Ultimate 1986 Saturday Morning Cartoon Lineup

Sword of Omens, give me sight beyond sight. I

see a new episode of ToonCast coming this week.

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

Yes, just when 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

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just now another 80s geek or something like that.

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

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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 10 lists and

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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! Yay! Hello, this is just another

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

where we highlight any and all things geeky.

We are today going to continue a series that

we started a little while back, going through

the ultimate Saturday morning cartoon lineup.

We've already done episodes for 1983, 84, and

85, so today, that brings us to 19... 1986. If

you don't know what that means or what we're

doing, please go back, find the 1983 episode.

I explain all the rules there. I don't want to

do it again here, but we're basically coming

up with eight cartoons for each year that had

to air episodes in that year. I can't use a cartoon

twice and there's a theme for every time slot.

So if you have been paying attention, um, You've

seen all of the cartoons that we've aired or

that we've talked about so far. The likes of

G .I. Joe and He -Man have already been mentioned.

Smurfs and Spectre Gadgets, Alvin and the Chipmunks,

Muppet Babies, Transformers, Voltron, Gem, She

-Ra. A lot of good stuff out there. So we had

1983, 80, 45. Now we are at 1986. We start at

the 8 o 'clock time slot. We go in through the

noon hour, basically. So let's just jump right

into it. Enough of the rules and regulations.

Let's start with our 8 o 'clock time slot. And

in the previous years, that has been... In 1983,

it was a combo of Superbook and Flying House.

1984 was Get Along Gang. 1985 was The Raccoons.

And in 1986, we're going with a show called The

Mysterious Cities of Gold. Mysterious Cities

of Gold aired 39 episodes from 1986 to 1987.

It was broadcast on Nickelodeon. It actually

showed repeats on Nickelodeon all the way through

the end of the decade, 1990 area. So it was on

for basically the second half of the decade.

It was done by Gene Chalapin and Bernard Derese.

And the music was done by Saban and Levy, who

did a lot of cartoons, obviously, throughout

time. They took the Japan... soundtrack theme

and they kind of switched it up they wanted it

to make it more western they brought along one

of their notable companions cohorts who was a

singer his name was noam canyell i might be getting

that name pronounced wrong but it's noam canyell

and he has sung a lot of stuff for saban and

levy the reason i bring this up is because the

theme song for mysterious cities of gold is easily

one of the best theme songs ever i'm not just

exaggerating like Not only is it one of the best

80s cartoon theme songs, it's one of the best

cartoon theme songs ever. And I have it actually

set as my ringtone. So when someone calls me,

it literally plays the theme song to Mysterious

Cities of Gold. I like it that much. But Noam

Canyon also did, for some geeks out there might

know this, the I Have the Power song from Secret

of the Sword. That was the guy who sang that

song. So he's the singer for the Mysterious Cities

of Gold theme song as well. Mysterious Cities

of Gold has gone on to spawn a couple, computer

slash video games more recently, or at least

in the last 10, 15 years. And it actually had

a reboot in 2012 that lasted for four seasons

and over 100 episodes. Mysterious Cities of Gold

is just a great adventure series. Obviously,

it's centered around gold and back in the Earth

Explorer time period, etc. But it was also notable

for me because it was one of the first examples

of anime in the West. So like I said, with Super

Book and Flying House, same thing goes here for

Mysterious Cities of Gold. It gives us that anime

feel, that anime style, and we didn't have a

lot of that at the time as kids growing up through

the 80s. So I remember it for the anime style,

I remember it for the theme song, and I remember

it for being a decently written show. And like

I said, it lasted for almost half the decade,

so I feel like it deserves its spot, and it will

fit in with the theme along with the Superbook,

Get Along Gang, and Raccoon. So that is our 8

o 'clock show, Mysterious Cities of Gold. Let's

see what we get to watch at 8 .30. The 8 .30

time slot, following in the steps of Smurfs,

Heathcliff, and The Littles, we get The Snorks.

The Snorks aired 68 episodes from 1984 to 1988.

