Back in the Day
Inspiration - "Back in the Day" Ahmad
What I'm Listening To: Various 80's Music on my computer
Question(s) I asked myself today - "Another night with no sleep, when is this going to catch up with me?" I slept all day, so of course I'm up all night.
The 80's were a cool ass time to be a kid, at least for me. We didn't face much of the issues kids today have to worry about. I was a latchkey kid. For those who don't know, a latchkey kid was a child whose parent was at work when he came home from school. Moms was at work, so me and my sister had to fend for ourselves. We had a daily ritual: come home, change clothes, make some strawberry milk, and turn on the TV. It's been 20 years, but I still remember my favorites. Here are some of the cartoons that made my day:
Woody Woodpecker: No matter how many times I saw the same episodes over and over again, I couldn't stop laughing. The sight of that silly bird drilling someone in the head was the most hilarious thing that I had ever seen.
He Man: "By the power of Greyskull, I HAVE THE POWER!" How many times did I say those magic words? I imagined myself turning from mild mannered Prince Adam into the powerful He-Man. Remember Cringer turning into Battle Cat? Or the villians Skeletor and Beast Man? I had all the action figures and the toy sword too.
Voltron: "Form feet and legs! Form arms and torso! And I'll form the head!" I think Voltron was the first anime I had seen. The 5 Lions were the sh*t. I'm about to reveal my inner nerd but I still remember their names: Keith, Allura, Lance, Hunk, and Pidge. I was always partial to the red lion piloted by Lance because he had that rebel attitude. I used to geek out when they formed Voltron and used the blazing sword. I've tried to watch that new Voltron series but I can't get into it. I prefer that old school Voltron.
Transformers: "Transformers - More than meets the eye, Transformers - Robots in Disguise" I loved the Transformers. What can be cooler than robots that turn into cars and trucks? There were the Autobots led by Optimus Prime vs. the Decepticons led by Megatron. Some people liked the Go-Bots better, but to me they were a rip off of Transformers.
Thundercats- "Thunder... Thunder... Thunder... THUNDERCATS! HO!" The adventures of some feline/human hybrids on 3rd Earth. Lion-O was the leader, but the real star of the show was Cheetara. My sister liked this one more than I did, but it was cool with me too. I used to like it when they used The Eye of Thundera.
GI Joe- "and knowing is half the battle." GI Joe always foiled the evil plans of C.O.B.R.A. And as much shooting went on, no one ever got hit. It's funny to look back at it now and see that even though a plane would get shot down, the pilot would always parachute to safety. Cobra Commander and Destro were just about as evil as they could be, but I never really understood what they were trying to accomplish. Were they just being terrorists for the sake of being terrorists? Regardless, I loved this show and had many of the GI Joe action figures (the small ones, not the big ones from the 60's and 70's.)
Those were my after school shows, but Saturday mornings were a cornucopia of cartoons as well. There are too many to mention, but here are just a few of my favorite Saturday morning cartoons from the 80's.
The Snorks and The Smurfs - I lumped these two together, because they were basically the same cartoon. I watched the Smurfs more; my favorite was Jokey Smurf. I may have been a sinister child, but I occasionally rooted for Gargamel and Azreal to step on the Smurfs, especially when they would break out into that Smurf language, where every other word was a derivative of smurf. Like "I'm just smurfy" or "That's smurftastic." I read later about a theory that the Smurfs were supposed to symbolize communism and Gargamel was the evil symbol of capitalism, but I don't know about that one.
Turbo Teen - This was about a kid that turned into a race car and apparently I'm the only one who watched it. The catch was whenever the kid got hot he would turn into a Camaro and when he got cold, he would turn back into a teenage boy. He also solved crimes or something. I may be remembering it wrong.
Muppet Babies - I remember that you never saw an adult's face on this show. Oh yeah, and that closet door Gonzo would open and get sucked into some old film footage, like Indiana Jones. After this show came out, they started doing baby versions of other cartoons like A Pup Named Scooby Doo or Baby Looney Tunes.
