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What were the best animated shows of the 1980's?

N

Nepenthe

Member
SonicMegaDrive said:
Or the Biskitts!

biskittsariane.jpg


None of that assembly-line Hanna-Barbera crap holds up at all today, but it's still pretty fun to re-visit from a nostalgia POV.
Click to expand...

I am so mad I missed out on the Biskitts when I was a kid, because I know it would've been one more thing to add to my pile of nostalgia, and on top of that I'm a dog lover. But yeah, found out about its existence a few years ago; watched an ep and it's pretty trite. xD
 
A

Apt101

Member
I think all of the Disney after school shows stood head shoulders above everything else. It was quality animation, they told actual stories and were serial, and all had gigantic casts of characters. I used to rush home to watch Chip and Dales, Ducktales, TailSpin, and Darkwing Duck.

The 80's was also the golden age of Saturday morning cartoons. Too many entertaining shows to count, but I doubt most would hold up compared to today's shows. Many are probably ripe for reboots.
 
SonicMegaDrive

SonicMegaDrive

Member
Apt101 said:
I think all of the Disney after school shows stood head shoulders above everything else. It was quality animation, they told actual stories and were serial, and all had gigantic casts of characters. I used to rush home to watch Chip and Dales, Ducktales, TailSpin, and Darkwing Duck.

The 80's was also the golden age of Saturday morning cartoons. Too many entertaining shows to count, but I doubt most would hold up compared to today's shows. Many are probably ripe for reboots.
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Yep, yep. You know, most of those '80s shows don't hold up well today individually, but there's nothing quite like watching an old Saturday morning broadcast from the '80s, with all the cereal and toy commercials and colorful animated bumpers included complete with Casey Kasem doing the announcer voice-overs between shows.
 
A

Apt101

Member
SonicMegaDrive said:
Yep, yep. You know, most of those '80s shows don't hold up well today individually, but there's nothing quite like watching an old Saturday morning broadcast from the '80s, with all the cereal and toy commercials and colorful animated bumpers included complete with Casey Kasem doing the announcer voice-overs between shows.
Click to expand...

http://www.my80stv.com/

I don't know if they still include commercials, but this recreated that feeling the first time I used it.
 
R

RedHoodedOwl

Member
The Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers
Bravestarr
Jem and The Holograms
Saber Rider and The Star Sheriffs
The Real Ghostbusters
Defenders of the Earth
 
Z

ZelbZelb

Unconfirmed Member
Of all the cartoons that were based off of toys, I would say Jem and the Holigrams holds up the best. The problem with a lot of the action orientated ones is that you go back to watch them and they turn out to be very silly. Of course, can't something be good because it's silly? You watch Jem and you can tell it was always half intentional. It also helps that Jerrica Benton is a good character. She runs a music company, which she uses as a front to perform as Jem, which makes enough money for the foster home she runs. Despite being a goody-two-shoes, she can argue with her boyfriend so it doesn't always seems like she's perfect.

Other good shows are those dubs of Japanese shows like Mysterious Cities of Gold, Jungle Book, and the like.
 
UberTag

UberTag

Member
mayl3 said:
Smurfs
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The Smurfs may not be among the best animated series from the 80s... nor is it exempt from being a property built predominantly around merchandising its property... but I do consider it to be the definitive cartoon of the 80s seeing how it was a Saturday morning staple on NBC from its debut in September 1981 to its finale in December 1989... spanning some 256 episodes and 7 primetime specials.

I also find myself surprised by how faithful that show largely was to the Peyo comics... that is, until it went completely off the rails around Season 8.
 
E

Earthbound64

Banned
I'm still not sure why the OP is randomly disqualifying stuff with merchandise around it*. May as well disqualify all video games, I guess 1980-2017 have been horrible for video games. Who really cares if it has merchandise around it - whether as a subsequent or a consequent? Especially when we're sitting here in 2017 and discussing whether or not a show is good, and not buying any* of the stuff that would have been merchandised around them?


*Except for Batman. People still buy Batman stuff. I still can't wrap my mind around the OP disqualifying shows for having merchandise, but for some reason counts Batman as a show not disqualified by that.
 
C

Caddywompus

Member
Earthbound64 said:
I'm still not sure why the OP is randomly disqualifying stuff with merchandise around it*. May as well disqualify all video games, I guess 1980-2017 have been horrible for video games. Who really cares if it has merchandise around it - whether as a subsequent or a consequent? Especially when we're sitting here in 2017 and discussing whether or not a show is good, and not buying any* of the stuff that would have been merchandised around them?
Click to expand...

Because I believe the counter argument is '90's cartoons are better because they didn't sell out or solely exist as 30 min commercials to push their crap onto impressionable young minds. They were cartoons and only cartoons, that pure shit. But you know you'd be all over some Courage fruit snacks or Rocko breakfast cereal, just jealous it didn't exist.
(watch those two examples totally exist and I sadly missed out)
 
E

Earthbound64

Banned
Caddywompus said:
Because I believe the counter argument is '90's cartoons are better because they didn't sell out or solely exist as 30 min commercials to push their crap onto impressionable young minds. They were cartoons and only cartoons, that pure shit. But you know you'd be all over some Courage fruit snacks or Rocko breakfast cereal, just jealous it didn't exist.
(watch those two examples totally exist and I sadly missed out)
Click to expand...

