The Ultimate 1984 Saturday Morning Cartoon Lineup

Hi, this is Dan Gilbazan, and you're listening

to the Geekcast Radio Network. Hey there, Tom

Ruger here, and you are tuned into ToonCast.

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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're 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 oh 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 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! Hello, this is just another

80s Geek, and you are tuned in to the Geek Showcase,

where we highlight all things geeky. And today,

we're giving you our second chapter in the ultimate

1980s cartoon lineup episodes. Last time, we

gave you the lineup for 1983. Let's review that

real quick. In the 8 a .m. time slot, we had

the combination of Superbook and The Flying House.

In the 8 .30 time slot, we had the classic Smurfs.

At the 9 o 'clock time slot, we had Inspector

Gadget, followed by the 9 .30... showing of saturday

supercade we started the 10 o 'clock hour with

dungeons and dragons followed up by strawberry

shortcake and then we ended our last hour with

the 11 a .m time slot going to gi joe a real

american hero and our 11 30 time slot going to

the iconic he -man and the masters of the universe

so that was our 1983 lineup today we're hitting

1984 If you don't remember from the last episode,

or this is the first one you're tuning in, just

a couple pieces of business to get out of the

way in order for a cartoon to be listed. It had

to debut episodes in the year that we are highlighting.

Also, we disqualified any cartoon that aired

episodes prior to the 1980s, and we can only

use each cartoon once, so you will not see any

of the cartoons I just listed for 1983 in any

of the future year lineups. And as an added bonus,

we've created a theme for each time slot. You'll

have to keep track as we go year by year to see

if you can figure out what those themes are.

So without further ado, the ultimate 1984 Saturday

morning cartoon lineup. We're going to start

with the 8 a .m. time slot, and we are going

to maybe one that's not quite as well known as

some of these others. We're going to start with

a show called... The Get Along Gang. The Get

Along Gang aired 14 episodes in 1984. I know

it's not a lot of episodes, but it fits a theme,

and I loved The Get Along Gang, even though it

has become somewhat of a controversial cartoon.

It's brought to you from those characters from

Cleveland, just like Strawberry Shortcake from

last episode. It aired on Saturday mornings on

CBS, and it starred the likes of Montgomery Moose.

Dotty Dog, Woma Lamb, Zipper Cat. Portia Porcupine,

and Bingo Beaver. Maybe some of those images

are familiar to you. And then the antagonists

are Ketchum Crocodile and Leland Lizard. As far

as the voice cast, just the ones that I would

like to highlight here, Dottie Dog is done by

Bettina Bush. Bettina Bush is now a singer, but

she had some iconic roles, and we might get to

another one of her roles later today, so I'll

save that for that. And Leland Lizard is actually

voiced by Nicky Cat, which he became... known

for a lot more of his live -action roles, and

I'll throw a couple of those on the screen for

you to look at right now. And a lot of the supporting

roles in this show were voiced by the legendary

Don Messick. Don Messick is in the holy trinity

of voice actors, pretty much, with Dobbs Butler

and Mel Blanc, as far as the classic era, and

he did a lot of the supporting roles here, so

that was cool. Music done by Levian Saban. The

executive producers are Andy Hayward and Gene

Chalapin, which are going to be repeated a lot.

This is another Deke programming. So even though

the pilot was Nelvana and aired on Nickelodeon,

most of the series was done with Deke and aired

on CBS, and we've seen a lot of Deke shows so

far. Great theme song. I really enjoy the theme

song. The reason this show is a little bit controversial

is because of its theme about getting along and

basically anybody that questions or steps outside

the group, they're saying that sometimes... is

seen as evil in this show. So they're basically

trying to say that this show could possibly be

guilty of conformity and trying to get everybody

to just do as everybody else is around them.

I guess it depends on how you interpret it, but

that is the controversy around it. I enjoyed

it as a kid, and I spoke out very often against

the group, so it didn't have that effect on me.

So Get Along Gang is your 8 o 'clock time slot

as we start out in 1984. Let's move to one that

you probably know even more, which is our 8 .30

time slot, which is going to one of my favorite

cats, Heathcliff and the Cadillac cats. I always

preferred Heathcliff over Garfield. So just as

a heads up, we may see Garfield in a future year.

