zone (Syn. 1987 by Bandai) [Intro] [rabroad] [Wiki] [TV.com]
This was a rather weird series but it was one of the earlier series to paint a comprehensive storyline. I'd actually suggest that this series was a little too mature for its Saturday Morning Premiers.
Dinosaurcers (Syn. 1987 by DIC) [Intro] [rabroad] [Wiki] [TV.com]
This was one of the first series to really paint a picture of a war occuring across the Earth without the average person knowning. Four teens who discovered the good Dinosaucers aid in this hidden battle.
Dino-Riders (Syn. 1988 by DIC) [Intro] [rabroad] [Wiki] [TV.com]
Humans flee the battle ground of their ruined society. While being pursued by their enemies, they make a jump into hyperspace, but a malfuntion takes them back in time unknowing that they accidently pulled their chasers in tow. Now, the two continue their fight on a primative Earth on a more even battleground fighting along side Dinosaurs.
Pryde of the X-Men (Syn. 1989 by Marvel) [Intro] [rabroad] [Wiki] [TV.com]
X-Men's VERY FIRST animation attempt. It lasted one episode.
 
Naturally, I nominate The Little Rascals (Hanna-Barbera for ABC, 1982-84). [rabroad][Wiki][TV.com]

Given the popularity of the original Our Gang shorts in syndication, a Saturday morning cartoon version was inevitable. Unfortunately, fragmented ownership and a lawsuit by one of the original Our Gang actors has precluded cable reruns of the Little Rascals cartoon series, never mind home video releases.
 
Beetlejuice [Intro] [Wiki] [TV.com]

I have vague memories of seeing this cartoon as a kid. I haven't seen it in a while but it's great and deserves to be nominated.

Chip & Dale's Rescue Rangers [Intro] [Wiki] [TV.com]

Another great late 80's Disney show. Too bad it didn't have a very long life.

Herculoids [Intro] [Wiki] [TV.com]

One of my favorite Action cartoons. This series was very well done.

Pac-Man [Intro] [Wiki] [TV.com]

A very underrated HB cartoon. It was a very interesting concept for a show. I remember it best for the great Christmas special.
 
Dino-Riders was actually a Marvel production. It aired as part of the Marvel Action Universe block alongside Robocop and reruns of Spider-Man 1981.
 
I can NEVER remember this one so while I randomly found the clip, I wanna get this up.


This was certainly one of the most interesting reinvisionings of Knight Rider. It gets some honorable mentions for having a mere 13 episodes but managing to last a little more then a year on ABC.
 
HTML clipboardOk, it's Friday and we haven't hit a lot of the major series that need to be on this list yet, so I'm gonna go ahead and list those out.

I think I am gonna keep this thread going for another week before starting votes in hopes of garning more attention for the poll as well as getting some more series up here.

Thats a huge list of ones I was hoping someone would have posted by now.

Anywho, they need to be on such a poll!

Lets keep the list going.
 
Maple Town (intro: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtINuEfsGQE)

A humble kiddy anime. Although basically created just to sell toys, it still had unexpectedly good writing writing for a show with such a young core demographic. Of interesting note is that some of the people who worked on this show would later go on to work on Sailor Moon and, believe it or not, Neon Genesis Evangelion!
 
Captain N was a NBC show. Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears (NBC/ABC), Galaxy High School(CBS), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (syndication/CBS), and Dungeons & Dragons (CBS) were all great series that should be considered. Talespin is a 90s show.
 
I just did one massive update to all the 80s series I could think of. The forum keeps timing out when saving it so I'll try re-posting it in a bit.

There's one I want to point out largely because of how obscure it is!

  • Tiger Sharks (Syn.1986 Marvel) [Intro] [Wiki] [rabroad] [TVcom]
There's actually not a Wiki on it, the wiki listed is from the 1960s comic, moreover, there's not a TV.com reference on it either.
 
Knighthammer,

TigerSharks was a Lorimar-Telepictures/Warner Brothers/Rankin Bass production. It was part of the short-lived Comic Strip anthology series along with Karate Kat and Camp Mini-Mon from 1988-89. The Comic Strip is from the same people who produced ThunderCats and SilverHawks.

Kenny;)
 
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