At this point Fall is here and with it those TV shows that were popular (or lucky) enough to avoid being cancelled are coming back with new episodes and with them a few new TV shows as well.
With all those new TV shows coming in, it reminds me when I was a kid of all the hype the networks would put behind promoting their next wave of Saturday-morning cartoons. In the weeks leading up to their premieres the networks would be spamming the hell out of promoting them, airing promos and commercials for them nonstop, or in the case of ABC they would promote them by doing previews of them the night before on their TGIF programming block.
Kids born past the year 2000 may not remember or even know what Saturday-morning cartoons are but I’m sure anybody born before then can remember them especially since they were such a huge part of every child’s life for like 50 years.
While the idea of making Saturday-morning timeslots centered around cartoons and children programming was thrown around in the 1950s, those cartoons were usually just reruns of cartoons that the networks showed at other times. It wasn’t until the 1960s that networks started producing cartoons specifically for Saturday mornings because that is when they realized being the focus of kids’ viewing during a regular specific time every week would be beneficial for their advertisers.
The 1960s saw a rise in popularity in the superhero genre and thus many cartoons based on superheroes were born. Some were adapted from comic books like those produced by DC and Marvel, others centered around original characters like Space Ghost and The Herculoids while there were others that poked fun at the superhero genre and used characters like Underdog and George of the Jungle who were parodies of superheroes. Another trend in the ’60s were musical-based cartoons, some of which were based on real-life groups such as The Beatles and the Jackson 5ive.
In the 1970s humor is what the kids wanted. The success of Scooby-Doo saw the rise of numerous imitations as well as several cartoons based on popular live-action prime time sitcoms like Gilligan’s Island, Happy Days, and The Brady Bunch. These animated adaptations usually featured their original casts reprising their roles and allowed them to do things that were not feasible in the live-action versions.
The ’80s was a weird time for cartoons. The success of Hanna-Barbera’s adaption of The Smurfs comic-strip saw a rise in fairy tale based and fantasy cartoons such as My Little Pony. Action cartoons were also big as the ’80s gave us shows like Thundercats, and GI Joe. Towards the end of the ’80s there was a trend where much like the current obsession with Baby Yoda we saw several cartoons like Muppet Babies, A Pup Named Scooby-Doo, and The Flintstone Kids that took already established characters and reimagined them as kids and babies.
The ’90s and 2000s while these were the decades I lived through and therefore the decades of cartoons I can remember the best, I can’t really think there was too much of a trend going on as I saw a good mix of everything come. Humor, action, adventure, it was all just a mismatch of things at the time. I do know these were the decades that saw a rise in the popularity of anime. I’m pretty sure this could be attributed to the success of tokusatsu superhero shows like Power Rangers and VR Troopers as well as animes like Dragon Ball Z, Pokemon, and Sailor Moon. Networks saw how popular the Japanese stuff was and realized rather than produce their own cartoons it would be cheaper just to buy the distribution rights to anime and dub it in English for our markets.
Today, the idea of Saturday-morning cartoon is just a distant memory for those who have grown up and an alien concept for children today. Increased regulations from the FCC that networks must have a certain amount of their children’s entertainment fit certain educational and informational requirements limited their creative options of what they could show, while FTC restrictions outlawing the advertising of tie-in merchandise such as toys cut off huge revenue sources for them. On top of this competition from cable channels such as the Disney Channel, Nickelodeon, and Cartoon Network who were not under the same FCC educational and informational restrictions along with the fact that they showed their cartoon programming whenever they wanted placed less value on the once highly-coveted Saturday-morning time slots. This combined with an increased popularity in home videogame systems along with children being encouraged to be more active and spend more time outside their households removed a huge chunk of their audiences. With so many headaches to deal with and so little monetary incentive it’s no surprise that the networks chose to abandon Saturday morning cartoons altogether and focus their efforts on other projects and while some have attempted to bring back Saturday-morning cartoons in one form or another they never did give them as much attention or focus as the cartoons of years before would get.
