Re: Defining Cartoons
 

Heavy anime influence, I like it.

I'll go with US airings (for instance, even though I watched Dragon ball as a kid in the 80's, it wasn't introduced here until the 90's.

Before the 80's: Speed Racer, Astro Boy, Heckle and Jeckle, Underdog, Yogi Bear, Flintstones, Scooby Doo, Force 5, Looney Toons,

80's:
Battle of the Planets: Gatchaman adapted for the US market, complete with no deaths and a sidekick robot added in.

Star Blazers: Space Battleship Yamato adapted for the US, they did a surprisingly good job. A sci-fi cartoon with a single story arc per season; this unfortunately did not start a trend.

He-man: although this was also toy-inspired, I consider this separately from Transformers, GI Joe, etc. because of the popularity, the fantasy aspect, and that one scene of He-man running into the foreground that they repeated 20 times an episode. Without this we don't get Thundercats or Silver Hawks (or Blackstar). Thundarr probably pre-dated this, but didn't have the cool toy line.

Transformers/Gi-Joe: You can argue that Transformers is not really based on a toy, since the line was introduced almost simultaneously (even though they were based on a bunch of Japanese lines), but this was, to me, the start of a decade filled with toy-inspired cartoons. Sure, they were thinly veiled commercials, and sure they don't hold up to repeat viewings, but they helped spawn a whole mess of toy-related cartoons: Gobots, M.A.S.K., C.O.P.S., Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors, etc.

Robotech: Carl Macek's (RIP) baby, combining three distinct Japanese properties into one epic. Along with Star Blazers, what I would consider the gateway "anime" properties of the 80s (earlier it was Speed Racer/Astro Boy, later it was Dragonball Z and Pokemon).

Duck Tales: They kind-of retconned Gummi Bears into this lineup, but I still consider Duck Tales as the first of Disney's foray into original weekly animated series; there are some classic Carl Barks stories animated in here, and this paved the way for Rescue Rangers, Tail Spin, and even Gargoyles.

The Real Ghostbusters: as opposed to the one with the Gorilla.

Muppet Babies: Muppets as babies, but animated.

Nickelodeon gets into original series: Doug, Rugrats, Ren and Stimpy. Without these, I don't think we get Spongebob.

Tiny Toons: Warner gets into the baby/young versions of old characters thing and hits it out of the park. Without this, we don't get Animaniacs, Pinky and the Brain, etc.

TMNT: Color coded and gave pupils to Eastman and Laird's classic indy series.



90's:
Batman:TAS: Introduced a more stylized way of animating comic book heroes, and spawned Superman:TAS, Justice League, and JLU.

Transformer: Beast Wars: All computer animated, and a revival of a toy-based series that would continue in one form or another until today.

Dragon Ball Z: the original Dragon Ball didn't seem to make much of a dent in America, but the fighting-based 'Z' introduced a new generation to anime.

Gundam Wing: The first time a Gundam series came to American television, at least the first time I can think of. Unfortunately, the original MSG was too old to catch on, and I don't think subsequent Gundam series really caught on as well as this one did, with it's 5 pretty-boy pilots.

Pokemon: An anime based on a gameboy game becomes a phenomenon, despite the whole seizure thing in Japan. Spawns Digimon, Monster Rancher, Yugi-oh, Beyblade, etc.

00's

Naruto: Anime on tv hit kind of a rough patch, but I assume this (and Bleach) are what the kids are watching. Too bad One Piece crashed and burned here.

They seem to want to try to bring back old series for a new audience. He-man and Turtles got new series, and now Thundercats will. GI Joe came back, and Transformers has seemed to always stuck around after Beast Wars.

I think the era of the Saturday Morning Cartoon is over. I'm not sure if it's because of Cartoon network, or the proliferation of Saved By the Bell clones in the 90's, or what, but there's very little in the way of Saturday morning cartoons these days. Not that there still aren't awesome cartoons, they just seem to cater towards adults just as much as kids these days (Clone Wars, Ben 10, Batman Brave and the Bold, Young Justice, etc., which doesn't even get into the adults-only Venture Bros, Family Guy, etc. genre.)

the-anime-that-I-have-no-idea-how-the-US-missed-on: Saint Seiya. I know why it failed when it finally got released to America, but with it's popularity in Mexico and Europe, I have no idea how it didn't make it to the US sooner. Too violent?

Re: Defining Cartoons
 

I could write a list about a mile long, so I'll try to keep this short.

Looney Tunes and Tom & Jerry: The highlight of having to wake up so early to go to school. These cartoons still fill me with a sense of total nostalgia.
After-school Disney shows of the 90s: Duck Tales, Rescue Rangers, and Darkwing Duck were afternoon staples for me for several years. I used to tape them (with the commercials paused-out of course) and watch them on a pretty much non-stop loop while I was doing homework.
Tiny Toons and Animaniacs (and associated spinoffs): These took over my attention when I finally got bored with my aforementioned tapes. Pretty much the same deal though.
Batman TAS: My dad used to take off work early on Wednesdays and take me and my brother to the comic book store to pick up our new issues and then we'd go home and watch Batman before my dad had to take off for his bowling league. I think I remember those experiences more fondly than I do the show itself (and I still love the show).
The Simpsons: Growing up during the golden years of this show was awesome. I remember when the show hit syndication and I got to watch 2 episodes a night. It was like heaven.

I never really watched a lot of Saturday morning cartoons, but I did enjoy Thundercats, Voltron, Transformers, X-Men, and TMNT when I was awake for them. But honestly, I derived more enjoyment out of staying up late Friday night to watch old Gilligan's Island episodes and Three Stooges shorts on TBS, among other things.

Re: Defining Cartoons
 

Thundarr and Blackstar preceded He-Man.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackstar_(TV_series)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotoscoping

I recall Filmation using this on Tarzan as well as Flash Gordon. The cartoon Flash was especially fond of gesturing an enemy combatant forward and then sliding a small yet heavy slab along the ground to trip them. :lol:

Re: Defining Cartoons
 

I figured Thundarr pre-dated He-man, but I didn't realize that the Blackstar cartoon did. The Blackstar toys were definitely rip offs of He-man toys, but according to that wikipedia entry came out a year or so after the cartoon ended to try to cash in on that toy boom.

Both had power swords split in two, which seems like a heck of a coincidence.

As far as He-man the cartoon cutting corners, it was only fair considering He-man the toy recycled pretty much the same body with different outfits/heads early on.

Re: Defining Cartoons
 

where are the herculoids??

Re: Defining Cartoons
 

looks like where they got the Voltron cast from

Re: Defining Cartoons
 

there was also

Go-Bots
POwer Rangers
SpiderMan and other Marvel cartoons
bunch of DC cartoons including the ones with the 15 strong evil justice league people living in a swamp
smurfs
care bears