I would get up very early to watch Clutch Cargo, and Johnny Quest on Saturday mornings. I remember watching the Flintstones during primetime with my father. If you missed the Saturday morning cartoons that was too bad as there were no VCRs or internet to catch them later. You just hoped to catch a rerun in about 32 weeks. Now my boys just watch their cartoons on their Ipods. Lucky bastards.
How has Astro Boy not been mentioned? God I loved that. And did you Seppos get Monkey Magic? Pure Awesome. edit: Just Wikied Monkey, you poor Septic bastards didn't get it!!!!!
Jesus Christ you people make me feel old. I remember being too old for half of these shitty cartoons. With that out of my system, The Real Ghostbusters was the greatest cartoon known to man. It was based on the greatest movie known to man. I always wanted to be friends with Slimer.
How come there is no mention of: The theme song was ridiculous. When I watched this I couldn't understand English so I had no clue what was going on but still thought it was cool. (That was just after the collapse of the Soviet Union so nothing was dubbed into Estonian yet)
Most of my favorites have been mentioned, but.... Rescue Rangers, Daria, Doug, and the Rugrats were Team B favs.
I watched all 291 episodes of DBZ in the fall, but besides that Darkwing Duck, Talespin, Gargoyles, X-men, Spiderman, Rugrats, Hey Arnold, or just about any cartoon that was on in the 90's. Hell, I have about 300gigs of those shows downloaded.
After school was the block of Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers, Tailspin (jesus christ, did I want an aerofoil (Spin it, let's begin it, bear and grin it when you're in it, you can win it in a minute if you spin it spin it spin it)), Duck Tales (a-whooo-ooo), and Darkwing Duck (I am the shadow that flaps in the night, I am the tube of toothpast with the missing cap, I am Darkwing Duck). Then it was time to run around outside while my little sisters watched Full House. Saturday Mornings, I loved the straight up old school Looney Tunes, and when Tiny Toons or Pinky and the Brain were on, I was all in on those, as well. Sundays, for some reason Nickelodeon created a killer block of cartoons. Rugrats I could take or leave, Doug was funny and relate-able, but Rocco's Modern Life, and Ren and Stimpy? Brilliant pieces of work, and in no way were they fucking children's cartoons. Some truly surreal shit on R&S.
I watched this show so much as a child that I can still remember the plot of most of the episodes. I dare you to find someone that doesn't love this show. My favorite show from my childhood (even the original Power Rangers remain second to this show). I grew up in the 90s so I kind of missed the whole Transformers era but this more than made up for it. Somewhere in my attic right now I probably have almost every Beast Wars action figure that I played with more than I did Legos. A few years ago I even bought all three seasons on DVD (fuck you I loved watching all the episodes again). Its a shame it ended after only three seasons but fuck the assholes who decided to produce its sequel, Beast Machines. Damn, that show sucked. And of course I have to include my favorite Japanese anime. The first season of this show was so awesome I cannot explain the wonder and joy it has brought my younger self. Come on, a giant Cactus that was also a boxer, how could you NOT love it. I remember just dying of anticipation to find out what happened in the next week's episode, especially toward the end of the season when they started killing off main characters... in a damn kid's show. I think I even cried at the very end of the first season. So many great cartoons from my childhood but I am sure if I were to go and watch them now it would ruin all the good memories involving them.
I went through a progression. When I was very young I was big into He-man and TMNT. Then I got into some of the Disney channel shows like Duck Tales and Bonkers. Then Disney channel went off the air so I got into the WB shows like Animaniacs and Pinky and the Brain. A little later a transitioned to Nickelodeon and started watching Rocko's Modern Life and Hey Arnold. I think Hey Arnold was the last one for me before I mostly stopped watching cartoons. If I had to pick favorites, Pinky and the Brain and Rocko's Modern Life wins.
Most of the cartoons I enjoyed have been mentioned but there was still the Angry Beavers There was also Dexter's Laboratory And if it hasn't been mentioned Batman the animated series All so much better than the cartoons that are made now
I agree with Voltron, Thundercats, Transformers, and He-Man. My favorite had to be "Jayce and the wheeled warriors." The eighties were an awesome time for childrens programming.
This is an epic thread. Let me throw up a few more DBZ trailers. I would see these babies on Toonami and piss myself from excitement. Oh Toonami, you could have gotten me to take a bullet for you. Frieza Saga Android / Cell Saga The Buu Saga I'm going to stop now because I gave myself a boner.
Growing up I was short, had glasses and short hair, and was an all around nerd. So guess what my nickname was ... Recess was probably the number one after school show for me and all my friends. Surprisingly nobody else earned any nicknames from that show. But I guess there were no black kids at the school, or tall skinny nerdettes with glasses that we hung out with. My best friend was rather rotund, however nobody thought of calling him Mikey. Another show that I thought was just as good, though highly underrated, was the Weekenders. After a year or two of Recess being on the air, the Weekenders started airing right after it. There must have only ever been one season of that place, but it was awesome. The ever-changing pizza place was pretty neat too. Come to think of it, a white kid as the "leader", a black kid as the jock, a nerdy girl with glasses and a tough, tomboy girl? Maybe the only reason I liked it was because it was a complete Recess ripoff. Hmmmm ......
