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Read what it says! and now im gonna give some info on tv then!
Thought we needed this. A thread that has a master list of the cartoons many of us are here to remember. So, I'm making one. Names, and a brief description for them. I'll probably miss things, as I'm going based off of my intro collection, and the ones I'm looking for. If its not on that list, it probably won't be here, so feel free to add your own!
(and I'll say now that I'll try to keep my own opinions of the shows more or less to myself, so if I don't give your favorite show the workup you think it deserves, forgive me, but I'm trying to be brief and to the point)
ALF: The Animated Tales
Cashing in on the popularity of the live action sitcom, the ALF cartoon was all about his life on planet Melmac before he came to Earth.
Alvin and the Chipmunks
Three young boys, who happen to be anthro chipmunks, who also happen to be famous singers.
Attack of the Killer Tomatoes
Based on the movie of the same name, a teenage boy had to protect his town from the evil mutant tomatoes the evil scientist was always turning loose on it. Accompanied, of course, by the screw up experimental tomoato that turned into a pretty girl in skimpy clothes. Just like the movie!
Bananaman
The british boy who gains super powers whenever he eats a banana.
Battle of the Planets/G-Force
Group of 5 teenagers that put on bird-like costumes and fight space invaders in their vehicles that merge together to form a fighter ship that turns into a phoenix.
Bionic Six
A multi-racial family enhanced with cybornetic super powers who fight an evil genius named Scarab.
Bravestarr
A native american marshal in an outter space wild west setting, and his trusty robot horse/partner named 30-30.
Bucky O'Hare
A green anthro rabbit spaceship captain and his crew of furries that fight against toads, along with their human boy that keeps the ship running.
Camp Candy
A summer camp run by John Candy, and the normal missadventures one would expect from kids at camp.
Captain N: The Game Master
Made by Nintendo, featured a teenage boy that gets sucked into his video game and meets all the classic Nintendo characters like Megaman and Kid Icarus.
Captain Planet
5 teenagers from around the globe are given magic rings and fight to stop pollution with the help of Captain Planet, who is summoned "when their powers combine" by holding up their rings and calling out the names of their elements.
Care Bears
Lovey little magic teddy bear people that lived in the sky and wanted nothing more than to bring good dreams to all the world's little boys and girls. Based on the toys of the same name.
Centurians
A group of specialists wearing mechanical body suits that get beamed to differant locations and "fuse" with elite weapon systems to fight Doc Terror, and his cyborg assistant Hacker.
COPS
A group of Chicago police, all of whom were built like quarterbacks, who did all of the normal cop things, but in a super fun way, typically with large exaggerated weapons that real cops would never get to use, like rocket launchers.
Count Duckula
After a slip up while reviving the vampire duck lord, he gets turned into a vegetarian vampire. Along with his stalwart butler, airheaded nanny, and a magical time travelling castle, he jaunts off to any time, any place to have an adventure.
Darkwing Duck
By day, a mild mannered malard, by night, the masked crime fighting duck in the purple hat. Had his famous smoke entry, and the catchphrase of "Lets get dangerous". Partner was Launchpad, the dimwitted mechanic from the show it sort of spun off of, Duck Tales.
David the Gnome
The foot tall guy that lived in a tree, was an animal doctor, and looked just like a garden gnome. Series generally focused on caring, living in harmony with nature, and solving problems with whit and intelligence instead of brute force.
Defenders of the Earth
Classic comic strip heroes like Flash Gordon and The Phantom form a super hero team, along with their children, to fight the evil emporer Ming the Merciless.
Dennis the Mennace
Animated series based on the famous sunday morning comic strip. He was always getting in trouble, usually with one of his friends like Joey or Ginna.
Denver the Last Dinosaur
Bunch of LA kids discover a huge dinosaur egg, which hatches into a rock 'n roll loving green dinosaur. His egg shell was magical, and would let them go back to the age of dinosaurs on special occasions. Spent a lot of time trying to hide Denver (the dinosaur) from the adults.
Dinosaucers
Anthro dinosaurs from outter space come to earth. The good dinosaurs, the Dinosaucers, recruit a small group of earth children to be their "secret scouts" against the evil Tyrannos.
Droids
Animated series based on the Star Wars franchise, which told part of the story of the Droids, the part leading up to A New Hope. Was actually voiced by Anthony Daniels (C-3PO).
Duck Tales
Scrooge McDuck and his giant vault full of money, and his three nephews who would go treasure hunting at the drop of a hat, and 3 bungling burglers that always tried to steal his money.
Dungeons and Dragons
Animation based off the popular roleplaying game. A group of children get sucked into the D&D world, are given magical items by the little gnome of a Dungeon Master, and quest around the world of D&D trying to find their way home.
Ewoks
Usually paired with Droids, this cartoon focused on Wicket, the young ewok (the little furry guys from Return of the Jedi), and all of the things ewoks do when they're not throwing rocks at storm troopers.
Galaxy High
Two students are taken to a highschool in outter space, where popularity roles are reversed. The nerdy girl becomes miss popular, while the jock boy becomes the biggest loser on campus. You may remember the one alien bully that was essentially a fried egg.
Galaxy Rangers
A group of high tech lawmen in a futuristic wild west frontier setting on another planet that rode robot horses and kept order.
Galtar and the Golden Lance
Big blonde muslebound hero with his magical lance (which wasn't actually a lance, but a two bladed sword that broke in the middle to make two normal swords), his female friend with a magical armband, and her little brother with a big boomerang that broke into little pieces against the bad guy that wanted the power of the golden lance for himself.