Mr T. - The Mr. T cartoon was crazy. Here was this tough guy hanging out and solving crimes with a bunch of gymnasts. Mr. T did it real big in the eighties. Brother even had his own cereal.
Pac Man/Rubik the Amazing Cube - These cartoons were made to capitalize on the cultural phenomenon of video games and Rubik's cube. They both had something to do with thwarting some villian's fiendish plots. I'm noticing that all the cartoons I watched had basically the same plot.
Alvin and the Chipmunks- Damn annoying Chipmunks!!! I can't beleive I used to watch this. Their voices were ridiculous and they always made fun of the fat one. But I remember liking when Dave would yell "ALVIN!!!! SIMON!!!!!!! THEODORE!!!!!!!!"
Wonder Twins- I can't remember which SuperFriends show they were on, but the wonder twins were minor characters who played second fiddle to Wonder Woman, Aquaman and the rest of the real superheroes. Whenever they got in a jam, the Wonder Twins would activate their so called "superpowers". The girl could turn into animals and the guy could turn into things made from water, like ice or a tidal wave. This is an actual quote from an episode I found on the web.
Both: Wonder Twin Powers Activate!
Girl Twin: Form of a giant lobster
Boy Twin: Shape of an ice reflector
What the f*ck!?!? A giant lobster and an ice reflector are going to stop a group of criminals?!?!? I don't know where they came up with this stuff, but I absolutely loved it as a kid. In fact this was one of the only things that me and my sister agreed on when we were kids. We would put on our plastic rings and pretend to be the Wonder Twins. When the show was over, she would go right back to punching me in the eye or throwing a can of soup at my head. (I love my sister now, but she used to be a big bully.)
I'm tired of writing now, so I'm gonna call it a night. I'm sure I left off some of your favorite 80's cartoons, so if you feel so inclined, tell me what your favs are in the comments. Depending on the response I get, I may do another one of these 80's posts in the future. Favorite '80's toys, Favorite '80's TV shows, Favorite '80's hobbies, etc. Until then...
It was written...
What I'm Listening To: Various 80's Music on my computer
Question(s) I asked myself today - "Another night with no sleep, when is this going to catch up with me?" I slept all day, so of course I'm up all night.
The 80's were a cool ass time to be a kid, at least for me. We didn't face much of the issues kids today have to worry about. I was a latchkey kid. For those who don't know, a latchkey kid was a child whose parent was at work when he came home from school. Moms was at work, so me and my sister had to fend for ourselves. We had a daily ritual: come home, change clothes, make some strawberry milk, and turn on the TV. It's been 20 years, but I still remember my favorites. Here are some of the cartoons that made my day:
Woody Woodpecker: No matter how many times I saw the same episodes over and over again, I couldn't stop laughing. The sight of that silly bird drilling someone in the head was the most hilarious thing that I had ever seen.
He Man: "By the power of Greyskull, I HAVE THE POWER!" How many times did I say those magic words? I imagined myself turning from mild mannered Prince Adam into the powerful He-Man. Remember Cringer turning into Battle Cat? Or the villians Skeletor and Beast Man? I had all the action figures and the toy sword too.
Voltron: "Form feet and legs! Form arms and torso! And I'll form the head!" I think Voltron was the first anime I had seen. The 5 Lions were the sh*t. I'm about to reveal my inner nerd but I still remember their names: Keith, Allura, Lance, Hunk, and Pidge. I was always partial to the red lion piloted by Lance because he had that rebel attitude. I used to geek out when they formed Voltron and used the blazing sword. I've tried to watch that new Voltron series but I can't get into it. I prefer that old school Voltron.
Transformers: "Transformers - More than meets the eye, Transformers - Robots in Disguise" I loved the Transformers. What can be cooler than robots that turn into cars and trucks? There were the Autobots led by Optimus Prime vs. the Decepticons led by Megatron. Some people liked the Go-Bots better, but to me they were a rip off of Transformers.