With all that being said I thought it would be a good idea to take a look back at some of the Saturday-morning cartoons I remember watching-or at the very least seeing when I was a kid. Before I go forward I do want to say that there are a few stipulations for what made this list. The primary one being that this is a list of Saturday-morning cartoons so there won’t be any live action stuff like Power Rangers, VR Troopers, Big Bad Beetleborgs, Mask Rider, Young Hercules, Beakman’s World, or Goosebumps. Secondly, since this is a list dedicated to Saturday-morning cartoons I won’t be touching anything I remember that was intended for Sunday mornings, after school stuff or early morning before school weekday cartoons. I know once a cartoon had enough episodes produced or proved they were popular enough networks would spam the hell out of it every chance they got sometimes selling them to other networks for syndication, so some of these cartoons may have aired during other times of the week. However, I do know all of the cartoons I’m about to bring up either made their premiere on a Saturday morning or at the very least was a part of a Saturday morning programming block. This is also why I won’t be touching Pokemon. While it did air on Saturdays when Kids’ WB acquired it, I do remember it airing weekday mornings on UPN first. This is also the same reason why you may see a few things from the Disney Afternoon carton block because I remember a few of those made concurrent premiers both on both the Afternoon block and on ABC. The last stipulation for this list is that all of these cartoons are network cartoons and the reason for this is because like I said earlier, cable channels had the freedom to air cartoons whenever they wanted and they never really put that much focus on Saturday-morning specific cartoons. Usually their Saturday-morning cartoons were just replays of cartoons they showed at other times. With that stipulation in place this is why you won’t see Teen Titans or Codename: Kids Next Door on here. Those were originally Cartoon Network cartoons that made the move over to Kids WB.
If anybody is mad about these stipulations I’m sorry, but honestly, I put them in place because if I didn’t then I would have just gone on and on about every single cartoon I remember watching as a kid. Originally this was supposed to be a single post, but halfway through writing it I realized I watched a lot of television growing up. Maybe once I finish with Saturday morning cartoons I’ll revisit this idea and do tribute posts to Sunday-morning cartoons or after school cartoons. I have been meaning to do more posts dedicated to specific individual series but since this is a one-man-operation and in order to do those write ups I’d have to watch every single episode of a series as well as do extensive research into their production histories that’s just too ambitious and time-consuming of a content strategy for me right now.
I do want to say one more thing and that is I’m sorry if my lists seem a bit disorganized. At first, I was thinking of grouping these shows by year or network that broadcast them but between a lot of these cartoons being sold into syndication so quickly and airing on other channels and me not being able to remember where they first aired or not having the time to look them all up I figure I’m better off just throwing them out there when they pop into my head.
Anyway, enjoy part 1 of my look back at the Saturday Morning Cartoons of my youth.
The Real Ghostbusters
The first cartoon on my list was my favorite cartoon as a kid and that is The Real Ghostbusters. Based on the 1984 movie, Ghostbusters film, the word “Real” was added to the title due to a dispute with Filmation and its Ghost Busters properties. Spanning 140 episodes over seven seasons, and spawning an incredibly successful toyline, two ongoing comic book series, as well as a tie-in drink with Hi-C you could say The Real Ghostbusters was pretty successful.
Like the movie it was based on, The Real Ghostbusters followed Peter Venkman, Egon Spengler, Ray Stantz, and Winston Zeddmore as they work to rid their city of ghosts, demons, and other supernatural phenomena
I remember as a kid I would watch this show religiously whenever it was on. Whether it was the new episodes that would always make their first appearances on Saturday or the syndication broadcasts before and after school or on Sundays. I was always in front of the TV watching it. Even after production for it ended, and it became syndicated filler on the USA Cartoon Express I would still find myself glued to the television watching it.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, if you were raised in the ’80s/early ’90s you know Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello, and Michelangelo. Based on the independent comic book by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle cartoon was more lighthearted than the source material but nonetheless it still led to the creation of one the most popular cartoons of the late 20th century resulting in not only the creation of a successful toy and merchandise line but also countless parodies and jokes as well as a whole genre of cartoons of anthropomorphic animals who had some theme or gimmick to make them appeal to kids.
