Spottedfeather

I was just looking through my animation collection and got to thinking about all the great cartoons that I loved when I was a kid and when I was younger. When I think of 80s cartoons, I think of, right away, He-Man (of course), The Real Ghostbusters, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Transformers. When I think of the 90s, the first shows that come to mind are, of course, Batman The Animated Series, Animaniacs, X-Men, Rugrats, Darkwing Duck, Ducktales, Talespin, Doug, Tiny Toons (Please, Warner, please finish the series' dvds !), and Spiderman.

What cartoons define certain eras for you ?

Disc-Flipper

My favourite animated shows:
Dungeons & Dragons
Thundarr the Barbarian
Blackstar
David the Gnome
Bobobobs
Animaniacs (Warner, where's series 4????)
Spiderman '67
Flash Gordon
Star Trek: The Animated Series
Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids
Jeremy the Bear
Hulk Hogan's Rock 'n' Wrestling
Looney Tunes cartoons
The Brady Kids
The Adventures of Tintin

Not animated, but I still remember watching on Saturday mornings:
Pee-Wee's Playhouse
Captain Power and the Soliders of the Future
Jason of Star Command

Quack

G.I. Joe
Transformers G1
Inspector Gadget
He-Man and the Masters of the Universe
Ducktales
Rescue Rangers
Voltron
M.A.S.K.

JohnnyDaBull

TMNT
The Simpsons
South Park
All Nicktoons from the 90's

Regulus

With the exception of the first three, these are in no particular order my Favorate Saturday Morning Series:

1. Cartoons:

Hot Wheels
Skyhawks
Star Trek
Lassie's Rescue Rangers
Journey to the Center of the Earth
Fantastic Voyage
Flash Gordon
The Archie Show
Archies Funhouse
Sabrina, The Teenage Witch
The Groovy Ghoulies
The Lone Ranger (1966)
Johnny Quest
The Adventures of Gulliver
Space Ghost/Dino Boy
Birdman/Galaxy Trio
Moby Dick/Mighty Mightor
Young Sampson and Goliath
Fantastic Four (1967)
Scooby Doo, Where Are You?
The Jetsons
The Flintstones
Wacky Races
Dasterdly and Muttley's Flying Machines
The Perils of Penelope Pittstop
Josie and the Pussycats
Marvel Superheroes (1966)
Spiderman (1967)
Return to the Planet of the Apes


"Live Action":

Shazzam!
Secrets of Isis
Space Academy
Jason of Star Command
Ark II
The Red Hand Gang
Run Joe Run!
Westwind

Ash Ketchum

1910s: Gertie the Dinosaur
1920s: Out of the Inkwell, featuring Koko the Clown
1930s: Betty Boop, Popeye
1940s: Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck
1950s: Sylvester and Tweety, Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote
1960s: Astro Boy, Speed Racer
1970s: Space Battleship Yamato, Lupin III
1980s: Urusei Yatsura, Bubblegum Crisis
1990s: Tenchi Muyo, Cowboy Bebop
2000s: Pokemon, Naruto

kd5

Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons from the 50's and 60's, the original Jonny Quest and the original Space Ghost, both from the 60's...

Seems to me like most of the cartoons they're airing on TV these days are lacking in any kind of artistic talent whatsoever, as compared to cartoons from the 50's and 60's. -kd5-

rw2516

A kid of the sixties, it's the original Jonny Quest for me. Old enough to remember the original prime-time airing of the show. I was heavy into the saturday morning stuff only two years, the 1966-67 and 1967-68 seasons. These were the two years of the superhero stuff: Space Ghost, Herculoids, Birdman, Mighty Mitor/Moby Dick, Shaz-zan, Spider-Man(first year), Fantastic Four, King Kong, Journey To Center of Earth and the DC stuff.

Unfortunately, this was the same time when congress was in looking into violence in movies and the violent superhero cartoons were replaced the following year with stuff like Banana Splits and Lance Link.

For the masses the 60s are probably defined by Flintstones, Jetsons, Underdog, Yogi Bear, and Huckleberry Hound.

That'sAllFolks

I guess most of the stuff from the 60's is what I remember. Mostly Spider-man, Herculoids, the Impossibles, Underdog, Space Ghost, Frankenstein Jr and some other Hanna-Barbara stuff like Yogi Bear, Flintstones and Jetsons. For me, the Hanna-Barbara stuff has much more nostalgic appeal than the WB stuff.

And I did like Banana Splits and Lancelot Link: Secret Chimp too.

