The Ultimate 1983 Saturday Morning Cartoon Lineup

Hey guys, this is Rob Paulson, and you're listening

to the GeekCast Radio Network. Hey there, Tom

Ruger here, and you are tuned into ToonCast.

Beyond good, beyond evil, beyond your wildest

imagination. Optimus Solo, what are you doing

here? I'm always here. Yes, yes. In the background.

Yes, just now I was talking. Yes, yes. This is

ToonCast. And this is going to be a clip that

plays in front of ToonCast episode 293 to 299.

Because apparently you've created a third personality

or a second personality for yourself. You're

just now another 80s geek or something like that.

There's this guy I know. He's called Just Another

80s Geek. And he's got this video thing that

he does on the YouTubes and things like that.

So, yeah, it's called Geek Showcase. It's a chance

to highlight all things geeky in a video form.

So, branching out from just audio. So, this will

be a chance for you to see all kinds of geeky

things, whether they be toys. whether it be just

graphics on the screen with top ten lists and

things of that nature, opening packs of cards,

going through geeky memorabilia, knickknacks,

paddywhacks, give -a -dog -a -bones, anything

like that. So, yes, you should check out the

YouTube channel Geek Showcase. But to give you

guys kind of a feel for what kind of stuff goes

there, minus the visual part, we're also giving

it to you in... Audio form right here on ToonCast

and Podcast. That's right. So if you hear Kevin

say something like, you can see this on the screen.

It's because this was originally a video where

he would put up his diagram of his ultimate Saturday

morning cartoon lineup. And you are starting,

this is why we're starting in episode 293 to

299, because those are the next episodes I had

available. And you were starting with 1983 all

the way up to 1989 and going through basically

your ultimate Saturday morning cartoon lineup.

Yeah, basically I've seen a lot of people post

stuff on social media over the years, whether

it be Twitter or Instagram or Facebook. And they

always have like, ooh, the best cartoon lineup

or this lineup versus this lineup. Or they do

drafts or they do different things. So I thought

I was going to do my take on that basically.

So I've created a list for each year from 1983

to 1989. I explain on the records here why I

don't do 80, 81 and 82, but just real quickly,

it's just too hard. There's not enough cartoons

out yet for them to do those years. So it starts

in 1983, goes to 1989. There's a bunch of rules

that I outline in record. So you'll have to listen

to that mainly in the 1983 record. I won't do

that as much in the subsequent episodes. If you

want the dirt on how these lists were developed,

you have to listen to the 1983 episode first.

All right. Well, That's going to do it, and let

the show begin. Yay! There we go. Hello, this

is Just Another 80s Geek, and you are watching

The Geek Showcase, where today we have a special

episode for you. We are doing a hybrid episode.

It is part list geek and part cartoon geek. So

let me explain. Today we are unveiling a new

project that's going to be seven episodes long.

And today is episode one, and this is going to

be what I'm going to call the ultimate Saturday

morning cartoon lineup. So we've seen this done

all over the place on social media, Facebook,

Twitter, Instagram, wherever, where people put

a picture together of their ultimate Saturday

morning cartoon lineup, time slots, etc., where

they have anywhere from probably five to ten

cartoons listed. And I've seen that, and I've

always wanted to do it my own way. So that is

what we're going to start today, and I'm going

to do it slightly different. So for me, this

is only going to include the 1980s, because I

feel like when people include more than the 80s,

90s, 70s, 2000s, etc., etc., it just gets too,

the pool is too big, and it's just a random selection

of their favorite cartoons, which is fine and

all, but I wanted to do things a little bit different.

So today... We're starting a journey through

the 1980s Saturday morning cartoon lineups. What

I mean by that is I have constructed a lineup,

seven different lineups, all right? And in order

for a show to be listed on here, it had to have

had episodes that aired for the first time in

the 1980s, all right? So if I'm just pulling

out a year here, so if I'm doing 1985, it can

only include cartoons that aired new episodes

in 1985. I cheat a couple times, but we'll get

to that later on. What I've also done is because

I am a list geek, I have tried to arrange it

in a certain way. So what we're going to do is

we're going to start at the 8 o 'clock time slot,

and we're going to do a cartoon every half hour

until we get to noon, basically. So we're going

to have an 8 a .m., 8 .30, 9, 9 .30, 10, 10 .30,

and 11 and 11 .30. So eight cartoons per year.