Garfield and Friends
A 15 minute animated version of the classic sunday morning comic strip about the loveble fatcat and the dumb dog, and their loser owner. Also paired with a 15 minute companion cartoon about farm animals doing silly things.
Ghostbusters
No, not Ray, Egon, and Slimer, but the original Ghostbusters cartoon (why the one with Slimer had to be called the REAL Ghostbusters). Had a pair of humans and their gorilla partner who caught ghosts. You may remember the talking skull telephone, the bone wardrobe transportation system, or the funky old fashioned car with talking ghost emblem and wacky wheels.
G.I. Joe
A highly trained special military force that defended America against the terrorist organization known as Cobra. They had all of the best military toys like F-16s and helicopters. Lots of people shooting, but nobody ever really got shot, and the badguys always bailed out of their planes before getting shot down.
Gobots
Series based on a line of Transformer knock-offs aimed at young children, as they were very easy to transform. The show basically followed the same plot as Transformers, but was aimed at younger children.
Gravedale High
Rick Morranis (from Honey I Shrunk the Kids) is the human teacher at a high school for classic horror movie monster teenagers.
Gummie Bears
A family of magical bears that live in a tree during medieval times, who brew a magic gummiberry juice that made them bounce like they were made out of rubber, but that made humans super strong.
Hammerman
A short lived series that featured the musical singer M.C. Hammer as a super hero.
Heathcliff and the Cadillac Cats
Two mini-shows in one. Half revolved around a fat orange cat that liked to pick on dogs and knock over trash cans. The other half was about a group of cats, one that wore roller skates, that lived in a junkyard and had a beat up old caddy that could transform into a boat.
He-Man
An all-time classic. Whenever nerdy Prince Adam held aloft his magic sword, and said "By the power of Grayskull!", he became He-Man, the most powerful man in the universe! He fought the evil forces of Skeletor for control of the planet Eternia.
Hulk Hogan's Rock N Wrestling
Featured Hulk Hogan and his "good" wrestling friends trying to do normal living stuff, be good citizens, but somehow the "bad" wrestlers like Rowdy Roddy Piper always screw it up.
Inhumanoids
A group of giant evil monsters have been awakened, and its up to a force of humans with a vehicle with a big claw on it to drive them back. The humans had a kind of rock golem friend that could split in half into positive and negative powered versions of itself for some tag-team action.
Inspector Gadget
A bumbling police inspector with all manner of hidden robotic parts tries to solve crimes, but its actually his niece and her super intelligent dog Brain that do all the work, while he gets the credit. But she doesn't mind helping out her uncle when he needs it.
J.E.M.
A group of "plain" girls turn into super fashionable singers thanks to the help of their super computer "Synergy", and are harrassed by a rival group of singers called the Misfits. The show featured trendy songs being sung by both groups, and the relationship between the main girl and her manager.
Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors
A vehicle show about a young man, his Han Solo-esque smuggler friend, a bumbling wizard, and a young girl that was actually a plant that drove big wheeled vehicles against the "Monster Minds" who were evil guys that turned into evil looking vehicles. Jayce, the young man, is searching for his father.
King Arthur and the Knights of Justice
The real King Arthur and his knights are captured, so Merlin zaps a football team back in time, and gives them magic suits of armor that store weapons in their chests, and pit them against the evil forces of the wicked Morgonna.
Kidd Video
A real life band gets sucked through a mirror by "Master Blaster" to be his musical slaves, becoming cartoons in the process. They're rescued by a fairy wearing a sweatsuit that gets super strong when she sneezes, and their journey through a surreal landscape as they try to get back to the real world. And their mini-truck turns into a giant cheshire cat space ship looking thing that drives along. Often mistaken as a drug endused dilusion by many people because of how surreal it was, if they've ever actually taken drugs or not.
Laser Tag Academy
Based on the laser tag toys, this one sported a girl that comes back from the future where the Laser Tag Academy is like the modern day police, and is trying to catch a time criminal. She moves in with her present day family (she's only a teenager), and hunts the badguy on the side. The laser tag pistols seem to do everything from zap badguys to make modern technology fly like it was from the future.
Legend of Zelda
Based off the original Zelda video games, featuring a lanky sarcastic Link that was always trying to get Princess Zelda to go out with him.
The Littl' Bits
Classic Nick Toon, about a whole villiage of tiny little people that live in the forest.
The Littles
Based on a book called "The Borrowers", this family of six inch tall people with tails lived inside the walls of a house, in which only the human boy named Henry Biggs knew they existed, except for the one bad man that was always trying to catch them and put them on display.
The Little Prince
Actually a translation of a french cartoon, played on Nick. The Little Prince lived on a tiny planet (literally, he could run around the entire world in like 30 seconds) and use a butterfly net to nab comets to ride to Earth to befriend children and play with them. No, this isn't a show about Micheal Jackson...
M.A.S.K.
A group of special agents that don large helmets in order to control their normal looking cars and motorcycles that turn into differant things. Like the car that opens it's seagull wings and flies like an airplane, or the semi truck that turns into a missle base. Fought bad guys with similar powered vehicles.
Maya the Bee
Nick Toon about a female bumblebee without a hive, and her grasshopper friend, learning how to play fair and be a good person.
Muppet Babies
The characters from the Muppet Show, only as diaper wearing toddlers. The original cartoon of it's type (none of the new Baby Loonytunes stuff), which was good for both children for it's fun nature, and for adults because of it's MASSIVE amounts of pop culture referances.
Mysterious Cities of Gold
Centered around a spanish boy named Estaban, and his two south/central american friends Zia and Tao as they looked for El Dorado, the cities of gold. They had a big golden condor flying machine that ran on sunlight. Remarkable for actually having an ongoing plot from start to finish.
