Browsing YTV XVI ''Top 50 Best Cartoons of the 80's''

Today we look at some of the oldest shows out there, not quite the 70's, 60's or older in this case the timeline I aimed for was the 80's the toy ruled era of animation, and you will notice that pattern immediately with the collection seen in this video. Many of these I have not actually watched, but I know the more popular ones of course.

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#50 The Real Ghostbusters: Great cartoon to films I must say this was the best of those shows they did right after this one. Seeing first might seem odd to picture seeing its better than some of the cartoons I have never seen or heard of.

#49 Kidd Video: Hmm... A show where its mixed with live action from the very beginning of the intro sounds like Dog City to me only that might be much better quality than this.

#48 The Adventures of the Gummi Bears: Pretty low for to me the first quality Disney cartoon for its time that would later established the successors as they are later in the decades, or decades to come. Epic theme for the time, and afterwards didn't have that much reruns at the time which some 80's shows fall victim to only diehards would know real well of.

#47 Pingu: I wouldn't say 80's per say late 80's in one certain country that aired it, but otherwise mostly a 90's cartoon and one of the biggest standouts of that stop motion animation that lasted for 150+ episodes as well in six seasons. This was like the European version of Sesame Street is what Pingu was.

#46 Visionaries: Also subtitled (Knights of the Magical Light) a one season show I have nothing really to say other than it looks like Bravestarr another show I never really watched vaguely.

#45 Saber Riders: Saber dudes that kinda look like Gundam mobile suits and Peter Cullen was in this. Looks interesting, but I know nothing of the show itself.

#44 Astro Boy: Yeah sure the in color remake of the original iconic 60's show. Its a solid show, but it ain't that bad as its film adaption which says it all right away doesn't it?

#43 Dragon Ball: Technically without this Z would never exist true, but the sequel expanded far deeper than just Dragon Ball which sets you up with smaller characters with Piccolo being the foiled for this show eventually helping Goku in Z.

#42 The World of David the Gnome: Oh my a Harvey Weinstein produced show... oh well so long I guess.

#41 Bravestarr: Like I said I have seen episodes here and there, and its okay for what it is definitely a 80's desalinated type show for sure.

#40 Dungeons & Dragons: Its based on the card game so in a way it can be considered a video game type adaption, but not necessarily either. I'm not familiar though with this show sense nobody talks about it than the novel itself.

#39 Sliverhawks: Cool theme sound, but that's all I know of this show, and yes majority of these 80's show I have no clue what there about seeing many of these I was not alive when they aired this being one of the more memorable 80's shows and yet I knew very little of but great things about it.

#38 Dinosaucers: Looks very okay Dinosaur based show thus maybe this should of started off the countdown really. Yet it got 65 episodes in just four short months... impressive.

#37 Ulysses 31: An early example of french animation pioneer many have forgotten about overtime, but it actually pretty good for one of the more underrated cartoons on this 80's decade.

#36 Rainbow Brite: Oh okay... its Reading Rainbow only in full animation form for sure. I know nothing of this, but that is the main vibe i'm sensing from this.

#35 Bananaman: A very British show I only know just because Nostalgia Critic talked about the theme being so cheesy as it opens up. A superhero whose named the Bananaman okay?

#34 Robotech: Well this one is always a well received Anime show despite a generic title name of choice that is pretty much the show for 85 episodes. Ironically this is the same show that IGN placed on its ''Top 100 Greatest Animated Series'' list in the exact same position.

#33 She-Ra: Spinoff to He-Man (obviously) like Jem has a female cult following I get it, but I could not gravitate to it at all because I was not the fan of the original show of He-Man.

#32 Heathcliff: While Heathcliff is no Garfield his show was pretty solid of those cat shows his probably a close 2nd or 3rd I'd say.

#31 Mighty Orbots: The only thing i'm getting an idea of this show is it tried to be kinda like Transformers which its main rival it lost to and thus its clear which was the more over show, and the rest is history. I would not know of the quality of the show however just based off of that noticing detail.

