The Best TV Toons of the 1980s

Most animation historians--they really do exist--cite the early 1990s as the start of TV's animation renaissance. That's when Batman: The Animated Series, Ren & Stimpy, Cartoon Network and others hit the air and changed cartoons forever.

That doesn't mean there weren't precedents. Part of it can be laid on the lap of the films The Little Mermaid and Who Framed Roger Rabbit?. Not only were they spectacularly fun movies, they set new standards for the field. They also made serious money. Don't think TV execs didn't notice.

Also, with the advent of cable, TV needed more original content and it needed it bad. Many of the new execs at these cable networks grew up watching The Flintstones, Johnny Quest and Rocky & Bullwinkle while sitting on their parents' laps. They felt there could be cartoons everyone would enjoy, and they would get their ratings. They were right.

In their own way, this list constitutes groundbreaking TV, at least as far as 'toons are concerned. While you may wonder why a show like ThunderCats didn't make it while He-Man did, there are reasons.

Here's the list:

HE-MAN & THE MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE (1983-5) - This groundbreaking series was created as much out of desperation as anything else.

Filmation, the studio that developed He-Man was in a bind. Founder and guiding light, Lou Scheimer, was against a financial wall as the major networks were buying less and less original Saturday morning material.

At the same time, toy manufacturer Mattel was having problems. Mattel had a Conan the Barbarian toy line that no one was interested in. Well, no one except Scheimer.

Filmation was just bought by one of the biggest syndicators of original TV in the country, Westinghouse. So Scheimer proposed foregoing the networks and concentrate on syndication, using the toy line as the basis of a new series. The end result was the tale of Prince Adam and his superhero alter ego, He-Man.

Filmation's initial contract was for 65 episodes, not a network contract of 13, and they would air as often as six days a week. The toys, as anyone who grew up in the 80s knew, sold like hot cakes. In fact, the series did so well it did the nigh-impossible back in those days, not only getting a second full season of 65 episodes, making the full run 130, but it also spawned a spin-off, She-Ra. It was even turned into an (admittedly awful) live action movie.

The simple truth is Scheimer and Mattel beat the odds by forging their own path. Having a solid writing team including David Wise (Ninja Turtles), J. Michael Straczynski (Babylon 5) and Paul M. Dini (Batman: The Animated Series, Lost), didn't hurt. It was also the first show since Space Ghost to allow even the slightest semblance of real outer space adventure in its mix. Yes, Filmation did heavily play the same stock footage again and again and again, but that was Scheimer's way of hedging his bets. On the plus side, supervising director Hal Sutherland put together an incredible team of artists, especially on character design and backgrounds. Thus, a true 80s toon classic, if ever there was one.

GI JOE: REAL AMERICAN HERO/TRANSFORMERS (1983-7) - Admit it, fans of these shows can't think of one without thinking of the other. Then again, back in the day they always aired together.

Still, what a run it was. When you have some of the best people at Marvel, including Steve Gerber (Howard The Duck), Larry Hama, Denny O'Neill (Batman) and Bob Budiansky on your writing team, then add veteran director Norm McCabe, you can't go wrong. The animation was all top-notch for the day, thanks to Marvel buying the legendary Friz Freleng's old studio, DePatie-Freleng (Pink Panther), for their own devices.

If that wasn't enough, the subject matter was highly relevant to a pack of kids coming home every day from school. The Transformers were constantly battling for "Energon," the energy source they needed to stay alive. Considering the oil crisis the country just got through, it resonated with its audience. As for the Joes? After all they were an elite military unit hunting down an international terrorist organization, COBRA. These concepts stuck like glue.

Not to forget one thing, what could be cooler to a pre-teen kids? Having a robot that could transform into a dinosaur or taking on the bad guys with the latest in technology, even laser rifles! All the heroes and villains in both shows were exceedingly colorful in their own right, but were given back stories that fans still recount and argue over today.

Now look how those fans are still around! Michael Bay's latest live action film, Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen, is on its way to pulling $800 million (worldwide). Who knows what the upcoming live action Joe film will do? With Hasbro now is teaming up with Discovery to start their own network, who knows what will happen next?