Mighty Max
Not 80's, but very early 90's. A boy named Max sucked into a magic portal and finds a red baseball cap with an M on it, and befriends a wise old talking chicken named Virgil, and a giant strongman with a sword named Norman. The cap let him activate magic portals to zap him around the world to thwart the evil intentions of the bad guy.
Might Orbots
A Voltron-esque show where the big robot was actually made up of 5 smaller robots with distinct personalities, that was piloted by a pair of human kids, who fought a galactic evil that looks like something out of a hindu wall painting.
My Little Pony
Centered around animated versions of the classic toy line. Sometimes they were magical, sometimes not, sometimes with human friends, all depending on the series. Always had multicolored ponies with pretty hair that taught a lesson on friendship or the like.
The Noozles
Nick Toon from the golden age of Nick, about a girl with her "stuffed" panda bear, which would actually come to life when she noozled it's nose (aka rubbed her nose against it's). The bear, Blinky, and his magical flying sister named Pinky, were from an alternate dimension inside of Aires Rock in Australia.
Paw Paws
Essentially a more boys oriented version of Smurfs, which featured tiny little fuzzy bear native american type creatures, that had a giant wooden totem pole that would come to life and protect them from the evil wizard little furry bear shaman thing.
Pirates of Dark Water
Actually from the early 90's, centered around a young prince and his motly crew of pirates trying to collect the 13 Treasures of Rule to save their alien world from the flesh-eating tar-like "darkwater", while being chased by a fat pirate lord and his giant ship made out of bones. Had a red monkey with bird wings named Niddler.
Pole Position
Three kids, a teenage brother and sister, and their younger sister, take over the role of their parents as members of Pole Position, a crime fighting organization that had super fast fancy cars.
Police Academy
Based off of the movies of the same name, and centering on a group of iconic police cadets and their wacky miss-adventures, typically involving the humiliation of their high strung instructor.
Pound Puppies
While they look like cute puppies that want a home, they actually have a secret underground organization to rescue lost pups and get them adopted. The pound was owned by an evil old mother with equally evil sister, and a kind hearted daughter that protected the dogs from her mother's wrath.
Punky Brewster
A hit live action comedy sitcom, the animated version followed the ever irrepressible Punky Brewster and her furry friend Glommer, who lived on the other side of the rainbow, and could grant wishes.
Pro-Stars
A group of sports stars, including names like Wayne Gretsky and Micheal Jordon, protrayed as near super-heroes with high tech gadgets (Micheal had rocket shoes, for instance) that saved the day.
Rainbow Bright
A young girl is taken to Rainbow Land to help the color sprites get their world's color, which is in the form of big colored stars, back from the badguy named Murky, who keeps trying to make the world gloomy.
Real Ghostbusters
Based off the Ghostbusters movies, Ray, Egon, Peter, and Winston set out to catch all manner of ghosts and undead critters. Was actually very dark in the first season, although it lightened up and became less serious as time went on.
Rescue Rangers
Disney show based on Chip and Dale, the two classic cartoon gophers, who have started a detective service along with the female mouse Gadget (who was a master of inventing things) and a strongmouse with a thing for cheese. Their motto was "No Case Too Big, No Crime Too Small".
Robotech
A multigenerational series featuring transforming space jets that turned into fighting robots to defend earth and humanity from alien attackers.
Robotix
Show built around the Robotix toy line, which featured girders with nuts and bolts, and metal plates you could build robots out of. A warring race was about to be wiped out, and to survive transferred their conciousness to "Robotix", essentially very large, very clunky looking robots. The show's creators wanted a chunk of the Transformers pie, but didn't get it.
Saber Rider
Another futuristic wild west sherrif type cartoon, except this one featured most of the crew piloting space ships, while only one actually rode a mechanical horse, and carried a calvary saber.
Sectaurs
On an alien planet, there are giant bugs, and insect like people that ride them and fight each other. Which was basically the entire plot to this little know series, designed around the Sectaur line of toys. You may or may not remember this big dragonfly toy who's legs were a black glove you put on your hand, that would flap it's wings? This is where that came from.
Shazam!
Based on the comic title of the same name, a young man reporter becomes the superhero Shazam by saying... SHAZAM! He was essentially a Superman knockoff.
She-Ra
The girls version of He-Man. Essentially the same plot, except starring Princess Adora instead of Prince Adam, who yelled "For the Honor of Grayskull!", and had a horse with rainbow wings as a partner instead of He-Man's big green Battlecat. It was basically a carbon copy of He-Man, just aimed at girls.
Silverhawks
Featuring most of the voice actors from Thundercats, Silverhawks was a group of police in deep space with android bodies, all of which were bright shiney metal, that had foil wings that came out of the bottom of their arms. They had a space ship they rode around in to get places, which was controlled by the wingless Bluegrass, who controlled it by playing the guitar.
Sky Commanders
Based on a rather ingenious toy line that featured little ropes you would hang across your room like ziplines and let the figures slide down. Same basic plot to the cartoon, the goodguys and badguys alike had high tech backpack units that would shoot out cables that they could ride along. Other than that, it was the standard "group of good guys versus group of badguys in a laser gun fight" type cartoon.
Smurfs
Little six inch blue people with little white hats and stockings that lived in mushrooms. An evil human wizard named Gargemeal was always trying to catch the Smurfs, because he wanted to eat some, and turn the rest into gold.
The Snorks
It was Smurfs, underwater, with "hip" teenage critters with snorkle like tubes on top of their heads they used to jet around with.
