The Ultimate Saturday Morning Cartoon Lineup for 1987

Sword of Omens, give me sight beyond sight. I

see a new episode of ToonCast coming this week.

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'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! All right. If we're going to

do it, let's do it. Hello, this is just another

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

where we highlight all things geeky. Toys, trading

cards, comics, books. Action figures, cartoons,

wrestling, whatever someone could be a geek about,

that's what we highlight here on the Geek Showcase.

And today we're continuing our series on the

ultimate Saturday morning cartoon lineups. We've

been working our way through the 1980s, starting

with 1983. And working our way to 1989, where

we have been giving a lineup for each year of

eight cartoons that aired during that year. We

can only use a cartoon once, so once it's used,

it can't be used again. And I also threw in some

themes for each time slot. So we go 8 a .m. all

the way through 11 .30 a .m. with a different

cartoon for each half hour slot. We've already

done 1983 through 86, so today we are on 1987.

Without further ado, just a side note, if you

want to know more about the rules and how this

list came up with, go back to the first episode,

1983, and I'll lay it out a little bit more.

But I don't want to waste anybody's time with

that. So let's get right into the shows. We're

going to start with 8 o 'clock today for 1987.

And our 8 o 'clock time slot goes to a cartoon

called Danger Mouse. Danger Mouse aired in the

United States from 1982 to 1987. In the UK, it

aired for the entire decade of the 80s, basically

on into like 91, 92, etc. There was 89 total

episodes for Danger Mouse, 76 of them aired in

the United States in the 1980s. That means it's

the 16th most in the decade, so the 16th most

episodes for any cartoon that aired in the US

in the 1980s. Obviously, it's a British animated

series where it aired... for, like I said, more

than a decade, very well -loved over there, created

by Cosgrove Hall. Brian and Mark are their first

names. They are the guys that did the 1989 animated

BFG. They did the Wind in the Willows series

from the 80s. They did some shows and specials

around the character Naughty, Naughty's Toyland

Adventure, some of you may remember. And along

with Belle and Sebastian, Danger Mouse was the

first animated series. ever to air on nickelodeon

so there's some trivia for you the first animated

series on nickelodeon actually became the second

most popular show on nickelodeon behind the live

action series you can't do that on television

which is a phenomenal show i don't know if people

these days would understand it but it was great

back in the day so you can't do that on television

was number one danger mouse was number two on

the early days of nickelodeon In UK's Channel

4, they did 100 Greatest Kids TV Show list. Danger

Mouse came in third on that list behind The Muppet

Show and Simpsons. Some other people that have

put that on the list, IGN did a Top 100 Animated

Series list where Danger Mouse came in 62nd.

And they listed it as one of the first British

shows to become popular in America, which was

probably true. And Geek Cast Radio Network did

a Top 100 Animated Series list, and Danger Mouse

came in on 69th on that list. So a lot of presence

on all these top lists of animated series. It

was nominated back in the time for a ton of awards,

11 BAFTAs and some other things. Terry Scott,

David Jason, Edward Kelsey are your voice actors.

David Jason plays the main role there. And it

did spawn a spinoff series in the late 80s called

Count Duckula. So a lot of people probably have

heard of Count Duckula. That was a spinoff of

Danger Mouse. And then Danger Mouse itself gets

rebooted in 2015. It ran from 2015 to 2019. It

was the highest rated show on CBBC, and it had

over 100 episodes. got nominated for a lot of

different awards and things of that nature. So

Danger Mouse has been pretty popular and pretty

successful in all of its iterations. And what

I appreciated most about Danger Mouse was how

cleverly written it was, how there was a sense

of some intelligence behind it. It wasn't just

a throwaway action show. It wasn't silly, juvenile

comedy. It was actually something that you could

appreciate if you had a brain. So I really love

Danger Mouse, and I think it It definitely warrants

a spot on one of these lists. So we found a spot

here in 1987. And if you're remembering that

each time slot has a theme, let's quickly go

through what other shows aired at 8 o 'clock

so far. We had Superbook and Flying House. We

had Get Along Gang, The Raccoons, The Mysterious

Cities of Gold, and now Danger Mouse. So that

might be tipping you off to what the theme is

for the 8 o 'clock hour, but Danger Mouse takes

it for 1987. Let's move on to our second show

of the day, which is going to be our 8 .30 time

slot, and we're going to go to a show entitled

The Berenstain Bears. So, obviously, The Berenstain

Bears are probably more known for their children's

book line, the book line written by Stan and

Jan Berenstain, which, if you're a kid in America,

you've probably read one of their books at least

once or seen it in a library. I mean, my two

-year -old daughter has a whole shelf in her

room of Berenstain Bear books. They're just great

books. So probably most known for the books.