Once I started growing out of The Real Ghostbusters I got really into Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and like The Real Ghostbusters I had so many of the toys and I watched it religiously. Looking back, I think the success of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was its downfall. By 1990 the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon was being shown daily on more than 125 television stations, on top of that with its merchandise being so successful you couldn’t go anywhere without seeing Turtles’ names and faces. With so much overexposure it was no surprise that people grew bored and they eventually faded into obscurity. While the Turtles have been exposed to new generations thanks to 3 cartoon reboots, a CGI film in 2007, 2 Michael Bay-produced films, and an ongoing comic book series, I really feel that the Turtles haven’t been able to recapture the same success that they once had in the late ’80s and ’90s
Batman: The Animated Series
I’m sure you’ve probably read this before on countless other sites but Batman: The Animated Series really changed how people viewed cartoons. While most people saw cartoons as extended and glorified toy commercials, Batman: The Animated Series changed up the game with its dark tones, mature themes, complex stories and sophisticated characters. This led to Batman: The Animated Series topping several greatest cartoon/animated show listicles across the internet and print. Batman: The Animated Series also set the stage for the DC Animated Universe almost a decade and a half before Marvel came along with the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
When Batman: The Animated Series premiered I was really into Batman due to the fact that Batman Returns had just come out and I really loved that movie as a kid. However, I was a bit turned off from the Animated Series due to the fact that there were certain style differences between it and the Tim Burton movies that I couldn’t overlook. Also, I wasn’t fully able to appreciate it at the time due to my young age which made the storylines and character development way too complex for me to comprehend. On top of that Batman: The Animated Series quickly became a weekday syndicated cartoon and an integral part of Fox Kid’s afterschool programming. After seeing the same episodes over and over again so soon it was no surprised that I lost interest in it quite quickly.
X-Men
Batman: The Animated Series wasn’t the only successful comic book-based series Fox had in the ’90s, they also had X-Men. Based on the comic book of the same name, X-Men followed the titular X-Men as they worked to establish a peaceful existence between mutants and non-powered humans.
Even in today’s world it can be difficult to accurately adapt a comic book for television or even movies. However, the writers of X-Men found a way and even though a few liberties had to be taken here and there in order properly adapt it for television, X-Men the cartoon was pretty faithful to the comic book resulting in in-depth and meaningful storylines, and complex characters with deep backgrounds that viewers could empathize with and feel connected to. Throughout its 50+ year existence, the X-Men comic has been known to address real life social issues, either subtly through metaphors or through straight explicit messages and the writers were very successful in translating this to television
Like Batman: The Animated Series the meaning behind X-Men was something I never recognized or understood until I got older. As an adult with an English degree I’ve learned to analyze and recognize these better and I’m glad I was able to eventually recognize the hidden meaning behind X-Men. Also, I feel watching X-Men as a kid is what got me into reading comic books when I got older. As I’ve said in previous posts I’ve always had a fascination with fictional worlds and characters and I always loved reading made up facts on their backstories. With X-Men having such a long and diverse history behind it I was instantly led into a very long and dark informational black hole.
Fox’s Peter Pan & the Pirates
One of Fox’s first attempts at children’s programming, Fox’s Peter Pan & the Pirates followed Peter Pan, the Darling children and other Lost Boys’ adventures in Neverland. In this series, the focus is placed not just on Peter but also his Lost Boys, Captain Hook and his crew, and other inhabitants of Neverland all of which were given distinct personalities and character development. On top of that, you also have the legendary Tim Curry with his deep booming voice playing Captain Hook.
Where on Earth Is Carmen Sandiego?
Based on the educational computer game series of the same name, Where on Earth Is Carmen Sandiego? Followed the exploits of ACME agents, and brother/sister detective team Ivy and Zack as they chase down international thief, Carmen Sandiego who in true cartoon villain form would begin every episode stealing some historical treasure or artifact, and leaving behind an important clue which would help the protagonists recover whatever it is she stole by the end of the episode.
Since Where on Earth is Carmen Sandiego? was based on an educational computer game, it’s no surprise that the series was stuffed with information, whether it’s historical background on the artifact Carmen Sandiego stole, information about her clue, or information about the places Ivy and Zack were chasing her to.
To add a bit of meta to Where on Earth is Carmen Sandiego the characters were constantly breaking the fourth wall by asking the player, a faceless child who is watching the adventure unfold on his computer for help as they try to figure things out. This would suggest that the series isn’t really a TV show but an installment in the Carmen Sandiego videogame series.
Spider-Man
With the X-Men cartoon being so successful it’s no surprise that Marvel/Fox Kids would attempt to replicate that success with another successful property, Spider-Man. Spider-Man followed Peter Parker who after getting bit by a radioactive spider gains superhuman powers which he uses to fight crime as Spider-Man while at the same time trying to juggle his life as a superhero with his personal life as Peter Parker.