Sonic the Hedgehog
Based on the original SEGA Genesis games, Sonic and Princess Sally Acorn lead a group of resistance fighters agains the evil Dr. Robotnick to free their land from his grubby technological control.
Space Sentinals
Hercules, Mercury, and a woman named Astria were actually real humans taken to outter space, given super powers, and returned to earth to guard it from assorted evils. Played out quite similar to the original Super Friends cartoon.
Spiderman and his Amazing Friends
Spiderman, Iceman, and Firestorm team up to fight classic Marvel badguys. It was narrated by Stan Lee himself.
Spiral Zone
A group of special military agents fight what is essentially an evil biker gang using a series of body armor suits and vehicles quite clearly designed to match a line of toys. The 80's was notoroius for it's half hour long animated toy commercials, and this was no exception.
Star Blazers
Earth has been blasted from space by alien invaders, their defense force is virtually gone, and the planet is dying when they get word from another planet that they have a way to reverse the damage. So, desperate, they raise the Battleship Yamamoto (a WWII japanese battleship) from the now dry sea floor, do a quick retrofit, and rush it off to get this miracle cure to bring back to save the world.
StarCom
An american-esque military force in outer space that defend the world against alien invaders in high powered attack craft launched from an orbiting defense station.
Strawberry Shortcake
Based on a line of plushie dolls that smelled like fresh fruits and pies, it was a cartoon about girls that looked just like the pudgy dolls that got into "trouble", and had to get back out. However, as a show aimed more at girls, it tended to avoid mischevous kinds of trouble, and revolved more along the hurt feelings kind of trouble.
Super Mario Brothers Super Show
Cartoon show based on the classic nintendo characters Mario and Luigi, as they save/protect the Princess from Bowser. Each episode was introduced and closed by a live action Mario with a lousy Italian accent.
Super Ted
A teddy bear that was given life by a magical space man and turned into a super hero by mother nature herself. Yeah...
Talespin
Featuring many of the characters from the classic Junglebook story, recast into a show where Baloo is a freight delivering pilot that always out-flew, and out-witted a group of air pirates, and the big business man Shear-Khan. Featured what is perhaps the single coolest real airplane in existance, the Seaduck (actually a Conwing Heavy Transport)
Teddy Ruxpin
Teddy Ruxpin was a story telling toy from the 80s, essentially a tape player stuck into a teddy bear that moved it's mouth while the tape made it sound like he was reading you a story. The show simply took these stories, and turned them into cartoon adventures.
Teen Wolf
Based off the movie, a teenage guy tries to juggle highschool and a social life on one hand, while trying to keep the secret that he and his entire family are actually werewolves. Not the bad kind, just the kind that get furry and grow fangs, but are otherwise normal kind of werewolf.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Four mutant turtle ninjas and their rat sensei that lived in the sewers, and fought the evil ninja clan of The Foot, lead by the walking can opener of a villian named Shredder.
Thundarr the Barbarian
Actually late 70's, but still good. In a future world devistated by natural disaster, magic and technlogy have become evil forces, and its up to the barbarian named Thundarr, his magical sunsword (think lightsaber), and his two friends, the attractive sorceress and the wookie-esque Mock named Ookla to free oppressed people and right wrongs.
Thunderbirds 2086
An animated series based on the marionette show, Thunderbirds. Essentially a group of special emergency rescue forces people with futuristic vehicles that went around saving the day.
Thundercats
After fleeing to Third Earth from their doomed home planet, the Thundercats try to build a new home, explore this new world, while at the same time fighting the evil Mutants that chased them to the planet, and the everlasting source of evil, Mumm-Ra. Featured the rather phallic Sword of Omens that grew in size from a dagger to a longsword when things got rough.
Tigersharks
A group of underwater heroes that turned into fish people thanks to a special tank. It was essentially an underwater Thundercats, and had the same basic character models.
Toxic Avenger
Cartoon based on the movie of the same name. The school janitor is hit with toxic waste, and becomes a half-melted green freak, and his mop becomes sentient and develops a personality. He leads a group of equally freaky people to fight the badguys.
Transformers
A group of warring robots flee their home planet and eventually crash land on earth. After their ship scans local earth vehicles, it repairs the robots in the image of earth cars and planes. With the ability to transform from cars and planes into giant humanoid robots, they carry on their war right here on earth.
Turbo Teen
The one everyone thinks they're crazy for remembering. Yes, it had a teenage boy that turned into a bright red sports car. I believe it was when he got too hot.
Ulysses 31
A retelling of the classic story of Odysseus and his long voyage back home, only this time set in outter space. Most of the big elements from Homer's tale are here, but given an outter space edge (the cyclops for instance is a big robot space station). It saw limited north american release.
Visionaries
Based on the toys of the same name who's selling point were holographic stickers on them, Visionaries were magical people that "fought with the magic of light", essentially calling semi-real holographic images out of their armor and banners to fight for them.
Voltron
5 space explorers set out to find the legendary Voltron, which is a giant fighting robot made up of 5 individual lion robots that fuse together. If you ever wondered where Power Rangers got the idea from, this is it. Only the pilots weren't ninja powered super-heroes in their own right, and more like normal people. In outter space.
Wildfire
A very limited run cartoon featuring a young blond girl that was actually the lost princess of a fairytale world, and her magical purple horse named Wildfire. She had a medallion that let her talk to the horse, which could jump really high into magical portals to take the girl back and forth between her normal life with her adoptive father, and the fairy tale world of her origin.
Wuzzles
A wacky cartoon who's characters were two animals squished into one. Like Rhinokey, who was a prankster monkey with a rhino horn. Or Bumblebear that was part bear and part bumblebee.