All right. In order for me to make this work,

I had to fudge it a little bit. So we're not

going to be doing anything that is 1980, 81,

or 82. Why? Because it took a few years to build

up the amount of cartoons that were new to the

1980s in order to get something. So I couldn't

really start it until 1983. The 1980 -81 list

would have been just basically every cartoon

that aired that year because... I'm not including

anything that debuted prior to 1980. So if it

debuted in 1975, 78, 79, I can't count it on

any of these lists. So they had to be new to

the 80s, and they had to be airing new episodes

in that year. So that is why I'm not doing 81

and 82. So we're going to do 1983 through 1989,

seven lineups. And just to elevate it another

step, I have designated each slot with a theme.

So all of the shows that air at 8 o 'clock are

going to fit into a theme. All of the shows that

air at 8 .30 are going to fit into a theme. And

so on and so forth. And I'm going to maybe leave

it up to you guys to figure out what that theme

is for a few of them. Some of them I'll probably

reveal throughout these episodes, but a couple

of them I want to wait until the end and see

if you guys can reveal what the theme is for

that time slot. So it was tricky for me because

I had to find cartoons that, again, aired new

episodes in that year. that fit a certain theme,

and the last rule is once I used a cartoon, I

could not use it again in a subsequent year.

So if I use something in 1983, I cannot use it

in 84, 85, 86, 87, etc. So that means it's one

and done as far as a cartoon appearance. That

is because I wanted this to be a list that was

really representative of the 1980s as a whole.

So if you take these seven Saturday morning lineups

with eight shows each, that's... 56 shows if

my math is correct. And that is a good representation

of cartoons as a whole in the 1980s, I think.

Trying to get the best of the best here at the

same time of fitting in a theme and things of

that nature. So what we're going to do today

is our first one. So we're going to test it out

here. We are going to throw up the year. It's

1983. And we are going to throw up the time slots.

They're empty at the moment. So there's your

eight time slots. And then we'll reveal one at

a time. And again, you might be scratching your

head at the beginning and saying, why is he picking

this show, or how did that show make the list?

Remember, that theme thing will play a part into

it, and you might figure it out by the end. So,

without further ado, let's start the 1983 Ultimate

Saturday Morning Cartoon lineup! Alright, so

starting off in our 8 o 'clock slots, we have...

And this is kind of a cheat because I'm combining

two shows that were basically very similar. We

are cheating right off the bat because that's

what I do. All right, so 8 o 'clock time slot

belongs to the shows entitled Superbook and The

Flying House. I know that is a little bit of

an obscure place to start, and a lot of you probably

don't know what I'm talking about. But there

was two series, one called The Superbook and

the other called The Flying House. Superbook

came first. It aired 26 episodes in 1981 -82.

And then Flying House came in and aired 52 episodes

from 82 to 83. And then Superbook came back.

This is like a sandwich here. followed by 26

episodes in 1983. So all together, we have 104

episodes in these titles that aired in the 1980s.

So that's a lot of episodes in the 1980s, over

100. This was broadcast on the CBN, which is

the Christian Broadcasting Network. So that's

probably why some of you are not familiar with

it. These are Christian -related shows. And basically,

This is a very early, very early example of anime

in the United States. So obviously anime from

Japan, animation from Japan, that style is existing

in Japan, etc. And later on it would come to

exist in the United States a lot more, and dubbing

and things like that became very popular. Back

in the day, there's not a whole lot of anime

that makes it to the United States. There's a

few here and there, scattered throughout. But

for the 80s, this is a very early example of

that style being shown to audiences from America.

So what Superbook is, is basically it is a show

that follows three individuals. You have Chris

Pieper. and his friend Joy, and then they have

like this clockwork toy figure of some sorts,

and he's named Gizmo the Crusader Robot, which

first of all, who named this character? Gizmo

in the 80s means one thing, right? And you're

going to call it Crusader Robot? And you're an

animated show? Sounds a little bit like maybe

this show, Crusader Rabbit? And third, It's a

religious program, and we're going to put the

name Crusades in it? Crusader? Hmm, questionable.

But anyways, they travel back in time and visit

the Bible stories from the New and the Old Testament,

and they meet those people, and they become part

of the story, and they learn about it, etc. And

Flying House is almost identical. Instead of...

