Classic (80s-90s) TV Shows Then & Now

[XZero]

I imagine a good number of the members of this forum (and those who frequent this site in general) fit into the 18-25 age category, meaning that many of us are 80s and 90s kids. What were some of your favorite TV shows from way back then, and how do you feel about them now?

For instance, I always loved Darkwing Duck back in the day (I'm 22, so I would have been 5 or 6 at the time). Buying the DVD releases now, the show still stands up as being a quality program that I can enjoy 15 years later.

Super Mario 3 was one of my favorite shows when I was a kid; looking back with the DVDs, I feel nostalgic about it, but honestly it's a pretty crappy show compared to what it could have been.

Finally, Dinosaurs (Jim Henson) was pretty good back then, but watching it now, it's drastically more interesting (and different) given its political commentary that I now understand rather fully.

What about you guys?

[kamoh]

I miss Dinosaurs :'(

That was a show that was very very odd. Simpsons with muppets :P

[Oni-91]

Shooting Stars with Vic & Bob. Just started watching it again, and it's every bit as surreal as it was when I first started watching it back in '96! (Still waiting for the damn revival, too.)

[BardicKnowledge]

I recently bought the Captain N series on DVD, because I loved it as a kid. As an adult, I've gotta admit that it's pretty terrible, albeit in an awesome nostalgic kind of way.

MacGyver, however, is still awesome.

[zircon]

It's kind of funny looking back on old cartoons like TMNT, Captain N, Mega Man, etc. While I remember enjoying them so much as a kid, objectively speaking they're not very good. Production values are so much lower than cartoons today, the humor is not as good, voice acting, writing, music, it's all sub-par compared to the cartoons today. People tend to knock the new stuff, but shows of the last five years like Batman Beyond and Justice League Unlimited (to name a few) were great.

In terms of comedy, we've had stuff like Megas XLR, plus Nick shows with a broad appeal in terms of writing (eg. Fairly Oddparents.)

[Bahamut]

I think my favorite childhood show to watch was Looney Tunes.

Carry on.

[megadave]

I liked Rescue Rangers, but I haven't seen it since I was a kid. I think this is a good thing, because I wouldn't want to end up like the weirdos who bought all of the seasons and draw hentai pictures of Gadget.

[Brycepops]

Pirates of Dark Water, end of story. It sucks they were never able to finish it :(

[Fishy]

Shooting Stars with Vic & Bob. Just started watching it again, and it's every bit as surreal as it was when I first started watching it back in '96! (Still waiting for the damn revival, too.)

I agree, this show is fantastically surreal. The BBC say they have no intention of restarting it though. *tear*

I'm actually enjoying dbz still, as much hait as it gets, the first few sagas were gold if you can ignore the filler. I used to watch it every day hoping, waiting to see if he ever actually kills freiza :p.

[Mr Jarna]

Pirates of Dark Water, end of story. It sucks they were never able to finish it :(

I remember that show! So good. Although I preferred to watch the old-school Spider-Man and assorted other superhero cartoons.

Batman FTW.

[Calpis]

I remember every Saturday morning I woke up to watch the X-Men animated series and I've watched several episodes since I was a kid and now realize that the production was terrible. That opening song is still nostalgic though...

[Brycepops]

I remember that show! So good. Although I preferred to watch the old-school Spider-Man and assorted other superhero cartoons.

Batman FTW.

The Superfriends! God, I used to watch that everyday before I left for school.

[XZero]

I should have mentioned in my original post, but Rocko's Modern Life was then and still is now excellent, and needs a DVD release more than anything.

[BooDidley7]

-EXOSQUAD. It desperately deserves a DVD release. I'm always kinda disappointed that no one re-runs to this day, because I think it would find an audience pretty easily, because it has some Anime-ish elements but at the same time, none of the cliched failings (including, moody teenage kids!).

-G.I. Joe (80's) was a lot of fun. They don't make cartoons for kids this violent anymore. It's saying a lot considering how pasturized the violence was too. Needs a DVD re-issue.

-Transformers (Generation 1) was great for its time, but in retrospect, the writing gets terrible pretty fast. It has still has some fun episodes, especially anything with Grimlock, or the episode where they try to institutionalize Galvatron. But man, it's a weird, bizarre series, and gets even weirder at the end.