I think my first MOD purchase would be The Impossibles or the Herculoids -- if they ever released them. But I've watched some of the Space Ghost stuff recently and while it's great to have them in my collection, I did not really enjoy them.

tecHouse

Looney Tunes, Batman, Gargoyles, Duck Tales, Bobby's World, TMNT, Samurai Pizza Cats, Jetsons, Spider-Man

Spottedfeather

I'd love to get the rest of Jayce And The Wheeled Warriors even it was featureless MOD sets.

calhoun07

I like how a thread that's supposed to be about cartoons that define an era just becomes another random list of a person's favorite cartoons.

Sorry...but exactly how would most of these cartoons define an era?

And only one post so far has been on track.

I am not sure what I would pick but Robotech seems to define the 80's animation to me. For American animation, I would say GI Joe, He-Man and Transformers were the most defining cartoons of that era.

In the 70s I would just say Hanna Barbara as a whole really defined that period for me. And while not animation I do think Sid and Marty Krofft really defined the decade with children's TV as well. To such an extent that their influence is still felt today in a lot of what we see on Adult Swim.

When I think of the 60's I think of more Hanna Barbara and Marvel superhero shows.

The Simpsons ruled the 90s.

Of the late 80s (which really was a new era in animation to me) I would say Mighty Mouse really was defining and gave way to other shows like Ren and Stimpy and more.

Ish Kabbible

I would go with the Flintstones for the 1960's since it was the first prime time animated show. long running and most recognizable amongst the general public

milo bloom

I'm not sure I could pin them down to certain time periods because I still enjoy watching cartoons and I'm in my 30's. Over 10 years ago, when Cartoon Network was still fairly young, they would play the classics like Looney Tunes and Popeye, which I had watched as a kid, and then my wife and I watched as adults. Later they started adding their own programming which was great at first: Dexter's Lab, Powerpuff Girls, 2 Stupid Dogs, Cow and Chicken, Samurai Jack. Then they started in with [adult swim]: Space Ghost: Coast to Coast, Sealab 2021, Aqua Teen, Harvey Birdman, plus all the anime they would play. Our first introduction to Tench Muyo, Ghost in the Shell SAC, Big O, Trigun, Lupin III, Super Milk Chan, Shin-Chan, Cowboy Bebop, Inuyasha, Gundam, Full Metal Alchemist and of course, FLCL. They started to fall off a few years back, and when we cut cable completely a couple of years ago, our formerly much-loved Cartoon Network was a pale reflection of it's former self.



Some I do recall from the 80's that I loved were The Real Ghostbuster, GIJoe, the original Transformers, Silverhawks, TMNT and even then I loved watching Looney Tunes.

Nowadays, I still collect some of the [adult swim] stuff, and I enjoy the new Star Wars CGI series, and we're still into anime, we love the works of Miyazaki. The occasional Simpsons, South Park, Family Guy, American Dad episode are enjoyable, but we don't go out of our way to watch them.

Johnny Boy

For me personally He-Man defines the 80s, and Aeon Flux on Liquid Television defines the 90s. And that is all.

That'sAllFolks

Unless there is a poll or "official" proclamation, each post is really the individual's opinion on what cartoons defined the era for him. It is only when the consensus of opinions specifies titles that are the majority, that we can truly say "this cartoon defined the era".

... or some "authority" says it for us.

RKillgore

Something that defines the '70s cartoons for me is not a particular series, but a practice: the musical interlude. Sometimes it was a song playing over a scene, like a chase scene in Scooby-Doo or a game in The Harlem Globetrotters. A lot of times, it was the cartoon characters comprising the band and it was a song that may or may not have to do with the episode. Examples of this are The Archies, Josie and the Pussycats, the Groovy Ghoulies, Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids, Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm. Kind of a clever cost cutting measure, since they could kill almost five minutes and reuse a lot of animation.

Travis McClain

After President Reagan took office in 1981, one of the first major things the FCC did was allow cartoons based on toys to hit the airwaves. I was born 1 December 1978, and was at just the right age to be bombarded by the earliest "toy commercial" cartoons. I ate 'em up with a glow-in-the-dark Dig 'Em spoon from a box of cereal. He-Man and the Masters of the Universe and its spin-off She-Ra, Princess of Power, G.I. Joe, A Real American Hero, The Transformers and ThunderCats are the big five that define my childhood era.

