GCR – Episode 25 – Top 100 Animated Series 20-01

Geekcastradio .com presents The Geekcast Radio

Top 100 Animated Series of All Time Megatron

Phillips, Mike TFG1 Blanchard, Kevin Optimus

Solo Thompson. All right, ladies and gentlemen,

it is finally time for the moment you've all

been waiting for, the top 20 revealed here of

our top 100 animated series of all time list.

And in true... GCR in fashion, we're coming full

circle by bringing back our guest from the first

episode of this countdown. Welcome back, Dirt.

Yay, I get to be on the important one. You know,

it's just because you mentioned in the other

episode that, man, you wish you would have been

on this one, so we felt like we had to. Plus

that, and plus he's like, at the end of one of

the clips in episode 21, he's like, I will never

be invited back. We invited you back. You just

had to prove me wrong, huh? Yes. Well, that and

Pixel Dan was out buying a house. I'll never

get $1 ,000 for being on this show. You're right.

Hell, we don't even get $1 ,000 for hosting the

show. One day. It's funny because Pixel Dan bought

this new house, and it's actually like three

blocks south of where I live. And it's kind of

scary because I was like, oh, well, I could just

carpool with you and then I could walk back home

to my house. And he's just kind of giving me

this look like, oh, what did I do? But anyway,

so we're getting to the top 20, and just before

we get to our first reveal, I just want to kind

of go around the table, so to speak, as far as

our ideas of the countdown so far and kind of

what we're looking for or expecting or what our

thoughts are going into this episode. So let's

start with Mike. Any thoughts before we hit this

top 20 or just anything that was said to you

over the course of the week since the last record

or anything? I hate that you put me first, you

asshat. Of course I would. No. Disclaimer here.

Kevin and I, I've said this before, so I'm repeating

myself, but Kevin and I spent six hours, and

I only relooked at my personal list once. So,

yeah, apparently I'm going to have a lot of explaining

to do, and I'm in fear for my life right now.

That's an excellent. See, you were first, but

you came up with an excellent response. Fucker.

Steve, anything, any thoughts before we get into

it? I think I'm going to be close on a few, and

I'm going to be off on a few, but overall I think

it's going to be pretty well known, at least

for ten of them. Yeah, I don't know what message

board or forum or whatever I said this on, but

one of the things I was kind of thinking about,

you know, up to this point, some people have

been critical about us because we haven't had

a lot of detailed information about some of the

shows, which is intentional and for two reasons.

Number one, ToonCast is where we go into detail

with individual cartoon shows where we talk,

you know, anywhere from an hour to two hours

on each show. So that's where you go for our

detailed talk. But also, it's impossible for...

anybody besides myself to come in here prepared

because they literally are finding out what the

show is as we're recording it. So unless they

can, like, in two seconds do research on the

show, that's why we're not getting a lot of detailed

information. It's everybody kind of talking off

the top of their head. That being said, now that

we're down to the top 20, some of them should

not come as a surprise. So hopefully a few of

us at least have some arguments or some ways

to back up our opinions on some of these shows

because some of them we should be expecting to

see. So I just wanted to throw that out there.

Dirt, any thoughts about what you've been hearing

since your last guest host and what you expect?

Yeah, well, the one thing I want to know is why

do you hate Thundercats? No, let me correct that.

I do not hate Thundercats. I don't know. I heard

hate. I heard hate in your voice. I own every

volume of Thundercats on the DVDs, and actually

that's one of my favorite cartoons. For me, if

I was making a list of my favorite cartoons,

yes, it would have probably been exactly where

we ranked it on our list. I just don't think

it should be as far as best of all time because

I think it's my personal bias is what likes it.

And that's why I was trying to separate that

from... Does everybody hear this hate? Everybody

hears this hate? This is pure hatred. Evil. But

we are going to have a chance to go further into

that in the future. But I don't want to give

anything away. Yes. So any other thoughts besides

my hatred of Thundercats? Just step lightly this

episode. That's all. Just step lightly. And with

that, I think we're going to get into our first

number 20 here. 20. So we've been speculating

for a while now throughout our journey of our

first 80 as far as certain franchises and if

we'd see more entries or not. And here's another

example of one of the franchises that's most

represented so far on our countdown, that being

the Spider -Man franchise. So coming in at number

20 is Spider -Man, the animated series. It actually

tied number 21, Family Guy, from last episode,

but it won in a tiebreaker. IGN had it ranked

at 84th. We have it all the way up at number

20, and so far the highest out of the Spider

-Man cartoons. Mike, what are your thoughts?

At this point, no other Spider -Man cartoon better

show up. Did we have the overall order of the

Spider -Man shows that did show up on our countdown

right? Yeah, most definitely. Because if the

MTV version new animated series shows up at beyond

number 20, we really have to redo this entire

project. And Spider -Man Unlimited, technically,

even though it was a separate series, it's almost

a continuation of this, even though it has slightly

different voice actors in it, but it follows

the same storyline. But yeah, this is a perfect

placement for this. I loved Spider -Man the Animated

Series as a kid. I thought it was really great

storytelling, great voice cast, and just really,

really cool stuff. As far as our ranking versus

IGN, who got it right here? See, I don't know.

Probably not, because it... See, for me personally,

I normally go by nostalgia on everything that

I grew up with. I noticed that. Shut up. Shut

up. You know, so I think realistically it should

probably be like 31, 32, somewhere around there.

Is it number 30? No. Just asking. No. But, I

mean, for our list and what our list has become,

I'm okay with it being at 20. We actually had

13 people vote for this one, and seven of them

had it in the 30s. So you might have something

with that. Steve, you're only two off. You had

it at number 18. So how do you feel about this

one coming in at number 20? Can't say I'm surprised,

but obviously you can see which Spider -Man is

the ultimate favorite among all of them. Yeah,

it seemed like it was a pretty good consensus.

I'm glad to see it land where it did. Dirt, you

didn't vote for this one. Nope, sure didn't.

So does it not deserve a spot in the top 100?

In the top 100, I could see the argument being

made for it. The idea of top 100 animated series

of all time. I'm not so sure. I'm not so sold

that it belongs in the top 20. Again, this goes

back into personal bias. Everybody has their

own personal bias, and that's why we sit around

and talk about them. For me, it was a fine show,

but I don't know that it was really anything

spectacular. It's definitely better than Magic

School Bus, but I don't know. The consensus is

that it belongs in the top 20, so be it. It belongs

in the top 20. Do you agree with Mike and Steve,

though, as far as the order of the different

Spider - Is this the best out of all the Spider

-Men, or did you mention one earlier that you

thought was better? I enjoyed when it went to

Unloaded. That, to me, when it kind of - Because

here it felt - This particular series, to me,

it just felt like it was kind of retreading the

same ground as a lot of the other, any other

Spider -Man series. And when it went to Unlimited

is when they were just kind of like... okay,

everything you know is just completely different.

We're doing our own thing. We're going our own

way. We're doing another, you know, planet and

all this kind of crazy stuff. And I enjoyed that

a little bit more because it was, you know, kind

of flexing its legs and going off on its own.

And if you want to say that that's part of this

and tie them together, then, you know, okay,

cool. Then I'll kind of go with that a little

bit more than just that main series by itself.

Now, for me, just really quick, as far as the

Spider -Man cartoons that have appeared on the

countdown here, you've got the 60s, you've got

Spider -Man and his Amazing Friends, Spectacular

Spider -Man, and this. Spectacular Spider -Man

does have really, really great writing. Back

in 1994 when this came out, it was... Kind of

riding on the heels of X -Men the Animated Series.

It was like Marvel's big thing of them putting

out animation, and they were putting out animation

that was pretty much comic book story driven.

So basically taking it off the page and putting

it to animation. And that's one of the reasons

why I like this series so much is because it's

not just a kid's type of cartoon. It's a cartoon

that anybody can watch. Does Spider -Man the

Animated Series have its flaws? Sure. Compare

this to Spider -Man and His Amazing Friends and

the 1960s Spider -Man. I think between those

three, this one wins hands down for me. I think

the only other thing I wanted to bring up real

quick before we end on this one is this is the

fourth Spider -Man show, like you just mentioned,

which by far so far is the most represented franchise

in our countdown. The only other one that's even

close is, have we had? two Batmans or have we

only had one? We've only had one. So does Batman

even have a chance of catching this with four?

Oh, well, we've had Batman, Brave and the Bold.

The only other two really that I would want to

see in the top 20 is Batman Beyond and obviously

Batman the Animated Series. So your guess is

that Spider -Man stays the most represented franchise

in our countdown? I would probably say so. Although,

I mean, Tom and Jerry... was done as everything

Tom and Jerry in the history of Tom and Jerry.

Whereas technically, you had Tom and Jerry and

the Tom and Jerry Kids and the Tom and Jerry

Hour and the Tom and Jerry Show and the Tom and

Jerry theatrical releases. So technically, that

was like 17 different things. Well, then there's

been a couple of them like that, actually, too.

I think the problem is when you start to split

those up... Oh, Tom and Jerry Kids has gone awful.

No, I know, I know, but what I'm saying is if

you do take all those and split them up, what

I've found so far is that people will ignore

all of them except for their favorite, and they

will just vote for that one. Or in some cases

where we had a couple where there's one or two

different versions, like Dragon Ball Z, for example.

Well, that's a bad example, but how one person

voted for Dragon Ball instead of Dragon Ball

Z or whatever. You start getting some that are

left behind or some that don't finish as high,

whereas people, I think, view more of the superhero

ones individually. And I'm not saying it's right

or wrong. I'm just saying when you talk about

like a Popeye or... Although you also did that

with Super Friends. Yeah. Where you had Challenge

of the Super Friends and the Super Friends and

the Power Hour or whatever it was called. And

you had all of those mixed together as one, too.

So that might be something we have to talk about.

We have to scrap this whole list and start over.

We might have to talk about that if we do, in

fact, decide to do an updated version at some

point in the future. But let's see where we go

to next. We'll be right back. So our second entry

in the top 20 is another thing that we've kind

of debated on throughout the course of our previous

four episodes, and that was the whole Disney

franchise and which ones we would see or which

ones we wouldn't see. We had already seen Tailspin

and Chippendale's Rescue Rangers, and we had

mentioned a couple that we thought we might see

later on, and this is obviously one of them at

number 19, Darkwing Duck. IGN had it ranked 93rd.

We have it ranked all the way at the other end

of the spectrum at 19. Steve, you were real close

with this one at number 16, so is this another

one where you're kind of happy where it came

in? Yeah, I'm actually pretty happy that this

ended up here because, honestly, there's no way

that this show should end up in the 90s. I mean,

this show is so iconic. It touches on various

superhero franchises, but it's got that lighthearted

feel of Disney with some of the darkness of those

superhero cartoons. Yeah, and I don't know. We

were even talking about it compared to some of

the other ones. I'm very happy myself that it

ranked ahead of Tailspin and Rescue Rangers.

Oh, yeah. This show is by far better than those.