-TMNT (80's) my fondness for this show seemed validated after seeing the first 5 episodes again (which are still awesome), but there's way, way too many cookie-cutter episodes that are pretty terrible now that I'm older. They also toned the violence way down, by reducing the use of weapons and dismembering of foot-soldiers.

[Mr Jarna]

The Superfriends! God, I used to watch that everyday before I left for school.

Superfriends... not so much. Also, slightly off-topic but the Seanbaby Superfriends page is hilarious and deserves reading. Especially the Riddler page.

Oooh, Mighty Max! Anyone else watch that show? The Genesis video game they made about it also wasn't all that bad... if you played it 2-player.

[Skummel Maske]

Yeah, I remember Pirates Of Dark Water. I loved that show. I also loved Knight Rider, A-Team and MacGyver. Now I can't sit through one episode of either.

[Bigfoot]

Anyone remember Dinosaucers?

http://img174.imageshack.us/img174/3312/dinosaucerses6.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[Crazyonr1]

The fighting robot MEGAMAN! God that show had such a terrible theme song, and the only episode I'd watch again is the X episode, but I remember waking up early saturday morning and watching that show like clockwork. Too bad they had like one season, the show could have really gone places I think. That and Rocko's Modern Life are really the only cartoons that stood out in my my mind. Also, Freakazoid. Awesome show they should either DVD it or better yet come out with more episodes.

[Nicole Adams]

Anyone remember Dinosaucers?I do!

I liked Rescue Rangers, but I haven't seen it since I was a kid. I think this is a good thing, because I wouldn't want to end up like the weirdos who bought all of the seasons and draw hentai pictures of Gadget.
Yeah, I recently discovered there is a community of extremely obsessive fans who analyze the show to no end and who think Gadget is the hottest cartoon character around. Talk about sick. :whatevaa:

Anyway, my favorite shows as a kid were TaleSpin, Chip 'n' Dale Rescue Rangers, Tiny Toon Adventures, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and the various Mario series. Say what you want, but I love cartoons and still watch them today. (Though, the writing for TMNT makes watching it almost unbearable.)

[BardicKnowledge]

Gadget?! People are stupid.

Purple haired Motoko Kusanagi from Ghost in the Shell (the SAC version, obviously) is attractive, as is Eclair from Kiddy Grade (I thought the AMV Hell spoof of KG was hilarious).

On topic, what about the Darkstalkers cartoon, and more importantly, the original animated Batman? And even though they're slightly newer, let's not leave out Dexter's Laboratory and The Powerpuff Girls -- they're really good (yes, PPG is good...shove it).

[Kirie]

I used to love watching Salute Your Shorts, All That, Clarissa Explains It All, Rocko's Modern Life, etc.

But if I were to watch some of these shows again? I think I would still enjoy them, if not just to reminisce about being a kid again. (Some of these shows really need to go on DVD, though.)

[FREAK55]

Looney Tumes is a classic. I also liked Animaniacs as well as Freakazoid when I was a kid. I still enjoy them today and I have all the volumes for Looney Tunes and Animaniacs. It's amazing what humer you don't get as a kid.

[EvilHorde]

I'm 24 now, and my friends think I'm dumb or something because I still like my old favorite shows. I enjoy them just as much as I used to, but when you add nostalgia in to the mix, I think I enjoy them even more.

Of course the biggest of them all would be He-Man & The Masters of the Universe. I got all episodes on VHS from eBay YEARS and YEARS ago. Now, in the time of the mighty DVD and all that jazz, I'm stuck with a huge VHS-stack full of He-Man goodness. And yeah, I enjoyed the hell out of it still.

Other old favorites I still love would be stuff like Knight Rider, Star Trek (the Kirk and Jean Luc-Picard ones), Brisco County Junior (still waiting for the Europe DVD-release DAMMIT!), Ducktales, TMNT, MacGyver, Rescue Rangers, Darkwing Duck, Batman, The Bill Cosby Show...

Yes, I know they're not all particularly good shows but nostalgia just has an effect on me I guess. If it sucks, I enjoy the CHEESYNESS (?). My hunger for nostalgia can be so intense that I can watch shows that somehow remind me of the good old times and enjoy them, even if I haven't seem them as a kid. If they have the 80´s feel, its probable that I get all nostalgic and like it.

And I have the same effect on movies. If I liked it as a kid, its very likely that I enjoy it still. Just think; I can watch Home Alone and ENJOY IT. Yeah, thats right, you don't want to see my DVD collection.