But it did have this cartoon series as well.

It actually had specials first. So they did one

holiday special every year for five years before

this actual cartoon series was put on air in

1985. And it aired on CBS. It was done by Hanna

-Barbera Australia. And basically there was 52

episodes. But technically, it depends on how

you, you've got to be careful with how people

number their episodes. only 26 half -hour episodes.

There was 52 segments. So each half -hour episode

was two segments, one of which would have been

based on one of the books that they had out,

and then the second segment was an original story

done just for the animated series. So that's

kind of interesting, one to kind of highlight

one of the books and then one to kind of branch

off on their own. Voice acting, some interesting

roles here. We had Ruth Buzzy, obviously the

Frank Welkers and everything. Brian Cummings,

interesting. I believe he played the... dad,

Papa Bear and Stan Bear. And he's the guy that

did Dr. Mindbender in G .I. Joe. So a lot of

people might know that. And then David Mendenhall,

who did Brother, you might know him. He was Sylvester

Stallone's son in the movie Over the Top. And

for the geeks out there, he also provided the

voice of Daniel Witwicky in Transformers. So

David Mendenhall was Brother Bear. And then Christina

Lang was Sister. There was a reboot of Berenstain

Bears. You might not know this, but it did have

a reboot in 2003. It ran for 40 episodes. Interesting

to note, on the voice cast was Michael Cera.

And the theme song for the reboot in 2003, the

theme song was sung by Leigh -Anne Womack. So

that's kind of some interesting star power behind

that reboot in 2003. I actually don't think I've

seen any episodes of the reboot. I'll have to

check that out, so I can't speak to its quality.

But I'm sure it lines up pretty well with the

original as far as Berenstain Bears go. So Berenstain

Bears takes our 8 .30 time slot, joining the

likes of Smurfs, Heathcliff, The Littles, and

The Snorks. This is a trickier one. I don't know

if people are going to get the theme for the

8 .30 time slot. So put your thinking caps on,

and maybe you can figure that out. We still have

two more years to maybe give you some more information.

All right, let's move on to our 9 o 'clock time

slot. Following the likes of Wuzzles and the

Adventures of the Gummy Bears, this theme should

be fairly obvious. Our 9 o 'clock time slot in

1987 goes to none other than DuckTales. DuckTales

ran from 1987 to 1989, 92 episodes total. Then

there was a few that were in the 90s, so it actually

had 100 total in the series, but 92 of them aired

in the 80s. That makes it the 10th most for the

decade, 10th most episodes for any cartoon that

aired in the 80s. This was 18th on that IGN list

that I referenced earlier, and it was actually

5th on the Geekcast Radio Network's Top 100 Animated

Series, so a lot of love there. Obviously, we

had the movie The Treasure of the Lost Lamp.

Interesting to note with DuckTales, it's the

first Disney cartoon produced for syndication,

for weekday syndication, which obviously leads

to the syndicated block, The Disney Afternoon,

which we talked about last year's episode when

we were talking about The Adventures of the Gummy

Bears, which also kind of led into that Disney

Afternoon. I think if you were trying to look

at all the Disney animated shows that aired in

the late 80s, early 90s, I feel like DuckTales

has to be number one. Like, I know you got a

lot of classic shows in there, but I feel like

DuckTales is like one or at least one A in that

list. Another interesting thing, the guy who

did the theme song, his name is Mark Mueller.