I was big into Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, but the animated series hit the air in 1988, just as I was about to turn 10. I consider it the beginning of a second era in my youth, rather than part of my childhood proper. It's because of those shows, I'm convinced, that I take for granted that anything shown on TV can have action figures and it's probably why I'm such a forgiving viewer in general.

Saturday morning cartoons for me will always be shows like The Smurfs, Snorks and Pacman. The greatest of them all, for my money, was The Muppet Babies. That show kicked eight kinds of ass.

Also of note were the various Scooby-Doo series that ran during my youth. One of my first crushes was Sandy Duncan in cartoon form. I am convinced this is the reason I now find myself drawn to Samantha Brown.

davidh777

For afternoons in the '70s: Speed Racer

For Saturday mornings in the '70s: Hannah Barbera (Wacky Races, Hong Kong Phooey, Great Grape Ape, Laff-a-Lympics), Bugs Bunny-Roadrunner Show

calhoun07

But when the post starts stating these are the person's favorites that is taken by me to be just that...a random list of their favorite cartoons.

Sorry, but they are not one and the same to me. What I felt defined some eras are cartoons I just don't a care for, but I recognize them for the impact they had.

There's some obscure shows on some of those favorites list...I don't think anybody would be able to make a compelling argument they defined an era.

Disc-Flipper

I think all of us grew up in overlapping cartoon eras. The 60's and 70's cartoons seem the same in my memory. I was surprised to learn the Flinstones was a 1960 cartoon, when I had always remembered it fondly as belonging to my 1970's childhood. There weren't many 1950's cartoons on TV, were there? Most were at the theatre as shorts, and re-broadcast on TV.

Ash Ketchum

Since I'm one of the few on this board old enough to remember watching cartoons on TV in the 1950s, I'd love to respond to your question. Yes, the overwhelming majority of cartoons on TV in the 1950s were old theatrical cartoons, mostly from the 1930s (and some even earlier) and '40s. There was a lot of Betty Boop and Popeye, Woody Woodpecker, Bugs Bunny, Mighty Mouse, Heckle & Jeckle, and lots of cartoons that had no recognizable main characters. I remember a hilarious Terrytoon called "Robinson Crusoe's Broadcast" that I eventually looked up and learned is from 1938. I'd love to see it again.

The first made-for-TV cartoon that I remember was Hanna-Barbera's "Ruff & Reddy," which premiered in 1957. Its success allowed Hanna-Barbera to bring out "Huckleberry Hound" (1958), "Yogi Bear" (1958), and "The Flintstones" (1960). I remember my mother getting a letter from her brother sometime in the late '50s and in it he announced that he'd just bought a color TV for the first time and lamented that the only things offered in color were "Bonanza" and "Ruff & Ready."

There was also something called "Crusader Rabbit," originated by Jay Ward. It was the first cartoon made for TV and premiered in 1949, but it didn't have a network, so wasn't seen much. More cartoons in the series were produced in 1956 and it became a syndication success after that. I remember seeing it, but don't recall much about it. Jay Ward later produced "Rocky and His Friends" (aka "Rocky and Bullwinkle"), which premiered in November 1959 and was a huge success.

Getting back to the 1930s theatrical cartoons we saw on TV as kids: A good many of them were downright surreal and I wonder what it did to our impressionable brains to be exposed to so much strange imagery. Perhaps the interest in psychotropic drugs shared by many baby boomers in the 1960s-70s was an attempt to get back to that state of immersion in other, psychedelic, nonlinear fantasy worlds. The early Betty Boops were pretty wild, but I can remember all sorts of other weird cartoons, including one I've never been able to identify about a rabbit, a turtle and some cannibal natives who get transported into live-action film footage and react accordingly.

wishbone

No mention of Battle of the Planets (Gatchaman) for the US in the late '70s?

rw2516

Speaking of which, in the early 60s I saw a cartoon I've been searching for. Don't know if it was in color or not, saw it on black and white tv. There's this boy scout troop hiking along, singing ala the seven dwarfs. One of them is pulling a little red wagon. Up on a mountain top is a castle with a mad scientist gorilla. The gorilla is watching them through a telescope. The gorilla captures the scouts and plans to shrink them with a shrinking device he's created. The scouts get the upper hand and shrink the gorilla instead. Cartoon ends with the scouts hiking along, one of them pulling the wagon which contains the gorilla in a small cage. Love to see this again.

Ash Ketchum

That sounds like a French feature-length cartoon made in 1950 and dubbed in English and shown here under the title, JOHNNY THE GIANT KILLER. I watched it again last August for the August Animation Challenge. It's in color.