[Ray Falling]

I'm not quite sure how you spell it, but one of the few cartoons really worth mentioning is (The adventures of) Teddy Ruxpin. A quick google search actually reveals plenty of pages/youtube clips. Since it's originally American, some of you may know it too.

I haven't seen it since childhood and I'd rather not see it again now as it may ruin it for me so I won't haha :).

I also loved Donald Duck cartoons and the Ducktales series we had on video tape (wow that IS old n_n; )

The Dutchies among us may remember a show called Telekids as well, which always aired on saterday morning which was great.

Nothing they show on TV today comes close to being as memorable as the classics from our childhood in my opinion. Too much popular garbage now...

[OverCoat]

you know you fapped to gadget

when I was a kid I would watch Saturday Morning cartoons... if I ever got up before noon :D

I would try to catch Space Ghost Coast to Coast, back when it was on at midnight sunday night D: and I'd watch toonami after I got home from school, until the shows kept looping back to the beginning before they actually finished [fuck that!]. Sometimes I was lucky enough to catch the anime that was on in the wee hours of the morning on the SciFi channel, and I thought that was the coolest damn stuff ever.

Yeah I've always been a bit of a weaboo :P even when I was little. I cared very little for american cartoons, though I did watch Cartoon Network all the time and I loved Dexter's Lab and Ed Edd & Eddy, also Powerpuff Girls was a bit of a guilty pleasure for me :P but it was so good!

[Oni-91]

The BBC say they have no intention of restarting it though. *tear*

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!
Anyways, here's the other stuff I used to watch:
- The Crystal Maze (every kid in the UK watched this!)
- Fort Boyard (and I still do now!)
- You Bet! (...shut up!)
- Don't Try This At Home! (come on, it was You Bet! with fear. Some studio, same exclamation mark...)
- Fun House (if you didn't watch Fun House when you were a kid, you didn't have a full childhood!)

[Tenucha]

Man... I got a list of oddball childhood favourites,

TMNT/Usagi Yojimbo, Alf, Munsters, Dinosaurs, Muppet Show, Looney Tunes, CHiPs, Get Smart, Marsupilami, Earthworm Jim, Captain Bucky O'Hare, Wild West Cowboys of Moo Mesa, Bonkers, Sonic the Hedgehog, Inspector Gadget, Darkwing Duck, Tail Spin, Chip n' Dale Rescue Rangers, Dinosaucers, Cadillacs and Dinosaurs, Super Mario, Batman (1966), Gargoyles, Looney Tunes, MacGyver and Knight Rider to name a few :3
And I'll throw in Dragonball and DBZ for good measure.

I'm 23 and these are the shows off the top of my head I used to always watch.

TMNT is classic... I still watch the first two movies but I did try to watch a few episodes on YouTube only to realize how corny is really is now. I'm sure there are still some golden episodes around but I only saw part of one with, like, the Nutrinos or whatever they were. Usagi Yojimbo for the win in crossovers!

Alf is still golden to me, I caught a few episodes on YouTube and I still plan on getting the DVDs sets despite the complaints on what episode versions were put on the discs.

Munsters are just way to classic. I loved this show so much. I have an extended MP3 theme somewhere on my computer.

Dinosaurs - ahead of its time... very smart, appealed to me as a kid and still hold an appeal to me even as an adult and not even on a nostalgia level... Gotta get the DVDs of this also.

Muppet Show is still just as funny as it was then... Gotta get the DVD sets for this.

CHiPs - Anyone who watches (or watched) Space Ghost Coast to Coast, my reason for the love of this show is the same as Moltar's, the crazy car chase that each episode build up towards.

Get Smart - can't wait for the movie remake with Steve Carell

Marsupilami - Cartoon about a yellow marsupial with a crazy cool tail!! I loved it as a kid. I love the idea as an adult. The Disney cartoon apparently sucks (I havn't seen it since I was a kid) but I'd love to find original UK publications of this (animated show? comics?)

Bucky O'Hare - oddball cartoon about a green space captain bunny. I havn't seen anything of it except the opening on YouTube. It's probably really bad by now.

Cowboys/Moo Mesa - Points of originality. When I found screen caps of the show, looked like a very low production value and could also be the corniest thing I had watched as a kid... So I'd rather just remember it being a favourite of mine from childhood

I always liked the darker Sonic seires, not the bright colorful Saturday morning Adventures Of... series. Both shows are quite bad now.

