What is the worst 60's or 70's or 80's cartoon show?

I said "and a couple others." From about 1965-1990, there were maybe a dozen shows I enjoy and I wouldn't even call most of those "classics." I enjoy Johnny Quest quite a bit, it was excellent for its time. I had forgotten about DuckTales, though I haven't seen it in years. I'm not really familiar with "Robotech" and "Star Blazers," and while Scooby was the best kids-and-animal-solve-mysteries show, I wouldn't call it a true classic. Like I said, I think there were good series, but 90% of the cartoons from that period are pretty bad.


Jack:bosko:
 
I just want to know why everyone forgets about Top Cat and Wacky Racers when people or the media talk about the best cartoons of the past? It seems like these are the Underdogs of animation. :D
 
Er, in that case, is there another era which you would consider superior? Certainly pre-1965 had many great comedy cartoons, but virtually no action. It's arguable whether the post 1990 output is really on average that much better. There are probably much fewer lows, but perhaps fewer highs as well.
 
I don't really consider the 90s much better (not with dreck like "The Wacky World of Tex Avery" and "Waynehead" being made.)

I'd have to say the number of good cartoons was probably highest in the 40s, with most of the 50s and 30s being second. Sure, there weren't a lot of action cartoons, but that doesn't mean what was made is bad. You can pick almost any year from the 40s and chances are, over 50% of the cartoons made that year will be pretty good, with the rest still having high enough production values as to not be completely unwatchable. Of course, I'm talking about theatrical cartoons, since TV cartoons didn't really exist yet.

With TV animation, so much of it has to be made that it's almost impossible to have a high number of really good cartoons. Cartoon Network alone probably churns out more cartoons per year than all the old studios of the 40s combined would have, and you don't even really know what works until you've already made a whole season or syndication package.


Jack:bosko:
 
Well, I'm assuming you're a Looney Tunes fan. Definitely the periods you mentioned had a lot of great comedy cartoons produced, perhaps the best ever. Still, to me that's only half the package. I can think of several post-1965 cartoons which are pretty funny, but I can't think of any action cartoons before Astro Boy's start in 1963 that are really worth watching. Some say the 40s Superman shorts were good, but although I haven't seen them one would guess they were more primitive than the 60s Superman show, and that was nothing impressive.
 
I'm a fan of good theatrical cartoons in general. You should seek out the 40s Superman cartoons, they're excellent in pretty much every way. They don't feature complex stories (after all, they weren't meant to be seen as a series), but they feature the most elaborite and beautiful animation ever produced for an action cartoon.

I still don't see why the output from before 1960 is inferior just because there weren't a lot of action cartoons. What was made, which was mostly comedy with serious and artsy stuff thrown in, was great. A great cartoon is a great cartoon, whether it's funny, serious, or action oriented.


Jack:bosko:
 
Well, it's a bit like music. Sometimes you hear an album where every song is very similar. If that particular style happens to be your favorite, then you'll probably think it's a great album. If you prefer a variety of sounds though, you may fell it's a bit limited.

Anyway, I'll agree that 1940-1965 was probably the golden age of comedy cartoons (excluding primetime series like the Simpsons). However, I'd say 1975-2000 was the golden age of action cartoons.
 
Lessee...

I'll agree with Sharklady re: my nomination for Worst Cartoon Ever Made being "The Brady Kids"... a real winner here folks: take a cartoon based on a show I never liked in the first place (The Brady Bunch), add not one, not *two*, but THREE "wacky animal sidekicks" (a "Magic mynah bird" and two pandas---?!?!?), and throw in the usual bargain-basement Filmation animation, and you get...erm, not much, I suppose.

Will also throw in almost all of the "30-minute-commercials-passing-as-TV shows" made when I was a kid in the 80's...along with "Yo Yogi" (with "Jellystone Mall" and "Dickie Dastardly"...*shudder*). Did enjoy "Muppet Babies", "Tiny Toons", and "A Pup Named Scooby Doo" in the "baby cartoons" genre (along with Superboy, if you want to get technical---with Superboy technically being the first "kiddified adult character", being created in 1945)...

-B.
 
There are different styles of comedy, just like there are different styles of Opera, or big band.

I suppose you can split it like that, but I was talking about cartoons in general, not certain genres. I still maintain that there was a higher number of good cartoons in the 40s than there was from the 60s onward.