Yeah, it is. Mike, what other thoughts about

Darkwing? Darkwing had such great, again, another

cartoon with such great storytelling for what

the cartoon is. I mean, yeah, I know it's just

a Disney cartoon, but the stories, I mean, it

wasn't, you know, Darkwing wasn't the average

Disney cartoon where you've got, you know, say

Donald Duck and Huey, Dewey, and Louie or Scrooge

or whoever going out and doing whatever. You

had Darkwing actually attempt to be a superhero.

It was just, it was really, really cool. And

everybody remembers that very first two -parter.

Crap. Except for you. The Terror Flaps in the

Night. The one with Taurus Bulbo. Because what

I remember about that is, I remember actually

seeing a VHS movie version of that. Yeah. I don't

remember that one in particular. It was just

great. It wasn't on very long. There was seven

people that put it in their top 20. We had two

people that had it in their top 10. This is another

one that you did not vote for. Any reasoning

why you didn't vote for this one? I mean, I love

the show personally. I watched it every day,

whatever, coming home from school. But for me,

it was just one of those things that, again,

wasn't on very long. So I didn't feel like it

really had as much of an impact as some of those

other shows. you know disney afternoon shows

definitely better than tailspin and rescue rangers

i would totally agree with that so right um you

know i'm i'm totally fine with where it's at

excellent well so far we've touched on our uh

superhero discussion from before we've touched

on our disney discussion and which we're gonna

have actually another discussion that we debated

hotly at the end of uh episode 23 coming in at

number 18 so let's see what that is 18 So obviously

the debate that I was talking about was our debate

on more of the adult primetime shows, and Futurama

at number 18 is obviously another one of those

examples. IGN had it in their top 10. We have

it in our top 20. Again, 12 people voted for

it. It's been on since 1999 with a little hiatus

in there. Lots of awards as far as Emmys and

Annies. But for the third time in a row, a show

that Dirt did not vote for. This is like, why

do we even have him here? He's not voting on

any of the shows that are making the countdown.

Explain yourself. Well, Futurama, when I put

my list together, this is one thing I kind of

talked about when I was on last time, was this

idea that I had a hard time. ranking shows and

putting them on the list and kind of figuring

out, well, is this one more important than that

one? Or is that one more important than this

one? And when I look at Futurama, Futurama is,

you know, the Joanie Loves Chachi of The Simpsons.

And so I kind of look at it in that sense of

like, well, if The Simpsons is already on the

list of representing, it blows away Futurama.

Does Futurama really need to be on the list?

And so that was just one of those things where

I didn't really put it on the list because, to

me, it's just an extension of The Simpsons, and

I had a hard time ranking it compared to other

shows that I felt stood well on their own. And

that's exactly what I did with Pinky and the

Brain and why I left that off of my list, was

because, for the same reason, I felt that it

was just an extension of Animaniacs. So I didn't

feel like I should vote for both of them. So

I kind of get what you're saying with that one.

Steve, how do you feel as far as Futurama and

where it ranks against some of the other adult

primetime shows we've either seen or we haven't

seen? Well, if any of them deserves to be this

high up, I would say it'd be Futurama, just because

I greatly like this show much more than any of

the rest of them. I don't know if it's because

of its sci -fi nature and the fact that it pokes

fun at just about everything, but it's... To

me, it's slightly more intelligent and kind of

off the wall, though, than The Simpsons. So it

kind of piques my interest because you never

know what they're going to hit up. Well, and

four people put it in their top five. So there's

a lot of love amongst our geek friends and the

geek crowd that we're involved with as far as

Futurama. And I think it is a little bit of that

sci -fi and a little bit of that more, not necessarily

edgier, but that type of content. Now, Mike,

you had it down closer to 40 instead of in the

top 20. One of the reasons why I had it at 40

was because one of the reasons is I only caught

episodes here and there, and I liked what I saw.

I found it extremely funny. I don't see this

as an extension of The Simpsons. If anything

is an extension of The Simpsons, even though

it's a poor extension of The Simpsons, that's

Family Guy. I'll edit that out. No, you better

not. No. Yeah, but that's not an offshoot. That's

just a blatant ripoff. Exactly. There we go.

Ha -ha. Two against one. Neener, neener, neener.

Did you just say neener, neener, neener? Yes,

I did. Shut up. Futurama. Futurama is one of

those things where it is genuinely funny. It

genuinely has different episodes. It's not the

same characters doing the same thing every single

time. You can't get anything better than a one

-eyed, purple -haired Peggy Bundy, for Christ's

sake. Well, I would argue that, but just the

fact, I don't know all the ifs, ands, and the

inside scoop as far as what happened, as far

as it getting, it got canceled at some point,

right? Yes. And then they brought it back. The

fans are actually what brought it back, I believe.

That's what I'm saying. So that in itself should

say something that it came back. I know Maurice

LaMarche is always talking about Futurama on

his Twitter, obviously because he's been heavily

involved with it. But he loves the writing, and

I think the writing is good. It's never been

my favorite show or anything, but I respect how

long it's been on and the critical acclaim it

gets in that it does have a pretty big fandom

out there. I don't know. I don't have a problem

with it being in our top 20. I wouldn't put it

in my own personal favorite, but I have no problem

with it being there. 17. We haven't had a lot

of our individual contributors' number ones come

up yet in the list. I think we've had one maybe

last episode. I think Tara's number one showed

up. This is another of our contributors' number

one pick, and that was Christopher Stapleton

from Chicken Pot Pod. He had Justice League at

his ultimate number one of all time. We have

it at number 17, obviously, which is just a few

higher than IGN had it at 20. Dirt, you voted

for this one. I did. I'll admit to this one.

This was one of those shows that right around

the time before it came out, the only stuff I

was watching that was animated was the Harvey

Birdman and the Adult Swim. whatever a space

ghost and all of that type of stuff. And so this

was one of those that it came on and I said,

yeah, yeah, yeah. They're doing another superheroes,

Superman, Batman, whatever. I've seen it. You

know, I've been there, done that. They've done

it a million times. Why do I care? But after

the show was on for, I don't know, three or four

weeks. Somebody who had been recording the show

burned them onto a DVD and gave them to me. They

said, you really need to check this out. So I

sat down and I watched the first four episodes

and I was hooked. I was like, this is fantastic.

This is a great show. I love the way that they

treated it very real, as real as you can do with

people who can fly and shoot energy beams out

of their fingers. I want to say mature, and I

mean mature in the sense not like, oh, there's

boobies and swearing, but it was mature in the

sense that they treated things like it was important.

On a lot of shows, they'll have like, oh, there's

a giant comet coming to crash into the planet,

so we have to go out there and stop it. You really

felt like people's lives were in danger when

certain things were happening. And people were

going through tough times in their lives and

making decisions about what it means to be a

hero and if being a hero is really going to be

their career and the different personalities

trying to interact. And a guy like Green Arrow

coming in and being like, oh, well, you're going

to do everything this way. And they're like,

no. It's stupid. We're going to do it this way.

And people butting heads. And and for me, it

just really felt like, wow, this is this is.

The type of thing I like where you can be mature

and adult and have a show for quote -unquote

grown -ups, but it also works on the kid level

because you're not making it for grown -ups by

throwing in a random swear word or having somebody

eviscerate it on screen. It's for grown -ups

because it's smart and it's intelligent. And

it also works for kids because it's wholesome

and it's real. Steve, we finally got one that

Dirt voted for, and if my information is correct,

you did not vote for Justice League. Is that

correct, or did I have a typo? I'm looking into

it, but I do think that this show does deserve

to be on the list. I do think that it deserves

to be much higher, obviously, than the Super

Friends, because this is basically a... offshoot

of that. It's not the same continuity whatsoever,

but it's a nice update to that particular saga.

It is nice to see that show up somewhere within

the top 100. I don't have it on my list, which

again, it's probably just one I overlooked because

I was voting for other shows I hoped made it.

After listening to Mike's podcast, The Secret

Origins, I've had an increased interest in this

show, and I've actually gone back to watch them

on YouTube. Gotcha. Mike, you had it at 21. IGN

had it at 20. We have it at 17. Who's more right?

Justice League is one of the greatest superhero

cartoon shows ever. Any DC character that you

wanted to see in animation, they tried to get

it to you. We kind of mentioned Super Friends

a second ago. They actually did the opposite.

They said, we don't want to just bring in the

Legion of Doom. And they didn't until the very

last season. And it was just great storytelling,

great voice cast. I mean, Kevin Conroy is Batman.

I know we'll talk about him probably later. Kevin

Conroy as Batman, Michael Rosenbaum as The Flash,

Phil Lamar as Green Lantern. Just a great, great

voice cast. In a few episodes, you've got Mark

Hamill as The Joker. Just overall, really, really

great. I can't say enough good things about the

show. Hell, I did my own podcast about the entire

91 episodes. If somebody can do a... A 25 -episode

podcast on 91 cartoon episodes, you know they

like it. Yeah. Go ahead. Oh, well, okay. I would

also say that one of the things that really blew

me away with it was that it had this huge cast

of characters. I mean, they reached pretty deep

into the DC universe and pulled out characters

that you never thought you were going to see.

Tom Turbine. Well, and not only that, but they

made them right. The biggest problem a lot of

times, and this is one of those things like I've

got a lot of trepidation for the Green Lantern

movie that's coming out this summer because there

are a lot of things you watch in the trailers

and you're like, I know that's wrong. I'm just

going to try to go with the flow and whatever.

Obviously, whenever you take... characters that

have been around 50, 60, 70 years in some cases,

you have to make changes, you have to update

them, you have to contemporize them in order

to make them fit in the story you're trying to

tell. But for Justice League Unlimited, it felt

a lot of times like they were just taking them

off the page and putting them into their story.

And you felt like they had a history, and maybe

they've had the other interactions in the past.

in the comics that you didn't see on the show,

but you felt like they still had those interactions

and those histories and, and it just felt right.

And that's one of the things that I really enjoyed

about the show. And, you know, there's, you know,

in the first two seasons when they were doing

those two part epic story type formats that worked

for that format. And then when they expanded

the league and unlimited, they went to the 30

minute single story type of deal with the exception

of the once in future thing, two parter. Um,

but just, Amazing, amazing writing, amazing voice

acting, amazing animation. There are a couple

episodes here and there that aren't that great,

but overall a great show. And at number 17, it

probably deserves it. So, so far out of four

reveals in this episode, we've had two superhero

shows. Let's see if we get any others. 16. So

I think this next entry actually justifies some

of our discussion in episode 20 where we talked

about some of the biases we had, and one of those

we mentioned was a superhero bias because we

have yet another superhero show coming in next

here at number 16, and that is obviously Batman

Beyond. So we've had another Batman entry. I

want to start with actually Mike again because

you had it closest out of the ones that are here

on the record. You had it at 13. We have it at

16. So what are your thoughts about Batman Beyond?

Great, great show. This was an original, unique

idea. Back then, I believe it was Bruce Timm

that approached, I think it was Jamie Kennedy.

who was the, I don't know, Jamie somebody, who

was the head at WB at the time, the WB TV station,

and said that they want, you know, would you

guys do a teenage Batman show? And all the DCAU

creators were like, oh, how could we do this?