Chris Pieper and Joy, you have Justin and Angie,

and her little brother, I think his name was

Corky, again. Are we naming somebody else Corky

in the 80s? Come on. And instead of Gizmo the

Crusader Robot, the flying house had SIR, S period,

I period, R period, which stands for Solar Ion

Robot. Yeah. But they did the same thing. at

a flying house that went back in time and visited

Bible stories, et cetera, et cetera. So it was

almost the exact same show. Um, even so much

so that it's the same voices, basically Billy

Lou Watt, who some people might recognize from

Astro boy in the 1960s or Kimba, the white lion,

um, does the main voice in both super book and

flying house. And a lot of the other voices are

the exact same crossing over and playing almost

identical parts in the two shows. Um, It's actually

had received a reboot in 2011, and that's been

running for over a decade now, still airing new

episodes. So it's very much still going on. I

haven't seen any of the reboot. I've only seen

the originals, and it's been a long time since

I've seen those. But Superbook and Flying House,

over 100 episodes in the 80s, and it's going

to take our 8 o 'clock time slot for reasons

that might seem weird to you, but will come into

play later. So let's move on, and let's check

out what we've got going on at 8 .30. With our

8 .30 time slot, it should be no doubt that this

show was going to appear somewhere on one of

these lists. The only question was, which year's

lineup was it going to factor into? We are talking

about the iconic 1980s show, The Smurfs. So The

Smurfs aired 258 episodes. And it had new episodes

that aired every single year from 1981 until

1989. So it spans the entire decade. All right.

258 episodes means that it is aired more. It

was the cartoon that aired more episodes in the

1980s than any other. It holds the number one

spot. First place. Most episodes aired in the

80s belongs to the Smurfs. For those of you that

don't know. It aired on NBC. It was a Hanna -Barbera

production based on a Belgian comic series. And

it was actually made for Saturday morning, so

it fits that it's going to be here. Fred Silverman

was the kind of creative mind behind it. I think

the story goes that his daughter had one of the

toys or a figurine or something and said, hey,

this would make a good show. And they turned

it into a cartoon. And crazy enough, it's airing

in our 8 .30 time slot in 1983. Guess what, guys?

Smurfs aired at 8 .30 in the morning on Saturdays

in most places, so we even got the right time

slot. The success of Smurfs, I mean, just the

number of episodes in a year speaks for itself.

Most cartoons don't make it past a year, two

years at the most. If you made it past two years,

you were successful. This one lasted for an entire

decade. Had seven spinoff television specials,

won multiple Emmy Awards, was nominated for a

bunch more. And it is a who's who of voice acting

legends. I mean, granted, 258 episodes, you need

a lot of voices. And there was a lot of different

Smurfs. You know, you had Happy Smurf and Lucky

Smurf and Farmer Smurf and Papa Smurf. And who

else did we have? Lady Smurf, Smurfette, Gargamel.

We had Azrael. There was a ton of Smurfs. And

just I'm going to try to go through this fairly

quickly. Who's who of voice acting legends here?

Charlie Adler, Jack Angel, Michael Bell, Lucille

Bliss, Townsend Coleman, Peter Cullen, Jim Cummings,

Jennifer Darling, June Ferre, Pat Fraley, Linda

Gary, Dick Gaudier, Joan Gerber, Barry Gordon,

Phil Hartman, Bob Holt, Tony Jay, Katie Lee,

Tress McNeil, Ken Mars, Mona Marshall, Julie

McWhitworth, Alan Melvin, Don Messick, Alan Oppenheimer,

Rob Paulson, Vic Perrin, Clive Revel, Robert

Ridgely, Neil Ross, Susan Silo, Hal Smith, Cass

Souce, John Stevenson, George Takei, I know you

recognized a few names on there. If you're big

into cartoons and voice acting, you recognized

all of those. It has had five movies that have

appeared in the last decade. And actually, in

2021, it had a reboot series that aired on Nicktoons.

