Anyone else remember “The Pirates of Dark Water”?
I think someone else mentioned it already, but Swat Kats was also great
Yes! I loved that show and it was gone too soon for my liking.
I was opening the thread intending to say just this. I don’t remember either show very well, but I remember loving them.
I used to love the Gummi Bears when I was a kid, but every time I’ve mentioned the show, no one sees to know what I’m talking about. 🤷♂️
Edit:
This one too. It was kinda like a mix of G.I. Joe & Transformers.
A just saw a YouTube video about this, David the gnome, and the wuzzles. The absolute raw voice talent they had on those shows is something we will likely be privy to again.
Aww man! I forgot about The Wuzzles!
I used to watch that one too.
I still have an Ele-roo stuffed toy in good condition.
Nice! I think I had that one as a kid. I’m pretty sure my brother had a bumblelion.
Same: Little brother got Bumblelion. Unfortunately, I’m pretty sure it got destroyed by a dog at some point.
baller theme song too! M-m-m-m-MASK!
Both the Gummi Bears and MASK were famous in France for some reason. MASK was weird but fun, they also made a ton of money by selling toys.
Yeah, cartoons were all about selling toys, even back in the 80’s.
Here’s another obscure show:
Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors.
I don’t remember much about the show, but I was all about the toys.
I remember having this one:
Drill Sergeant
I can still sing the Gummi Bears theme song lol
That Gummy bears theme song was like crack. I tried rewatching it now, and it doesn’t have thst same magic anymore. Around that time Voltron was on and Go Bots was around too.
Yeah, I tried rewatching it not too long ago and it definitely wasn’t as good as I remembered. Theme song was still dope though.
I still randomly sing the theme song, but substitute my wife’s name in for “gummy”.
I used to love the Gummi Bears when I was a kid, but every time I’ve mentioned the show, no one sees to know what I’m talking about. 🤷♂️
My dad actually liked that show more than we did I think. When Rugrats had Stu Pickles obsessed with the Dummy Bears cartoon it reminded me of my dad. My dad wasn’t that crazy about it but that bit of characterization made the show more endearing to me.
I used to watch it every Saturday morning!
When we first saw Mask someone thought T-bob’s name was Cheeseball, so forever would it be amongst us kids.
Samurai Pizza Cats
I thought I was the only one.
Well met fellow internet stranger!
Captain Caveman
I’ve actually done the “Captain Caaaavemaaaaaan!!!” yell around people in my age group and just got blank stares.
…And son?
And the whole Laugh Olympics crew!
I had a sick captain caveman shirt when I was in highschool
Many I would mention are already here, so I’m throwing in Reboot!
Finally, a current discussion about Reboot to bring this up in.
Okay, so Matrix from the later seasons was absolutely just a parody of Cable from X-Men, right? With the gun, and the sleeveless armor, and the gold eye?
Yeah, it’s been a while so I looked up the character’s arc and it does seem that he is inspired from Cable and/or Solid Snake (who actually debuted in Metal Gear in 1987).
Ahh… Always felt like that was a parody or callback, and never figured it out!
Pirates of Dark Water
The Secret Show - this old British cartoon about secret agents that would go on exciting missions and such! I swear that oversimplified corporate art style took inspiration from The Secret Show!
Ralph Bakshi’s version of Mighty Mouse from the ‘80s. Was super cool and a little subversive, but a stupid controversy killed it after two seasons. He crushed up a flower and sniffed it into his nose, and someone decided MM was sniffing cocaine. CBS was chicken and pulled it.
Dino Riders*
Dinosaucers
Denver the Last Dinosaur
Star Com
Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors*
War Planets
The Centurions
Visionaries*
* I had the toys for these ones
I adored Denver the last dinosaur when I was little. That and Danger Mouse were two of my favorites.
Silverhawks
Yes! Outer space Thundercats!
It was so good!
gargoyles of couse,
The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin had surprisingly good animation and writing.
In the early 80s there was a weird cartoon called Pandamonium, about three pandas who could merge together to make some kind of superpanda. They traveled the world with a couple of humans trying to protect it from an evil alien called Montragor. It was an early production of Marvel Animation and little of it survives online now.
Saturday Supercade adapted arcade games (and also Pitfall) into short cartoon episodes. It featured the first cartoon version of Mario and Donkey Kong, long before any others. Pitfall’s supporting characters Rhonda and Quickclaw made appearances in the Pitfall II: Lost Caverns game.
The Real Ghostbusters wasn’t really obscure, but J. Michael Straczynski wrote for it, and he wrote an episode involving Cthulhu. (He also was story editor on He-Man, and penned the episode it was revealed that Teela was The Sorceress’s daughter.)
There are a number of cartoons that Cartoon Network hyped up then just kind of forgot about: Mike, Lu and Og, Sheep in the Big City and Whatever Happened to Robot Jones are three in particular.
Oh, and the Earthworm Jim cartoon was really funny! It kind of rests these days in the shadow of the much more popular Freakazoid and The Tick, but it deserves to be rewatched now.
Don’t hear much about Count Duckula or The Raccoons anymore.
Oh yea, I remember my Duckula casette tapes!
Excuse me?
Haha! Beg your pardon. Eat any good broccoli sandwiches recently?
Nanny makes some killer food.
Both of those had theme songs which went really hard.
Yup! I was watching this recently: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRPbKIXoEsI
Made me think of it.
I have seen them do this live in concert, it was entirely amazing!
Exo Squad.
One of the first (to young me) serial cartoons that had an ongoing plot week to week.
