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


XZero
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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?

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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.)

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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.

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-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.

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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.

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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.

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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.)

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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).

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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.)

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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.

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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...

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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!

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