8bcd65b21313d70ad1803c792cf52a68.jpg


I suspect almost any cartoon of any noteworthy popularity has some merchandising around it.
 
S

Shig

Strap on your hooker ...
TaleSpin and Rescue Rangers deserve to be up there with DuckTales. Disney was killing it with the production values of their first afternoon TV projects.

The Misadventures of Ed Grimley had some pretty brilliant writing from SCTV folks.

The show proper didn't come until the 90's (and wasn't as good), but that Family Dog episode of Amazing Stories in '87 was fantastic. (Written and Directed by Brad Bird!)
 
C

Caddywompus

Member
Earthbound64 said:
8bcd65b21313d70ad1803c792cf52a68.jpg


I suspect almost any cartoon of any noteworthy popularity has some merchandising around it.
Click to expand...
Darkwing Duck had a toyline too but did shows like Ed, Edd and Eddy. Hey Arnold, Angry Beavers, Freakazoid, or Johnny Bravo have any significant merchandising or toyline outside maybe a Happy Meal?
 
T

Txαi

Member
I think The Littles and Dennis the Menace by DIC still holds up today. Always enjoyed the background music in Dennis, but was never a fan of the opening theme.

Pound Puppies is one of my favourites from Hanna Barbera.

Horror comedies are right up my alley: Beetlejuice, Drak Pack.

As for animes, Kinnikuman and Sakigake!! Otokojuku are good fun. But both get too serious after a while, which keeps me less interested.

Basically, I've always been more into comedy cartoons, than serious action ones.
 
H

Henchmen21

Banned
Txαi;241815600 said:
I think The Littles and Dennis the Menace by DIC still holds up today. Always enjoyed the background music in Dennis, but was never a fan of the opening theme.

Pound Puppies is one of my favourites from Hanna Barbera.

Horror comedies are right up my alley: Beetlejuice, Drak Pack.

As for animes, Kinnikuman and Sakigake!! Otokojuku are good fun. But both get too serious after a while, which keeps me less interested.

Basically, I've always been more into comedy cartoons, than serious action ones.
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What? The opening theme was the only good part of that show. Especially the sax solo in the middle
 
H

HotHamBoy

Member
There's some genuinely funny shit in Ralph Bakshi's The New Adventures of Mighty Mouse. It's basically a proto-Ren and Stimpy with John K directing a lot of episodes.
 
E

Earthbound64

Banned
Apt101 said:
http://www.my80stv.com/

I don't know if they still include commercials, but this recreated that feeling the first time I used it.
Click to expand...

Jag said:
Holy crap. I feel like i'm 11 years old again.
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Someone should start a thread on this.

Watched some stuff on the 1988 presidential election.
And then something on people travelling 1000 miles and waiting in line for hours trying to get sold-out Nintendo products.

EDIT: "All this makes me wonder... Is the shortage real, or are Nintendo holding back supply to increase demand?"
Hah.
 
C

crackhead_bob

Member
blazenumb1 said:
Not 80's but early 90's, Batman TAS has stood the test of time and is still one of the best animated shows of all time.
Click to expand...

The art deco and the amalgamation of different decades helps put it over on a level that keeps it timeless, unlike other superhero shows that came out during that same period. X-Men and Spiderman. The only things that those shows trump over BTAS would be their serialized story telling structure. But XMen dropped that after a couple of years and Spiderman was all levels of fuckery to even matter by the time the show wrapped up.

Can you imagine BTAS if used the serialized plot structures of shows like Bojack Horseman? I know that serialization is not everyone's cup of tea, but it made me gravitate more to the X-Men back when it was airing.
 
TheRedSnifit

TheRedSnifit

Member
crackhead_bob said:
The art deco and the amalgamation of different decades helps put it over on a level that keeps it timeless, unlike other superhero shows that came out during that same period. X-Men and Spiderman. The only things that those shows trump over BTAS would be their serialized story telling structure. But XMen dropped that after a couple of years and Spiderman was all levels of fuckery to even matter by the time the show wrapped up.

Can you imagine BTAS if used the serialized plot structures of shows like Bojack Horseman? I know that serialization is not everyone's cup of tea, but it made me gravitate more to the X-Men back when it was airing.
Click to expand...

I imagine it being considerably worse tbh.
 
C

CadetMahoney

Member
S Tier - Real Ghostbusters

A Tier - Wuzzles, TMNT, Thundercats, Mysterious Cities of Gold (awesome beginning, shit ending), Dungeons and Dragons (only because I liked Sheila and the Guy who's always mopey), Visionaries (good concept, didn't really achieve it's potential).

B Tier - Ulysses 31, Dogtanian, He-Man, Transformers, Disney - Gummi Bears, Rescue Rangers, Duck Tales etc.

C Tier - Garfield, Samurai Pizza Cats, GI Joe, Gem, Flintstones (I know it's prob 70's)

Didn't see Jayce and Wheeled Warriors or Silverhawks and others.
 
R

Ratrat

Member
Its '78, but Future Boy Conan is easily one of the best animated shows of all time.

Maybe only Legend of the Galactic Heroes is better. Both hold up well, hell they shit on most shows today.
 
F

Fritz

Member
I just bought the Starcom as well as the Galaxy Rangers complete box sets and I can confirm that Starcom holds up incredibly well while Galaxy Rangers was a bit of a let down.
 
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