But I always liked Heathcliff. There was a couple

different versions. There was a Ruby Spears version

done in 1980. And then there was this version,

which came out in 1984, lasted in 1985, aired

86 episodes in those two years. And if you're

keeping track, We gave you a few of those nuggets

last time as far as the all -time rankings for

80s episodes. 86 episodes would make Heathcliff

and the Cadillac Cats the 13th highest number

of episodes that aired in the 80s. What is it

tied with, you may ask? Well, Heathcliff and

the Cadillac Cats aired the exact same amount

of episodes as last week's. Inspector Gadget.

So they both did 86 episodes. That's why they

are tied for 13 on the all -time list. This is

another Andy Hayward and Deke vehicle. It was

created by Bruno Bianchi, who also created Inspector

Gadget, and George Gately, which is the main

person that created Heathcliff. has to have one

of the all -time best 1980s theme songs. I can't

play it because I'll get a copyright infringement,

but Go Seek Out, Heathcliff and the Cadillac

Cats theme song, I think it's one of the best

in the 80s. And this was just like, Garfield

was a little bit more lazy, a different form

of comedy. It's still a great show, but Heathcliff

always appealed to me for some reason. I don't

know if he's just more a renegade or more of

a... Fun character for me, even though Garfield

might be the funnier character, but I don't know.

I loved Mel Blanc doing the voice of Heathcliff,

and I always enjoyed this show. So this one is

an easy choice for me. At the 8 .30 time slot,

which if you were keeping track of last episode,

we had Smurfs in this time slot. So Smurfs and

Heathcliff and Cadillac cats. fit the same theme.

What is that theme? You'll have to figure it

out. If we're going back to that 8 o 'clock hour,

Get Along Gang and Superbook slash Flying House

fit the same theme. You'll have to figure that

out as well. All right, let's start with the,

or let's continue with the 9 o 'clock time slot.

Another iconic 1980s cartoon. We're going with

Alvin and the Chipmunks at our 9 o 'clock time

slot. They aired 89 episodes in the 1980s. That's

11th most, so a few more than the Heathcliff

and the Candlelight Cats and Inspector Gadget.

Alvin and the Chipmunks aired from 1983 to 1989.

It is a Ruby Spears and then later Deke. They

aired on NBC, and they actually dealt with three

different animation companies. So if you're watching

the complete series of Alvin and the Chipmunks,

you're probably going to find a bunch of different

animation styles and things of that nature that

don't quite mix or don't quite flow together,

and that's why. Ross Bagdasarian Jr. and Janice

Carman are the vehicles that ran this show and

do almost all of the main voices. obviously based,

Alvin and the Chipmunks were created by Ross's

father, Ross Bagdasarian, not Junior. And there

was one series before this that predated it.

And then there's been four films. There's been

three additional series, including the most recent,

which was a 2015 reboot. And obviously Alvin

and the Chipmunks are probably most known for

their music and their albums that they had put

out back there in the 80s records and things

of that nature, the Christmas songs and the Hula

Hoop and all that type of stuff. But they've

also been... able to be in live action with the

CGI. They've had their cartoons. So a staple

that most people are going to know who Alvin

and the Chipmunks are. Like if you stop somebody

in the streets and say, hey, do you know who

Alvin and the Chipmunks are? They're going to

know who they are. They might not know who the

Get Along Gang are, and they might not even know

who Heathcliff is. They're going to know who

Alvin and the Chipmunks are, probably similar

to last week with Inspector Gadget or Smurfs.

All right, let's move on to our 9 .30 time slot.

I love this one. It doesn't get much more iconic

80s than this. This is Muppet Babies. Muppet

Babies aired 87 episodes in the 1980s, which

is 12th most all -time. It was everywhere in

the 80s. It started here in 1984. It runs until

1989. This is a very critically acclaimed, successful

cartoon. It won seven Daytime Emmys, aired on

CBS, and in its initial season, the 1984 season,

the show was ranked as the most popular Saturday

morning cartoon on CBS, and it was actually top

five of the 42 network shows. So obviously a

iconic Saturday morning cartoon. Not a weekday

cartoon. It actually aired on Saturdays. In 1985,

it became even more higher. In 1985, the ratings

were even higher. And as of 1986, it was the

second most popular children's programming among

the top 30. It attracted more than 4 million

viewers each week. Also very popular with licenses

and things of that nature. So even though it

had a lot of success, the ratings started to

decrease towards the end there in the 89, 90,

88 season. that realm, and it started going up

against the likes of things like Garfield and

Friends and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. So

that's really what kind of had to do with the

decline of the Muppet Babies at that time. And

we actually didn't see a reboot until 2018. Just

recently we had the CG reboot of Muppet Babies,

also a decent show. The interesting thing about

Muppet Babies is it kind of started a trend of

other shows doing... baby versions or younger

versions of characters that we already know.