Again, almost half the decade there. It was the

18th most episodes aired in the 80s out of any

cartoon. And this was another Hanna -Barbera

series, just like the Smurfs. And it has a lot

of connections to the Smurfs. So Smurfs is a

series that was, you know, a Belgium series adapted

for America that was done by Peyo. And basically

there's this guy named Freddy Monikendam. I might

be getting that name wrong as well. kind of negotiate

contracts for rights and things like that. And

so he helped Peyo get the contract between Smurfs

and Hanna -Barbera. And he wanted Smurfs to be

way more mainstream. Peyo wanted it to be much

more authentic and stick true to the original

writing and comics and everything like that.

So there was a big legal battle between rights

and money, etc. And out of that, Monick and Dam

decided to go find a series, search out a series

that he could get a hold of to compete with Smurfs

and kind of take it to pale in one -on -one competition,

I guess. So he found a comic book series or comic

book story that had debuted in 1982 from a guy

named Nick Broca called Snorks. And he ended

up helping him get some deals and eventually

got his hands on it, etc., and wanted to have

Snorks compete with Smurfs. Ironically, they

both come from Hanna -Barbera, so I don't know

how much of a competition that is. Obviously,

Smurfs becomes the more iconic property out of

those two. Snorks never quite hit that level,

but Snorks was successful in and of itself. Like

I said, 18th most episodes, aired for almost

half the decade. It's kind of like Smurfs underwater.

decent theme song, and it's got a great voice

cast. Michael Bell does one of the main roles.

You have Frank Welker, Rob Paulson, B .J. Ward,

Nancy Cartwright. Also interesting of note, it

was one of Cam Clark's first voice gigs. Cam

Clark had some voice work in Smurfs and Snorks,

which are kind of his entry into the world of

voice acting that he would become obviously very

iconic in. So Snorks is our 8 .30 show. Fits

the theme with Smurfs, Heathcliff, and the Littles.

I like Snorks. I went back and watched it for

a project that I was involved with, and I think

Snorks is fairly well -written. It kind of reminds

you of a combination between what you would see

with the Jetsons and the Flintstones, but in

that world of what we get a lot through the 80s,

which is these... massive casts of young characters

like we get in the smurfs you know specifically

or you know you can think of anything like we

talked about with last 1985's episodes with like

the wuzzles or the littles or the raccoons you

kind of get this bare ensemble cast of mostly

younger folks with a few more mature role models

etc so i like the snorts it's kind of like a

sitcom combined with Smurfs, and then you throw

it underwater. So it works for me. That's what's

going to be our 8 .30 time slot. Let's move on

and see what we get to view in our 9 o 'clock.

At 9 o 'clock, following the footsteps of Inspector

Gadget, Alvin and the Chipmunk, and then the

theme starts with the Wuzzles, we're going to

get The Adventures of the Gummy Bears. Makes

sense. Wuzzles and Adventures of the Gummy Bears

are Disney's first series from their television

animation studio. Adventures of the Gummy Bear

aired 47 episodes within the 80s, 95 episodes

total because they aired until 1991, so some

of those were in the 90s. And it aired on NBC

for most of its run. It switched over to ABC

in its final season. What Gummy Bears is known

for more than Wuzzles, though, is that not just

being Disney's first, but kind of really changing

the game in a number of different ways. First

of all, it had a huge budget. So animation -wise,

everything looked different, better, upgraded.

than what we had seen previous, and it actually

ended up where a lot of other animation studios

were trying to play catch -up at that point because

of what Disney was able to offer there. And then,

of course, Gummy Bears kind of paves the way

for the Disney afternoon shows like DuckTales,

Rescue Rangers, Tailspin, Gargoyles, etc. And

it's interesting because Gummy Bears and Gargoyles

are the ones not based on previous Disney characters

or properties. You know, DuckTales, Rescue Rangers,

Tailspin, those are all characters that were

kind of done in a different way that we had seen

before. Gummy Bears and Gargoyles kind of tread

their own path, I guess you could say. And the

success of Gummy Bears is what leads us to get

those types of shows that I just mentioned. Gummy

Bears was created by Michael Eisner. It obviously

originated over the Gummy Bear candy was kind

of the idea. Obviously, it goes a lot farther

away from that when it comes to its actual concept.

