Step aside Breakfast Club, it's TMNT time

June 17, 2005 6:10 PM

The 80's Toon Archive with opening themes for your favorite cartoon shows.
posted by chime (35 comments total)

What, no theme to the Snorks?
posted by drmarcj at 6:18 PM on June 17, 2005

Wow, Might Orbots! I'd been trying to think of the name of that show for years!
posted by sklero at 6:19 PM on June 17, 2005

um, Mighty Orbots, I mean.
posted by sklero at 6:20 PM on June 17, 2005

Where's Kung-Foo Rooster?
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 6:22 PM on June 17, 2005

My name is Edymnion, and I was born in 1981. I grew up in what may very well be the greatest decade for Saturday morning cartoons in history.

You're damn straight, kid. Great link, chime. Question: does anyone know the name of the show that had forest creatures all living together in a tree, in a city I think, and they had surveillance capabilities to see what was going on in the city (the tree was in a park, I think).
posted by billysumday at 6:22 PM on June 17, 2005

wow. amazing the crap that entertained us in our youth.
posted by gnutron at 6:25 PM on June 17, 2005

Well, I'm way too old for this thread. I think I'll go see if I can find a John Noakes website, I think. And by the way, William Hartnell was the only Dr. Who.

Nurse! Where's my Sanatogen?!
posted by Decani at 6:25 PM on June 17, 2005

billysumday, that sounds like Rescue Rangers. They have Rainbow Brite. I forgot that I used to watch that. I used to love Thundarr the Barbarian. Ah, good times. Good times.
posted by nooneyouknow at 6:41 PM on June 17, 2005

One banana, two banana, three banana, four.
posted by DeepFriedTwinkies at 6:43 PM on June 17, 2005

That was the seventies, DFT. God, the eighties sucked.
posted by jonmc at 6:45 PM on June 17, 2005

billysumday: does anyone know the name of the show that had forest creatures...

Shirt Tails?
posted by chime at 6:45 PM on June 17, 2005

Shirt Tales sounds about right. Rescue Rangers was mostly rodents, as I recall.

Great link; sure brings back memories. Seeing Mysterious Cities of Gold on there has me shaking my fist that there's no official Region 1 DVD set of that series out. Bah.
posted by May Kasahara at 6:53 PM on June 17, 2005

Definitely Shirt T-t-t-tales! That show had an orangutan that did a bad Humphrey Bogart impression. (I think it was even called "Bogey.") And some pandas, too, which, to my recollection, did not do impressions.
posted by Dr. Wu at 6:59 PM on June 17, 2005

jonmc, I hate to disagree, but I think they started in the 60's. Which were even worse, except for Lancelot Link, Secret Chimp. Even though they were monkeys and not animation.
posted by DeepFriedTwinkies at 7:01 PM on June 17, 2005

Oh man M.A.S.K. I had completely forgotten how well that cartoon had worked its marketing magic on me. My favourite toy of all time was from that show - an aqua-blue 57 chev that turned into a tank!
posted by Popular Ethics at 7:04 PM on June 17, 2005

Well crap, Lancelot Link premiered in September, 1970, so I have no idea about anything. I'll just go watch Gumby and shut up.

80's cartoons did suck though.
posted by DeepFriedTwinkies at 7:04 PM on June 17, 2005

Popular Ethics, I had that chevy too! Holy jesus! That was THE BEST TOY. Missiles fired out of the headlights! That thing was a revolution! That and the TMNT pizzamobile.
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 7:40 PM on June 17, 2005

I enjoyed viewing "Starblazers". Haven't seen that in a long time. My all time fav was Gigantor, however...
posted by sirvesa at 7:41 PM on June 17, 2005

No Spartakus and the Sun Beneath the Sea, either.
posted by Captaintripps at 7:42 PM on June 17, 2005

I am so pissed Kidd Video requires Real Player.
posted by sourwookie at 7:49 PM on June 17, 2005

Wow! I can’t believe they have the Wuzzles in there! I forgot all about that show! (Then again, maybe that was a good thing….)
posted by Nematoda at 8:07 PM on June 17, 2005

I'm wondering if one can actually describe viewing opening credits from low-budget cartoon shows as "Proustian." There seems to be some kind of cognitive dissonance there.

::: remembered the Bucky O'Hare theme for no apparent reason :::
posted by Johnny Assay at 10:01 PM on June 17, 2005

Regarding MASK, I loved my motorcycle that turned into a helicopter.

The electronic roar in the Thundercats theme song is my favorite sound of all time... but Jem is truly outrageous.
posted by grimcity at 10:02 PM on June 17, 2005

I've been thinking about Kidd Video for years; it's amazing to see the intro again now. But man, that was like the first 10 minutes of the show. Intros were so much longer back then.

And M.A.S.K. kicks ass, even today. The military can't get the Osprey to work, and those guys had a helicopter that turned into a jet! Awesome.
posted by Admiral Haddock at 10:05 PM on June 17, 2005

This is useless with the Drac-pac. At least they had Tigersharks, though.
posted by Poagao at 10:38 PM on June 17, 2005

Willo the Wisp!! I'm not crazy! Thank you chime!!
posted by hammurderer at 10:55 PM on June 17, 2005

It has Denver the Last Dinosaur, so it gets my thumbs up.

He's my friend and a whole lot more.
posted by unsupervised at 11:14 PM on June 17, 2005

Of course, there's this one, too. But thanks for a new resource!
posted by blendor at 11:34 PM on June 17, 2005

wow, along with all my old favorites I can't believe I was able to see The Littles intro again and I was surprised to find that I still remember the theme song to The Wuzzles. Simply amazing.

reminds me, I should check out how x-entertainment is doing these days.

thanks for the awesome link :)
posted by freudianslipper at 5:00 AM on June 18, 2005

Super Ted seemed took make more sense when I was a kid.

This is a story about an ordinary Teddy Bear. When he was made they found something wrong with him and threw him away like a piece of rubbish into an old dark storeroom. Then, from outer space, a spotty man brought him to life with his cosmic dust. He took him to a magic cloud where Mother Nature gave him special powers. That bear became Super Ted.

Yeah.
posted by freudianslipper at 5:39 AM on June 18, 2005

... a ruthless terrorist organization determined to rule the world ... Why do I feel like I've had a strangely brainwashed childhood when I watch that. I love how the word 'freedom' occurs amongst numerous chunky explosions. Anyway - Spiral Zone - sweet, I've been looking for that theme for ages! As someone else said, it's strange mixed feelings to watch these advertisements for crappy plastic toys in the light of (theoretical) adulthood. I liked my jeep that spat out a boat!
posted by ginbiafra at 9:12 AM on June 18, 2005

My name is Edymnion, and I was born in 1981

I feel old now.

LOVED Kidd Video, but where's Pac-Man?
posted by SisterHavana at 9:26 AM on June 18, 2005

These bring up all sorts of interesting feelings.
One of which being that I am convinced, absolutely, that the people who created many of these were batshit insane.
Robotech theme whipped my heart rate up nicely, though.
thanks a lot.
and the lack of Tranzor Z didn't really bother me a whit. (audio of beginning, but terrible website dedicated to a truly appalling giant robot show.
posted by Busithoth at 9:47 AM on June 18, 2005

the site seems to be password protected.
posted by scalz at 1:33 PM on June 18, 2005

They got bandwitdth problems.......................
posted by lloyder at 7:45 AM on June 22, 2005