Thundercats- "Thunder... Thunder... Thunder... THUNDERCATS! HO!" The adventures of some feline/human hybrids on 3rd Earth. Lion-O was the leader, but the real star of the show was Cheetara. My sister liked this one more than I did, but it was cool with me too. I used to like it when they used The Eye of Thundera.
GI Joe- "and knowing is half the battle." GI Joe always foiled the evil plans of C.O.B.R.A. And as much shooting went on, no one ever got hit. It's funny to look back at it now and see that even though a plane would get shot down, the pilot would always parachute to safety. Cobra Commander and Destro were just about as evil as they could be, but I never really understood what they were trying to accomplish. Were they just being terrorists for the sake of being terrorists? Regardless, I loved this show and had many of the GI Joe action figures (the small ones, not the big ones from the 60's and 70's.)
Those were my after school shows, but Saturday mornings were a cornucopia of cartoons as well. There are too many to mention, but here are just a few of my favorite Saturday morning cartoons from the 80's.
The Snorks and The Smurfs - I lumped these two together, because they were basically the same cartoon. I watched the Smurfs more; my favorite was Jokey Smurf. I may have been a sinister child, but I occasionally rooted for Gargamel and Azreal to step on the Smurfs, especially when they would break out into that Smurf language, where every other word was a derivative of smurf. Like "I'm just smurfy" or "That's smurftastic." I read later about a theory that the Smurfs were supposed to symbolize communism and Gargamel was the evil symbol of capitalism, but I don't know about that one.
Turbo Teen - This was about a kid that turned into a race car and apparently I'm the only one who watched it. The catch was whenever the kid got hot he would turn into a Camaro and when he got cold, he would turn back into a teenage boy. He also solved crimes or something. I may be remembering it wrong.
Muppet Babies - I remember that you never saw an adult's face on this show. Oh yeah, and that closet door Gonzo would open and get sucked into some old film footage, like Indiana Jones. After this show came out, they started doing baby versions of other cartoons like A Pup Named Scooby Doo or Baby Looney Tunes.
Mr T. - The Mr. T cartoon was crazy. Here was this tough guy hanging out and solving crimes with a bunch of gymnasts. Mr. T did it real big in the eighties. Brother even had his own cereal.
Pac Man/Rubik the Amazing Cube - These cartoons were made to capitalize on the cultural phenomenon of video games and Rubik's cube. They both had something to do with thwarting some villian's fiendish plots. I'm noticing that all the cartoons I watched had basically the same plot.
Alvin and the Chipmunks- Damn annoying Chipmunks!!! I can't beleive I used to watch this. Their voices were ridiculous and they always made fun of the fat one. But I remember liking when Dave would yell "ALVIN!!!! SIMON!!!!!!! THEODORE!!!!!!!!"
Wonder Twins- I can't remember which SuperFriends show they were on, but the wonder twins were minor characters who played second fiddle to Wonder Woman, Aquaman and the rest of the real superheroes. Whenever they got in a jam, the Wonder Twins would activate their so called "superpowers". The girl could turn into animals and the guy could turn into things made from water, like ice or a tidal wave. This is an actual quote from an episode I found on the web.
Both: Wonder Twin Powers Activate!
Girl Twin: Form of a giant lobster
Boy Twin: Shape of an ice reflector
What the f*ck!?!? A giant lobster and an ice reflector are going to stop a group of criminals?!?!? I don't know where they came up with this stuff, but I absolutely loved it as a kid. In fact this was one of the only things that me and my sister agreed on when we were kids. We would put on our plastic rings and pretend to be the Wonder Twins. When the show was over, she would go right back to punching me in the eye or throwing a can of soup at my head. (I love my sister now, but she used to be a big bully.)
I'm tired of writing now, so I'm gonna call it a night. I'm sure I left off some of your favorite 80's cartoons, so if you feel so inclined, tell me what your favs are in the comments. Depending on the response I get, I may do another one of these 80's posts in the future. Favorite '80's toys, Favorite '80's TV shows, Favorite '80's hobbies, etc. Until then...