And again, this maybe 1986 was going to be known

for its theme songs because the theme song to

The Adventures of the Gummy Bears is amazing.

Probably top three 1980s cartoon theme songs

along with Mysterious Cities of Gold. And interesting

to note, it was performed by Joseph Williams,

who was the front man for Toto, the band Toto.

And if you don't know who Joseph Williams is,

he's the son of John Williams. John Williams,

the famous composer. You know, the guy that does

all the music in Star Wars? Yeah, his son, Joseph

Williams, sings the Adventure to the Gummy Bears

theme song. That's crazy. So Gummy Bears is a

hugely successful, hugely influential show. There's

no way you can have an 80s list that doesn't

include the Adventures of the Gummy Bears. So

that is why it finds itself here at our 9 o 'clock

time slot. Moving on to 9 .30. We get one of

the big... Heavy hitters here. This show aired

the fifth most episodes in all of the decade.

120 episodes in the 1980s. Actually, 147 overall.

It was another show that kind of bridged the

gap and went into the 90s, so it airs until 1991.

So 147 episodes total, 120 of them in the 1980s.

We're talking about the real. Ghostbusters. Not

to be confused with Filmation's Ghostbusters.

That's why they added the word real on there.

They wanted to distinguish themselves from a

series that was already being done by Filmation

called Ghostbusters. So they add the real part.

So this one's the real one. And what I mean by

that is it is based off of the actual movie that

everybody knows from the 80s, the Ghostbusters

movies. So you have Peter Venkman, Egon Spengler,

Ray Stans, Winston, Janine, you know, all those

types of people. The Stay Puft Marshmallow. And

a great voice cast to go along with that. They

did some great work finding that. A couple of

them switched because of some things that happened

throughout the season. So for Peter Venkman,

we're going to get the combination of Lorenzo

Music and Dave Coulier from Full House. From

Egon Spengler, we're going to get The Brain,

Maurice LaMarche. For Ray Stantz, we're going

to get the legendary voice actor Frank Welker.

And then for Winston Zettimore, we're going to

get a combination of Arsenio Hall and Buster

Jones. We also have... Laura Summer and Cass

Soucy doing Janine, and a bunch of other actors,

obviously, as well. There was a spinoff called

Extreme Ghostbusters. There was action figures

produced by Kenner. This was a Deke show, just

like we've seen so many. It aired on ABC, and

obviously it was super successful. I mean, the

Ghostbusters as a franchise is not something

that's going to go away anytime soon. We have

seen all the different live -action movies, etc.,

so obviously the cartoon deserves its spot. It's

probably one of the best. that was tied to a

television show, a movie, or something else like

that that came about it. One of the best done,

one of the most long -living iterations of that,

I guess you could say. So the real Ghostbusters

is going to take our 9 .30 time slot. That leads

us to the 10 o 'clock hour. We're going to start

with one that's a little bit more obscure, but

it has a very interesting history. So at 10 o

'clock, we're going to go with a show that maybe

some of you haven't heard of. It's called Galaxy

High. It only aired 13 episodes on CBS in 1986,

but it has some interesting side notes, guys.

First off, it was created by Chris Columbus.

If that name sounds familiar, not the stupid

Chris Columbus that gets credit erroneously for

discovering America. The Chris Columbus that

you may have heard of when it comes to film.

He was the director of Adventures in Babysitting,

Home Alone, Mrs. Doubtfire. Harry Potter and

the Sorcerer's Stone, Harry Potter and the Chamber

of Secrets. He was the writer for Gremlins and

Goonies. I mean, come on. This guy is a big -time

dude when it comes to Hollywood, and he's the

creator of Galaxy High. Obviously, Galaxy High

is not nearly as popular or successful as any

of the things I just mentioned, but it does have

its little spot in 80s cartoon lore, I guess.

Another interesting note. The soundtrack and

theme for Galaxy High was performed and written

by a guy named Don Felder. Don Felder worked

with the Eagles, the band the Eagles. He actually

co -wrote Hotel California. So that's just another,

like, wow moment. It was developed by Larry Dottilio

as far as some of the writing and that type of

thing. So here's another interesting side note.