Jack:bosko:
 
I hate the Jetsons. The characters are all whiny,skinny and dumb. Judy is so annoying and what kind of teenager has pure white hair!? And the names are so confusing they drive you crazy! Elroy and Astro its hard to remember which name goes with each character. Then the series came back in the 1980's with that stupid alien, and the 1990 movie. I always hated George's boss it looked like an evil Danny Devito! The only person that didn't bother me was Rosie the robot. She was the only one that had common sence in the whole show.I also hate the animation style, the theme song, and the tv specials! Somebody throw this show into a paper shreader! :eek:
 
Well, it wasn't a burrito. The teen turned into a car after coming into contact with something hot. The name of this masterpiece from Hanna-Barbera's "spinoff" studio Ruby-Spears is Turbo Teen.

Hmm, a teenager turning into something else after touching something hot. You don't suppose Rumiko - - - nahhhhh!

It was a stupid show, but far from the worse. The WORSE show of the 80s has to be Gilligan's Planet. The castaways managed to build a rocket to get off the island (you know, you'd think they'd build a boat or something with the materials they used to build a rocket). However, the castaways left the earth and entered this new planet that just happened to be hospitable for humans. And Gilligan got a new alien pet. Another "masterpiece" from Filmation.

Let's set up a typically bad series from the mid-70s to the late-80s:

A series is based on (a popular toy/live-action series/celebrity/comic/older cartoon) has a group of (kids/adults/musicians) and their (pet dogs/exotic animal/magical creature/bodyguard) traveling around (the neighborhood/the world/space) looking for adventures as well as (solving mysteries/fighting crime/going on tour/searching for treasure) while facing (masked villians/evil authority figures/alien threats/strange adversaries).
 
> The original Batman:TAS (It was about the same 6 animations over and over again)<

What is *That* one doing in this thread??

Even on the 6th go-around, your average B:TAS ep is superior to 90% of all the TV cartoons that've ever been done.
 
Funny, I was just thinking about Gilligan's Planet this morning. With all the criticism of Filmation, I was running down the list of its shows, and I think it is more of a mix, as stuff like Fat Albert, Archies, and the Batman/Superman now playing on Boomerang didn't seem any worse than any other TV cartoon of their period. I likes Lassie, and somewhat the Brady's, and Shazam/Isis and of most of the sci-fi shows were memorable. (Especially Star Trek) Of course, He-Man, was probaly the one show they produced, that critical cartoon fans of today liked (even though I was so/so about it, not being as much into action adventure). 1975 was a bad year, as they had been turned down rights to animate a M*A*S*H series (which they probably would have done well), and instead created their own "MUSH" spoof, along with Waldo Kitty, and one of their few original ideas, Wacky and Packy (They used to play these all together on "Groovie Goolies and Friends"). Then the Ghost Busters, which I don't remember at all, but 10 years later was ripped off by the movie and its cartoon series. I particluarly thought of the New Adventure of Gilligan (which ran a second season into that year) was a good representation of the original show, but then to move them to a planet in space was a bit ridiculous and showed a lack of ideas.
I too was turned off by many of these little characters they used to add. (including Orko, Bat Mite, etc), and of course, this became a fad that spread to the other studios (As I say, Scrappy is actually the least annoying or mushy-mushy of these). It seems this may have been influenced in part by Jiminy Cricket (why would he need to be added to the classic Pinocchio story?), plus the kids-and-animals concept popularized by Scooby (Jonny Quest and the other HB super adventures were the prototypes of this, with kids and animal sidekicks) and more child-oriented "lovey-dovey" atmosphere this promoted.
I still say Rubik is the worst, and definitely fits the criteria listed --"A series is based on (a popular toy...", etc.
 
Mr. T?! Now I remember that show. It was kind of like Scooby Doo with Mr. T.

It just so hard to choose just because there's just so much crap shows in the 70's and 80's.

Still, I would say the worst of the 80's are:

Punky Brewster
The Gary Coleman Show
The Monchichis

For the 70's I would have to go to yesterdayland and remember those shows. The only thing I can vaguely remember at the moment is "Land of the Lost" and "Tom and Jerry".
 
The 80's yuck good thing i only lived it for 2 years yuck (shudder)
Well we did get a couple of goodies like he-man and transformers.
 
> The original Batman:TAS (It was about the same 6 animations over and over again)

What is *That* one doing in this thread?? Even on the 6th go-around, your average B:TAS ep is superior to 90% of all the TV cartoons that've ever been done.

I'm hoping that the original poster was talking about the original Filmation 60's Batman animated series and not the classic we all know. <

Didn't that one have a different title? "The Adventures of Batman and Robin", or some such?

I do remember that series, and in regard to it's 'worthness' of mention here, you'll get no argument from me.
 
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