#30 Mysterious Cities of Gold: Another anime show, but I know nothing of this one with its 39 episodes supposedly quality driven one would assume.

#29 The Plastic Man Comedy Adventure Show: What really off putting title, and curiously enough this is the animated version of what Carol Burnett Show or Saturday Night Live would have like these segments not per say skits, but different types of running gags is pretty much the entire show revolving around this tall thin man.

#28 Jem and the Holograms: You have a voice, but I could care less what happened in this show honestly I feel like i'm a slightly better version of Josie and the *bleepcats honestly in full fledged human form of a female glam rocker I get it, but not for me.

#27 Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam: Its up there as one of the best in the Gundam series surely, but yeah I never actually saw this series, but just from playing those hack and slasher series of games it does seem to be a great series based on the most memorable moments in this Gundam series.

#26 Centurions: Power Extreme... what before Power Rangers ever existed?

#25 The New Adventures of Winnie The Pooh: I briefly discussed this from a previous series episode, but yeah this Winnie the Pooh animated series is actually like the film before it solid overall like the franchise itself.

#24 M.A.S.K: This show is essentially combining both Transformers and G.I. Joe into one. Well I still know little of even if its a clone or ripoff of that type of toy marketing it was trying to be set out of.

#23 Care Bears: Yeah... no thank you. Even though Bart Simpson is talking in this version of the theme song duh.

#22 Star Blazers: Well it did run more than many of these shows that were one and done, but I can't say much about it unfortunately.

#21 The Snorks: Too high for a poor clone of The Smurfs I must say I saw an episode of this on Boomerang and that is exactly it I would not of put on here or this high up especially with shows like Winnie the Pooh, The Real Ghostbusters, or Gimmi Bears even.

#20 Dennis The Menace: A Saturday morning cartoon that was very interesting of Dennis and what he would do each and every episode. I have seen little when I did catch when I was younger, but it was unique for that time.

#19 The Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers: Once again another one run season, and I got nothing look like space cadets on a mission as if it inspired... Guardians of the Galaxy or something absurd to that effect.

#18 Fists of the North Star: A six part anime show with being considered one of the more mature and bloody shows in that decade. I'd say its a fairly good Anime I have seen few times, but that's really it it is a guy and a powerful fists he unloads on a fighter he comes across.

#17 My Little Pony:... I'm not a brony, and this is a cartoon I will have a major hard time getting myself into because that is just not my thing remotely. Probably why I'm not a fan of horses either why I avoided the series since this one came out.

#16 Voltron Defender of the Universe: Supposedly considered anime in some form i'm not sure why, Voltron has a concept similar to Power Rangers only thing it gets its credit is forming to mecha bot known as title implied an ultimate fighting robot of justice sure it does well in its own right in that time frame.

#15 DuckTales: A memorable Disney afternoon classic that has a surprisingly great reboot which is one of the few really good shows of that decade.

#14 Spiderman and his Amazing Friends: Sounds... very similar to Super Friends which is incredibly cheesy show to watch if you torture yourself to that degree. This is probably the more friendlier Spider-Man show of all of those which some people like its okay to me.

#13 Garfield and Friends: Awe yes arguably the most iconic of those Saturday morning cartoons is Garfield and Friends. Quality show I'd say for that era aside from that Duck who I can't remember his name with the weird moment in the show its pretty solid much more than those films that would come way later.

#12 Thundarr The Barbarian: Implies a generic Barbarian, and a very soso theme song to boot. Not sure why that would be so high up of things like Garfield, DuckTales, & The Real Ghostbusters.

#11 Alvin and the Chipmunks: I didn't care for the show that much, but get the innovation of them singing scores I guess no other cartoon could pull off that type of way of managing to be both charming, and also be funny at the same time. First film was fine, but the rest didn't need to be made of what has spawned after this.

#10 Thundercats: I like this one way more than He-Man its a cool version of cat wars in a futuristic type setting that's very creative for starters, and next the theme is so good as well. Its reboot was okay, but this had the stronger impact especially in that decade.