It was written...
posted by Rashan Jamal at 5:26 AM
23 Comments:
I am #1!!! You took me back with these. You hit most of my favorites. I think most of the ones that you missed, you probably didn't watch because you were a boy :0). I loved the Care Bears, Rainbow Bright, Gem "Gem is truly outrageous Truly, Truly Truly, Outrageous!" Garfield, and My Little Pony. I also LOVED the smurfs. I wanted to be Smurfette badly.
Some of my fav cartoons:
Astro Boy
Inspector Gadget
The Racoons
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Jem
Does anyone remember in She-Ra, the little animal that used to hide in every episode? (no i'm not crazy!) What was his name?
Hey - I left a question for you on your last post
Mocha I can feel you on she-ra.D I can feel you on your cartoons also Ingigo war my favorite on Rainbow Brite. I used to watch gi joe "...and knowing is half the battle GI JOE!!!!" T i am feeling you smurfs and snorks. I used to watch Edward Grimley based on a Martin Short character on SNL, punky brewster, Q-Bert, Pac-man, Pink Panther, Bullwinkle and friends (you know natshaboris, peabody and 'nem), Captian Planet, Kid Video, Fraggles (not a cartoon), the Great space coaster (it used to come on in the mornings b4 school on usa and the famous quote was "there's no gnews like good gnews from gary gnu!" (really corny that i remember that huh?)Hammerman with the magic shoes, waynehead, Jem and the holograms, Reboot (it was a futuristic cartoon that looked like a pixar movie), Inspector Gadget,and Ghostbuster,Strawberry Shortcake, The hair bear bunch,and The gummy bears, Needless to say i was a cartoon junkie!!!! (bb)
Well since we're nearly the same age (I'm a couple years older), you hit ALL the joints!!
You know you're making me feel old, right? My favorites weren't really cartoons...
Land of the Lost
"Marshall, Will and Holly...on a routine expedition..." hehe
Shazaam and Isis
"Oh mighty Isis..."
Sigmund the Sea Monster...hell, just about anything related to the Kroft Superstars.
My favorite sitcoms were Greatest American Hero, Benson and Soap.
Tam do you remember HR Puffenstuff? (bb)
Muncheechee and the Littles...(bb)
anon, i feel you on the muncheechees and the littles. i was just remember those the other day. i also remember watching hr puffenstuff. i KNOW those folk had to be smoking SOMETHING...i mean, PUFFEN...STUFF? the whole show looked like the after effects of a really bad acid trip. i loved it, though.
as for the cartoons, casanova pretty much listed all of the ones i watched. i'll add:
spiderman and his amazing friends
superfriends minus the wonder twins but plus the two kids and the dog
mighty mouse
underdog
richie rich
star blazers
speed racer
pac man
dungeons and dragons
galaxy high
pink panther
the new flinstones with captain caveman
hong kong fooey
quick draw mcgraw
wacky races
I had pictures of the other cartoons, but for some reason Blogger was acting up this morning. I'll try to edit this later to add those pics.
@ d~: If you promise not to tell nobody, I'll admit that I liked Jem (she was truly outrageous.) And I can also get with Garfield. The other ones were too high on girl power for me.
@ Mocha I think the thing in She Ra was called Lookee. I'll look it up later to be sure. Ninja Turtles was cool, I had the Nintendo game. I don't remember The Racoons, Is that a Canadian thing?
@ me: I finally answered you on the other post, check it out.
@bb: you took me waaay back with the Great Space Coaster. That was my sh*t. Inspector Gadget was like Get Smart, do you remember Danger Mouse and Banana Man? and didnt they have like 3 different Ghostbuster joints.
@ Tam: didnt mean to make you feel old, but I had to take it back. Land of the Lost used to scare me, it was a little too creepy for me. I'm gonna have to do an old school post for TV shows, but Great American Hero was cool as hell. Do you remember the after school specials that used to come on? Always trying to teach us a lesson?