Thought we needed this. A thread that has a master list of the cartoons many of us are here to remember. So, I'm making one. Names, and a brief description for them. I'll probably miss things, as I'm going based off of my intro collection, and the ones I'm looking for. If its not on that list, it probably won't be here, so feel free to add your own!
(and I'll say now that I'll try to keep my own opinions of the shows more or less to myself, so if I don't give your favorite show the workup you think it deserves, forgive me, but I'm trying to be brief and to the point)
ALF: The Animated Tales
Cashing in on the popularity of the live action sitcom, the ALF cartoon was all about his life on planet Melmac before he came to Earth.
Alvin and the Chipmunks
Three young boys, who happen to be anthro chipmunks, who also happen to be famous singers.
Attack of the Killer Tomatoes
Based on the movie of the same name, a teenage boy had to protect his town from the evil mutant tomatoes the evil scientist was always turning loose on it. Accompanied, of course, by the screw up experimental tomoato that turned into a pretty girl in skimpy clothes. Just like the movie!
Bananaman
The british boy who gains super powers whenever he eats a banana.
Battle of the Planets/G-Force
Group of 5 teenagers that put on bird-like costumes and fight space invaders in their vehicles that merge together to form a fighter ship that turns into a phoenix.
Bionic Six
A multi-racial family enhanced with cybornetic super powers who fight an evil genius named Scarab.
Bravestarr
A native american marshal in an outter space wild west setting, and his trusty robot horse/partner named 30-30.
Bucky O'Hare
A green anthro rabbit spaceship captain and his crew of furries that fight against toads, along with their human boy that keeps the ship running.
Camp Candy
A summer camp run by John Candy, and the normal missadventures one would expect from kids at camp.
Captain N: The Game Master
Made by Nintendo, featured a teenage boy that gets sucked into his video game and meets all the classic Nintendo characters like Megaman and Kid Icarus.
Captain Planet
5 teenagers from around the globe are given magic rings and fight to stop pollution with the help of Captain Planet, who is summoned "when their powers combine" by holding up their rings and calling out the names of their elements.
Care Bears
Lovey little magic teddy bear people that lived in the sky and wanted nothing more than to bring good dreams to all the world's little boys and girls. Based on the toys of the same name.
Centurians
A group of specialists wearing mechanical body suits that get beamed to differant locations and "fuse" with elite weapon systems to fight Doc Terror, and his cyborg assistant Hacker.
COPS
A group of Chicago police, all of whom were built like quarterbacks, who did all of the normal cop things, but in a super fun way, typically with large exaggerated weapons that real cops would never get to use, like rocket launchers.
Count Duckula
After a slip up while reviving the vampire duck lord, he gets turned into a vegetarian vampire. Along with his stalwart butler, airheaded nanny, and a magical time travelling castle, he jaunts off to any time, any place to have an adventure.
Darkwing Duck
By day, a mild mannered malard, by night, the masked crime fighting duck in the purple hat. Had his famous smoke entry, and the catchphrase of "Lets get dangerous". Partner was Launchpad, the dimwitted mechanic from the show it sort of spun off of, Duck Tales.
David the Gnome
The foot tall guy that lived in a tree, was an animal doctor, and looked just like a garden gnome. Series generally focused on caring, living in harmony with nature, and solving problems with whit and intelligence instead of brute force.
Defenders of the Earth
Classic comic strip heroes like Flash Gordon and The Phantom form a super hero team, along with their children, to fight the evil emporer Ming the Merciless.
Dennis the Mennace
Animated series based on the famous sunday morning comic strip. He was always getting in trouble, usually with one of his friends like Joey or Ginna.
Denver the Last Dinosaur
Bunch of LA kids discover a huge dinosaur egg, which hatches into a rock 'n roll loving green dinosaur. His egg shell was magical, and would let them go back to the age of dinosaurs on special occasions. Spent a lot of time trying to hide Denver (the dinosaur) from the adults.
Dinosaucers
Anthro dinosaurs from outter space come to earth. The good dinosaurs, the Dinosaucers, recruit a small group of earth children to be their "secret scouts" against the evil Tyrannos.
Droids
Animated series based on the Star Wars franchise, which told part of the story of the Droids, the part leading up to A New Hope. Was actually voiced by Anthony Daniels (C-3PO).
Duck Tales
Scrooge McDuck and his giant vault full of money, and his three nephews who would go treasure hunting at the drop of a hat, and 3 bungling burglers that always tried to steal his money.
Dungeons and Dragons
Animation based off the popular roleplaying game. A group of children get sucked into the D&D world, are given magical items by the little gnome of a Dungeon Master, and quest around the world of D&D trying to find their way home.
Ewoks
Usually paired with Droids, this cartoon focused on Wicket, the young ewok (the little furry guys from Return of the Jedi), and all of the things ewoks do when they're not throwing rocks at storm troopers.
Galaxy High
Two students are taken to a highschool in outter space, where popularity roles are reversed. The nerdy girl becomes miss popular, while the jock boy becomes the biggest loser on campus. You may remember the one alien bully that was essentially a fried egg.
Galaxy Rangers
A group of high tech lawmen in a futuristic wild west frontier setting on another planet that rode robot horses and kept order.
Galtar and the Golden Lance
Big blonde muslebound hero with his magical lance (which wasn't actually a lance, but a two bladed sword that broke in the middle to make two normal swords), his female friend with a magical armband, and her little brother with a big boomerang that broke into little pieces against the bad guy that wanted the power of the golden lance for himself.
