Related to a previous post regarding great 80’s cartoons, I stumbled upon a great 30 minute mix of 80’s cartoon intros. Needless to say it was a fantastic trip. You quickly realize there was a lot of great stuff that you remember very fondly, and then a bunch of stuff you’ve never heard of and think, “Someone must really have been on something to come up with this.” And the name Don Schimer keeps popping up as the producer for many of the early 80’s shows… I’ll have to look him up later. Anyway, on to the recap.

  • He-Man and the Masters of the Universe -- Starting right off with a classic. Yes, it was incredibly cheesy, but hey! They made a horrible 80's feature length live action movie off of it (complete with Courtney Cox, believe it or not)!
  • She-Ra - Princess of Power -- The female equivalent of He-Man. I vaguely recall this. They tweak thing just enough to make the whole "boy-girl" issue obvious (power vs wisdom, etc).
  • Inspector Gadget -- Classic. Another one that gets a live action movie.
  • Ghostbusters -- Not the traditional cartoon and never saw this one. Looks almost like a spoof of Scooby Doo, but with a great big monkey instead of a dog. Go figure.
  • Ghostbusters -- This is the real one. Classic.
  • Bravestar -- WTF? Planet of New Texas? Wow! Never seen this! Almost like a Native-American sheriff... in space! And the horse transforms to walk on too legs and act like a man! Someone was on crack for this one.
  • Heathcliff & Marmaduke -- Oh wow. Wow. Really, really bad.
  • Heathcliff -- The one you actually remember. Great music on the intro, but I never really liked the show.
  • Gilligan's Planet -- Oh... My... God. It is literally what you are thinking... The castaways of Gilligan's Island build a spaceship and travel to another planet. Complete with Gilligan, the Skipper, the Professor, etc. My jaw was slack the entire time.
  • Voltron -- Wow, I still get tingles. This is the shit! As I stated before, I actually bought some old tapes of the beginning episodes. Its was striking how Christian the show really was.
  • Mighty Orbots -- Never saw it. A cheesy imitation of Voltron.
  • Danger Mouse -- Probably before "my time." Heard of but never seen. Looks like a hang over from the 70's
  • Duck Tales -- "Life is like a hurricane..." "Da da da da danger lurks behind you..." Awesome.
  • Chip N' Dale - Rescue Rangers -- We're getting to the classics now. The music on these intros was always usually good, to be ingrained in memory for all time.
  • The Littles -- Damn I remember this one! Not nearly as big as some others, but I definitely remember it.
  • Pacman -- The intro music is the remix of the old internal beeps from the arcade speakers. Definitely looks like a 70's hang over.
  • Captian N - the Game Master -- Shit I remember this one too! Very vaguely, but damn these were cheesy! When did Nintendo first make it big? I can't remember.
  • The Super Mario Brothers Super Show -- I'm doubled over in laughter at the moment. Classic 80's rap intro with the show being divided between a cartoon and real actors as Mario and Luigi. Wow. Mario looks like Ron Jeremy, I shit you not.
  • Super Mario Brothers -- The full cartoon minus the actors (and the Ron Jeremy look-alike).
  • The Legend of Zelda -- You gotta love the Nintendo spoofs. "Excuuuuuse me Princess!"
  • Thundarr the Barbarian -- Words escape me. Apparently a comet passes between the Earth and the moon and causes the Apocalypse in 1994. Almost looks like a He-Man spoof... with a monkey instead of a cat. What the hell is up with monkeys?
  • GI Joe -- This show has such a different connotation now than it must have then. Replace Cobra with Al Qaeda and you have something that would be eerily familiar.
  • Transformers -- Another staple of 80's childhood. Bad intro though.
  • Transformers (v2) -- Planes, trains and automobiles. Definitely saw both.
  • Challenge of the Gobots -- Cheesy Transformer's spoof
  • Beatlejuice -- Another classic, but haven't we spilled into the 90's with this one?
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles -- Uber classic.
  • The Charlie Brown and Snoopy Show -- Definitely 70's
  • Dungeons & Dragons -- Holy shit! I can't believe this actually existed!
  • Blackstar -- Wow... someone's on crack for this one.

Of those 30, I definitely had seen at least 16 of them (at least one episode). However there are definitely a few that I’m sure were in the 80’s that they missed.

  • Dark Wing Duck
  • Tailspin
  • Smurfs
  • Thundercats
  • Carebears

And then a segment that were great cartoons in the 90’s (when you were probably too old to be watching cartoons, but did anyway). You cannot say Anamaniacs was a childish cartoon =)

  • Batman
  • Gargoyles
  • Anamaniacs
  • X-Men