And Batman Beyond is essentially an extension

of Batman the Animated Series because it continues

with Bruce Wayne being old. and then you bring

in Terry McGinnis, and it eventually becomes

Terry's story. The music in this was amazing,

and it gave us one of the best animated features

of all time, Batman Beyond Return of the Joker.

The people that voted on this one ranged from

putting it at number three to 58, and obviously

seven people didn't vote for it. Steve, you were

the one that had it the highest at number three,

so are you upset that this is at 16? No, but

I'm at least glad that it made it under the top

20, just because the show is so freaking awesome.

I mean, you've got Kevin Conroy continuing, you've

got the continuation of Batman the Animated Series,

and it even ties in with Superman and Justice

League and Justice League Unlimited. So, I mean,

just about everything gets dragged into it. It's

nice to see somewhat of a conclusion and then

tying up some of the old villains' time on the

universe, like Mr. Freeze, the Joker, Rache.

I mean, it's a nice touch. It also did get a

lot of critical acclaim with some Annie wins

and some Daytime Emmy wins. I do think the one

thing that I like most about this series, and

I'm obviously not a huge superhero fan, but I

like the unique concept of... Not necessarily

completely unique, but as far as what Batman

had done before, as far as changing the time

frame of what we're talking about, we did have

it a lot higher than IGN, who had it at 40. But

again, we have yet to have an entry on our list

where all four of us have voted on it, because,

Dirt, you're left out again. Well, and this goes

back to what I just said about Futurama. This

was an extension of Batman the Animated Series,

and so in my mind, it's just... kind of part

of that with batman the animated series uh which

i i guarantee you will be higher up on the list

i i felt with that being represented it didn't

need its own spot which is a legitimate thing

i think when you only have so many spots to give

uh shows recognition you know sometimes you have

to cut corner not necessarily cut corners but

you know, take ways where you can combine one

into another and save another spot for another

show. So I have no problem with you doing that.

This is another one where I'm going to disagree

with dirt because as I said, a second ago, Batman

beyond, yes, it does continue Bruce Wayne story,

but it brings in Terry McGinnis and it's his

story. It's a new Batman. It's not, you know,

The only time we ever get Bruce Wayne, the old

Bruce Wayne, in the Batsuit is at the very beginning

of the very first episode. The rest of the show

is about Terry and him dealing with all of his

stuff. So I think those deserve a separate entry.

Yeah, well, I would never take, like, Batman

the Animated Series and then... say that this

was the final three seasons. I'm not looking

at it that way. For me, it's just that idea that

there was a natural continuation from that series

into this series. So, you know, it just kind

of felt for me that if Batman the Animated Series

is on there, this just kind of goes along with

that. Fifteen. and the Masters of the Universe!

I am Adam, Prince of Eternia and defender of

the secrets of Castle Grayskull. This is Quencher,

my fearless friend. Fabulous secret powers were

revealed to me the day I held aloft my magic

sword and said, By the power of Grayskull! Grayskull!

come to one where all four of us have voted for

it, and some people might be surprised because

we're five shows into this episode and we haven't

gone to the 80s yet, but we'll fix that here

at number 15 with our first 80s entry, the original

He -Man and the Masters of the Universe from

1983. IGN had this way lower at 58. We have it

in the top 20 at number 15. Scotty had this ranked

as his number one Pixel Dan had it at 5, JT6,

Phil from Blogomatic, 5, Mike, you had it at

10, and I had it at 14. So we did have a lot

of people that had it pretty high on our list.

I'm surprised Dan didn't have it number one.

Yeah, and I want to go first on this one because

I know we're going to get blasted on this one,

and I know a lot of people don't think this deserves

to be this high. A couple reasons why I think

it does deserve to be in the top 20. Now, I'm

not saying necessarily we're in the top 20, but

I think it does deserve to be in the top 20 was

because of the actual impact that this show had

on animation in general. And what I mean is this

is basically the first 80s toy commercial, if

you want to call it, or action shows that really

broke the mold as far as number one, being able

to be on the air. when you are a direct line

of toys. And second, breaking the boundaries

as far as, if I'm remembering right, when we

covered this at ToonCast, as far as the syndication.

Yeah, you're remembering it right. As far as

being the one that broke the mold as far as going

into syndication and showing that as a viable

option for cartoons. And this one really was

the trailblazer for the other 80s action series

that would come later. So I think for that...

It deserves to be in there. Now, is this something

that I can sit down and watch like five hours

of at one sitting? Absolutely not. I can watch

it in very small, small doses. But, I don't know,

I think the characters are memorable, and I know

I'm an 80s kid, so I have some bias here, but

I just think as far as the impact it had, it

deserves to be in the top 20, and some people

may disagree with me or may not. Let's start

with Steve, because you had it down at 61, which

is real close to 58, where IGN had it. Is this

way too high for He -Man, in your opinion? I

think it's a little high for He -Man. I don't

think it should be necessarily in the top 20,

but I think it should have been between 40 and

20 somewhere. Okay. Being that it was a good

show for its time and that it has had a successful

reboot of it, but I don't think that it really

holds up as well today. No, I agree with you

100 % that it doesn't hold up very well today.

Oh, and the other thing I forgot to mention,

not only as far as just 80s action shows, but

for Filmation. I mean, this is their crown jewel,

basically. So I think that kind of plays into

a part. But no, I agree with you 100%, Steve.

This does not hold up today at all. It does if

you have enough whiskey. You know, I had this

on my list at 22. If it comes in at 15, I'm fine

with that being in the top 20 because I do feel

like this is a show that had a massive cultural

impact. And it may have been the culture of the

8 to 14 -year -olds. But that's still a significant

grasp of the imagination that stuck with enough

people that it took a couple tries of rebooting

it to find out what the magic was for, you know,

now they have this successful toy line that basically

launched the Mattel Maddie Collector, the whole

website and their whole subscription service

and that whole idea of these beautifully sculpted

high -dollar action figures. You know, it's a

tie -in for a toy line, sure, and it's basically

a 30 -minute conversation. commercial with a

bunch of swords and buff dudes. But it did have

this huge impact. The impact of He -Man and the

Masters of the Universe would not be the same

if it was just the toy line. It would not have

been the same if it was the Dolph Lundgren movie.

There was something about this show that kind

of fired up that whole zeitgeist of He -Man and

the Masters of the Universe. And it may have

been a Conan clone, and it may have had these

weird undertones of guys walking around showing

off their nipples to everybody. Never, but...

Kind of updated Thundar the Barbarian. Yeah,

you just can't escape that show. You couldn't

escape that show then, and today, you know, I

have a son who is six. He knows who He -Man is.

Yeah, and not only did it, you know, you said

the toys, and even the current toy line, you

know, Steve mentioned the reboot, the 2000...

Two reboot of it. And you mentioned also the

cult favorite as far as Geeks Everywhere, or

a lot of places as far as that live -action movie

that came out back in the 80s. I don't know.

I love that movie. That's a whole other story.

Back to the whiskey. But I think one of the things

with He -Man for me is it is one of the first

cartoons that came along that had more than just

one or two memorable lead characters. Because

up until that point, it was usually the idea

where you just had this one major character.

And like the one I just said that it kind of

imitated in a way, Thundar the Barbarian, you

just had Thundar. And a lot of the shows before

that when it was action, you just had that one

or two main people. This one, all of a sudden,

and I know it was because they wanted to sell

more toys, but regardless of that fact, it doesn't

take away the fact that all of a sudden they

were introducing you to... Dozens of characters

that were both memorable, that you could like,

that everybody could have a different favorite.

Before, if you didn't like the main star of a

show, you probably didn't like that show. This

one, you could not necessarily love He -Man,

but maybe you love Ram -Man, or maybe you love

Man -at -Arms, or some of the bad characters.

And there was multiple options for you to attach

yourself to this show, and obviously it's a formula

that many shows would follow after that. Mike,

do you want to say some more stuff about He -Man?

You know, He -Man is just great. First of all,

not just the cartoon itself. I mean, the cartoon,

I know the toy line happened and then the cartoon

happened, but with the cartoon happening, all

this other merchandise happened. Like, I specifically

remember my best friend had a Masters of the

Universe record. You know... The cartoon itself,

yes, it is dated nowadays, and yes, you probably

shouldn't watch more than maybe one or two episodes

unless you're drinking heavily. Cheers. Where

everybody knows your name. It's one of those

things where these – and Kevin has pointed this

out before. I am a big continuity buff. This

is one of the shows that I grew up with that

I like it for its individual stories because

each of them were an individual story. I think

what really wears on me when I was watching this

for our TuneCast episode 10 was that – the morals

at the end of every episode those got really

old really fast the episodes themselves didn't

get old but it's like oh god skip that skip that

moral stuff we don't need that nonsense but yeah

uh you know but you know like like you guys said

i mean we wouldn't have masters of the universe

classics right now if there wasn't this original

cartoon Well, and we wouldn't have a lot of the

other 80s action shows that we've already talked

about or maybe that we'll still talk about. A

lot of them wouldn't have came along had not

this broken the mold as far as the toys part,

as far as the syndication, as far as a lot of

different things that hadn't been done up to

that point that He -Man did and did successfully.

And it's like I said earlier on, to me, I know

it doesn't hold up, but I go back to the argument

that... It was super popular for an entire generation.

I know it was only on literally for two seasons,

but as far as the reruns that would show every

year from then, I mean, this captivated a generation.

And if it was successful enough to do that, it

deserves at least some credit here with us. And

also, you say it was only on for two years. I

remember watching it a lot longer than two years.

No, two seasons as far as... I know, that's what

I mean, though. They did that whole syndication

model. It used to be a show had to be on for

four years before it could go into syndication.

They went straight into syndication, and people

said, well, we bought these episodes, we're going

to keep playing them. I remember watching the

show for five years. It was crazy to me when

I was older, and at some point I looked back

like, oh, I should get a hold of those. What

do you mean there was only two years of this

show? I watch this show a lot longer than that.

Well, yeah, because that's how syndication works.

They just randomly mix them up, and they play

them over and over again. I've got to say that

I'm very happy with where the 2002 Mike Young

Productions version came in, and I'm very happy

where this one's coming in. And thank God that

pitiful excuse for New Adventures did not make

the list. Oh, my God. No, no, no. Listen. Like

Dirt was saying, years after this show was over,

it was still in syndication. I remember one morning

that they showed an episode of Masters of the

Universe, and then they showed this new thing.

I'm like, oh, it's continuing. Oh, wait, what

is this? As an 8 -year -old kid, I looked at

the intro for like 10 seconds, saw Skeletor's

face, and turned the TV off, and I said, I'd

rather watch The Simpsons. I'm pretty sure if

I did ever see a preview for this as a kid, it

did not register with me that it was a He -Man

cartoon. It was a bad memory. I actually agree

with you, though, as far as I love that the Mike

Young production came in and right around, I

think it was like number 50, 51, somewhere in

there. And I love where this one came in. Now,

which show would I rather watch right now? The

Mike Young one, of course. And if I could get

more episodes of one of the series, I would like

more of that one. But I still think we're right

in putting this one higher. Oh, yeah. You know,

I know people will disagree. Because, as Dirt

said, because of the cultural impact it had.