Garfield and Friends
A 15 minute animated version of the classic sunday morning comic strip about the loveble fatcat and the dumb dog, and their loser owner. Also paired with a 15 minute companion cartoon about farm animals doing silly things.
Ghostbusters
No, not Ray, Egon, and Slimer, but the original Ghostbusters cartoon (why the one with Slimer had to be called the REAL Ghostbusters). Had a pair of humans and their gorilla partner who caught ghosts. You may remember the talking skull telephone, the bone wardrobe transportation system, or the funky old fashioned car with talking ghost emblem and wacky wheels.
G.I. Joe
A highly trained special military force that defended America against the terrorist organization known as Cobra. They had all of the best military toys like F-16s and helicopters. Lots of people shooting, but nobody ever really got shot, and the badguys always bailed out of their planes before getting shot down.
Gobots
Series based on a line of Transformer knock-offs aimed at young children, as they were very easy to transform. The show basically followed the same plot as Transformers, but was aimed at younger children.
Gravedale High
Rick Morranis (from Honey I Shrunk the Kids) is the human teacher at a high school for classic horror movie monster teenagers.
Gummie Bears
A family of magical bears that live in a tree during medieval times, who brew a magic gummiberry juice that made them bounce like they were made out of rubber, but that made humans super strong.
Hammerman
A short lived series that featured the musical singer M.C. Hammer as a super hero.
Heathcliff and the Cadillac Cats
Two mini-shows in one. Half revolved around a fat orange cat that liked to pick on dogs and knock over trash cans. The other half was about a group of cats, one that wore roller skates, that lived in a junkyard and had a beat up old caddy that could transform into a boat.
He-Man
An all-time classic. Whenever nerdy Prince Adam held aloft his magic sword, and said "By the power of Grayskull!", he became He-Man, the most powerful man in the universe! He fought the evil forces of Skeletor for control of the planet Eternia.
Hulk Hogan's Rock N Wrestling
Featured Hulk Hogan and his "good" wrestling friends trying to do normal living stuff, be good citizens, but somehow the "bad" wrestlers like Rowdy Roddy Piper always screw it up.
Inhumanoids
A group of giant evil monsters have been awakened, and its up to a force of humans with a vehicle with a big claw on it to drive them back. The humans had a kind of rock golem friend that could split in half into positive and negative powered versions of itself for some tag-team action.
Inspector Gadget
A bumbling police inspector with all manner of hidden robotic parts tries to solve crimes, but its actually his niece and her super intelligent dog Brain that do all the work, while he gets the credit. But she doesn't mind helping out her uncle when he needs it.
J.E.M.
A group of "plain" girls turn into super fashionable singers thanks to the help of their super computer "Synergy", and are harrassed by a rival group of singers called the Misfits. The show featured trendy songs being sung by both groups, and the relationship between the main girl and her manager.
Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors
A vehicle show about a young man, his Han Solo-esque smuggler friend, a bumbling wizard, and a young girl that was actually a plant that drove big wheeled vehicles against the "Monster Minds" who were evil guys that turned into evil looking vehicles. Jayce, the young man, is searching for his father.
King Arthur and the Knights of Justice
The real King Arthur and his knights are captured, so Merlin zaps a football team back in time, and gives them magic suits of armor that store weapons in their chests, and pit them against the evil forces of the wicked Morgonna.
Kidd Video
A real life band gets sucked through a mirror by "Master Blaster" to be his musical slaves, becoming cartoons in the process. They're rescued by a fairy wearing a sweatsuit that gets super strong when she sneezes, and their journey through a surreal landscape as they try to get back to the real world. And their mini-truck turns into a giant cheshire cat space ship looking thing that drives along. Often mistaken as a drug endused dilusion by many people because of how surreal it was, if they've ever actually taken drugs or not.
Laser Tag Academy
Based on the laser tag toys, this one sported a girl that comes back from the future where the Laser Tag Academy is like the modern day police, and is trying to catch a time criminal. She moves in with her present day family (she's only a teenager), and hunts the badguy on the side. The laser tag pistols seem to do everything from zap badguys to make modern technology fly like it was from the future.
Legend of Zelda
Based off the original Zelda video games, featuring a lanky sarcastic Link that was always trying to get Princess Zelda to go out with him.
The Littl' Bits
Classic Nick Toon, about a whole villiage of tiny little people that live in the forest.
The Littles
Based on a book called "The Borrowers", this family of six inch tall people with tails lived inside the walls of a house, in which only the human boy named Henry Biggs knew they existed, except for the one bad man that was always trying to catch them and put them on display.
The Little Prince
Actually a translation of a french cartoon, played on Nick. The Little Prince lived on a tiny planet (literally, he could run around the entire world in like 30 seconds) and use a butterfly net to nab comets to ride to Earth to befriend children and play with them. No, this isn't a show about Micheal Jackson...
M.A.S.K.
A group of special agents that don large helmets in order to control their normal looking cars and motorcycles that turn into differant things. Like the car that opens it's seagull wings and flies like an airplane, or the semi truck that turns into a missle base. Fought bad guys with similar powered vehicles.
Maya the Bee
Nick Toon about a female bumblebee without a hive, and her grasshopper friend, learning how to play fair and be a good person.
Muppet Babies
The characters from the Muppet Show, only as diaper wearing toddlers. The original cartoon of it's type (none of the new Baby Loonytunes stuff), which was good for both children for it's fun nature, and for adults because of it's MASSIVE amounts of pop culture referances.
Mysterious Cities of Gold
Centered around a spanish boy named Estaban, and his two south/central american friends Zia and Tao as they looked for El Dorado, the cities of gold. They had a big golden condor flying machine that ran on sunlight. Remarkable for actually having an ongoing plot from start to finish.
