The Top Ten

My last post left me with the urge to reminisce about some of my favorite old cartoons. I'm telling you YouTube is like nostalgia heaven. You can find old clips from everything on there. Where do people get these (and why do I have the time to watch them)? Do they have old episodes on VHS tapes that they convert into DVDs and then burn onto their computers? Seriously.
Well, as my 30th birthday looms in just a few months I am dating myself by noting that most of these cartoons are from the mid to late eighties and early nineties when I raced home to catch all the after school cartoons and got up early on Saturdays to make sure I caught every minute of the ultimate cartoon-lover's block.
Here are my Top 10 Childhood Cartoons. There are, of course, some favorites missing and I'm sure there are some classics that inhabit the corners of my mind that cannot be easily recollected. Nevertheless, these are the ones that will always hold a place in my heart:
(Disclaimer: These are television cartoon serials, not movies or after-school specials)


10. Rainbow Brite-This is an early favorite that I obsessed over when I was very young. My mom made me a Rainbow Brite bedspread and curtains and I had all the characters from Red Butler and Lala Orange to the bad guys Murky and Lurky. I also danced quite often to my Rainbow Brite record (sick, I know). No one rocked the side ponytail like Rainbow Brite.

9. Alvin and the Chipmunks-My favorite part of this cartoon was The Chipettes, the girl counterparts to Alvin and the Gang. Looking back at this cartoon you have to wonder, why were the male chipmunks wearing sweater dresses?

8. Ducktales-To be honest, I am not quite sure why I liked this cartoon so much, but I know I never missed an episode. I think I liked all the story lines that centered on riches and treasure since Scrooge McDuck was supposedly the richest duck in the world. I guess that says a lot about my childhood ambitions, huh?

7. Inspector Gadget-The movies totally did not do this cartoon franchise justice. I loved that Inspector Gadget was always being secretly saved by his niece Penny and all the tech stuff was pretty cool (I wonder how much of that stuff actually exists now in today's world). David can do a spot on impression of the ominous Dr. Claw.

6. She-Ra: Princess of Power and He-Man and the Masters of the Universe-You know that you were in your living room holding your pretend swords up high saying "By the power of Grayskull" and even better "I have the power". I always wanted a twin brother like He-Man and She-Ra's horse Spirit turned into a freakin Pegasus, it was awesome.

5. Beverely Hills Teens-This was a lesser known afterschool cartoon that fed young minds ridiculous notions of the life of the rich and famous. Their limos were convertibles that had Jacuzzis in the back, they had pets named Empress and Tiara and they themselves had extravagant names like Bianca and Blaze. I loved this cartoon! The best part about it was all the girls had HUGE hair that reached their ANKLES even in a ponytail, so I could relate.

4. Smurfs-Smurfs is the quintessential Saturday morning cartoon and every 80's child can claim a favorite episode. Mine was the one where they all contracted some sort of disease (passed on by the biting of one's Smurf tail) that caused them to turn purple and jump around saying "G-nap!" It is often asked "But why was their only one female smurf?" To that I say: though Smurfette was the leading lady of the Smurflings, let us never forget her little sister with fiery red hair and pink overalls, Sassette.

3. The Adventures of the Gummi Bears-Someone (at Disney for that matter) had the idea to make a candy into an adventurous children's cartoon where anthropomorphic bears drink Gummiberry juice to jump like bouncing balls all over a medieval-esque backdrop. Brilliant! I can remember many Saturday mornings spent on the soccer field in the lonely fullback position entertaining myself by singing the Gummi Bears chorus over and over in my mind: "Gummi Bears, bouncing here and there and everywhere...."

2. Jem-The original Hannah Montana, Jem was "truly outrageous". By day she was the demure and beautiful music manager Jerrica Benton but was transformed at night (I think by her star earrings) into her secret identity Jem, the hot lead singer of the Holograms who usually also had to tackle social issues amidst belting out hit singles. She sported rockin pink face paint, her boyfriend had purple hair and she drove a multicolored vintage car...no one was cooler.


1. Saved By the Bell-Alright, I know it is not a cartoon but the power of the Bayside Tigers could not be denied. Plus, it ran on Saturday mornings sandwiched between Smurfs and some other cartoon I don't remember, so it counts. Besides, Saved By the Bell is the ultimate icon of the era, everyone watched it...period. I have seen every episode at least 30 times, from Kelly's "can't afford the prom" tragedy to Jessie's ridiculous addiction to caffeine pills so she can get into Stanford. I was in love with Zac, worshipped Kelly and related with Jessie as the tall girl with the big, curly hair. I even followed them into the dreadful college years in primetime and attempted to give "the new class" a chance (not even close to the original). Saved By the Bell was corny, melodramatic teen angst packaged for prepubescent girls to live vicariously through...and I loved it.
So there it is, were any of my favorites on your list? Or maybe you actually did productive things with your childhood versus spending it in front of the television. And in case you were amazed by my pop culture prowess (which is rather extensive I must admit), know that Wikipedia is all-knowing.
As a side note, my favorite animated movie is The Little Mermaid in which I can reenact any scene on the spot (and have on several occasions). That's not an exaggeration.