TV

1980’s Cartoon Goodness

TransformersThis post is inspired by some discussion on THE UNIQUE GEEK listserv as well as a post by my buddy SGhoul on his blog, Oozings from My Head.

A few years back, I made a CD of 1980’s cartoon theme songs.  The more I searched for these, the more I realized how much fun cartoons in the 1980’s were.  Perhaps I’m biased growing up in that era, but back then cartoons were so much more fun, family-friendly, and less … well, less stupid than many of the cartoons nowadays (I’m looking at you Ed, Edd, n Eddy).  Now, there were certainly some duds in the 80’s, I just think overall cartoons were better back then.  There are certainly a few excellent cartoons nowadays, but the majority of them are unwatchable to me.  Again, it may just be that I’m old and over the hill.

Below I’m posting the song list from my 1980’s cartoon CD.  Each has a link to a video of the opening credits (Yay for YouTube!).  If you can think of any worthwhile cartoons I’ve missed, let me know! 

BravestarrACTION/ADVENTURE
G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero
Thundarr the Barbarian
He-Man and the Masters of the Universe
She-Ra: Princess of Power
BraveStarr – One of my favorites and under-appreciated
Dungeons & Dragons
M.A.S.K.
C.O.P.S.
Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors
Godzilla Power Hour – with Godzuki
Bionic Six
Turbo Teen
Danger Mouse
Count Duckula
Galaxy Rangers
Centurions
Blackstar
Flash Gordon, The New Adventures of – Probably the best storytelling intro of the 80’s
Tarzan: Lord of the Jungle
The New Adventures of Zorro
Ghostbusters (Filmation)
Inhumanoids
ThunderCats
Silverhawks
Tigersharks

BIG ‘BOTS
Voltron: Defender of the Universe
Tranzor Z
Mighty Orbots
Robotech
Robotix
GoBots, Challenge of the
Transformers – Season One
Transformers – Season Four

SUPERHERO
Superman: The Animated Series (1987)
Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures
Captain Planet
X-Men: Pryde of the X-Men
Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Show (1984)
(Super Friends) Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians (1985)
Plastic Man
Defenders of the Earth
Spider-man & His Amazing Friends (1981)
Incredible Hulk (1982)

LIVE ACTION SPINOFF
Fonz and the Happy Days Gang
Laverne and Shirley in the Army
Droids: The Adventures of R2-D2 and C-3PO
Ewoks
Muppet Babies
Dukes
Punky Brewster
Gilligan’s Planet
Gary Coleman Show – I’ve got the audio, but can’t find video
Mr. T
Real Ghostbusters

GAME SPINOFF
Donkey Kong
Pole Position – One of the best 1980’s cartoon musical themes!  If Kenny Loggins had done cartoon themes, they would have sounded like this!  Very catchy!
Q-Bert
Pac-Man
Rubik the Amazing Cube

Galaxy HighHUMOR
Alvin & the Chipmunks (The Chipmunks)
Scooby-Doo, A Pup Named
Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids
Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels
Galaxy High – Another of my favorites!
Alf Tales
Inspector Gadget

MUSICALLY ORIENTED
School House Rock
Jem
Kidd Video

CUTE CREATURES
Strawberry Shortcake
Rainbow Brite
Smurfs
Snorks
My Little Pony ‘n Friends
Get Along Gang
Shirt Tales
Paw-Paw Bears
Care Bears
The Littles
Gummi Bears, Disney’s Adventures of the – Another great theme song!  Very catchy!

Here are some more that I didn’t plan to include, but stumbled across while drafting this post:
The Monchhichis
The Lone Ranger
Fraggle Rock
DuckTales
The Great Space Coaster
Hulk Hogan’s Rock ‘n’ Wrestling
Lazer Tag Academy
Rambo: The Force of Freedom
The Scooby & Scrappy-Doo/Puppy Hour
Richie Rich

80’s goodness!

13 thoughts on “1980’s Cartoon Goodness

  1. You do know that 99% of those were just as bad if not worse than E,E,&E? The ideas behind some of them were good, but the cartoon was total crap.

    Also, you may not get E,E,&E (I don’t care for it myself), Cartoons like Dexter, Powerpuff girls, Fairly Odd Parents, Danny Phantom, etc are all solid (if not really good). And shows like Avatar are very high quality.

    I hate to tell you folks, but the 80’s were crap. Pull the nostalgia out of your ass and take a hard look at all of the vapid mediocrity of that time period.

  2. Sghoul is correct. I think that most modern cartoons are much better than the cartoons that we grew up with in the 80’s.

    I’m thinking that either you haven’t watched the 80’s cartoons in a while, or you have no idea how good many of today’s cartoons are or both.

  3. Hey guys – Thanks for the comments!

    I think it’s fair to say that I don’t believe 80’s cartoons are more intelligent or thought-provoking than modern cartoons. But I still believe taken within the context of their time, the 80’s cartoons were more fun, family-friendly, and less stupid.

    Also, I should have mentioned that much of my love certainly comes from the nostalgia and kick-ass opening credits for 80s cartoons!

    I agree that several modern cartoons are solid, however, for every Dexter’s Lab, there is multiple Ed Edd Eddy’s, or Pokemons, or Yu-Gio-Yos, or Billy & Mandy, etc.

    The Irredeemable Shag

  4. Brilliant list purely for the nostalgia of it all.

    But, you missed Mysterious Cities of Gold. What a show that was, and it’s just been released on DVD for the first time in the UK!

  5. Marshall, Will and Holly
    On a routine expedition
    Met the greatest earthquake ever known
    High on the rapids It struck their tiny raft (insert screams here)
    And plunged them down a thousand feet below
    To the Land of the Lost
    To the Land of the Lost
    To the Land of the Lost

  6. Ahh Mysterious Cities of Gold was fantastic. You owe it to yourself to track it down and watch it – somehow.

    Although maybe these days we’re more cynical and it wouldn’t be as good.

    The show I most want to see is Star Fleet – not a cartoon but still magnificent!

  7. Thought I’d put in my 2 cents.
    I grew up during the 70’s and there are a lot of cartoons from that era I still love, (H.R. Puffnstuff, Sigmund the Sea Monster, ScoobyDoo, Here comes the Grump,) of course I realize some were just children shows and not actually cartoons but they were great, and all the old standby’s, Bugs Bunny, The Roadrunner, Huckleberry Hound, Tom and Jerry, as well as Rocky and Bullwinkle. And I liked a lot of the eighties stuff my children watched, The Gummy Bears, The Smurfs, ALF, among others. I just like cartoons, I am 48 years of age. BTW I like Ed,Edd,and Eddie as it reminds me of growing up in my neighborhood in the 1970’s (the characters remind me of me and my friends, I would have been the scientific one)
    and thanks for the walk down memory lane I like this blog!

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