Yeah, and I don't think, you know, a lot of people,

again, like to ignore the success things had

at the time, and I think that's wrong. So our

first 80s show, I don't know how many more we'll

have. Actually, I do, but nobody else does. Well,

it definitely deserves to be higher than Alvin

and the Chipmunks. Fourteen. We got some work

to do now. Scooby -Dooby -Doo, where are you?

We need some help from you now. So we did better

than IGN on this one, but I am still very disappointed

because to me, no -brainer, top 10, and we have

it not making the top 10, and that is Scooby

-Doo, where are you? Now, this might bring up

the whole conversation as far as, yes, there

was like a thousand and one different versions

of this show from 1969. And it's still going,

obviously, today with Mystery Inc. And we've

had all the different movies and there's been

a lot of different versions of the same character.

But this is the one that started it all. This

was one of the best of them. From 1969, so an

old school entry, I think it's automatic top

ten. I had it at number two. One of my BTBA guys

had it at his number one. Dirt, you had it at

number four. Are you with me here that this should

be higher? Oh, this should definitely be higher.

Shame, shame, shame. I agree. This is another

one of those ones that does not hold up whatsoever.

I actually disagree with you on that. I know

a lot of people might say that, but I can actually

still watch this show. Just taking the last entry

of He -Man, I can watch this show way easier

than I can watch He -Man now. I can watch any

version of Scooby -Doo almost, except for there

was a few bad ones. But my problem here is, and

I don't mean to say anything negative towards

Steve, but six people did not find a spot for

Scooby -Doo anywhere in their top 100. I know

not everybody voted for all 100. Some people

voted for 50 or for 75 or for however. But how

do six people leave this off of their list entirely?

They were high. Steve, answer my question. Okay.

Well, this is the thing for me. I knew about

it. I figured it would end up where it's at,

like just somewhere towards the top 10. I've

never personally cared for the show. It's more

so like I watch it as a hit or miss thing, but

I've never really gotten into it. And it's nothing

against the show. It's just, I don't know, it's

just something about it never really clicked

with me. Yeah. I mean, granted, it is a good

show, and it does deserve to be higher. I will

admit that. And granted, some of it doesn't hold

up, but the fact that a lot of the voicings stayed

the same, a lot of the concepts have stayed the

same over the decades, and it's such a remarkable

franchise that it just keeps going year after

year with maybe a year or two breaking between

them, but they keep continuing with new content

that this franchise, there's no way that it should

be higher than the top ten. Well, and like you're

saying, look at how many different franchises

or cartoon characters or different series that

this has outlasted, first of all. And it's not

like it's bad as far as reinventing itself. I

mean, the Mystery Inc. show that's on right now

is an excellent show. And actually, it got quite

a few votes as far as towards, I mean, it didn't

make our list or anything, but a lot of people

voted for Mystery Inc. too. Just for its ability

to continue to reinvent itself to new generations

and new generations. I mean, I have a 10 -year

-old niece that loved Scooby -Doo as a kid, and

I'm way older than she is. And it's not only

the amount of reincarnations or new versions

that have survived and made this last from 1969

to now 2011, but it's also look at the number

of shows that have tried to imitate it. And I

wish I had a list in front of me, but, I mean,

there are dozens of shows that tried this whole,

you know, we're going to solve a mystery, we're

going to have a group of animals or a group of

kids or a group of, you know, these four or five

different things that are going to try to solve

this mystery. I mean, we've seen it over and

over again, especially back in the, you know,

60s, 70s, 80s, you know, in that time period,

we saw a lot of this. So I think not only the

fact that it's lasted so long, but the whole

imitation is whatever, the highest form of flattery

nonsense, I think that also gives it some credit.

Now, Mike, you had it at 62. So how do you feel

about it coming in at 14? I'm okay with it coming

in at 14. I personally ranked it at 62 because

of the fact, like, I won't ever say anything

bad about this voice cast. This voice cast was

awesome. But this is a show where I'm actually

the opposite of Kevin. I can watch more 1983

He -Man episodes than I can watch Scooby -Doo

episodes. Or I can watch a lot of Scooby -Doo

is the four or five or six different Scooby -Doo

movies they did, like the team -ups with Batman

and Robin and the Harlem Globetrotters. The 13

Ghosts of Scooby -Doo, I love that series. But,

you know, I do recognize it for its effect in

pop culture and just the way that it is. But

just looking back at it, for me, it just doesn't

hold up. Even nostalgia -wise, it doesn't really

hold up for me anymore. There's something wrong

with your head. I don't know. To me, this is

just a franchise that shouts top ten to me. I

don't know. I would also argue that this original

series here, this is also one of those things

where my mom was familiar with it, my aunt was

familiar with it, I'm familiar with it, my sister's

familiar with it, my son is familiar with it,

my wife is familiar with it. It's another one

of those cultural impact things. I can see in

25 years, not as many people are going to be

familiar with He -Man from 1983 as they will

be with Scooby -Doo Where Are You from 1969.

I agree. Frozen in stone by a magic spell for

a thousand years. Now here in Manhattan, the

spell is broken and we live again. So we had

a little spot, a quick stop at the 80s and then

69, and now we're right back into the 90s where

we've been with most of the entries for this

episode so far and another Disney series coming

in on the countdown. Again, we had this way higher

than IGN, who had it at 45. Gargoyles at number

13. Steve, I'm going to start by putting you

on the spot because you had this in your top

10, so you must be happy that it at least made

number 13. Yes, I am glad that it got up that

high. It at least deserves to be around top 10,

which it did accomplish. This show was... One

of the darkest series Disney has ever had and

ever will have, considering that they disowned

it. But the animation in this show took Darkwing

to the next level. And this show has such superb

writing, awesome voice cast. I mean, hell, they

have a lot of people from Star Trek The Next

Generation. Yeah. But, I mean, it's just the

whole show overall. I mean, if you didn't like

this show, you're freaking nuts. And eight people

on our voting contributors list here put it in

their top 20, so you're not alone as far as your

enjoyment of this show. Mike, is it too high

for gargoyles? Not really, because, like, you

know, I agree with everything what Steve said,

but specifically to voice cast. I think this

is the very, although I didn't know the guy's

name at the time, obviously, but this is like

the very first time I heard Keith David's voice,

who he voiced Goliath in this. He has one of

those very, very commanding voices, and just

in general. I mean, I see this guy in movies,

and he still has that. He's one of those voice

actors that doesn't need to do. an imitation

or change his voice or lower his voice. He just

has that. When he talks, he commands a room.

And for the character, the lead character Goliath

here, it just, it was just amazing. The animation

was great. The storytelling was great. It's a

shame that Disney, you know, pretty much disowns

this and denounces it. But I mean, you know,

this does deserve top 20. I'm really not super

familiar with this cartoon, so I'm not going

to say too much with it. I kind of understood

its importance. The amount of people that love

this show is undeniable, and that's just obvious

through any message boards, forums, or anything.

If you're talking to anybody about animation,

it seems to come up. So I didn't have it as high

as you guys because I don't know it as much,

so I had it at number 74. But let's go to Dirt

Santee again. Did not vote for this one. Never

saw it. Okay, you're with me. This was the time

period after I graduated high school and I was

doing college and Southern Comfort, so I never

saw the show. Okay, well, that's a legitimate

reason. And hey, if it's this high on the list,

then you know what? Maybe I should be familiar

with it. Yeah, this is one of the shows that

I've actually wanted to sit down and watch. I

just literally have not had the opportunity to

do that yet, and I need to make some time for

it. So we'll take Steve and Mike's word for it

that it deserves to be where it's at. But only

from those two guys. Everyone else who voted

for it, we don't trust you. Because you lie.

This is Cobra Commander, and I am destroying

G .I. Joe on number 12. Cobra! G .I. Joe is there.

It's G .I. Joe against Cobra and Destro. Fighting

to save the day. He never gives up. He's always

there. Fighting for freedom over land and air.

G .I. Joe. G .I. Joe is there. So only five people

left this next one off their list. And it's our

second 80s entry. And this one is G .I. Joe,

a real American hero, coming in at number 12.

So it is higher than He -Man. We might be able

to talk about that a little bit. IGN had it at

19. We have it at 12, so we have it slightly

higher. I had it at 17. Steve, you had it at

11. Christopher had it at number 4. Scotty at

6. Pixel Dan at 9. So, I mean, it got a lot of

love. 14 people voted for this, which is a lot.

I'm actually happy that it's in the top. I would

not have quite put it this high, though, myself.

Mike, what are your thoughts on the original

G .I. Joe? Okay, now I'm really scared. You're

going to get raked under the coals. If Real American

Hero comes in here, I'm actually hoping that

number 11 is G1, because if G1 gets any higher,

we, again, have to really rethink this entire

project. Well, it's like I said before, in our

bias, we grab from a lot of Transformers communities.

Right, right. You know, G .I. Joe, Real American

Hero was, you know, for me it was the little

green army men come to life, honestly. Because

everybody as a kid had those little plastic,

you know, stick green army people. You know,

we had tubs and tubs and tubs of them as kids.

And this cartoon just hit along with Transformers.

It was two of the biggest 80s franchises from

Sunbow. And it just had really, really good storytelling,

I thought, back then. Well, and the other thing

with this one, though, is that it goes back so

much further to when my brother, who is quite

a bit older than me, used to have the big 12

-inch action figures from back in the day. like

in the whatever, the 60s or 70s or whenever those

came out, I think 70s, somewhere in there. So

the actual story of G .I. Joe predates this actual

cartoon. But for me, I kind of have flip -flopped.

When I was a kid, obviously I loved both this

and Transformers, and I think you can't talk

about one really hardly without talking about

the other. As a kid, Transformers was my favorite

out of the two. I think I've actually flip -flopped

a little bit now. As far as just this individual

series, I'm not talking about the franchise as

a whole, but as far as this individual series

versus G1, I think I actually like this series

a little bit better now than the G1 Transformers.

But like you said, these two shows defined a

generation of boys as far as everything. I mean,

this is what they were watching as they were

growing up. This is where they were learning

certain things from. This is what they were consumed

with. And who doesn't know? You say G .I. Joe,

everybody knows exactly what you're talking about.

And it's because of this. And it's another one

where there's been multiple incarnations. We've

had live action movies. We've had other series.

And obviously even this last year we got a new

series. But I don't think you can deny the impact

that both this and Transformers had on a generation.