While X-Men was produced by Saban, Spider-Man was produced by Marvel Films Animation resulting in a look that was very distinctive and separate between the two sister series. However, like X-Men, Spider-Man was known for its deep character development and complex storylines, many of which were adaptations of actual comic book storylines.
Fun fact: the theme song for Spider-Man was performed by Joe Perry of Aerosmith.
The Tick
Another comic book-based cartoon (Fox used a lot of comic book when they were looking at ideas for children’s cartoons in the ’90s), The Tick followed the titular Tick and his sidekick Arthur as they fight crime in their unnamed city
Like the comic book, The Tick was basically a giant comedic parody of traditional superhero comic book, in fact, I actually remember an episode where Tick tries to up his superhero game by trying to reinvent both himself and Arthur by adding a wide variety of superhero tropes and gimmicks to their image as well as by going out and buying all kinds of equipment and gear that made up other superheroes’ arsenals.
When it came out the The Tick was well received and appealed to both children and older audiences, and while the animated series only lasted 3 years we would eventually get 2 more live-action The Tick series in 2001 and 2016.
Silver Surfer
Another Marvel-based animated series, Silver Surfer followed the titular Silver Surfer adventures through outer space.
Like Fox’s other Marvel-based cartoons Silver Surfer was known for its sophisticated writing which utilized a serialized storytelling approach that saw the Silver Surfer encounter a myriad of social and political issues as he explored the galaxy.
One of the most notable features of Silver Surfer was its blending of cel and computer animation which gave it a visual style reminiscent of the Surfer’s creator, Jack Kirby’s art style.
Running for only one 13-episode season, the series was said to be cancelled due to a legal dispute between Marvel and Saban Entertainment.
Godzilla: The Series
A continuation of the 1998 Godzilla movie starring Matthew Broderick, Godzilla: The Series followed Dr. Nick Tatapoulos and his research team as they traveled the world investigating giant mutant monsters and other odd phenomena. To protect them from hostile monsters, Tatapoulos and his team were accompanied by Godzilla, a surviving offspring from the movie Godzilla who had imprinted on Tatapoulos as a parent.
Godzilla: The Series I feel came from a trend where television producers and writers when looking for ideas would turn to movies for the basis of their show and build on that either making the television version a continuation or a soft reboot.
While better received than the movie, Godzilla: The Series was unfortunately overlooked due to the Pokemon/Digimon war that was fought between Fox Kids and Kids’ WB. Godzilla was constantly having its timeslot shifted around in order to accommodate the showing of more episodes of Digimon, before being taken off the schedule entirely to accommodate new shows for the midseason. Due to this it’s no surprise that Godzilla-fans would be alienated by the constant timeslot changes causes them to lose interest and resulting in Godzilla being cancelled after two seasons with two episodes being left unaired.
Beast Machines: Transformers
A continuation of Beast Wars: Transformers which itself was a sequel to the ’80s Transformers cartoon, Beast Machines followed Optimus Primal and the surviving Maximals returning to Cybertron following the Beast Wars on prehistoric Earth. Upon their return they discover that due to complications while traveling through time, their enemy Megatron had returned before them and taken over the planet, enslaving the population and hunting them down with his army of mindless Vehicon drones. After gaining new transforming abilities Optimus Primal and the Maximals work to liberate Cybertron from Megatron’s rule and bring balance to the universe by introducing an organic element to the completely mechanized planet of Cybertron.
I got into Beast Machines just because I was a Transformers fan and all I can say about it is that compared to its predecessors it was weird because it was such a radical departure from the style used in previous Transformers series. Unlike past series the storytelling was more serialized and linear and had more mature elements than what you would expect from a kids’ cartoon.
Beast Machines served as the final installment of the Generation 1 cartoon era and while I found it cool that they revisited ideas and elements from the original Generation 1 cartoon that I didn’t know about at the time because those episodes weren’t rebroadcast during the Generation 2 era of the cartoon, the way they approached them was a bit bonkers, deifying certain elements and figures and despite the fact that Beast Wars/Beast Machines took place just 300 years after the original Generation 1 cartoon, it treated those stories like they were mythos.