One of the character designers for Galaxy High

was John Kay, John Crispalusi. Now, I know he's

come under a lot of scrutiny and not necessarily

a good guy, done a lot of bad stuff apparently,

but he is still notable when it comes to the

cartoon world. He's the guy that did Ren and

Stimpy later on in his life. So the Ren and Stimpy

guy was one of the character designers for Galaxy

High. So a lot of interesting stuff. Good voice

cast. Susan Blue, Hal Rail, Howard Morris, Pat

Carroll, Nancy Cartwright, Jennifer Darling,

Pat Fraley, Neil Ross, John Stevenson. So a lot

of known voice actors. John Stevenson is iconic.

And there's been a movie talked about since like

1996 that's never come to fruition, so I wouldn't

hold out too much hope. But it's just another

one of those things where you have kind of that

high school setting with a bunch of kids. The

difference here is we've seen it where it's an

alien that comes and tries to live on Earth type

thing in some of these types of stories. We don't

get a lot where it's the humans that are going

to an alien world and trying to fit in. And the

alien world and what they're trying to fit into

is obviously the high school, Galaxy High. It's

an interesting concept, interesting show, very

kind of prototypical 80s fare, so I thought it

deserved a spot here at the 10 o 'clock hour.

Also fits a time slot. What were those shows

that came along with Galaxy High in that time

slot? We would have gotten the likes of Dungeons

& Dragons, Kid Video, and Gem. And I didn't say

it before, so Real Ghostbusters comes along with

Saturday Supercade, Muppet Babies, and Hulk Hogan's

Rockin' Wrestling, if you're trying to figure

out the themes. All right, let's move on to our

10 .30 time slot. The 10 .30 shows before have

been Strawberry Shortcake, Rainbow Bright, She

-Ra, and The Princess of Power. We're stretching

it a little bit, but we're going to go with a

show called Pound Puppies in this year here,

1986. Pound Puppies only aired 26 episodes from

1986 to 1987. But I don't think anybody can dispute

the long -lasting impact it has had from a toy

line, you know, with the stuffed animals, and

just kind of being out in the public's eye. It

was rebooted in 2010. It originally had a television

special in 1985, and Hanna -Barbera kind of based

the series off of that and a toy line that Tonka

was doing. It was broadcast on ABC. Obviously,

like I said, rebooted later in 2010. A completely

different feel, but for a new generation. You

had the movie The Legend of Big Paw in 1988.

And Ruth Buzzy was in this. Nancy Cartwright,

Pat Carroll, Peter Cullen, Dan Gilvezan, Frank

Welker, B .J. Ward. So a lot of people that you'd

know throughout the 80s. So, I mean, Pound Puppies

is just right up there. Like, Pound Puppies and

a few that we'll probably get to in later years,

I think, are just iconic as far as... both a

cartoon and a toy line that appealed to younger

audiences, maybe a little bit of a skew towards

female audiences. But I had a Pound Puppy. I

remember them. They had the tag. You had the

name. It was almost like you were adopting an

actual Pound Puppy, kind of similar to what you

got with the Cabbage Patch Kids and the Care

Bears and some of those toy lines. So Pound Puppies,

10 .30 time slot. That means we only have time

for two more. Let's go to 11 o 'clock where we

see The Centurions, tied for the 20 most episodes

in the 80s with 65, aired in 1986. This is a

Ruby Spears production with tie -in toys from

Kenner and tie -in comics from DC Comics. What

is Centurions? Centurions is Doc Terror and his

evil cyborgs battling the heroic Centurions.

Michael Bell again, Jennifer Darling, Pat Fraley,

Neil Ross, B .J. Ward. This show was animated

by Sunrise. That animation studio is probably

best known for doing Mobile Suit Gundam, which

I know there's a lot of fans of out there. Some

heavy -hitting writers in this, Ted Peterson,

Michael Reeves, Larry Dottilio, Jerry Conway,

Steve Perry, and some great designers. Jack Kirby

did some designs on this, Gil Kane. So a lot

of notable people involved with Centurions. I

would still say that in my mind, when it comes

to boys -centric action cartoons of the 1980s,

that there's kind of a... four tier system all

right in my mind there's four tiers there's your

upper echelon those are like the ones that are

just iconic through and through we're never going

away things like transformers turtles gi joe

and he -man like that's tier one there's nobody

nobody else is in tier one then you have tier

two which is just a slight step behind that those

are things like thundercats to me voltron um

probably silver hawks, cops, mask. Those are

kind of like that next group. And then you get

like the third tier, which is not nearly as well

known. And that would be where centurions is

going to find itself. You have centurions, the

visionaries, the humanoids, things of that nature.