No, you can't. And it's one of those things where,

again, amazing voice acting. Just amazing voice

acting. Oh, this is one of the best voice cast

ever. Well, I mean, I would put some of those,

obviously some of those mashups like when you

had Laugh Olympics or whatnot, when you got everybody

from back in the day on there. You had some John

Stevenson and Dawes Butler and Mel Blanc and

Don Messick all in one group or whatever, some

of those types of shows. But as far as like from

our lifetime, I mean, this is just ridiculous

voice cast. Now, Steve, you... barely missed

this one you had it at 11 and it came in at 12

so is this a perfect placement for you is it

too high now that you've seen the whole list

or how do you feel about it um i definitely like

where it landed i like that it's ahead of he

-man oh yeah okay fucker it's so much better

than he -man But again, one of the reasons why

I kind of can't compare G .I. Joe to He -Man,

whether one is better than the other, two completely

different concepts. First of all, you've got

He -Man with sword and sorcery. You've got G

.I. Joe, which is all military. One thing I don't

understand about you, Mike, is that so far we've

revealed some of your top ten, which has been...

Thundercats was in your top 10, Inspector Gadget

was in your top 10, Gem, Mask, and He -Man, and

Shiro was number 11. So those were all shows

in your top 10, yet for G .I. Joe, you ranked

at 54th. Yeah, so? I don't understand you. Are

you an 80s kid or are you not an 80s kid? I am.

He's a hippie. He's an anti -military kid. Shut

up. No, I am, but... Like you, you said that

as a kid you had a choice, and back then you

chose Transformers. I still loved them both.

Right. No, no, no. I know, and I didn't say that

you didn't, but you said back then you chose

Transformers. Same thing with me. I had a choice.

I caught episodes here and there of G .I. Joe,

but it was like if – If I had a choice between,

like, say G .I. Joe was on Fox, which it wasn't

because Fox wasn't around yet, but I'm saying

say G .I. Joe was on one channel and Transformers

was on another. Back then I would be more apt

to turn into Transformers rather than G .I. Joe.

Well, they weren't, just for the record. They

were never on at the same time. I know they weren't.

So you never had to make that choice. I'm just

saying. Okay. Shut up. Can we move on yet? No,

because you're the only one person who had this

ranked lower than you, except for the couple

people that didn't have it on their list at all.

Shame on you. Are we going to get basically annihilated

here for so far having He -Man and G .I. Joe

in our top 20? I don't know. I think they're

both shows that had huge cultural impacts, and

that's an important thing to remember. They may

not have had the best animation, and maybe some

of the stories aren't the best stories to kind

of go back and revisit. But, again, it played

into that whole era of, you know, it wasn't just

the show. It was the show and the toys and the

backpacks and the Trapper Keepers and the Garbage

Pail Kid parodies. And, you know, everything

else that tied into it, it was part of that whole

thing. If you pull it out, just that one slice

out and say, look only at the animated show,

well, then, yeah, it probably should fall. farther

down on the list but when you take it as where

it was in society and culture and the impact

it was having and the way it was you know shaping

imagination and the way the way you know people

ripped it off and stole ideas from it and the

way that you know i don't think three and three

quarter inch figures they they had them before

but they didn't take off till until this G .I.

Joe series. It was basically G .I. Joe and Star

Wars is the reason why those figures are still

around, that size figure. Right. I mean, Star

Wars obviously came out first and kind of had

that push, but with G .I. Joe, suddenly it was

everybody's home. Everybody had it. And so I

think you have to look at that whole big picture

and you say, yeah, these things really had an

impact on who we are. Well, and I also think

another thing, you kind of brought up the storytelling

or the writing, and I think it's way too easy

for some people to look at these 80s shows, and

what they do is they pick out a few or a handful

of episodes that were really badly written or

had just terrible storytelling, and then they

stereotype or label the whole show like that.

For every bad G .I. Joe episode, there was a

really good G .I. Joe episode. It also went out

there sometimes, like when they did the whole

Sorpentor saga and some of that stuff, or the

town of Springfield, when everybody in town was

just Play -Doh that came to life so that Cobra

Commander could try to figure out secret passwords.

I mean, it really just kind of went outside the

box of what you expected. You always expected

Cobra to roll up on the Statue of Liberty and

try to blow it up and ransom it for $1 ,000 or

whatever, because $1 ,000 was a lot of money

when you're five. but you know. But they really

went out there and did some fantastic and amazing

stuff that you go back and you look at it, and

it may seem kind of silly as an adult to go back

and be like, oh, talking clay, whatever. But

when you're a kid and suddenly the faces start

melting and the goo starts swirling around the

drain, you're like, what the hell am I watching?

This is fantastic. Well, yeah, and I guess my

point is that just too many times people write

off some of these 80 shows as just having bad

writing overall, and I think that's unfair to

a few of the people that did some really good

writing on some of these shows. So, you know,

don't take the whole series based on one or two

episodes you see. But I don't know. We've had

280 shows, and I think Mike might be scared as

to how many more we're going to have. But let's

see what our last one not to quite make the top

ten is. Eleven. Eleven. So back a couple episodes,

we had a discussion when we were talking about

Spider -Man and Batman as far as who would have

the most and all this other stuff, and I posed

the question, is there any other superhero franchise

that we would expect to see on our list? And

we have finally found it at number 11, the last

one not to quite make the top 10, which is X

-Men from 1992. We had it two higher than IGN.

15 people voted for it. That's the most we've

seen so far. Mike, let's start with you. You

had it at 23. How do you feel about X -Men being

at number 11? I like it. This, again, you know,

and I'm sure there will be people out there that

said that the animators and the people that were

creating the show back then got it wrong, but,

I mean, this, again, like Spider -Man the Animated

Series, was comic books come to life. They lifted

stories directly from the X -Men comics. Just

amazing. You want multi -parters. You want full

-on suspense -type stories. Yes, there was a

few episodes and a few seasons where they had

one -shots, but just overall great story writing,

great voice acting. I mean, I swear, the chick

that voiced Rogue, she must not have a voice

nowadays with how much screaming Rogue had done

in this series. I really, really enjoyed it.

Isn't this one, I don't know much about, obviously,

all these, I've said that multiple times, but

isn't this one of the longest running comic book,

what is this, this is Marvel, right? Yeah. Is

this the longest running Marvel animated series

of all time? I don't think so. Okay. If not,

it's one of them lasting five seasons. Yeah.

You know, being on 92 through 97. I actually

think I did read somewhere that it is the longest

one, because Spider -Man the animated series

was only 65 episodes, I believe. Yeah, I mean,

it could be as far as... See, I thought you were

asking as far as actual comic history, but as

far as cartoon series history, it probably is

Marvel's longest -running cartoon series. I think

that says something in and of itself. Steve missed

it by two again. You had it at 13, and this one

came in at 11, so how do you feel about X -Men?

He missed it by that much. Wow, was that Chief

Quimby? Chief Quimby. Yeah. Wow, that just threw

me off. Yes, I definitely like this show. I'm

glad that it made it up here. And this show is

definitely iconic for what it did, especially

for the X -Men and for animation in general in

the early 90s, because pretty much DC... The

only thing it had going for it was Batman the

Animated Series, and Marvel was just kicking

great shows right out of the park. I mean, you

had X -Men, you had Spider -Man. I mean, so this

show was one of their best ones. And everything

about it, from the intro to the story to the

voice acting and the art, I mean, everything

drew you into the show. Should we have had it

in our top ten? I think it should have been in

the top ten, at least at like ten. But I still

think it should have been like a nine or a ten.

Yeah. So right around this spot is fine. Yes.

How about you, Dirt? Another one you didn't vote

for. I didn't like the show. Really? Why not?

I thought the stories were okay, but let's face

it, the X -Men are just a secondhand Justice

League. Hopefully we can get some flames on that

one. True. I'll give that to you. I mean, the

storylines, yes, I recognize them as being lifted

right out of the comic. But to me, the animation

on this show was just ass. Like the first time

it started up and you heard that cheesy guitar

rock that sounded like somebody's garage band

got paid 50 bucks and a pizza in order to play

it. And it's just the character designs and the

shadowing and just the way the people moved.

It just looked like the cheapest. Korean animators

that they could get. Just the whole show, I was

like, yay, they're finally doing good stories.

Why does it have to be like this? Mike, response?

Steve? Me coming from a guy that had never really

caught on to a lot of the comic stories, I thought

that for its time, the animation was really good.

I think this is... This is the cartoon that kind

of really pushed X -Men to almost porn type of

statures when it came to Storm and Rogue. But,

you know, I always liked it. I can see Dirt's

point of, you know, some of the episodes do kind

of have the animation doesn't really look all

that great. But overall, for its style, I liked

it. Steve, any comments on their discussion on

that? No, I agree. I like it. And I will give

you that it is pretty much like a second -rate

Justice League. I mean, I do prefer Justice League

over this, but still, for the time, it was a

great show. I have a feeling some people out

there are getting a little nervous that have

their own personal favorites that they have not

seen come up on our list yet because the spots

are disappearing, and we only have about ten

more shows to come in. So I don't know. Hopefully

you see your favorite, but I can just sense some

nervousness out there. So let's see what our

first show in the top ten is. Ten. We're tiny.

We're toony. We're all a little loony. So our

first entry in the top ten, and some people may

have been wondering why we hadn't heard from

this specific company yet, because we haven't

had a whole lot of the whole Warner Brothers.

showing up in our countdown this one just cleaned

up at the award shows IGN had this at 41 I disagree

with that um I don't know if I'd put it in the

top 10 but 41 is way too low Tiny Toon Adventures

was absolute genius um as far as of its time

this was one of the only shows in that first

five years of the 90s that I actually genuinely

didn't dislike, because it was kind of a time

where I hated a lot of the cartoons that were

coming out, and I actually loved Tiny Toons.

41 too low, 10 too high for me. Mike, how do

you feel? I'm okay with it being 10. I kind of

wish it, you know, it definitely deserves top

20. I'm not sure if it deserves top 10, but the

comedy in this, It was just amazing. All the

gags, the animation, the fact that they actually

brought in the Looney Tunes characters as teachers.

Well, it was an absolute genius idea to bring

in these new characters, but then to have the

old Looney Tunes teaching them. I mean, how perfect

was that? I don't know. For me, that was like

an absolute genius idea, and it was a perfect

way to reinvent an old stable of characters and

still do it. But go ahead. I didn't mean to cut

you off. No, yeah, you're right. I mean, it's

one of those things where, you know, some people

who have really, really crappy shows like Ren

and Stimpy say that, oh, it's a Looney Tunes

ripoff. You know, they're wrong. Well, is that

something bad? Is it bad to be trying to take

something from the Looney Tunes? Well, his direct

quote, if I remember correctly, said, this show

is so horrible, it's just a direct ripoff of

Looney Tunes, but a bad one at that. Which is

kind of scary that I remember what that asshat

had said. But, you know, Tiny Toons, first of

all, this was the show that started the type

of musical cartoon comedy. Well, and we haven't

had a lot of comedies so far in the top. 20 we've

had a lot of superheroes we've had a couple 80s

shows and we had like futurama um you know i

mean we haven't had like just straight up comedies

besides i mean i guess futurama is a comedy but

you know as far as comedy for kids and this one

obviously ran the spectrum as far as ages go

so it's kind of nice to have more of this comedic

presence in our top 20 i think and again voice

acting trice mcneil just the voices that she

did with babs bunny was just amazing. I still

love the very first episode, A Loony Beginning,

and how they showed the cartoon guy trying to

create the characters and just the process through

the actual Tiny Toon Adventures episode of how

they go about creating ideas and stuff and scrapping

ideas. I thought that was really, really well

done. It's another rare one where all four of

us voted on it. And we all had it in the... Mid

to upper 20s, Steve, you had a 39, so let's go

to you next. I feel, like I said, IGN 41 was

too low for me, 10's too high. How do you weigh

in on that argument? I would say more so that

I think that this, I don't know, I think it deserves

possibly the top 10. Actually, more than likely,

just because it kind of continues Looney Tunes.