I'll throw a few of those up on the screen, and

you're probably familiar with those, but it was

like this craze of everybody doing the kid versions

or the baby versions of characters that we'd

seen in other cartoon forms, etc. The other interesting

thing about Muppet Babies is it introduced a

new character. So Skeeter was not in existence

before the Muppet Babies. And also, this kind

of started from a scene in one of the Muppet

movies, and it kind of got... debated on whether

it should be a show or not, some were for it

and some were against it, but I'm glad they made

it. The only bad part is they had so many live

-action film clips and sound bites and sequences

that it's almost become impossible for this to

come out on DVD or Blu -ray or some type of complete

series physical set just because of all the different

licensing and... legal loopholes that they would

have to go through which is a shame because muppet

babies is a fantastic cartoon and that is in

our 9 30 time slot which was the same as the

1983 show saturday supercade so what is the combination

between saturday supercade and muppet babies

all right let's move on to 10 o 'clock with probably

our most obscure cartoon of the day. Some people

are going to question why this is on the list.

It's going to be between this one and Get Along

Gang for 1984 as far as which one doesn't belong

in this slot. But again, you're going to have

to wait and see all of the different years because

it was a jigsaw puzzle to get something from

each year to fit and fit the theme that I thought

was worthy. Our 10 o 'clock time slot goes to

a show that most of you probably haven't heard

of. It's called Kid Video. It aired 26 episodes

in the 1980s. It aired from 1984 to 1985. It

was a Saturday morning cartoon on NBC. Another

Deke. Andy Hayward, Gene Chalapin show. So what

is Kid Video? It's kind of like the capitalization

of the MTV craze with music videos and things

of that nature. Try to take that and somehow

turn it or fit it into a cartoon and see if that's

successful and the kids like it. So Kid Video

and his band, which was Carla, Ash, and Wiz,

they fought against Master Blaster, who was in

the flip side. So it's take it to the flip side.

That's in the theme song as well. There was also

a fairy named... Glitter, a very music video

-centric show. This, just like Muppet Babies,

though, has a lot of issues as far as licensing

issues go, which has prevented it from having

reruns aired, DVD or physical set releases, etc.,

because, again, they'd have to go through and

get all of those permissions and pay people and

things of that nature. But it's an interesting

show, so it's broken up with a lot of different...

music videos that were created for the cartoons

slash music videos that were actually in existence.

And it's just a way to try to kind of hone in

on that craze and that new found form of entertainment

that we knew as a music video. So kid video,

if you're not familiar with it, at least go check

it out. The theme song is okay. It may be a little

bit too long and maybe shows a little bit too

much of everything, but. It talks a little bit

too much, but the music part of the kid video

theme song is all right. So it's worth a check

out if you want to. Again, it fits the 10 o 'clock

time slot. Last episode, 1983, that belonged

to Dungeons & Dragons. So we have Dungeons &

Dragons, and now we have kid video. They actually

might have two things in common, so it might

throw you off a little bit. All right, let's

go ahead and run into our 10 .30 time slot where

we have the iconic. I said this person was going

to come up later. We have the iconic Rainbow

Bright. Debating on how many episodes it has,

some sources say it had eight. Some sources say

it had 13. I believe I can only find eight from

1984 to 1985. So not a lot of episodes. So why

does it belong here? Well, I don't know if it

gets more iconic from a female character standpoint

than Rainbow Bright. We had Strawberry Shortcake

in this time slot last time. We have Rainbow

Bright. If the theme's not... Already obvious

for 10 .30, I'm sorry. But it's going to be the

most obvious of all of them. So there's only

a few other characters that are probably as iconic

as Strawberry Shortcake and Rainbow Bright for

the female audience. So that's why it's here.

I think it belongs here. Bettina Bush was the

connection there. She was in Get Along Gang,

and she plays Rainbow Bright here. This was a

Hallmark property produced by Deke. Again, another

Deke show. They were kings in the 1980s. There

was a movie called Rainbow Bright and the Star

Stealer that was actually a theatrical film.

I mean, it didn't do great, but it did have a

theatrical release. We had Bettina Bush in here.

