Flashback Friday – Cartoons I Loved as an 80’s Kid

Monday through Friday, getting up for school was the worst. My mom was never shy of tossing a cup of water in my face to wake me up. But come Saturday morning, 6 a.m., I was up and ready for my morning deluge of animated goodness.

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There were the usuals: Looney Tunes, Garfield, Tom & Jerry, Scooby Doo. The entertainment value was priceless. Of course, this was the mid 80's, channels were limited. Now with cable and satellite, there are a multitude of cartoon choices.

Scanning through a lot of those shows now, all I can think of is "what happened to the fun in cartoons?" Everything has to be educational, some are just not funny or even fun for that matter.

But I digress, there were a few odd ball cartoons that I loved that some of my friends thought I was nuts for watching them. One in particular was called Turbo Teen. This kid gained the power to turn himself into a car and go on adventures to save the day. It only lasted one season but I loved it.

Holy crap! Yeah, that was a super cheesy show. But come on, I was 8. And remember kids, a lot of cartoons were hand drawn then. Computer animation really didn't exist until the mid 90's.

Weekday afternoons brought a whole other set of animation goodness.

He-Man, She-Ra, Thundercats, Transformers and another odd ball afternoon cartoon I loved called Saber Rider and the Star Sheriffs. This was a group of heroes that had different vehicles they would pilot and could combine into a giant robot. (That was the thing then. See Voltron). It was a little confusing, too, because Peter Cullen, the voice of Optimus Prime in Transformers, also voiced the combined robot.

Gotta love those cheesy musical intro.

What's crazy (not really, it's because I'm a big kid), I could go back and still watch these gems. Hope you enjoyed this flashback.

Bonus: One of the catchiest cartoon intros ever