And it brings those antics to a new generation

without really taking away anything from the

original. So, I mean, overall, it is a great

show. I definitely think that it at least deserves

the top ten, more so than above top ten. Because

I'm sure there are going to be some other shows

showing up in the top ten that should be swapped

with some of the ones between ten and twenty.

And 25. Not to mention any show specifically.

Don't you mean 23? Where do you weigh in on where

Tiny Toons should go? 10 seems a little high

to me, but at the same time, I think it's also

because I kind of have this... I don't want to

say it's necessarily a love -hate relationship

with Tiny Toons, but it is one of those shows

where... I have to be in the right mood for it,

and I think it's because of the humor and the

zaniness and the speed of the show. It is one

of those shows where... To me, it almost feels

like overload a lot of times. There's so much

going on. They're so quickly moving from one

thing to the next. They're zipping out lines

here and there. And maybe it's just because I'm

old. And watching some of this, it's like, slow

down, you young whippersnappers. I can't follow.

Off my lawn. Yeah, well, I had to yell that earlier.

But it's just kind of one of those things where

I recognize that it was very smartly written.

I mean, it was written on a level that very few...

Anything gets written on. And it was one of those

animated shows where your first impression is

this is a little kid show. But I don't think

there was anybody, you know, you'd walk through

Hollywood and Steven Spielberg's involved in

this. You know, you mention that to somebody

and they'd be like, oh, really? And suddenly

they respected the show. They may not have ever

watched it, but it was one of those things that

made people kind of pay attention to it and kind

of go, well, you know, maybe animation isn't

completely worthless. Maybe it's not completely

dead, you know, type of deal. And so I recognize

the importance of it. I had it in the 20s. Where

did I have it? 28. Like, 10 may be a little high,

but at the same time, I can see why people would

argue for it to be in the top 10, and I'm fine

with that. Well, to me, this, along with a couple

other shows that came out about the same time,

I mean, this was a period where cartoons were

almost dying as far as, you know, they were doing

away with Saturday morning cartoons in favor

for Saturday morning Saved by the Bell type shows.

To me, there was a very few shows that, in my

experience, kept cartoons alive for me. During

a decade in the 90s, especially that first half

of the 90s, I felt cartoons were almost just

dropping off the face of the earth. So I give

it credit for doing that. It's also, like you

said, one of the first cartoons that catered

to a new generation of ADD kids. But I don't

know. Anybody else have thoughts on Tiny Toon?

Nope. All right, then let's see what else we

have in our top ten. Nine. Shame on you, the

five people that did not vote for this show.

Shame on you. You need to be hit. The godfather

of primetime animation deserves even higher.

Like six of us had it in our top four. Flintstones

should be higher than number nine. I know. Alice,

I'm home. I don't know how many people agree

with me or not, but I mean, I had it at four.

I had it at number one. Yeah, Dirt had it at

number one. Birdman had it at number three. Terra

had it at number three. Purple from BTBA had

it at number three. It deserves to be in the

top three or four. And I don't understand how

it can't be. It's one of the first successful

primetime cartoon shows. It was an Emmy -nominated

show. It was on for six seasons, like Scooby

-Doo. It's had a ton of different incarnations

over the years. Two or three live -action movies.

Yeah, let's start with Dirt. You had a number

one. I'm guessing you agree with me that this

should be higher. This should be number one.

As far as I'm concerned, there is no other animation

if there hadn't been the Flintstones. This is

where animation became something more than that

throwaway that you put in between movies. This

is what made animation legitimate, as opposed

to just something that occupies the kids while

you're getting more popcorn. And for me, it goes

back to that whole idea of the cultural impact.

There would be no animation. Every person in

the United States knows who the Flintstones are.

There's no question. It's another one that's

also been tried to be duplicated multiple times

by other shows. Yeah, and it's also one of those

things where it's so part of Americana. If I

walk into Target or Kmart or Walmart or someplace

like that and there's a rack of T -shirts and

there's a Flintstones shirt on it, I don't think

twice. Like, oh, yeah, Flintstones. Sure. Why

wouldn't it be there? If I walk in and there's

a Jetsons shirt, I'd be like, wow, Jetsons? Really?

Huh. But if I walk in there and there's a Flintstones

shirt, it makes sense because it is part of our

history and not the history of animation, but

the history of America, the history of television,

the history of broadcasting, the history of,

you know, whatever. I mean, they took the honeymooners

and they made it set in the prehistoric ages.

But beyond that, if you... If you're watching

TV and a commercial comes on for cascade dishwashing

detergent and you see somebody grab an elephant

nose out of the wall and spray it on their dishes,

anywhere else, if you do that in Vietnam, people

are going to be like, oh, they were over at a

fan's house. But for us, we know that's a Flintstones

reference. It's just you wouldn't think twice

about that. To me, like I said, this should be

number one. I don't understand. Let's see who

else has tried to do this. Let's just take a

family with a mom and dad and two or three kids,

and let's make a primetime comedy out of it.

Hmm. About every other primetime comedy that's

come since then, you talk about Family Guy ripping

off Simpsons. How about Simpsons ripping off

Flintstones? I know they're slightly different,

but it's basically the same idea. Oh, okay. I'll

kind of grant you that, but with one exception.

Simpsons is more leaning on the edge of PG -13

into R, whereas... Well, that's because of the

time period, though. The Flintstones was just...

Flintstones was like... Flintstones could not

do... I mean, it was 60s versus 90s. Right. And

probably for its time, I'm pretty sure there

were a handful of people who were looking at

something like the Flintstones going, is that

all Wilma's going to wear? She's showing the

shoulder. You know, I mean, you probably had

that. There were people that thought it was scandalous.

She's not wearing shoes. You can see her bare

ankles. But the thing of that time is, though,

I mean, it's the thing of that cartoon in that

time, though. Nobody wore shoes in Bedrock. It's

not just Wilma. Well, no, but I'm just saying

everything's a product of its time and generation.

And if you want to say, well, Simpsons is different

because it pushed the envelope. Well, I'm sure

there are ways that this is pushing the envelope

that doesn't mean anything to us now because

we just take it for granted. I remember the first

time I saw Casablanca, and I thought, man, this

movie is so cliche. Oh, wait a minute. Because

everything else has ripped off Casablanca. The

first time I sat down and watched it, I'm like,

ah, this movie's just ripping off. Oh, I see.

I want to give Mike a chance to explain himself.

In your opinion, there are 49 shows of all -time

animated series better than The Flintstones?

And one of them was Jim. Shut up. Can I just

say something? Mel Blanc, Dawes Butler, June

Ford. No, hey, I have never in any of the shows,

any of the past shows that we've talked about,

I have never said anything bad about the voice

cast, with the exception of that fucking John

Kay show. But... You know, the voice cast was

great for this. Me putting it at 50, again, it

goes back to other shows I wanted to see that

were higher or wanted to see make the countdown

because I wasn't sure, obviously, who else was

going to vote for shows that I might have voted

for. Can you just admit that you should be slapped

for barely making this in your top 50? No. I

can. Because you've argued before when other

shows came on, we were talking about stuff like

Magic School Bus being number 97 or whatever

it was. You're like, I can't believe this because

we're talking the top 100 animated series of

all time. Of all time, Jim and the Holograms

is better than the Flintstones? And again, I'll

say it again. That's why we have 19 other people

doing this. This is recorded. You understand

that. We can go back and pull out your quote.

and play it in a court of animation. Oh, God.

This is one place where you failed to eliminate

your bias. This is where the IGN guys are going

to be like, see, they can't even do it right.

Although they had this one, ironically, at the

exact same spot we did. We both had Flintstones

at number nine, which I guess at least we both

had it in the top ten. Steve, we've left you

completely out of this. Chime in on the Flintstones.

I... I did like this show. It is definitely a

classic. It definitely deserves to be in the

top ten because of the fact that generations

back to our parents know all about it, considering

they grew up with it. And then again, we grew

up with it as well. I don't see how anybody could

vote some of these other, I don't know, certain

80s shows out of the Flintstones. So wait a second

here. I get chastised for putting it at number

50, but no one chastised Steve for putting it

at 40 -fucking -4? Give me a fucking break here.

Excuse me, jackass. I had some other selections

that were on my list that I was trying to make.

He didn't vote Jem number 6. That's why you got

chastised. I didn't even have Jem on my list.

See, more points for him. We would not have chastised

you had you had had legitimate shows ahead of

it. I'm just giving you a hard time, Mike. But

Steve, continue. But yes, yes, I did have legitimate

shows ahead of it. But anyways, yeah, I definitely

think this deserves to be in the top ten. And

yeah, that is kind of odd. IGN actually tied

us there. Again, IGN doesn't really care because,

I mean, look at our difference in our list and

the shows that showed up, and look at their piece

of shit. You know, Kevin has said before about

that our bias comes in at 80s and superheroes.

Well, IGN's bias comes in at fucking Adult Swim

and anime. So, you know, it's not any different.

I mean, every list is going to have a bias somewhere.

Yeah, I agree with that, but Jem... Our bias

is more right. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding,

Mike. I will leave Jem alone from now on, I promise.

No, don't. This is awesome, but I will. You better

be careful. 2012, we might see a Jem podcast.

Oh, God. By yourself. I'll never hear it. Nobody

ever will. So another one, we have eight people

that have this one in their top ten and talk

about longevity, which I know in and of itself

does not mean everything. But coming in at number

eight, another primetime show. Kind of odd that

this one backed up with Flintstones. But South

Park coming in at number eight. IGN had it at

number four. Birdman had it at number two. Like

I said, a bunch of people had it in their top

ten, except for, of course, Mike. But South Park.

I understand that some people wouldn't vote for

this, and some people would, because it's one

of those where you either like it or you don't,

kind of like some of the other adult primetime

shows. But I think just the, first of all, how

long it's been on. Second of all, I was never,

I was anti -South Park when I was growing up.

I hated the group of people at my school that

liked South Park. I thought, this is stupid,

but that's because I never gave it a chance.

And then I finally, at one point, the first South

Park exposure I ever had, was the movie Bigger,

Longer, and Uncut. And I watched that movie,

and I said, holy crap, this is genius writing.

Like, this is actually really freaking clever.

And just the statements that are made in this

show that I think all the people that don't like

the show are oblivious to is where the genius

in South Park lies, and I'm very happy that it's

in our top ten. Dirt, how do you feel? Yeah,

I agree. This is about where I had it on my list

anyway. So this seems right to me. This is one

of those shows where I can understand why some

people wouldn't necessarily like it. It would

be controversial. Some people don't like the

attitude. Some people don't like the just crassness

of it a lot of times. The unrated G part. Well,

you know. But there are a lot of... The show...