One that thing that really bugged me with Beast Machines is the way they handled the transformations. While the Vehicons as machines were able to transform somewhat realistically or at the very least in a style reminiscent of past iterations of Transformers, the Maximals on the other just glowed in a ball of light to transform and in many cases the beast and robot modes were so different from each other. I get it, there are limitations with animation and using tricks like mass shifting while highly criticized by most Transformers fans as cheating is there way to get around it but the whole glowing ball of light just took things too far and it’s no surprise that the toys from Beast Machines were highly criticized for being so different from the cartoon. From what I heard, part of the reason for this is because while basic concept sketches were made of the characters both the toys and cartoon were developed independently from one another which is why there is so little resemblance between them.
Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot
Based on the Dark Horse comic of the same name by Frank Miller, Big Guy and Rusty the Robot followed the robotic BGY-11 AKA Big Guy and Rusty, the most advanced robot ever built as they defend the world against alien and domestic threats. While most of the world thought of Big Buy as a robot, in reality it was really a highly advanced battle suit piloted by Air Force Lieutenant Dwayne Hunter, who posed as Big Guy’s chief mechanic. In the first episode it is shown that while Rusty was built to replace Big Guy, Rusty’s inexperience and his programming which gave him the personality of a young child made him unable to defend the world on his own requiring the reactivation of the Big Guy.
Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot was actually a pretty cool cartoon that had the right mix of humor, action, and mature elements that made it really appealing, and while it was initially cancelled after six episodes Fox Kids would bring it back a year later, for their weekday-afternoon programming and showing the rest of the series before ending it on an unresolved cliffhanger.
The Avengers: United They Stand
Another comic-book based cartoon, this 1 followed the Avengers, “Earth’s Mightiest Superheroes” in typical superhero fashion as they saved the world from a variety of threats.
Premiering in 1999, The Avengers: United They Stand came at a weird time. From what I understand it was created in response to the success of Kids WB’s Batman Beyond and because of this it was given this mix of future and contemporary looks. However, at the time, interest in comic book-based properties was in a bit of a decline. All the other Marvel-based cartoons including the highly successful X-Men and Spider-Man animated series had all ended, and the X-Men movie which basically restarted the whole interest in comic books in the early 2000s was still a few months away. Even for DC, interest wasn’t there since. While Avengers was created as a counter to Batman Beyond, that was the only comic book series that DC/Kids WB had going on at the time. The follow up to Batman: The Animated Series, The New Batman Adventures had ended, and Superman: The Animated Series while technically not cancelled yet was on hiatus and DC’s recent attempts at superhero movies, Steel and Batman and Robin both failed spectacularly at the box and at generating interest in comic books again. Given the times it’s no surprise that The Avengers: United They Stand wouldn’t last long, running for a single 13-episode season. It probably didn’t help that the show’s lineup of Avengers was made up of B-list characters that casual superhero fans probably didn’t recognize due to the Avengers’ “Big Three” Captain America, Iron Man, and Thor being unavailable to use due licensing issues. Although Captain America and Iron man would make guest appearances in one episode each while Thor was shown in the opening title sequence.
Digimon
Digimon followed a group of kids who while away at summer camp get sucked into a parallel universe called the “Digital World,” after finding these small machines called “Digivices”, there they learn they have been chosen to be the “DigiDestined”, and are each partnered with their own unique “Digimon,” creatures native to the Digital World who using the powers of the Digivices were able to “Digivolve” into stronger, more powerful forms. The kids and their Digimon partners use their abilities to save the Digital World from evil Digimon and find a way back home. After returning to their world the kids discover that the barrier between their world and the Digital World has broken down and evil Digimon are crossing over into their world. The kids and their Digimon then work to send the evil Digimon home and repair the barriers between worlds, before returning to the Digital World and liberating it from a group of evil Digimon who have seized power while they were away.
The second season of Digimon pretty much followed the same formula as season one. Taking place four years later it saw the original DigiDestined passing the torch to a new group of kids who travel to the Digital World and acquire their own Digivices and partner Digimon. This new group of DigiDestined must save the Digital World from Ken, a DigiDestined who had been corrupted and was enslaving Digimon so he could rule the Digital World. After defeating and reforming Ken, the DigiDestined worked to rebuild the Digital World while facing the forces that had corrupted Ken. These forces break down the barrier between the human and Digital World once again, allowing Digimon to crossover and wreak havoc in the human world. The DigiDestined along with other DigiDestined from around the world work together to send the Digimon back to Digital World as well as repair the barriers separating the two worlds before finally facing Myotismon, the evil Digimon who had really been responsible for all that had happened. Following the defeat of Myotismon the series ends by skipping ahead 25 years later and explaining what became of both the original and new DigiDestined.