She did some voices in My Little Pony, The Littles,

like I said, Get Along Gang. And she's featured

in a lot of the 1980s, or not a lot, but a few

of the 1980s commercials for McDonald's. She's

one of the I'm Loving It people. And she's a

singer now, so you can probably find some of

her stuff online if you go searching. The bad

guys in this cartoon were Murky. and Lurky, and

they were voiced by Peter Cullen and Pat Fraley.

That is amazing. So you should at least go check

out one episode of Rainbow Bright to hear Peter

Cullen and Pat Fraley as dueling, bumbling, idiot

villain characters. There was a human character

called Brian that Rainbow Bright helped, too.

He was voiced by Scott Menville, who kind of

got... typecast in the 80s at one point of doing

like the human boy character in some of these

otherwise outlandish cartoons and he's done so

much since there was a reboot of sorts in 2014

but it was only like a three episode miniseries

but it did feature the talents of emily osmond

and molly ringwald so if you're a rainbow bright

fan and didn't know that existed maybe go check

that out so rainbow bright is in our 10 30 time

slot that leaves us only two shows left and i

I think it's funny that it worked out this way,

that these are going to be back -to -back. So

in the 11 o 'clock time slot, we have a lot of

people like to hate on this cartoon, and I am

not one of those. This cartoon takes me back

more than anyone. Like, if I hear the first little

bit of the theme song or any part of the cartoon

or the voice work from this cartoon, even though

I might like other cartoons more, this one takes

me back to my childhood more than probably anything

else. It is the challenge. of the GoBots. They

had 65 episodes in the 80s, which was tied for

20th. There's a bunch of shows, obviously, that

had 65 episodes because that was the standard

syndication package. So a lot of shows there

tied for 20th with 65 episodes. It aired from

84 to 85. A Hanna -Barbera vehicle based on the

Tonka toy line. And this featured the Guardians

versus the Renegades. And we had characters like

Leader One, Turbo, Scooter, Psykill, Copter,

and Crasher. There's no insignias that define

the factions in the show, like another show that's

very much similar to it. So you just kind of

had to know based on how they looked and how

they were designed, if they were good or bad,

or how they were voiced and how they acted. So

that was kind of interesting. They also didn't

have guns, so to speak. They shot lasers from

their fists, which was interesting. They also

had a theatrical film release called Battle of

the Rock Lords. Most people probably have forgotten

about that. But forget the haters, guys. Challenge

of the Gobots is a cool show. The toys are fine.

Maybe not as good as its counterpart. It's a

nemesis, I guess, at the time that it was going

up against. But I think the cartoon itself is

classic and deserves a little bit more credit

and attention than it gets thanks to so much

hate from another fandom. Which, by the way,

comes in here at 11 .30 time slot. We have Transformers.

So Challenge of the Gobots came before Transformers.

In so many ways. The TV show, the movie, and

here in our time slot. So Challengers of the

Robots at 11, followed by Transformers at 11

.30. Transformers aired 98 episodes in the 80s.

That's the sixth most. So only five other cartoons

had more episodes in the 80s. It aired from 1984

to 1987. What else do you need to say about Transformers?

There was the animated film. There's been six

live -action films with a seventh on the way.

Yeah. And then we have more than 15 animated

series, spinoffs, reboots, etc. There's an extensive

comic book library. I mean, the Transformers

fandom is a thing all in of itself. Like it's

huge. The toys have almost been on the shelves

every year since since 1984. There's been a few

maybe, you know, blank spots here and there.

But for the most part, man, right from Transformers

and the Beast Wars and the Beast Machines and

the Unicron trilogy. and all the newer stuff,

Transformers Prime, War for Cybertron, Earthspark,

etc. So Transformers is just part of our culture,

and it has to go here. So that was Challenge

of the Gobots and Transformers. The 1983 time

slot and these two time slots had G .I. Joe and

He -Man. So G .I. Joe, He -Man last time, Challenge

of the Gobots, Transformers. This time. And that

rounds up your 1984 ultimate cartoon lineup.

So let's review it real quick. It's Get Along

Gang, followed by Heathcliff and the Cadillac

Cats. Then we go to Alvin and the Chipmunks,

followed by Muppet Babies, the more obscure Kid

Video, followed by the iconic Rainbow Bright,

Challenge of the Gobots, and Transformers. That

is your 1984 ultimate Saturday morning cartoon.

I have been just another 80s geek. You've been

watching the Geek Showcase. Keep an eye on the

channel, subscribe, and keep looking out because

we will have 1985 coming real soon.