When they originally started, obviously, they

were using construction paper cutouts and doing

the stop motion animation. And they converted

that over to a computerized system. And I remember

at some point the whole Elian Gonzalez thing

was going on when the SWAT team went in and took

the little boy back to Cuba. And then like three

days later, four days later, on that episode

of South Park, they go to grab whoever out of

the closet, and it's that scene. It's those photographs

from the Associated Press. It's the SWAT team

goes in, and they recreated that whole... And

you had just seen that unfold live on TV a couple

days beforehand, and they're already spoofing

it on the show because they perfected their system

for flipping things around, and it just shows,

like... I just remember sitting there thinking,

these guys have figured out not only... How to

get this animation system down where it doesn't

look... At the time, you looked at it and you're

like, this doesn't seem like a computer thing.

This seems like pieces of cardboard or construction

paper cut out. But the fact that they could so

quickly... take something from the news, from

pop culture, from what was happening in the world

around you, and spoof it and put it on the show.

That used to be Saturday Night Live was the only

place you could see something like that. And

now you're seeing that on an animated series.

It reminded me of those Law & Order commercials

ripped from the headlines. Yeah, and that's exactly

it. Because you got that instantaneous reflection.

And for a while there, it was almost like...

Is this something cool? Is this something we

can talk about? I don't know. Do they do it on

South Park yet? You know, it's just kind of that.

That wink back at pulp culture. And the show

has gone through its ups and downs. And there

are times where it took itself a little too seriously.

And then there were times that it just, you know,

they had their fat Elvis period where they just

got drunk and they didn't care what they were

doing. They were just doing the show. But, I

mean, where else are you having shows that are

tackling things like gay Cub Scout leaders or

talking about things like the difference between

the Lebanese and lesbians and talking about Scientology.

and straight up going, yeah, hey, this is what

Scientology teaches, believe it or not, you know,

and throwing it out there. And I think some people

don't get some of those messages. They just see

it as, oh, this is the show that cusses a lot

and there's a lot of vulgarity. And it makes

fun of crippled kids. And it can't be good. But

some of the messages that just take from that

movie, I know we're talking about the series,

but that movie where it's like talking about,

you know, basically everybody trying to blame

someone else for the problems. blame Canada or

blame everybody except for the parents who are

the ones responsible for teaching the kids that

are watching this how to deal with it. There's

something on the one hand it's very juvenile

and at the same time it's exceptionally brilliant.

That's what makes it brilliant is the fact that

it can be so juvenile but still have these messages.

Now I know we've been leaving Mike and Steve

out of it because they I don't think have the

same love and I don't love the show but I've

never Like I said, I grew up hating it, and yet

everything I've ever actually watched of it,

I've liked. So, Mike, why don't you weigh in?

I didn't outright hate it. When it first came

on, it was one of those things where it just

wasn't... I just wasn't in my wheelhouse as far

as that goes. It was a rare thing for me where

I hated it because it was popular, I think. With

me, sometimes that's all the time with things

that are popular. But this one is ultimately

the best satire cartoon ever. I mean, just the

things that they satirize in this cartoon. The

Harley episode is awesome. Sorry. You know, I

mean, you know, say what you want about the animation,

say what you want about, you know, the things

that they hit on and all that, but it is just,

I don't know. From what it is, it's amazing.

Yes, I will agree with Dirt. It does have its

ups and downs. I was almost going to say it kind

of was like The Simpsons, where The Simpsons

had, like, really, really great seasons, and

then they just have kind of just gone down and

down and down and down. But this one... has had

a resurgence and had, you know, really great

writing. And Matt, yeah, Trey Parker and Matt

Stone, you know, Trey Parker as Cartman. Oh,

my God. Well, and I'm glad you brought up the

animation, too, because this is one of the rare

cases where I will have an exception to the rule

where I don't like the animation style, but I'm

able to look past it. I'm usually not able to

do that, but with this one I can. I mean, I don't

think anyone will say anything, is going to rave

about the animation in this. Actually, I'm wondering,

did anybody else, this was one of those things

where, I was in college at the time that this

came out, so this kind of fit well with Southern

Comfort. And it was one of those things where

I actually discovered the... Jesus vs. Santa

Claus short that they did before the series came

out. So I was the fan of this little underground

film where this baby Jesus... Actually, the first

one was Frosty and Jesus, and the second one

was Santa Claus and Jesus. But I was a fan of

these little short films. I was like, oh my god,

this thing is crazy. And then I found out those

guys were getting a series. And so that made

me excited for the series because they were these

underground animator guys. Did anybody else discover

those short films, or did you just come right

in with the show? Well, I came in really late.

Like I said, I came in with the actual movie

because this came out when I was in high school,

and at the time I didn't like it because it was

popular and the group of people that liked it

would always get together to watch it every week

when it came out or when it aired or whatever.

So I came along later in the game. I don't know

about Mike or Steve. Yeah, I didn't catch those

at all. I only caught it when the show premiered.

I think what really hit me... At the time, when

it first premiered, it was like right after the

episode where Carmen goes, knock off all that

tree -hugging hippie crap. Mike, one thing. Mike,

I forgot to ask you, though. You've said a few

things about South Park, but does it deserve

to be in our top ten? I think for what it's accomplished,

yeah. Okay. I think Steve's going to be the other

opinion on this. Am I right, Steve? Yeah. Are

you a tree -loving hippie? Is that why you're

upset? No. I'm Megatron. Big difference. You

eat trees? No. What? I said you eat trees. No.

Because you're a dinosaur. I break them with

my forehead. There you go. But yeah, I liked

the show at the time. I don't so much care for

it now. One of my first exposures, I don't remember

how old I was, but my dad took me to see the

South Park movie in the theater. I'm pretty sure

I was like, I don't know, 16 -something, I don't

know. I don't remember. But anyways, I was still

in school, and yeah, I was like, yeah, that's

kind of entertaining. I watched how many times

they dropped the F -bomb in the movie, and I

was reading it in the paper, and I was like,

wow, that's awesome, 136 times, which I think

is pretty damn close. And the V -chip in the

movie, that was awesome, too, but I need that

for Mike. But before I light that fire, I'm going

to have to say that the show does, do a lot better

hitting on, uh, pop culture as well as, uh, political

BS. Uh, learn how to spell jackass. Um, it does

sit on that better than Simpsons or any of the,

or family guy or anything else. So, I mean, in

that sense, it is nicer, but I, I still prefer,

I would probably rather watch family guy over

this at this point. That's where Steve and I

differ because sometimes late at night I'll catch

an episode of Family Guy on Adult Swim and it's

like, okay, what else is on? And then I'll turn

over to the WGN channel and there'll be two back

-to -back episodes of South Park. I can sit there

and watch South Park late at night just because

it's probably the only thing on at midnight,

1 a .m. Like I said, it seems like with these

adult or these more primetime shows that it's

a lot more... And you either like one or you

don't, and there's a lot more people that are

either in this crowd or they're in that crowd.

There's the Futurama crowd. There's the King

of the Hill crowd. There's the Family Guy crowd

or the South Park crowd. So, I mean, you don't

often find someone that likes all of them as

far as what I've experienced. Well, and also,

again, it goes back to that idea that they're

not afraid to tackle anything, so they do turn

viewers off. And I think there is something to

be said for the bravery of being able to say,

well, you know what? We're going to have Christopher

Reeve just sucking apart fetus spines to get

the cells that he needs in order to keep himself

alive. And I'm sure there are a lot of people

that were kind of pissed off about that. But

you know what? If you can't laugh at something,

then there's something wrong with your outlook

on it. Seven. It's time for Anna. We're Animaniacs.

And we're sainty to the max. So just sit back

and relax. You'll laugh till you collapse. We're

Animaniacs. Come join the Warner Brothers. And

the Warner sister dot. Just for fun we run around

the Warner movie lot. They lock us in the tower

whenever we get caught. But we break loose and

then the moose and now you know the plot. We're

Animaniacs. So at number 10, we had Tiny Toon

Adventures. And at number 7, we have Animaniacs.

And I don't know how the rest of you feel, but

as far as what I feel, I am glad that this one

is higher out of the two. I loved Tiny Toons.

I absolutely love Animaniacs. I actually had

it at number 9. We had some people have it at

1, 8, 7, 7, 9. So, I mean, a lot of people had

it in there. Nobody had it lower than 48. So

everybody that voted, the 15 people that voted

for it had it in their top 50. Again, cleaned

up at the award show just like Tiny Toons did.

It was on for five seasons. IGN had this ranked

at 17. I actually think... This one deserves

more to be in the top ten than Tiny Toons does.

Mike, do you agree or disagree that this deserves

to be higher than Tiny Toons? Tiny Toons was

the launching of the musical type cartoon, but

this took it to a whole new level. Rob Paulson.

Yeah. Honestly, between Rob Paulson, Travis McNeil,

and Jess Harnell, that's all you really need

to say. LaMarche. Well, yeah, Lamar's too. But,

I mean, like, well, Rob and Jess specifically

because of, you know, Wacko's America and Yakko's

– oh, God. Everything. Yeah, Yakko's World, Yakko's

Planets, just everything. You know, this is one

of those shows that – was really, really great

and introduced us to a bunch of really, really

great characters. Well, you have music, you have

comedy, you have educational. I mean, you have

a lot of different elements being done very well,

and I just, I don't know. To me, like I was saying

with Tiny Toons, and I didn't want to mention

this actual show, but to me, this is what was

cartoons in the 90s, was Animaniacs and Tiny

Toons. That's what saved it when it seemed like...

everything was going down a very bad path. And

it resurrected itself towards the end of the

90s. But for a while, cartoons was in a dark

time. And to me, Animaniacs and Tiny Toons was

just these hidden gems that just carried all

of cartoonism for a little while. Now, Dirt,

I want to talk to you for a minute because you

had Tiny Toons and you somewhat agreed with where

we put that and you had that on your list, but

you did not vote for Animaniacs. And I haven't

met very many people that like one and don't

like the other. Well, two things. I mean, the

first thing is going back to that whole idea

of I've got one, so that kind of represents the

other. And I do kind of link these shows together.

I would never say that they're the same show,

but they do kind of occupy the same space for

me in my mind. But as zany and loony and frantic

as Tiny Toons was, this was that times 10, times

50, you know? I just have a difficult time watching

the show. Like, I just, I can't process. There's

tiger blood running through the veins of the

show or something. I just, I can't. I cannot

believe that you set that up. I tried watching

the show, actually. I tried watching the show

probably about four or five months ago. I don't

remember exactly why, but for whatever reason,

I was like, oh, Animaniacs. I haven't seen that

in a long time, and I tried watching that, and

I was just like. blood started coming out of

my ears. The scanners are going to make my head

explode. I have to turn it off and walk away.

To me, it was just too much. I can take the argument

of people saying it was a better show. I think

in many ways it was even more intelligently written.