Mighty Max
Not 80's, but very early 90's. A boy named Max sucked into a magic portal and finds a red baseball cap with an M on it, and befriends a wise old talking chicken named Virgil, and a giant strongman with a sword named Norman. The cap let him activate magic portals to zap him around the world to thwart the evil intentions of the bad guy.
Might Orbots
A Voltron-esque show where the big robot was actually made up of 5 smaller robots with distinct personalities, that was piloted by a pair of human kids, who fought a galactic evil that looks like something out of a hindu wall painting.
My Little Pony
Centered around animated versions of the classic toy line. Sometimes they were magical, sometimes not, sometimes with human friends, all depending on the series. Always had multicolored ponies with pretty hair that taught a lesson on friendship or the like.
The Noozles
Nick Toon from the golden age of Nick, about a girl with her "stuffed" panda bear, which would actually come to life when she noozled it's nose (aka rubbed her nose against it's). The bear, Blinky, and his magical flying sister named Pinky, were from an alternate dimension inside of Aires Rock in Australia.
Paw Paws
Essentially a more boys oriented version of Smurfs, which featured tiny little fuzzy bear native american type creatures, that had a giant wooden totem pole that would come to life and protect them from the evil wizard little furry bear shaman thing.
Pirates of Dark Water
Actually from the early 90's, centered around a young prince and his motly crew of pirates trying to collect the 13 Treasures of Rule to save their alien world from the flesh-eating tar-like "darkwater", while being chased by a fat pirate lord and his giant ship made out of bones. Had a red monkey with bird wings named Niddler.
Pole Position
Three kids, a teenage brother and sister, and their younger sister, take over the role of their parents as members of Pole Position, a crime fighting organization that had super fast fancy cars.
Police Academy
Based off of the movies of the same name, and centering on a group of iconic police cadets and their wacky miss-adventures, typically involving the humiliation of their high strung instructor.
Pound Puppies
While they look like cute puppies that want a home, they actually have a secret underground organization to rescue lost pups and get them adopted. The pound was owned by an evil old mother with equally evil sister, and a kind hearted daughter that protected the dogs from her mother's wrath.
Punky Brewster
A hit live action comedy sitcom, the animated version followed the ever irrepressible Punky Brewster and her furry friend Glommer, who lived on the other side of the rainbow, and could grant wishes.
Pro-Stars
A group of sports stars, including names like Wayne Gretsky and Micheal Jordon, protrayed as near super-heroes with high tech gadgets (Micheal had rocket shoes, for instance) that saved the day.
Rainbow Bright
A young girl is taken to Rainbow Land to help the color sprites get their world's color, which is in the form of big colored stars, back from the badguy named Murky, who keeps trying to make the world gloomy.
Real Ghostbusters
Based off the Ghostbusters movies, Ray, Egon, Peter, and Winston set out to catch all manner of ghosts and undead critters. Was actually very dark in the first season, although it lightened up and became less serious as time went on.
Rescue Rangers
Disney show based on Chip and Dale, the two classic cartoon gophers, who have started a detective service along with the female mouse Gadget (who was a master of inventing things) and a strongmouse with a thing for cheese. Their motto was "No Case Too Big, No Crime Too Small".
Robotech
A multigenerational series featuring transforming space jets that turned into fighting robots to defend earth and humanity from alien attackers.
Robotix
Show built around the Robotix toy line, which featured girders with nuts and bolts, and metal plates you could build robots out of. A warring race was about to be wiped out, and to survive transferred their conciousness to "Robotix", essentially very large, very clunky looking robots. The show's creators wanted a chunk of the Transformers pie, but didn't get it.
Saber Rider
Another futuristic wild west sherrif type cartoon, except this one featured most of the crew piloting space ships, while only one actually rode a mechanical horse, and carried a calvary saber.
Sectaurs
On an alien planet, there are giant bugs, and insect like people that ride them and fight each other. Which was basically the entire plot to this little know series, designed around the Sectaur line of toys. You may or may not remember this big dragonfly toy who's legs were a black glove you put on your hand, that would flap it's wings? This is where that came from.
Shazam!
Based on the comic title of the same name, a young man reporter becomes the superhero Shazam by saying... SHAZAM! He was essentially a Superman knockoff.
She-Ra
The girls version of He-Man. Essentially the same plot, except starring Princess Adora instead of Prince Adam, who yelled "For the Honor of Grayskull!", and had a horse with rainbow wings as a partner instead of He-Man's big green Battlecat. It was basically a carbon copy of He-Man, just aimed at girls.
Silverhawks
Featuring most of the voice actors from Thundercats, Silverhawks was a group of police in deep space with android bodies, all of which were bright shiney metal, that had foil wings that came out of the bottom of their arms. They had a space ship they rode around in to get places, which was controlled by the wingless Bluegrass, who controlled it by playing the guitar.
Sky Commanders
Based on a rather ingenious toy line that featured little ropes you would hang across your room like ziplines and let the figures slide down. Same basic plot to the cartoon, the goodguys and badguys alike had high tech backpack units that would shoot out cables that they could ride along. Other than that, it was the standard "group of good guys versus group of badguys in a laser gun fight" type cartoon.
Smurfs
Little six inch blue people with little white hats and stockings that lived in mushrooms. An evil human wizard named Gargemeal was always trying to catch the Smurfs, because he wanted to eat some, and turn the rest into gold.
The Snorks
It was Smurfs, underwater, with "hip" teenage critters with snorkle like tubes on top of their heads they used to jet around with.