And then tier four is like the real obscure stuff

like spiral zone and sectars and things like

that. That's Tier 4. So Centurions, I think,

is kind of that Tier 3, but I still think it

finds itself worthy of being talked about in

this group. 65 episodes, obviously that's a full

syndicated series, but it was able to finish

all of that off. It had its toy line, it had

its comics, it had all this other stuff. So I

think that tier should be represented, and Centurions

is one of the ones that should represent that.

So that's what we're going to get in the 11 o

'clock time slot. Leaves us only one show left

for today, guys. What's going to come in our

11 .30 time slot on the heels of He -Man, Transformers,

and Mask? We're going to get another show that

I would put in that second tier of boys' action

cartoons, and that's going to be Silverhawks.

Also had 65 episodes, just like Centurions. Also

aired in 1986. Also obviously tied for the 20th

most with everything else that had 65 episodes.

Silver Hawks is probably best known for a lot

of people as kind of the spinoff or the second

series from Rankin -Bass after they did Thundercats,

right? A lot of people probably say Thundercats

is the better series. I would argue that Silver

Hawks is right on par with it. And then Rankin

-Bass would also do a show called Tiger Hawks,

which was much less seen, part of the comic strip

syndicated time slot of cartoons. Very hard to

get a hold of right now. They all had their toys.

I mean, you have partly metal, partly steel.

Great theme song there. You have them fighting

the likes of Monstar and kind of this mob setting.

So it's like outer space, but there's like a

mob of bad guys. And then you have these Silverhawks

who are basically head -to -toe metal, except

for, you know, faces and sometimes hands or something

like that. You got a country guy singing on a

guitar, Bluegrass. You got Copper Kid who only

speaks in mimes. It's a great show. You had the

typical Rankin -Bass voice cast, same as Thundercats.

You have Bob McFadden, Peter Newman, Larry Kenny,

Earl Hammond. So all of those guys are very known

for that set of shows that came out in that time

period. The rights are now owned by Warner Brothers,

and there has been news of a reboot that was...

surfacing within the last couple of years. So

2021, I think is when those, that news of that

reboot being developed kind of first surface.

So we'll see what happens. I would love to see

either another cartoon. I know they've talked

about this being a live action movie. I don't

know. I would just love to see more silver Hawks

because we already got a reboot from Thundercats

a few years ago. That was pretty good. Not Thundercats

roar. I'm talking about the other one. And I

would think silver Hawks deserve something. So

I was a bigger fan of silver Hawks. the show,

probably, even though I... I don't know. It went

back and forth between Silverhawks and Thundercats

for me. I love them both, but I think they're

equally deserving of being mentioned here in

the ultimate Saturday morning cartoon lineup

if we're talking about the decade of the 1980s.

So, if you haven't been paying attention so far,

the 11 and the 11 .30 time slot have been G .I.

Joe, He -Man in 1983, GoBots and Transformers

in 1984. Voltron and Mask in 1985, and now Centurions

and Silverhawks in 1986. I shouldn't be too hard

to figure out what the theme is for that two

sections of time there. So, that has been the

Ultimate Saturday Morning Cartoon lineup for

1986. We have Mysterious Cities of Gold, followed

by The Snorks, The Adventures of the Gummy Bears,

Real Ghostbusters, Galaxy High, Pound Puppies,

The Centurions, and Silverhawks. So that does

it for 1986. We still got three years to do,

so if you are liking these episodes, stay tuned,

because we'll have 87, 88, and 89 coming real

soon. This has been Just Another 80s Geek. You've

been tuned into the Geek Showcase. Subscribe,

like, spread the word. I appreciate you viewing,

and we'll see you next time. Tally -ho! Wings

of silver, birds of steel Let's go.