They say imitation is the most sincerest form of flattery and like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles which birthed a whole new genre for kids’ entertainment, creating countless parodies and ripoffs, the success of Pokemon led to the same thing happening with Digimon becoming one of the more successful ripoffs. However, some might argue that Digimon wasn’t exactly a ripoff of Pokemon, instead it was supposed to be an attempt at capitalizing on the success and popularity of the virtual/digital pet craze of the ’90s. In fact, the name “Digimon” which is a shortened form of “Digital Monster” actually came from the Digital Monster toy from Bandai, a masculine version of the Tamagotchi which at first I thought was unisex but was actually a toy marketed towards girls.
I remember watching Digimon as a kid and given how season 2 ended I thought that was it for the series. I was a bit surprised when Fox Kids advertised a season three which got really metafictional because rather than be a true sequel it actually treated seasons 1 and 2 of Digimon as a cartoon/cardgame/videogame that existed in the season 3 universe. The whole metafiction angle of season three quickly turned me off the series once I saw that the reason they went this way is because the Digimon cardgame in the series was the big key needed for Digimon to Digivolve and augment their abilities in the series and I knew this was just a giant trick to get kids to buy the trading cards.
One thing I really remember about Digimon as it was aimed against Pokemon was that it boasted that they had more creatures than Pokemon. And while it was true since at the time Pokemon was still on their originally 150, Digimon cheated because their answer to having more creatures would be to take existing Digimon and give them a theme or extra defining attribute and just a prefix to their names based on that extra detail and call it a brand new Digimon.
Mega Man
A superhero series that instead of being based on a comic book was instead based on a video game series, Mega Man took place in the 21st century and saw Dr. Wily, an evil robotics scientist attempt to take over the world with his army of Robot Masters. In response to this, Dr. Light, Dr. Wily’s former partner turned rival rebuilds his robot son, Rock into Mega Man to combat Dr. Wily and stop his plans for world domination.
As a kid I was really, into robots and video games, and so Mega Man, a show based on a video game series about robots was my dream come to life. One thing that I really hated about Mega Man though was how a lot of the robots throughout the series were given flesh-colored faces. Even though this is a cartoon it just destroyed the whole illusion that these guys are robots to me and even though I knew better it just gave me the impression that instead of robots, Mega Man and the robot masters were just people in high tech suits or super-powered mutants like in X-Men.
Despite being highly successful, Mega Man only lasted two seasons. According to my sources the decision to cancel was either due to budget problems or was ordered by Capcom who was under pressure from their toy partner, Bandai who was unhappy with the performance of their Mega Man-based toys and merchandise.
Cybersix
Based on the Argentinian comic strip of the same name, Cybersix follows a female android who by day poses as male high school teacher, Adrian Seidelman while at night she dons a leather costume and defends the city of Meridiana from her creator’s other creations, such as the Frankenstein-like monsters called “Fixed Ideas.”
Originally planned to take place over two seasons, Cybersix was cancelled due to conflicts with the production studios, this was a shame because the series’ backstory was quite interesting and I wish they explored it more even though the cartoon had to tone down some of the darker aspects in order to make it more appealing to kids.
Following the end of World War II, surviving Nazi-scientist Doctor Von Reichter escapes to South America to continue his experiments to create an army of supersoldiers. There, he creates the Cyber Series, 5000 artificial humans with superhuman strength and speed. Von Reichter planned to use the Cyber Series as slaves but due to the fact that he also gave them human emotions and free will, they disobeyed him and he ordered them all destroyed. Only two members of the Cyber Series survived their destruction, Cyber 6 who was able to escape with help from a local slave before fleeing to Meridiana where she stole the identity of a young boy who was killed in a car crash, and Cyber 6’s brother, Cyber 29, who accidentally died while playing with Cyber 6 as children, and had his brain transplanted into a panther’s body and was reborn as Data 7.