So Smurfs has been in the... sphere for decades

right smurfs has seems like it's existed forever

this was a show that obviously was aimed towards

a younger audience which um is most of you probably

watched you know pre uh your kindergarten first

grade years probably you know when you're really

young but it has just lived on and on and on

um it's also kind of iconic because it represents

so much in the 80s so it had to be here not only

did it had the most episodes but it also being

on a saturday morning The lineup is important,

not just because it was in a Saturday morning

time slot when it aired, but Smurfs lasted for

basically 10 years. And do you know what took

it out? What took Smurfs out and made it basically

get canceled was because of the shift at NBC

and the death of Saturday morning cartoons. And

I know that's a topic that's been discussed many

times, but the death of Saturday morning cartoons

basically happens when NBC. changes its thought

process, changes its strategy, and starts showing

and moving away from cartoons into a live -action

Saturday morning lineup thanks to the success

of Saved by the Bell. So we have all kinds of

things that start airing on Saturday mornings,

Saved by the Bell, California Dreams, things

like that. And it was Saved by the Bell, the

new class, Saved by the Bell, the college years,

all of the different iterations of that. And

we had this movement to live -action. aimed at

kids live action programming aimed at kids which

really wasn't a thing before and it kind of boots

cartoons off of the channel and it's a trend

that gets followed up with a lot of the other

channels so smurfs the original 1980s powerhouse

is one of the first victims of the saved by the

bell death of the saturday morning cartoon so

definitely Deserves to be mentioned in this.

This is our 8 .30 show, The Smurfs. We're going

to go from 8 .30 to 9 o 'clock with another classic,

and this is going to be none other than Inspector

Gadget. Two powerhouses back -to -back, Smurfs

and Inspector Gadget. Now, Inspector Gadget had

a weird little history because it had a pilot

episode, and then it aired for a season, and

then it went no episodes for a year, then it

came back. Ended up having a total of 86 episodes

in the 1980s, 65 of them in 1983. And then it

came back and had some more in 1985 and 1986.

The reason I said that was weird because a bunch

of the voices got changed and stuff along the

way. There's different voices in the pilot. I

think there's like three or four different voices

for some of these characters. So it's kind of

interesting to go back and hear some of that.

and then some of them got re -edited into different

episodes, so it's a weird voice acting thing.

It was the first syndicated series ever from

Deke, D -I -C, Deke, the company. Most of you

are probably familiar with that. If you are a

cartoon fan, it's created by Andy Hayward, which

I'm sure his name will come up multiple times

during this whole process. There was a partnership

with Nelvana going on there as far as animation

and the work goes. I mean, it's Inspector Gadget.

You've got Inspector Gadget, who is kind of like

that Get Smart slash Inspector Clouseau hybrid

type thing. You've got Penny, his niece, quote

-unquote, and the dog. I'm blanking on the dog's

name for a minute. And then you have, of course,

Dr. Claw and Mad Cat, et cetera. It was great.

The second season aired on Saturday, so again,

it fits here on our Saturday morning time slot

more than maybe some will. It's had multiple

spinoff series. The last one was in 2015. It's

had two live -action films, obviously with Matthew

Broderick. And then going back to the actual

show from the 80s. You had Don Adams. Maxwell

Smart from Get Smart was the voice of Inspector

Gadget, the one they ended up sticking with.

You had Frank Welker, who does Dr. Claw, et cetera.

And, oh, Brain. Brain was the dog's name. See?

My brain kicked in finally. And another interesting

trivia note, this was Cree Summers' first voice

acting gig. Cree Summers is... Don Frank's daughter

and Don Frank was involved in the series, and

Cree got her first voice acting gig in Inspector

Gadget in 1983. She would go on to be one of

the most prolific voice actresses of the 1980s

and 90s, etc. So Inspector Gadget, easy choice,

9 o 'clock time, so it had to be represented.

We're going to go back a little bit less iconic.

We've had Smurfs and Inspector Gadget, 9 .30

time slot. We're going to reverse it a little

bit. So let's see what we get there. That is

going to be the show known as Saturday Supercade.

Saturday Supercade aired 26 episodes from 1983

to 1984. It was produced for Saturday mornings

by Ruby Spears and it aired on CBS. And what

Saturday Supercade was, for those of you that

are not familiar, which I'm guessing are a few.