Sonic the Hedgehog
Based on the original SEGA Genesis games, Sonic and Princess Sally Acorn lead a group of resistance fighters agains the evil Dr. Robotnick to free their land from his grubby technological control.
Space Sentinals
Hercules, Mercury, and a woman named Astria were actually real humans taken to outter space, given super powers, and returned to earth to guard it from assorted evils. Played out quite similar to the original Super Friends cartoon.
Spiderman and his Amazing Friends
Spiderman, Iceman, and Firestorm team up to fight classic Marvel badguys. It was narrated by Stan Lee himself.
Spiral Zone
A group of special military agents fight what is essentially an evil biker gang using a series of body armor suits and vehicles quite clearly designed to match a line of toys. The 80's was notoroius for it's half hour long animated toy commercials, and this was no exception.
Star Blazers
Earth has been blasted from space by alien invaders, their defense force is virtually gone, and the planet is dying when they get word from another planet that they have a way to reverse the damage. So, desperate, they raise the Battleship Yamamoto (a WWII japanese battleship) from the now dry sea floor, do a quick retrofit, and rush it off to get this miracle cure to bring back to save the world.
StarCom
An american-esque military force in outer space that defend the world against alien invaders in high powered attack craft launched from an orbiting defense station.
Strawberry Shortcake
Based on a line of plushie dolls that smelled like fresh fruits and pies, it was a cartoon about girls that looked just like the pudgy dolls that got into "trouble", and had to get back out. However, as a show aimed more at girls, it tended to avoid mischevous kinds of trouble, and revolved more along the hurt feelings kind of trouble.
Super Mario Brothers Super Show
Cartoon show based on the classic nintendo characters Mario and Luigi, as they save/protect the Princess from Bowser. Each episode was introduced and closed by a live action Mario with a lousy Italian accent.
Super Ted
A teddy bear that was given life by a magical space man and turned into a super hero by mother nature herself. Yeah...
Talespin
Featuring many of the characters from the classic Junglebook story, recast into a show where Baloo is a freight delivering pilot that always out-flew, and out-witted a group of air pirates, and the big business man Shear-Khan. Featured what is perhaps the single coolest real airplane in existance, the Seaduck (actually a Conwing Heavy Transport)
Teddy Ruxpin
Teddy Ruxpin was a story telling toy from the 80s, essentially a tape player stuck into a teddy bear that moved it's mouth while the tape made it sound like he was reading you a story. The show simply took these stories, and turned them into cartoon adventures.
Teen Wolf
Based off the movie, a teenage guy tries to juggle highschool and a social life on one hand, while trying to keep the secret that he and his entire family are actually werewolves. Not the bad kind, just the kind that get furry and grow fangs, but are otherwise normal kind of werewolf.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Four mutant turtle ninjas and their rat sensei that lived in the sewers, and fought the evil ninja clan of The Foot, lead by the walking can opener of a villian named Shredder.
Thundarr the Barbarian
Actually late 70's, but still good. In a future world devistated by natural disaster, magic and technlogy have become evil forces, and its up to the barbarian named Thundarr, his magical sunsword (think lightsaber), and his two friends, the attractive sorceress and the wookie-esque Mock named Ookla to free oppressed people and right wrongs.
Thunderbirds 2086
An animated series based on the marionette show, Thunderbirds. Essentially a group of special emergency rescue forces people with futuristic vehicles that went around saving the day.
Thundercats
After fleeing to Third Earth from their doomed home planet, the Thundercats try to build a new home, explore this new world, while at the same time fighting the evil Mutants that chased them to the planet, and the everlasting source of evil, Mumm-Ra. Featured the rather phallic Sword of Omens that grew in size from a dagger to a longsword when things got rough.
Tigersharks
A group of underwater heroes that turned into fish people thanks to a special tank. It was essentially an underwater Thundercats, and had the same basic character models.
Toxic Avenger
Cartoon based on the movie of the same name. The school janitor is hit with toxic waste, and becomes a half-melted green freak, and his mop becomes sentient and develops a personality. He leads a group of equally freaky people to fight the badguys.
Transformers
A group of warring robots flee their home planet and eventually crash land on earth. After their ship scans local earth vehicles, it repairs the robots in the image of earth cars and planes. With the ability to transform from cars and planes into giant humanoid robots, they carry on their war right here on earth.
Turbo Teen
The one everyone thinks they're crazy for remembering. Yes, it had a teenage boy that turned into a bright red sports car. I believe it was when he got too hot.
Ulysses 31
A retelling of the classic story of Odysseus and his long voyage back home, only this time set in outter space. Most of the big elements from Homer's tale are here, but given an outter space edge (the cyclops for instance is a big robot space station). It saw limited north american release.
Visionaries
Based on the toys of the same name who's selling point were holographic stickers on them, Visionaries were magical people that "fought with the magic of light", essentially calling semi-real holographic images out of their armor and banners to fight for them.
Voltron
5 space explorers set out to find the legendary Voltron, which is a giant fighting robot made up of 5 individual lion robots that fuse together. If you ever wondered where Power Rangers got the idea from, this is it. Only the pilots weren't ninja powered super-heroes in their own right, and more like normal people. In outter space.
Wildfire
A very limited run cartoon featuring a young blond girl that was actually the lost princess of a fairytale world, and her magical purple horse named Wildfire. She had a medallion that let her talk to the horse, which could jump really high into magical portals to take the girl back and forth between her normal life with her adoptive father, and the fairy tale world of her origin.
Wuzzles
A wacky cartoon who's characters were two animals squished into one. Like Rhinokey, who was a prankster monkey with a rhino horn. Or Bumblebear that was part bear and part bumblebee.