He did the theme song for DuckTales. He also

did the theme song for Rescue Rangers. And then

he did the theme song for the reboot DuckTales,

which we'll talk about in a second. The classic

DuckTales had the voice talents of Alan Young,

the queen of voice acting, June Foray, Russie

Taylor, Chuck McCann, Terry McGovern, Frank Welker

again, obviously, Hal Smith, Peter Cullen, Tony

Anselmo. Great voice cast in DuckTales. Multiple

Emmy nominations for this show. It was just a

very successful show. And there was a reboot

done just a few years back, in 2017. I guess

that's five years ago now. But reboot in 2017

had 69 episodes. I highly suggest people check

it out if you're a DuckTales fan because the

reboot is great. The look's going to be slightly

different animation style -wise, but nothing

that's like... and I just think it's really well

done. You get a lot of the classic characters

that make reappearances and things of that nature

in that reboot, so it's great fun. So our 9 o

'clock time slot goes to DuckTales. Let's see

what we have next. At our 9 .30 time slot for

1987, we're going to go with maybe one that you

wouldn't expect, but we're going to go with one

called Fraggle Rock. Fraggle Rock's interesting

because they had the live -action or the Muppet

version, and then they had this animated version.

This animated version... It only aired in 1987,

and it only aired 13 episodes because it was

a Saturday morning cartoon that aired on NBC.

So a Saturday morning cartoon, if it lasted a

full season, would get 13 episodes. And obviously

it's based off of a live -action series of the

same name that Jim Henson did. The only difference

in the theme song was that they let the voice

actors do the voices, but otherwise the theme

song's the same as the live -action. Cash fee

is away, worries for another day. Down in Fraggle

Rock. I probably got some of those words wrong

just doing it off the cuff there. But this time

we would hear the likes of Bob Bergen, Townsend

Coleman, Barbara Goodson, Mona Marshall, Rob

Paulson, etc. So why did it only air one season?

Why did it only get 13 episodes? Well, the only

clue we have towards that is, according to Margaret

Loesch, an unnamed head of children's programming

at NBC chose not to renew it for a second season.

Why? Because his daughter didn't like the show.

So one of those situations where if you have

the power and... One of your kids doesn't like

something or does like something. We've seen

it happen both ways. Got the ax here. Interesting,

just like Nanny and Muppet Babies, the dock on

Fraggle Rock only gets shown from the neck down.

So one of those interesting things that you're

always looking to try to see his whole body instead

of just the legs. But Fraggle Rock here, I think

it's a good representation of, I know we already

had Muppet Babies, but just another good representation

of how... prevalent jim henson and his productions

were in the 80s and things of that nature and

i think fraggle rock was its whole whole different

thing a little separate itself from the likes

of sesame street and the muppet babies and the

muppet show etc but i think it warrants a spot

here and it fits the theme so we're going to

put fraggle rock here at the 9 30 time slot Moving

on to our 10 o 'clock time slot, this is going

to be one that probably is the least well -known

out of all of the ones that we're talking about

today. This is going to follow in the footsteps

of Dungeons & Dragons, Kid Video, Gem, and Galaxy

High. We're going with Beverly Hills Teens. Not

Beverly Hills 90210. This is Beverly Hills Teens.

Yes, there was an animated show called Beverly

Hills Teens in 1987, aired for 65 episodes, the

standard syndicated weekday afternoon package,

which makes it tied for 20th with a lot of other

shows in the 80s. It's produced by Deke, developed

by Jack Olesker, who's one of the main writers

on The New Adventures of He -Man. That's not

a good thing, but Michael Malani and Barry O

'Brien. Barry O 'Brien's the guy who created

Hannah Montana, so that's kind of interesting.

The executive producer was Andy Hayward, just

like he was with most Deke shows. And the reason

this one's interesting, besides the fact that

it fits our theme for the 10 o 'clock time slot,

is it kind of also presents a shift or a different

take on 80s shows. I don't know if they were

successful with what they were trying to do,

but here's some quotes here. Rich Colbert, he

was the president of a thing called Access Syndicate,

and he was very upset with the state of children's

entertainment in the 80s. stating that, quote,

children's programming these days is dominated

by neo -militaristic boy toy animation. And he's

talking about shows like Silverhawk, Slendercats,

G .I. Joe, et cetera, et cetera. And he said,

another quote here, where are the Tom and Jerry's,

the Flintstones, the rich characters for children

to nurture and develop and identify with? So

they produced a show called Beverly Hills Teens.