It was like a video game compilation show. So

it had all these different segments that included

Frogger, Donkey Kong, Pitfall, Q -Bert, Donkey

Kong Jr., Space Ace, Kangaroo. There was all

these different video game entities that... had

little segments, short segments in it. So I think

each show had probably three segments for the

most part, and some of them were more prevalent,

and some of them only appeared every other week

or things of that nature. But that's what you

basically had. You had the voices of Soupy Sales,

Dick Beals, Nancy Cartwright, Peter Cullen, Frank

Welker, Rob Ridgely. So a lot of these, Pat Fraley,

Peter Renaday. I don't think as many people would

recognize or know that this cartoon existed.

But I think it is representative of the 80s for

the reason that it is also kind of shining a

light on the video game craze, which is happening

simultaneously to the cartoon craze of the 80s.

Because cartoons just make this humongous comeback

in the 80s. There's kind of like a dead period

in some of the 60s and the 70s because of all

the different groups that were against violence

and against different things. and that door kind

of got busted down in the 80s with the success

of a lot of the shows that we'll talk about over

this series. And so cartoons just make this huge

comeback in the 80s, and that follows through

in future decades, just like video games are

just breaking the door down in the 80s with the

success of the Nintendo and things of that nature.

So I think it's really important that this kind

of highlights both of those, and it also fits

a theme. So remember what I said about those

themes. You'll have to try to figure out what

that is, but it fits a theme that we're going

to have on our 9 .30 a .m. time slot. All right,

let's move on. We're halfway through. We've got

our first four shows. Let's go to our fifth one,

which is the 10 o 'clock time slot, and we're

going to go to a show called Dungeons & Dragons.

Not the role -playing game, but it is kind of

based on that. But this is a cartoon. Cartoon

version, Dungeons & Dragons. It had 27 episodes,

aired from 1983 to 1985. It was a combination

of TSR and Marvel, and it had toy animation.

Also aired on CBS, just like a couple of the

other ones we've talked about. Interesting note

here, the main writer on Dungeons & Dragons is

a guy by the name of Michael Reeves. and some

of you may remember or be familiar with that

name. He is also the main writer in feature shows

such as Gargoyles on the Disney Channel and Batman

the Animated Series. So Michael Reeves gets a

good portion of the writing here for Dungeons

& Dragons. The show led the time slot as far

as ratings go and everything for two seasons.

It did, though, come under the fire of the National

Coalition of Television Violence. They said that

Dungeons & Dragons, this cartoon, was linked

to real -life violent deaths. We all know that's

a load of crap, but that's what was happening

in the early 80s and the mid -80s where these

groups were very upset and going after these

shows. As far as the voice work, legendary Peter

Cullen, the voice of Optimus Prime, voiced the

bad guy here, Benger. And then we have a weird

combination of a Frank Welker, of course, makes

an appearance, but we have Willie Ames, who was

one of the children from Eight is Enough on here

as one of the characters. We have Don Most. who

was Ralph from Happy Days, plays one of the characters.

So it's a weird thing where we have all these

live -action actors from sitcoms and things of

that nature showing up here. But the other thing

about Dungeons & Dragons for the super fans out

there, it had like an unfinished finale, right?

So it had an episode that never got to air for

reasons that seem to always happen. But the fans

actually put this together, and the unfinished

episode got, quote -unquote, finished through

a fan. They got voice actors to lend their voices

to it. They did everything, and they did it during

a convention of some sort. One of the cons showed

the finale. So that's kind of an interesting

thing to look out for if you become a fan or

if you are a fan of that show and didn't know

that that existed. So I would check that out.

So Dungeons & Dragons hits our 10 o 'clock time

slot. The theme for the 10 o 'clock time slot

is going to be one of the trickier ones, and

we'll see if you guys can figure that out. The

theme for the 10 .30 time slot should not be

tricky at all once we get to the next episode.

So I am, again, though, going to have to cheat

this episode because technically our 10 .30 time

slot is not a cartoon. How can you have an ultimate

1980s cartoon lineup and include something that's

not a cartoon? Well, I'll tell you, because the

theme that it fits... Does not have a lot to

choose from, guys. It was not very well represented

in the 80s. I mean, it was, but it wasn't just

like history has shown. So I had to do a little

bit of stretching here. This was not a proper

cartoon series. However, it was a set of cartoon

specials. And they aired one special in 1980,

81, 82, 83, 84, and 85. So there were six years

in a row that featured one. animated special

from this property. No, I am not talking about

the peanuts like you all are thinking. This is

Strawberry Shortcake, created by American Greeting

Cards. Russie Taylor is the voice of Strawberry

Shortcake. Bob Ridgely is, I think, the peculiar

pie man. Interesting, John Sebastian, who did

a lot of the music in the Care Bears, helped

write some of the songs here in Strawberry Shortcake.