Inspector Gadget - I'll just leave that for my childhood memories as being awesome. It was alot of fun finding French and German language versions of the opening song.
I love the "cover song" Dr.Steel did for the theme.

Dinosaucers and Cadillacs and Dinosaurus - another couple shows I see no love for. I found the opening for both shows online (YouTube?) they're probably really bad now however... But I remember them being quite cool.

I threw Dragonball and DBZ in there... Dragonball was my first intro to anime when I was in 5th grade... I dont know what year that was... but both shows qualify as 80's cartoons anyway :P Even if they took a 'lil time coming over here (Maybe they qualify for 90's?)

Anyone remember Dinosaucers?

http://img174.imageshack.us/img174/3312/dinosaucerses6.jpg (http://imageshack.us/)

You sir, rock

[The Unsung Plumber]

I should have mentioned in my original post, but Rocko's Modern Life was then and still is now excellent, and needs a DVD release more than anything.
Hellz yes.

anyway, if you note my initials, DW, it would stand to reason that I LOVE Darkwing Duck. When I was 5, there was nothing cooler than having the same initials as darkwing.

[Tenucha]

That would be pretty cool.
You make your friends refer to you as "DW"? :)
I always wanted the action figures and either the plain or bike

[José the Bronx Rican]

I keep begging people not to get me started on cartoons, because I'm too busy to go in-depth. I was a fiend back in the day, and keep in mind I was an adult in the 80's, so it's not nostalgia talking for the most part.

These shows today are definitely much more sophisticated in all areas. Sure doesn't always make 'em better, though. Old TMNT to new TMNT, in overall quality, seems like a lateral move to me. However, there are conscious efforts to appeal to wider age groups now, and that means better writing and better humor for the most part. Batman, Animaniacs, Justice League and so on are at the high end. Stuff was written almost strictly for kids before (calling on the same veteran/freelance hacks they've been using for decades), and that makes some of it fodder for youtube comedy, especially early 90's USA Network output ("YOU... HURT... MY... JESSICAAAAA!!!"). Plenty of these programs age badly, but plenty don't, and the same will happen to these new ones.

Voice acting is not better. It's not much worse, but not better. And in localized anime? Hell no. Did everyone sound this effeminate in the original Yu-Gi-Oh? Don't let corny dialogue of the 70's and 80's fool you: a lot of those old-time voices were trained working in radio, and they knew how to read a line. Rob Paulsen is one of the last of the previous generation's greats. The fact we can have Peter Cullen-vs.-Gary Chalk arguments until the cows come home shows they did their thing in the old days as well. Generally better, IMO. Even the worst of the old days didn't reach the nightmare levels of Cream the Rabbit.

I remember watching Dark Water after all the bragging about how much was spent on animation, and while it was quite a good show, I wondered where the money went. My lament about animation nowadays is the depressing sameness of it all during the course of a series. The main reason I watch animated shows is for the animation ("Duh," right? You would think so, but...), and its quality can affect my impression of the series, whether or not everything else works well. I wish I could explain it further right now, but stuff nowadays in many shows are just good. "Just good" is not enough for me. Some shows back in the day ranged from "incredible" to "horrible" from ep to ep, and even within the SAME ep. It's much more consistent now, and that's supposed to be a good thing. However, if it's just OK - not bad, but not particularly great - and there's no hope it would get better, that depresses me.

I definitely speak from nostalgia about Transformers G1. What young male didn't think giant changing robots beating the shit out of each other was the coolest thing? That and Cullen were my reasons for Michael Bay's version not becoming a complete disaster. (But I'll be damned if I don't buy that RiffTrax!) Still, there's plenty of exciting (if a bit sloppy) Japanese animation I never get tired of. Season 3 was sure a turd, though, once they killed Prime and stopped going to Japan so much.

Speaking of killing, wasn't that a beautiful pussy-ass cop-out in the G.I. Joe movie, when they also KILLED DUKE, then ran into the dead Optimus backlash too late to fix it, so they clumsily dubbed in lines like, "He's gone into a coma" and "Duke's gonna be A-O.K.!!"

Everything from DIC sucked from my viewpoint, except Inspector Gadget and mayyyyyyyyybe Cops.