#9 Danger Mouse: A very British show that aired in the early years of Nick back when they aired imports at first. The show combines the spy plots of James Bond and Danger Man with A Mouse as the main protagonist. Neat concept I can see why its loved for those who have seen great portions of it, and that it got a reboot in 2015 still going strong.

#8 Inspector Gadget: Awe yes I love this show well the one that did it right of course. Iconic theme song, the Don Adams as the one who believes his always the hero. It spawned two cruddy movies, and a couples of shows after this that were not nearly as impactful as this one was.

#7 Muppet Babies: This show help pioneer Rugrats in ways where it had wacky like adventures each and every episode of the Muppets. Nightmare fuel looking animations sure, but it was of quality if you actually gave it a chance. Has an even more disturbing reboot just recently of last year is this the year of 80's classic getting their due?

#6 He-Man and the Masters of the Universe: Alright it had an impact in that decade alone, but overtime say the next few decades it will be forgotten into ashes, and that might be for the better just catching some episodes of the original a little too much for me its Dragon Ball Z (non-anime form) only the build up is better than this.

#5 G.I. Joe A Real American Hero: Based off the comics, and toys alike the cartoon ended up being the most memorable thing to come of a very saturated franchise at the time. I caught several of these old episodes, and there just the same type of plots over and over, and Cobra ultimately loses every single time.

#4 Battle of The Planets: The best anime on this list is actually one that mostly resonated in the 70's for two of its years on air so you could argue for the shoe to not be on the list based off of that criteria, but it seems unique, but to put it in the top 5 though I'm not sure about that. Another thing to note is this had three different name variations once the one season ended it went into this new name in disguise.

#3 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (87's): Great show without this one we never would of got the 2000's version or the 2012's version of this incarnation to be as big and successful as it was, and to be honest TMNT should be #1 being the most successful of these toy dominated decade this one did it the best the movies at first were really good, and than went downhill with the newer releases but doesn't excuse the massive following it had with this show alone.

#2 The Smurfs: I have caught many episodes of The Smurfs on Boomerang (when they still aired classic shows), I won't deny the cultural impact, but my god this a very repetitive show I mean I feel like there's not much to it, and you get the general format of the show. Smurfs might be a little high based on how many shows it ranked above in this case.

#1 The Transformers (G1): Top 5 yes, #1... I can see the arguments made for it but i'd probably place 2nd place at this point in time, and why is that? Well yes it got oversaturated of course, but to the levels of quality have been both of great to terrible, and what I mean by that is the shows that came after this some of them have been considered better than the original incarnation. While also being looked at by those unnecessarily live action sequels still being made such a Michael Bay thing to do.

I'll lists some shows i'm kinda surprised not to see make it seeing them float in that 80's realm...
The Raccoons - Aired from 85-92 long time, but is also considered a widely forgotten Disney cartoon very early in its lifespan. Which like Gummi Bears at least made the list unlike this which lasted longer.
The Jetsons (80's) Revival - Now granted it is from the 60's technically, but its revival had much more episodes, and spawned two films from this one I believe and since we strangely saw Astro Boy's successor rather the old one its fitting to have this be a mention.
Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors - It has a very cool concept with these armored like vehicles, and they try to eliminate all of the Monster Minds. The only thing that sucks about the show is it never got a true conclusion of these one season shows this one I would of put on the list compared to some of the ones seen.
Count Duckula - Its a spinoff of Danger Mouse, but its actually a good example of that type of setting of where he originated from and instead of a goofy parody of James Bond this was a basically goofy Dracula mixed with what would resembled a simplistic Daffy Duck on Halloween with sheer quality.

The 80's is done, there are more decades to dissect especially the next one will be a dozy. See you next time!

Comments

Wait, are you forgetting the Simpsons? - visitor

The video had shows from strictly the 79'-88' period thus Simpsons was not on the list due to this rule, and plus its popularity was in the 90's in any event, but if were saying the Tracey ullman show not quite. - visitor