I remember when I first saw the previews for Cybersix, I at first dismissed it as just another superhero cartoon and almost passed on it. However, I forget why but I ended up watching a few episodes of it and I actually enjoyed it for a variety of reasons. One: the animation style, while seeming a bit a crude at first, actually fit the cartoon quite well as it gave it an almost comic book feel which was pretty appropriate given the source material. Two: Meridiana, the city where the cartoon took place looked way different than the urban-metropolis most superhero cartoons took place in, instead it had an architecture-style reminiscent of a European city like Rome or Venice which gave it a more sophisticated feel. Three: the character dynamics were so different than the ones that came before it. As I stated earlier, despite being female, Cyber 6’s alter ego was male which made her interactions as both Cybersix and Adrian humorous and fascinating to watch especially those between Cyber 6/Adrian and her love interest, Lucas Amato. Then there were the villains. Despite Cyber 6’s main villain being her creator, Von Reichter she rarely dealt with him, instead Cyber 6 dealt with Reichter’s clone-son Jose, a 6-year old sociopath, who added just the right amount of craziness and humor to his character.
Monster Rancher
Another Pokemon ripoff, or maybe a Digimon ripoff? Monster Rancher was based on the videogame of the same name and both the cartoon and videogame were pretty much a mishmash of themes and ideas from both Digimon and Pokemon.
After winning a Monster Rancher tournament, Genki Sakura is given a special disc which would unlock a special monster when placed in his game console. However, instead of unlocking a new monster for his game the disc transports Genki into the world of Monster Rancher where humans and monsters coexist. There he meets Holly, a young girl on a quest to find the disk that contains the Phoenix, a legendary monster which she can use to fight against Moo, an evil monster who is leading an army of evil monsters in an uprising against the human race.
If you look at the overall idea behind the Monster Rancher games you’ll probably assume that it is as close as you can get to ripping off Pokemon without getting sued. Although while Pokemon followed the standard RPG formula of sending the protagonist on a quest, Monster Rancher was more like an animal breeding simulator, where the focus was placed on raising and and training the monsters for battle.
Like Digimon, Monster Rancher tried to prove itself superior to Pokemon by boasting that they had more monsters, however like Digimon, Monster Rancher did this by just creating variants of the same monsters.
As a kid I remember watching Monster Rancher and while I found it interesting to watch it wasn’t long before I grew bored of it since it was sold into syndication rather quickly. In Japan, the Monster Rancher cartoon was produced as two different series, The Secret of the Stone Disk for episodes 1-48, and the Legendary Path for episodes 49-73. I’m not sure if this was due to production or licensing issues but Fox Kids only got the first series at first and while 48 episodes might seem like enough to keep kids entertained until they could get the rest of the episodes it didn’t help that Fox Kids spammed the hell out of it showing it in one-hour blocks at a time. Seeing the same episodes over and over again without resolving the storyline, it was no surprise that I became turned-off from the series to the point that when Fox Kids finally got the rest of the series I was too burned out to care and quickly skipped over it.
Spider-Man Unlimited
While covering the launch of a space shuttle mission intended to send astronauts to a newly discovered planet on the far side of the sun, Spider-Man sees his enemies, Venom and Carnage trying to sneak aboard the shuttle. Spider-Man tries to stop them but he fails and is blamed when contact with the shuttle is lost resulting in a large bounty placed on his head. When the lost astronauts finally contact Earth, Spider-Man sees this as a chance to redeem himself and after acquiring a new costume and weapons from Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four and with help from Nick Fury of SHIELD, embarks on a mission to rescue the astronauts. After landing on the newly discovered planet dubbed Counter-Earth, Spider-Man discovers that the astronauts are part of a resistance movement against the planet’s ruler, the High Evolutionary and his Beastials, human/animal hybrids that serve as the planets ruling class while normal humans are downgraded to second class citizens. Since the astronauts will not leave until they accomplish their mission and overthrow the High Evolutionary, Spider-Man elects to stay on Counter Earth and help them.
Looking at the style of Spider-Man Unlimited it’s no surprise to see that it was created in response to Batman Beyond. The costume that Spider-Man wore (which I thought looked super cool) was shown being made up of nanotechnology and incorporated a number of high-tech weapons and features while Counter-Earth was depicted as this futuristic dystopia with flying motorcycles and police robots.
As a kid, whenever I saw a TV show or movie that was based on a comic book, I always thought they all existed in their own respective publisher’s universe. It made sense since that’s how the source material worked and also because they would always be doing crossovers and guest spots. Because of this, when I saw the promos for Spider-Man Unlimited I assumed it was a follow-up to the 1994 Spider-Man Animated Series. Since I loved the 1994 Spider-Man series I was instantly interested in Spider-Man Unlimited and while the style seemed so different than what I expected I still enjoyed it
Despite strong ratings, Spider-Man Unlimited was overshadowed by Pokemon and Digimon and was canceled after a single 13-episode season.