I collected Disney stuff by default since Gummi Bears, but then I noticed the nosedive in animation quality after the original 13 eps of Rescue Rangers, and although Disney opened up studios in France and England and Japan and improved again generally starting with TaleSpin, tapered off again with Darkwing Duck, and improved again with Gargoyles, I stopped collecting. I have to keep my Chip 'N' Dale tapes, though, because they used the butchered Disney channel masters for the DVDs, and because I still have the "uncensored" copies of "Dirty Rotten Diapers" and "Puffed Rangers."

Wish I had the time to pen a love letter to Tokyo Movie Shinsha of Japan for kicking everyone's ass without even trying in animation during the 80's and early 90's. The Smurfs just reached their 50th anniversary, but I hate them and I hate all of you (you know who you are!) who watched them as kids, causing the cancellation of Mighty Orbots.

I hate having to keep telling everybody that Looney Tunes is not, nor was ever, a TV show, just a pile of varying syndicated collections. Shorts animated for movie theaters was on a whole other level, and shouldn't count here. Yet, idiot labels like TVT release "The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down" and "Merrily We Roll Along" on CD as "TV" Themes. Assholes.

Before his passing, my father (in his mid-60's, mind you) became a huge fan of Dragon Ball Z, collecting everything he saw being sold on tape, bootleg or not. Go figure. I kept asking myself, how do you not get bored watching these folks talk for a half-hour, throw one projectile and say, "tune in next week"?

I gotta stop here. Maybe I'll talk in the future about how much I hate Thundercats (get your wooden stakes ready!), and about Sonic the Mutant Shark.

[The Pezman]

It's kind of funny looking back on old cartoons like TMNT, Captain N, Mega Man, etc. While I remember enjoying them so much as a kid, objectively speaking they're not very good. Production values are so much lower than cartoons today, the humor is not as good, voice acting, writing, music, it's all sub-par compared to the cartoons today.
Well yeah. But we as young kids were not going to notice or appreciate that. It was mostly OMG TALKING TURTLES BEATING UP ROBOTS AND MUTANTS! Seriously, what else could you ask for?

Animaniacs and the other Spielberg cartoons, by contrast, I actually enjoy a little more now because I actually get all the jokes. I had no idea at the time who Orson Welles was, and I was a huge fan of The Critic in high school (where Lamarche actually made his debut, I think). So watching him now made everything different.

Add to all this that nearly all of the famous voice actors of the day, along with Christopher Lloyd, came together to make Toonstruck (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toonstruck), a little known but incredibly excellent point and click adventure game. Despite it being cartoony, it was definitely geared towards an older audience (a cow and sheep practice S&M... no, I'm not kidding). So that drove me to seek out the other work these people had done. Jim Cummings is my hero.
People tend to knock the new stuff, but shows of the last five years like Batman Beyond and Justice League Unlimited (to name a few) were great.
Meh... JLU was worse than Justice League. All the other heroes seemed ornamental anyways, as the writers still mostly focused on the original seven. However, I do love the Timmverse/Diniverse and am quite upset Mark Hamill isn't playing the Joker in the new Batman Beyond.
In terms of comedy, we've had stuff like Megas XLR, plus Nick shows with a broad appeal in terms of writing (eg. Fairly Oddparents.)
Fairly Odd Parents is probably the only Nicktoon today that can consistently entertain me from beginning to end every time. I don't know how the writers do it every time.

[Raziellink]

The Dutchies among us may remember a show called Telekids as well, which always aired on saterday morning which was great.


Sunday morning was where it was at. Ren & Stimpy, Pinky and the Brain, Spider-Man, X-men, and many more!

[The Unsung Plumber]

You make your friends refer to you as "DW"? :)

as a matter of fact, I do have a few friends who do:-P

[XZero]

When there's trouble you call DW...

Dustin Waldron! Let's get dangerous!


Sorry- I couldn't resist ;)

[Tenucha]

With enough story planning and character development, it's not a bad name for a character in a series haha

[I-n-j-i-n]

I was too young to understand Star Trek The Next Generation when it first aired, but watching them now, I'm fully convinced it has some of the most intriguing and snappily written dialogue in any sci-fi or perhaps in all TV. For every ho-hum episode, they have one incredibly intriguing/funny/introspective one the next.

And I always loved Robotech, though Macross obviously is a few notches higher because it's the original material. The best bastardization of anything, ever.