And some of the later specials in the six were

done by Nelvana. But Strawberry Shortcake, just

an iconic... character um for any girl that that

grew up in the 80s or for any boy that had you

know a sister or things of that nature you were

aware of strawberry shortcake you saw all the

lunch boxes and the dolls and the merchandise

that followed strawberry shortcake and for some

reason it never got an actual cartoon series

at that time but it did get these specials and

then later throughout the 90s and especially

the 2000s there would be multiple spin -off cartoon

series featuring strawberry shortcake the very

bitty adventures and a bunch of others that i'll

throw on the screen here because i can't remember

them so strawberry shortcake definitely an iconic

character for the female audience and it is going

to take our 10 30 time slot that means we only

have two shows left for 1983 starting with 11

o 'clock we're going to go with the classic G

.I. Joe, a real American hero. 95 episodes aired

from 1983 to 1986. Production of Marvel and Sunbow.

That means that it aired the 8th most episodes

in the decade. So there's only 7 shows that aired

more episodes in the 80s than G .I. Joe. We've

had a total of 6 animated series or... series

based on gi joe some of them not 100 animated

um in the traditional form at least we've had

four animated films we've had three live action

films the toys are still on the shelves today

so nobody can deny the fact that gi joe is just

a It's a staple of our pop culture of the 80s

and started here in the 80s. Obviously, the toys

started a little bit before that, but this was

the original cartoon, and it is taking our 11

o 'clock time slot, and nobody can argue that

it doesn't belong there. That means we have one

more time slot to go. That's our 11 .30 time

slot, and we're going to back G .I. Joe up with...

Man, this is like a one -two combo that I don't

know if any other year is going to be able to

match up with. This is going to be He -Man and

the Masters of the Universe. 130 episodes from

1983 to 1985. That means it's tied for the second

most episodes in the decade. You have Smurfs

at number one, and then you have He -Man and

one other show tied for number two. All right?

He -Man has thrown off, I mean, we've had seven

series, five if you don't include the She -Ras,

but five major He -Man series that have come

after that, including some just within the last

couple years. Seven series if you include the

two She -Ra ones. It's had a live -action film.

It's supposed to have another live -action film

very soon. If it ever gets done, it's been rumored

for decades, but I think it's getting closer

to actually happening. I still say that Mr. Hemsworth

is the perfect He -Man and should play that part,

but I know they've got somebody else. He -Man,

I mean, it's iconic. You have Skeletor. You have

all of the evil warriors like Beastman and Evil

Lin. You got the Sorceress. You got the Power

Sword. You got Greyskull, He -Man, Man -at -Arms.

I mean, it doesn't get much more 80s iconic than

He -Man. And like I said before, with this explosion

of cartoons in the 1980s, it was all basically

centered around the success of He -Man and the

Masters of the Universe. That is what broke that

door down. That is what showed. the rest of the

decade what was possible, and that is what gave

us all of these other shows, especially you might

think of all the boys' action shows, and we'll

get to a lot of those over the course of these

episodes. But He -Man really became the model

for what could be done in this decade, and I

know a lot of people will say, oh, yep, just

a bunch of glorified toy commercials, and that's

just a very simplified view of looking at things.

Yes, that is why some of them were made. But

that does not take away the fact that some of

them were actually works that people put a lot

of thought and heart and passion into. Some not

so much, and you will maybe see some of those,

or you could find those. But some of these have

lived on. If it was just a toy commercial, we

wouldn't have seen seven series and films, etc.

So He -Man takes our 11 .30 time slot in that.

This is our 1983 Ultimate Cartoon lineup. I have

been just another 80s geek. Keep a watch out

because we have more years coming. So if you

like this, keep looking for 1984, 85, etc. as

those episodes drop. And like I said, once we

get down to 1989, we'll see if you guys can figure

out the theme for each time slot. And if you

agree that this is the best representation of

80s cartoons ever put together, we'll see you

next time.