@ nikki: back when I used to smoke weed, I would watch Hr Puffenstuff and just bug out. I almost forgot about pink panther and Quick "straw" McGraw. "i'll do the thinkin round here and doooon't you forget it." I dont recall star blazers and galaxy high. I'll have to look those up to refresh my memory.
Nice Blog
I found a great site for ya to research.
http://www.nostalgiacentral.com/eighties.htm
I'm a sixties/seventies child, and I cant find anyone who remembers "Touche Turtle"? he was kickin ass long before the "Ninja Turtles" came along!
http://www.pureimagination.co.uk/captaincaveman/Toucheturtle/touche.htm
Jimmy
@ uncivil: thanks for the site. I cant say that I remember Touche Turtle.
@ Sheila: You are halfway there by setting up your profile. Just login and create your blog. Its easy and its free . check this url for help.
http://help.blogger.com/bin/topic.py?topic=16
Oh my goodness. You are triggering all these memories (good ones, to boot, though)
I loved HR Puffenstuf, which actually, now, looks like a PCP induced nightmare!
I loved the New Zoo Revue, even though it came on so early in my city I missed it.
Loved all the schoolhouse rock songs.
TV Shows in General:
Wonder Woman, Bionic Woman, the Six Million Dollar Man, and Knots landing.
Isn't life grand?
oooooo! i forgot about the schoolhouse rock songs! i've actually got most of them downloaded! 'three is the magic number' is my fav! i think we were really spoiled as kids. kids today don't get the quality cartoons we got.
What about Bugs Bunny? His humor is timeless! I also looooooved Schoolhouse Rock! That was how I learned the daggone preamble to the Constitution and my times table.
We the people/in order to form a more perfect union/establish justice ensure domestic tranquility ...
those were the days!
ohmigod "p" i remember the new zoo revue now that i think back it was so lame but i remember....but does anyone remember the Sweet Pickles bus? The Bloodhound Gang? 321 Contact? Electric Company? Chicken soup and rice?(bb)
electric company! that was the bomb ish! in fact, every time i check morgan freeman in a movie, i automatically think "there goes easy reader!"...same for rita moreno. man, that show was simply awesome!
i also remember 321 contact, but i didn't watch it cuz it seemed just a bit dry to me. seeing as we're talking about public television, anyone remember reading rainbow? that show is STILL on after all these years! i actually still check it out from time to time if i'm off from work during the week.
How dare you have fun in my comments section when I have to work. Talking about PBS, Sesame Street was the best ever. I felt sorry for Snuffalufagus
Conjunction Junction whats your function
Bugs and Tweety hour was that fire. except hated Pepe Le Pew, the damn sexual harrasser.
pepe was bi-sexual too!!! How about on Nickelodeon You can't do that and Mr Wizard? Double Dare? (bb)
Was i the only one who saw the Garbage Pail Kids movie? (bb)
Okay you said hobbies so in the eighties for some of us that would be toys.....lite brite,speak and spell, easy bake oven, holly hobbie, raggedy ann and andy(which became the throw back my buddy and kid sister)spiro-graph, bert and ernie puppets with the hard plastic, glow worm, snoopy sno-cone machine, simon says(the little round thing with the colors that light up for you to play back) the barbie fold thing to dress barbie with fabric(you put the fabric on the doll then pull this thing down that keeps the fabric in place to look like she has on a new outfit), teddy ruxpin( i'm teddy ruxpin, will you be my friend?).......(bb)
damn b.b. you really are all about the old school huh? I'm gonna hit you up with the 80's toys post next week. I hope I can scan that picture of me with the Hungry Hungry Hippo's game.
this was fun i needed that (bb)
I used a School House Rock song to pass my test on the Preamble in the 7th grade! HAHAHAHA
"We the peeeeople, in order to form a more PERfect UNION, establish justice and ensure domestic tranquiliteee-eeeeiheeeee..."
Uh huh, I got an A!
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