So Yo Joe!...And Roll Out!

TEENAGED MUTANT NINJA TURTLES: (1987-1996) - The world of comics wasn't the only thing turned on its head by these pizza-loving shinobi and their rodent sensei. In the first nine year of existence, the Turtles did the previously impossible, by starting as one of the top kids shows in syndication, and then moved on to CBS and take over Saturday morning networks.

The secret to their success? Creators Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman never gave up control of their creations. Yes, there were differences between the original TV series and Laird and Eastman's original comic, but all were done with the duo's approval.

Also, there just wasn't anything like these ninjas in the history of entertainment. Leonardo, Raphael, Michelangelo and Donatello were refreshingly smart, anti-establishment, yet honorable. They fought the good fight against Shredder, Krang and the Foot Clan. The show also had its share of comments on society in general, but did so in a manner that was never pandering. What kids couldn't love them? The proof is their third or fourth incarnation currently airs on 4Kids.

Don't be surprised if they come out of the sewers and on to your movie screens one more time, either

MIGHTY MOUSE: THE NEW ADVENTURES: (1987-1988) Should anyone be surprised that master animator Ralph Bakshi managed to get on this list? They shouldn't. This is the man who gave us the original Spider-Man series in the 60s, the movie Fritz The Cat in the 70s, and this incredible bit of subversive outrage in the 80s.

Not that Bakshi didn't have help. Among those working for him on this series was the legendary John Kricfalusi (Ren & Stimpy), Bruce Timm (Batman; Superman, Justice League) and Andrew Stanton (Pixar's Finding Nemo, WALL-E) as part of his crew. With this kind of firepower, Bakshi and company took the tamest, some might say lamest, cartoon superheroes and made them modern, chaotic, even a tad vicious.

What Bakshi and company understood more than anything was to give Mighty Mouse a sense of irreverence that no one else was doing. Where Saturday mornings were still generally sweetness and rainbow bright, Bakshi went to his roots mixing elements of classic Terrytoons with Looney Toons sensibilities for some incredibly good fun and outrage.

That sense of outrage would rise up to hurt was one particular episode though. It involved MM sniffing the (crushed) petals of a flower. Self-proclaimed moral watchdog of Saturday mornings David Wildmon, a major Reagan supporter, took serious offense. Even though it was removed from future airings, the damage was done, and Mighty Mouse was sent flying off into the sunset; that is until this year.

Apparently the series is coming back on DVD. Talk about arriving just in time to save the day. Watch it spark a whole new generation of Bakshi fans.

THE SIMPSONS: (1987-Present). Say what you will, Matt Groening, Sam Simon and James Brooks' modern jaundiced American family changed the TV landscape like no other animated show before or after.

Initially created as interstitial filler for Brooks' Tracy Ullman Show, by 1989 the series had its first full-length episode, "Simpsons Roasting on a Chestnut Fire," and that would become the first of an unforgettable run of TV episodes. If that isn't enough, the series is now the longest running "dramatic" series in American TV, surpassing the legendary Gunsmoke in order to do it (although it should be noted Sheriff Mat Dillon still has more individual episodes).

So what is it about Springfield USA's #1 citizens that makes them so popular that Fox has picked them up for an additional two years?

The answer is not that simple. Yes, the Simpsons are a family sitcom, but thanks to head creators Matt Groening and Sam Simon, has a particularly dark and skewered look at what makes America great. Further, like another truly great show (of the 90s), South Park, there is nothing, absolutely nothing sacred on this show. It can be anything from Homer Simpson sliding his tremendous, broad backside across the roof window of a church to next door neighbor and religious fanatic Ned Flanders actually being Satan in disguise. Homer is more than likely to be horribly punished for any good act he performs, while his daughter Maggie literally got away with murder. More impressive than anything else is there has been over 450 individual episodes, and one is hard pressed to truly find a total stinker in the pile.

Name any other show that has been that consistently good for that long. Better, just get ready for another season of this series, open a Duff and enjoy.