Four pages and only one mention of The Real Ghostbusters? For shame. Back in the late 1980s, I was a huge Ghostbusters nerd, because Ghostbusters was (and is) a fantastic movie. It is basically the story of a bunch of nerds who, through their ingenuity and intellect, get a cush job that lets a guy like Bill Murray land a girl like Sigourney Weaver in not one, but TWO movies. The Real Ghostbusters was more engaging than other shows I watched, but I didn't quite understand why. What I later figured out was that it was really the quality of the writing. They had real adults writing the show, and they were not necessarily writing it for little kids (at least in the pre-Slimer and the Real Ghostbusters era). Many of the early episodes were written by J. Michael Straczynski, who would later go on to create and be the "showrunner" for Babylon 5. The general feel of the show resembled something like Scooby-Doo in that each character had a distinct personality and role to play. However, the plots were far less formulaic and repetitive, and the episodes' problems were often solved through deduction and problem-solving rather than just having a huge battle at the end. The plots drew heavily from various horror and supernatural traditions, unlike many other shows where the heroes faced off against the same villains again and again every week. The only really disappointing thing was that it was still very episodic - there weren't really plot arcs to speak of (although particularly memorable villains like Samhain and The Bogeyman did make return appearances). Putting adult innuendos into cartoons was not something that The Real Ghostbusters pioneered (anyone who watched Rocky and Bullwinkle knows that). And much of the writing was there to move the plot along. However, there were many great moments. While the Slimer character provided the obligatory slapstick comic relief, the best moments were far more subtle humor. Examples: Egon (to Peter): You know, we're all descendants from fish. It would be no trouble at all to flip back in time, find the fish you descended from, and stuff it into a Cuisinart. Egon: Peter, do you know how to set your proton pack on explosive overload? Peter: No. Egon: I do. Peter (on their chances of defeating a giant mantis): It means that, if Darth Vader were willing to loan us the Death Star, we might have a chance. Might. Egon: It's Sumerian. Winston: Can you read Sumerian? Egon: In my sleep. Underwater. With the lights off. Of course I can read Sumerian. One strange thing was that the Ghostbusters didn't look like the actors that played them. This was for a couple reasons: it would have been otherwise hard to differentiate the characters, and they could not secure the likeness rights for the actors. In a strange bit of meta-referential humor, the cartoon Ghostbusters become famous and a movie is made about them in the cartoon. This movie is, of course, Ghostbusters, where the cartoon Ghostbusters are chagrined at being played by Murray, Aykroyd, and Ramis (they think it sounds like a law firm). When they go to see the movie, they comment that the actors look nothing like them. The most incredible episode, of the nearly 150 they made, was entitled The Collect Call of Cathulu (sic). The episode's name is an obvious play on The Call of Cthulhu, an H.P. Lovecraft story. In this episode, a copy of the Necronomicon is stolen from a museum, and the Ghostbusters find out that it's part of a plot by a doomsday cult to raise Cthulhu from the deep (off of Coney Island, natch). What's amazing is that it didn't just pay lip service to Lovecraft, the episode actually embraced the whole mythos. They threw in some one-shot characters named after Lovecraft's contemporary authors for good measure. The cult members chant "Ia! Ia! Cthulhu fhtagn!" The Ghostbusters defeat Cthulhu with help from an article in an old issue of Weird Tales. Cthulhu expert Alice Derleth (named after real author August Derleth) tells the guys: "That is not dead which can eternal lie, and with strange aeons even death may die." It's really a wonderfully subversive way to sneak some classic horror mythos into Saturday Morning Cartoons that goes far beyond basic vampires-and-werewolves kinds of stuff. A couple years ago they apparently released the entire series on DVD, and when I have enough disposable income and am feeling appropriately nostalgic, I'll have to pick it up. Until then, who ya gonna call?