So I don't know if this was the right way. I

get the sentiment. I get, like, let's do something

that's not just the action, militaristic, like,

fighting shows. And he's right. You know, we

could have had some more Tom and Jerry's, Flintstones,

Jetsons -like shows. I don't know if Beverly

Hills Teens was the way to go. I feel like somebody

read the part where he said the rich characters

and thought that he meant actually rich, like

actually. money monetary rich not like deep characters

layered characters but i mean beverly hills teens

is it's literally like beverly hills 90210 make

it animated and make it way more ridiculous is

what you got with beverly hills teens but um

i think it is important because it also does

i guess represent on our list here uh a phase

that was going on in our movement that was going

on in live action show with beverly hills 90210

where for the first time we were getting these

soapy You know, not soap operas, so to speak,

but these soap teen drama driven series that

had never been done before in the prime time,

like Beverly Hills 90210, like Party of Five,

like Dawson's Creek, et cetera, et cetera. You

know, Gilmore Girls, it would go kind of spawn

into a million different shows. But it's interesting

because that was something that was definitely

prevalent in the late 80s, early 90s. And I think

Beverly Hills teens, the cartoon can somewhat

represent that as well. So I like it here in

our 10 o 'clock time slot. Let's move on to 1030,

following in the footsteps of Strawberry Shortcake,

Rainbow Bright, She -Ra, Princess of Power, and

Pound Puppies. This theme should be obvious for

everybody. We're going with the OG, My Little

Pony. My little pony, my little pony. The OG,

though. This is 1986 to 1987. It aired for 65

episodes. Again, a standard syndicated series.

Of course, it was based off of the toy line.

from Hasbro, and the cartoon was done by Sunbow,

Marvel, and Hasbro, just like Transformers and

G .I. Joe was. And it was aired in a couple different

packages. There was a standalone, just My Little

Pony, and then they did a thing called My Little

Pony and Friends, which they gave it some friends.

So there was different segments. So you would

have the My Little Pony segments, and then you

would have segments of shows called Glow Friends,

which you might remember the toy Glow Friend,

Moon Dreamers, and Potato Head Kids. There was

also a movie called My Little Pony the Movie.

Hasbro, Sunbow, Hasbro, Sunbow, and Marvel were

doing this. They did the Transformers movie,

they did G .I. Joe the movie, and then they did

My Little Pony the movie. Obviously, My Little

Pony the movie didn't do very well, but this

cartoon basically debuts three months after.

Good voice cast. Bettina Bush, we talked about

already when we talked about Rainbow Bright.

Charlie Adler, Susan Blue, Nancy Cartwright,

who's the voice of Bart Simpson. Katie Lee, Sherry

Lynn, B .J. Ward, etc. So a lot of female highlights

there because of how many characters were female

in the show. There were two previous specials

that aired, too. Rescue at Midnight Castle and

Escape from Katrina. They worked that into episodes

of this series. And then obviously we got the

reboot in 2010, which was My Little Pony Friendship

is Magic. And to say that that show blew up would

be an understatement. I mean, that was probably

one of the most successful reboots of all time,

like that fandom. is immense and very passionate

it lasted for almost a whole decade it's been

followed up by a couple other series Equestria

Girls and Pony Life so My Little Pony is definitely

stayed in the zeitgeist like it is in our culture

it is something that every child in America probably

knows what My Little Pony was and it started

all the way back here in 1986 -1987 and that's

why we give it our 1030 time slot in 1987 Only

two shows left for today, guys. Let's see what

they are. The theme should be very obvious because

so far in the other years we've gotten G .I.

Joe, He -Man, Gobots, Transformers, Voltron,

Masked, Centurions, and Silverhawks. So the 11

and the 11 .30 time slot are one in it. or a

theme are one in of the same. We'll start with

the 11 o 'clock one, which is going to be a show

called visionaries. Visionaries may be one of

the lesser known boys action cartoons of the

eighties, similar to 1986 is episode where we

talked about centurions. I kind of put these

guys in tier three of boys action shows. But

I think it's worthy. 1987 was the only year that

this one aired, so it was the only way I could

get this one in here. 13 episodes, another Sunbro,

Sunbro, I keep wanting to say that, Sunbo Hasbro

series. For the first time, there was no Marvel

involvement. There was, interestingly enough,

though, even though there was no Marvel involvement,

there was a six -issue comic series that kind

of was printed at the same time. This series

was created by Flint Dilley. There was a toy

line produced after the series had ended as well.