Tenko and the Guardians of the Magic
Looking back at Tenko and the Guardians of the Magic all I can say is “what the hell was Saban thinking?” I think the only reason I saw this was because it came on at that 11/11:30 time slot, a time where most channels had already abandoned their Saturday morning cartoons in favor of infomercials, sports or whatever else they showed on weekends and I was just really reluctant to get away from the television.
Tenko and the Guardians of the Magic focused on a fictionalized version of real-life magician Mariko Itakura AKA Princess Tenko. After being accepted into a special magician school to learn real magic, Tenko’s talents impress the school’s master who names her his successor and the guardian of the Tenko Box, a magic wardrobe that contained the Starfire Gems, magic jewels that can give whoever holds them real magical powers. Two other students, the master’s twin grandchildren, Jana and Jason, jealous of Tenko’s success conspire against her and the school’s master and try to steal the Starfire Gems for themselves, successfully stealing two before a struggle between them and the master damages the Tenko Box and scatters the Starfire Gems all over the world. The master then entrusts Tenko and a few of his other, more loyal students with the tasks of finding the Starfire Gems, giving them a few Starfire Gems, he managed to save from getting scattered.
Considering that Tenko and the Guardians of the Magic was produced by Saban Entertainment it’s pretty safe to assume that Saban created this show in an attempt to recreate the success of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers but in something that they could market towards young girls. With that being said it’s no surprise that Tenko was filled with all the tropes you would expect from a sentai show, especially one that has been westernized.
In typical cartoon ’90s cartoon fashion the protagonist group led by Tenko was an interracial group with each member adhering to a stereotype or trope that almost every cartoon with an interracial group followed.
You have Princess Tenko, the leader, and the only Asian member of the group who aside from being the most talented magician also has the ability to summon the ghosts of animals in battle.
Bolt, a white guy from Chicago who is portrayed as the group’s joker.
Hawk, a Native American, who as you probably expected had a spiritual connection to nature.
And finally, there was Steel, a black guy who was portrayed as the group’s scholar.
You also had Ali, a hot-headed teenage white girl who aspired to join Tenko’s group as a full member but her youth and lack of maturity kept her from doing so which left her regulated to being an apprentice and being the one that the bad guys would kidnap in almost every episode.
Even by ’90s standards Tenko and the Guardians of the Magic wasn’t that great and failed to catch on with audiences causing it to be cancelled after a single season.
NASCAR Racers
You read that correctly, there was a cartoon about NASCAR. Honestly, I’m not sure if this was Fox’s attempt at generating interest in NASCAR since it predates NASCAR on Fox by about two years. I’m guessing it might have been considering how negotiations for big deals like that can take a long time. Although, I won’t be surprised if the idea for NASCAR Racers, was either thought up by some guy who was either a die-had NASCAR fan or just came up with it while channel surfing and stumbling across a NASCAR race on TV.
NASCAR Racers focused on two NASCAR teams, Team Fastex and Team Rexcor as the compete against each other to win the series’ championship while also participating in all kinds of weird storylines and adventures between and sometimes during races. While Team Fastex followed the rules and relied on their skills to win, Team Rexcor on the other hand was more than willing to do whatever it took to win.
If this plot sounds familiar it’s pretty much the same thing as the Michel Vailiant cartoon which was brought here and broadcast on the Family Channel as Heroes on Hot Wheels.
To make the show more appealing to kids, rather than having it take place in modern times, NASCAR Racers took place sometime in the future which was the basic explanation of why they did all this crazy stuff like driving on a track that had them going upside down or up walls or went off-road and mountain racing despite the fact that they don’t do any of that stuff in NASCAR. Taking place in the future also served as the explanation of why the cars had things like grappling hooks and jet turbines in them or why one of them transformed into a jet. To further try to attract kids’ attention all the drivers were known by a nickname rather than their real names, like fighter pilots and their call signs. Some of these nicknames include “Charger,” “Spitfire,” “Stunts,” “The Collector,” and “Spector.”
This is probably a good place to stop. Like I said earlier, originally, I planned to do just one giant blog on all the cartoons I remember seeing as a kid, but then when I started writing this out I realized I watched way too much television as a kid and there was just way too much to cover in one post.
Thanks for reading and don’t forget to check back for more.