(Long post, sorry, but I'm a big kid at heart and I fucking love cartoons.) WHAT. THE. FUCK. It took FOUR pages for someone to even mention Gargoyles in passing?! How the fuck could you not love this cartoon? It taught you about Shakespeare & shit without you even realizing you were learning. It taught you about being responsible with a gun in one of the earliest episodes. And I'll be damned if I don't see Goliath in my head every time I hear Keith David's voice. It was the most non-Disney cartoon Disney ever did (considering how popular it was back then, and the fact that Disney treats it like a bastard child it never wanted now) - hands down probably my favorite cartoon of the 90's. Plus half the cast from "Star Trek: The Next Generation" voiced characters on the show (Jonathan Frakes, Marina Sirtis, Michael Dorn, Brent Spiner - even Kate Mulgrew from "Voyager" voiced a character on the show at one point), and since I was getting into "Trek" at the time that made it even better for me. What pisses me off, though, is that Disney has decided that Gargoyles is "not profitable enough" to release on DVD, so I'll never be able to own the entire series on DVD. Just read this review (hidden in a spoiler tag for length): Spoiler http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/442481/great_cartoons_of_the_1990s_pg4.html?cat=39 The most mature and ambitious animated show Disney ever aired on television, Gargoyles remains one of our decade's most stylish and entertaining adventure shows. The premise was truly epic in scope. Gargoyles and Man shared a time together 1,000 years ago. True to modern tales, the creatures turned to stone by day and were active at night. Goliath was the leader of a brave clan and though humans had taken over their lands, he still showed them compassion when others of his species refused to. After a human betrayal, however, his clan had a spell cast on them that would turn them to stone until the castle they called home "rose above the clouds." They awaken in 1990's Manhattan. A billionaire named Xanatos purchased the castle and had it rebuilt on top of a skyscraper. Xanatos plans to use the Gargoyles for all sorts of devious plans, and Goliath and Co. must learn to adapt and protect (as is their nature) the inhabitants of New York. The clan makes many human and non-human friends, such as detective Elisa, and many enemies including gangs and Xanatos's experiments. Gargoyles was more adult in its story telling and character development than most other animated shows of the decade. Characters changed and matured, trusts were broken, and by the end of the series viewers knew the motivations and emotions of most characters in the episodic saga. The show managed to be both dramatic and melodramatic at times, the way most "hero" shows turn out to be, helped by truly fantastic music that fleshed the legend out more. Even better was that the show didn't take itself completely seriously. It was fueled with bigger ideas and messages while always having humor mixed with the darker tones of the Gargoyles legend. For instance, none of the other gargoyles besides Goliath were given names at birth. When they adopt New York City as their new home, they each take on a name inspired by the city itself (Bronx, Lexington, Brooklyn, Hudson, and Broadway). Most importantly was that the show was smart, both in execution and inspiration. It addressed very large issues and histories, including: death, betrayal, tolerance, war, genetic engineering, secret societies, gun violence, Shakespearean tales, and the mythos of the Norse, Scottish, and English. In short, it was packed to the brim with inspired fun and compelling story telling that fused all of these ancient and modern elements seamlessly together. It never felt convoluted because of these intricacies, and more importantly never felt like a cookie-cutter Disney cartoon. In terms of a blazingly original mythology made classic with top-notch, well, everything, Gargoyles was not only one of the best animated series of the 1990s, but remains one of the best in the history of television. Now, my second favorite cartoon of the 90's would be: Holy fucking awesome, Batman. Check out that bad-ass fighter jet they fly around in. You know the 10-year-old in you wants to be flying around in that thing, shooting the fuck out of some giant monster. There were a lot of cartoons I loved growing up. Tom & Jerry, DuckTales, Darkwing Duck, Bonkers, Chip & Dale, DBZ, TMNT, G.I. Joe, Batman: The Animated Series, Spider Man: The Animated Series, X-Men, Sonic the Hedgehog, The Tick, The Real Ghostbusters, Tiny Toon Adventures, Animaniacs, Pinky & The Brain, Talespin, Goof Troop, Captain Planet, Street Sharks, He-Man, Transformers, Beast Wars, ReBoot, The Mighty Ducks, Doug, Bobby's World, Rocco's Modern Life, Ahh! Real Monsters, Space Ghost Coast to Coast, Ren and Stimpy, Beavis and Butthead, Rugrats, Wile E. Coyote & the Road Runner, Pepe Le Peu, Speedy Gonzales...I could seriously go on for hours. Add in the cartoons from my mom's childhood that she introduced to me (Rocky & Bullwinkle, Tennessee Tuxedo, Dudley Do-Right, Underdog, Scooby Doo)...I may be in my mid-twenties, but the kid in me still loves some cartoons. The only cartoon I can think of that hasn't been mentioned in this thread yet:
Every day while my mom was on maternity leave with my brother, I stayed home from daycare and watched three soap operas in a row while waiting for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to come on, which was on an entirely different station. Once 'All My Children' was over, I would call my mom into the room to change the channel since I didn't know how to work the TV. Every. Single. Day. Throw me in the DBZ camp as well. Did anyone else get horribly pissed every time Toonami would start the series over. I can pinpoint exactly what was going on in the series when they did this. It's right after Recoome has already kicked Krillen and Vegeta's ass and he's about to take out Gohan, and just at the last minute, Goku arrives on Namek to save the day. The following day, it would start over with Radditz landing on Earth, forcing Piccolo and Goku to team up. I remember when Toonami announced that they had the rest of the Frieza saga and decided to air it all the way through. It was birthday, Halloween, and Christmas wrapped together. I remember the utter joy in discussing with my friends the day after the episode where Gohan goes apeshit on Frieza after it appeared that he killed Krillen. It's only now after it's been canceled that I realize how genius of a show 'King of the Hill' was.
If anyone else remembers this, you are old. Growing up in Seattle when I did, J.P. Patches and Gertrude were the only thing on in the morning. http://www.jppatches.com/index.htm I know that this wasn't a cartoon, but it's what I had. I got into my first fight at age eleven over this show. The day J.P. Patches went off the air was the saddest of my entire childhood. I've gone back and watched some of the re-runs and I don't know how parents didn't run screaming from the room. The gin and cigarettes probably helped. "I'd rather be a patches pal than a boris buddy." It made sense when I was a kid, I swear.