Toy lines were kind of known for those holograms

that would change pictures and stuff like that,

which was very cool, somewhat unique for the

80s toys, which there was a lot of action figures,

so they had to find their way to kind of distinguish

themselves. The only problem, I think, was the

holograms were kind of expensive to produce,

so that was a little problematic when it was

deeming the success of that toy line. Interesting

enough, in 2018, IDW did a crossover comic miniseries

with Visionaries and Transformers. If you're

interested, check that out. The voice cast for

Visionaries had the likes of Roscoe Lee Brown,

Peter Cullen, Jim Cummings, Chris Lotta, who

most people know as Cobra Commander, or Starscream,

Neil Ross, etc. And the animation, interesting,

was done by the same company that did Season

1 of DuckTales, Rescue Rangers, Animaniacs, Tiny

Toons, Batman the Animated Series. So a very

well -off animation company. And it was actually

the same company that Hayao Miyazaki worked at

at some point. Very interesting kind of tie -ins

with Visionaries to other things that would happen

later. I think it's worthy of being mentioned

here in the 80s, even if it's not one of the

most well -known boys' action cartoons. So it's

going to take our 11 o 'clock time slot, which

means we only have one show left for today. 1130,

it's going to sound weird because we had Silverhawks

last year, and people are going to say it should

be in the other order, but 1987, our 1130 time

slot goes to Thundercats. So I know Thundercats

came first, so people will probably say, well,

that should be there and this should be here,

but Silverhawks only aired in 1986, so I had

to put it there. Thundercats was 1985 to 1988,

so I had some options, and it slotted best here

in 1987. 130 episodes of Thundercats aired in

the 1980s, which means it was the second most

of the decade. tied technically for the second

most in the decade so there was smurfs at the

top that aired the most episodes in the decade

and then tied for second was he -man and thundercats

with 130 episodes so uh this was ranked 48th

best on ign's top 100 animated series it was

ranked 31st on geekcast radio network's top 100

animated series so a lot of love from those two

groups it's a rank and bass show just like silver

hawks and tiger sharks Everybody hold the phones

here. Last episode, I accidentally said Tiger

Hawks, and someone definitely wanted to let me

know in the comments. Slip of the tongue, guys.

Sorry. It's Silver Hawks and Thundercats and

Tiger Sharks. There. Hopefully that makes it

right for everybody. Characters were created

by Ted Wolfe, head writer Leonard Starr. The

typical Rankin -Bass voice cast of Larry Kenny,

Earl Hyman, Earl Hammond, Peter Newman, and Bob

McFadden. There's a lot of famous outtakes from

Thundercats and Silverhawks recording sessions

of these guys kind of going bananas, making each

other laugh, cussing, things like that. So if

you're interested, I would definitely check out

the outtakes. They're funny. Earl Hyman might

be best known as the grandpa from The Cosby Show.

And obviously Larry Kenny is Lion -O, so he's

been known for that as well as a bunch of other

things. He did a lot of commercial work as well.

There was a 2011 reboot. Unfortunately, it got

canceled after one season. They said it wasn't

kid -friendly enough. That series was great.

I think it was a Cartoon Network series. They're

known for canceling stuff too soon. But the 2011

reboot was really good. It especially appealed

to the older audience that grew up with it because

it was a little bit more... Deep and complex

and stuff like that, but I guess it just wasn't

moving fast enough for the figureheads at the

station So it got the axe after one season there

was and instead they decided to do another reboot

called thundercats roar Which was an abomination

of all things thundercats, but it's out there.

I guess if you want to watch that go for it I

wouldn't suggest it And obviously, Thundercats

had a ton of merchandise. They had, you know,

the lunch boxes. They had the comics. They had

the action figures. They had all kinds of stuff.

So Thundercats was immensely popular throughout

the mid to late 80s, probably right up until

a time where another little show came along called

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and kind of knocked

it off of its pedestal. So Thundercats gets our

11 .30 time slot. So that means for 1987, let's

do the breakdown. We have Danger Mouse at our

8 o 'clock time slot. Berenstain Bears at 8 .30,

DuckTales at 9, Fraggle Rock at 9 .30, Beverly

Hills Teens, followed by My Little Pony, and

then we round up the year with Visionaries and

Thundercats. So that is our lineup for 1987.

We only have two years left, 1988 and 1989, so

keep tuned for that. If you want to get updates

and you want to know when those episodes drop...

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with more geeky things this has been just another

80s geek and you have been watching the geek

showcase thanks guys