The way it would throw in references to the Bolshevik

Revolution in the middle of this musical. And

you were like, a lot of people wouldn't understand

what it means to get a little Anastasia. But,

you know, it's just one of those things that

it would throw into the show, and I appreciate

that. But at the same time, to me, this and Tiny

Toons, I picked Tiny Toons because that, to me,

is more of the trailblazer, whereas this one

just more kind of perfected it. And I tend to

go with the one that set the stage as opposed

to the one that cleaned it up. So I voted for

Tiny Toons and not for this one. Well, luckily

for me, I have some Adonis DNA, so I was able

to stomach the quick pace of this. I even use

this in the classroom, actually, to try to teach

certain things or try to be extra credit for

people trying to recite the countries of the

world or different stuff like that. So I just

think there's some very memorable skits in this

show that anybody that saw it... as a kid remembers.

And there's not many times where I can do that

with other cartoons where I'm like, I remember

that exact part or I remember that exact episode

and I can do that with this one. Steve, how do

you feel about the whole Tiny Toons versus Animaniacs

and do either of them deserve to be in our top

ten or which ones do? Whatever. How do you feel?

Honestly, I prefer Random Maniacs over Tiny Toons,

and that's just because it's just such a random

show. And then you've got all the side things

like Mime Time, and then you've got Pinky and

the Brain's original incarnation. You've got

Freakazoid appearing in there. You've got Slappy

Squirrel. You've got that girl that runs up saying,

Okay, I love you. Bye -bye. Mindy. Yeah, I mean,

you've got all these random wacky parts that

just typically don't fit together in a cartoon

and somehow mesh really well. Hello, nurse. And

then you've got all these zany characters and

the voices that go with them. So, I mean, it's

just such an awesome show overall. Well, and

I think another thing I like about it is how

much they poke fun at their... their own selves

as far as like the company and the history of

the company and you know things about warner

brothers in general and i thought that was a

clever thing to do as far as you know use even

your the people that are paying your paycheck

you know that are writing your paychecks and

signing them and make fun of them too would you

like to take a survey i mean that's what i'm

saying look at how many memorable characters

quotes skits segments like it's ridiculous I

love the one where they're helping Michelangelo

repaint the Sistine Chapel. And the excellency

that he keeps referring to shows up at the very

end, and it's an animated version of Steven Spielberg.

Exactly. That is awesome. Regardless of whether

you like Tiny Toons better or you like Animaniacs,

I don't think either one of them can be denied

top 20. If I was to pick, I would put Tiny Toons

in the 10 to 20 mark and Animaniacs in the top

10, but that's just me. They're just both so

brilliantly done that you can't really say a

lot of bad stuff about them unless you're Mike's

favorite person. So another 80s entry into our

countdown, and I said I had no problem with He

-Man being in the top 20. I actually have no

problem with this show being in the top 10. Teenage

Mutant Ninja Turtles was on for so long, as far

as 10 different seasons, almost 200 episodes,

and to me, this was not really comparable to

the rest of the 80s action shows. Because this

one had all that campy, comedy, quirky mixed

in with running alongside some of the most popular

or most successful live action. movies that took

off on these cartoons, and they were both kind

of doing that at the same time period. I don't

know. To me, you can't compare this as much to

a G .I. Joe or He -Man or those shows. This was

its own entity. This came afterwards and blazed

a new trail for me as far as what kids were into.

So I have no problem with this being in the top

ten. I would probably put it a little closer

to the ten mark than the five mark, with it coming

in at six. No way in hell put it at 55 like IGN.

Yeah, no. This, for me, Transformers was over.

Voltron had been over. Thundercats was just ending.

This, to me, like Kevin said, was the next thing.

I mean, this was from 1987 to about 1996. I always

watched this show. And I just absolutely loved

it. It was like after Transformers died and the

Transformers toys weren't really in stores anymore

because this had come along and this was the

next new popular thing. And it just became a

hunt to find all the toys and to watch the cartoon.

And it was just amazing. You've got an amazing

voice cast. Great, great stories. We said earlier

when we were talking about the 2003 reimagining

that the 2003 version kind of... married together

the the really serious part of the comics that

came before this cartoon and also the comedy

bits from this cartoon so that that series wasn't

totally cheesy and it wasn't totally dark it

was a nice marriage between the two this one

because you had those really really dark comics

you had to have something that was like this

that had this humor that it had and it was just

amazing Yeah, and just a couple other things.

It did have two Young Artist Award nominations.

There was only three people that did not put

this on their list. I do need to figure out who

those three people are so I can do bad things

to them. But I don't know. I don't know a single

kid that was growing up in this time frame from

1987 to 1996 that was not a Turtles fan at some

point. Maybe not for the entire run. But at some

point, it seemed like everybody was a Turtles

fan. And, I mean, I think we're all going to

basically agree because we all have this pretty

high on our list. So, Steve, you had it at 8

instead of 6. I mean, I had it at 7. Mike had

it at 4. We're all about the same. So, Steve,

how do you feel about this coming in at number

6 compared to 55? I'm happier that it came in,

obviously, than 55. 55 is just stupid. I mean,

this is one of the longest -running series that

has had such a fan following, plus it's had newer

incarnations, plus it's getting a new version

this year. So, I mean, it's just batshit retarded

to put the original that high on their list.

Well, how many franchises have had an original

series that lasted a decade and a second series

that lasted seven years? Yeah. I mean, that's

unheard of. Oh, yeah, and none of the others,

even a lot of the other 80s series, never got

this popular. To not have it in your top ten

is just batshit retarded. Well, and, you know,

I said only three people did not vote for this,

and everybody that did vote for it had it in

their top 50 at least. So nobody had it as low

as IGN. Dirt, you had it a little bit lower.

You had it at 21. So do you think this should

not quite be this high, or how do you feel about

it coming in at six? There's no way this should

be above the Flintstones. Well, you could say

that with almost every show. Well, because I

had it as number one, so I would say that about

every show. Exactly. I definitely understand

the cultural phenomenon that it was, and I certainly

give it credit for that because I have used that

as a defense for some of the other shows. But

for me, looking at it, I didn't think the animation

was that great. I didn't think the stories were

necessarily that great. So that's why I didn't

have it as high as some of the other shows. It's

not a show that I definitely give it respect

for the fact that it was on so long. It produced

so many episodes that it was part of, you know,

again, the toys, the lunchboxes, the clothes,

the pajamas, the sleeping bags, you know, that

there's definitely something to it as being part

of something bigger than itself. But at the same

time, you know, it's not a show that I really

ever want to go back and watch all that often.

You know, if I'm in a room and it's on. Well,

the live action movie, sure. But, you know, it's

just, for me, it just doesn't, the stories were

not that great, the animation wasn't that great,

so I just don't think it should be this high

on the list. This just seems just a little too,

I don't know, it's just that character bias,

that whole, you know, people just vote for what

they like. and people like it, so it goes up

that high, but I don't think it stands as tall

as some of the other shows that are in the top

ten. Well, and I think it just illustrates the

point that this type of thing that we're doing

would be a lot easier if we were trying to break

it down by decade or something. You know, like

a top 80s list would be a lot easier. It's when

you start to compare things that are from different

time periods that it really starts to become...

complex situation. As far as where we have it

ranked, as far as the other 80s shows, I don't

necessarily have a problem with it, but I think

I'm going to have to hold my other thoughts on

that for a little bit later. Why are you saying

there's more 80s shows coming? There just might

be. Well, I guess people have to keep listening.

Keep listening, folks. We're down to our final

five. So staying in the 80s, actually staying

in the exact same year, and also another show

where only three people left it off their list.

I will save my comments about them for later.

But our first entry in the top five, Duck. tales

and we were wondering about the other disney

shows so let's first of all let's just talk about

straight up disney shows does this since we've

seen i think all the other ones that we expect

to see is this deserving that as the number one

disney show of all time mike yes dirt did i not

put this on my list um there's a chance when

i'm putting this many names down that i can miss

one but i'd have to go back and check yeah if

this isn't on my list and that's my fault This

does deserve to be on the list, yeah. I did love

this show. I think it does hold up well, The

Test of Time. I think it was ingenious for the

way it took... classic characters and reinvented

them uh in a way that was kind of fresh and new

and exciting and still paid homage to the classic

style of the characters that people grew up with

um i think it had some great writing they had

great stories it had great voice acting and uh

yeah so if if i left this off my list then that's

my fault yeah i checked back and i don't have

it on the list that you gave me um Is it better

than all the other Disney shows? Is it better

than Rescue Rangers, Tailspin, Darkwing, Duck,

and what was the other one that we had on our

list? Gargoyles. Is it better than all those?

Yes. Okay. We'll come back to both Mike and during

a second. Steve, is it the best Disney show of

all time? Yes, I'd have to say this is the number

one. I think all of the Disney shows have fallen

right into place with where they belong. And

I think that's something that's almost an easier

way to look at our list. Instead of just saying,

you know, overall, is it coming in the right

spot? It's almost actually easier to say, you

know, breaking it down into its genre, like adult,

you know, primetime cartoons. Did we get them

in the right order regardless of where they fell?

80s action shows, did we get them in the right

order regardless of where they fell? And Disney

shows or, you know, whatever. I think that's

almost a better way to look at it. And we'll

figure out the placement maybe in a future date.

But, you know, IGN had this at 18. We have it

at 5. So we've established that it's the best

Disney cartoon of all time. Is it a top 10 of

all time, much less top 5, Mike? Yeah, I think

so. It was one of those ones that had amazing

characterizations. Not just using the Disney

characters, but putting them in a real... Like

we talked before when we talked about Tailspin,

putting the Jungle Book characters in a real

-life, everyday setting. Putting... The Disney

characters like Scrooge and Donald and the nephews

and all that, and creating, I believe, didn't

this show create Launchpad specifically or was

Launchpad an existing character before? It was

on two different shows. Launchpad was on two

shows. I'm trying to figure out, remember real

quick. Darkwing and DuckTales. No, what I'm saying

is before DuckTales, wasn't Launchpad someone

that was... Launchpad isn't like a Goofy or a

Donald. He wasn't a pre -existing Disney character.

No, he was, I think, made for DuckTales. Right,

he was made for this show, and then he jumped

over to Darkwing. Just having him in here, just

all the different adventures, just showing how

greedy Scrooge is, but he still has a heart.

He still will do the right thing at the end of

the day. And that theme song. Everybody remembers

that theme song. Yes. That theme song, for the

record, is easily one of the best five theme

songs of the 80s or 90s. That's my stance on

that. But, Mike, I want to ask you one quick

question, because you've said it's the best Disney,

and you say it does deserve to be in the top

ten. Why did I rank it 56? Blah, blah, blah,

blah. Why did you rank it 56? Again. You could

have boosted it off a spot if you would have

voted for it higher, probably. Yeah, I know.

I don't know what I was thinking in that six

hours. Okay. At some point, the brain shut off.

Yes. Dirt or Steve, to either one of you, I didn't

give you a lot of chance to talk before. I mean,

we established as best Disney. Does it deserve

the number five spot? I guess that kind of depends

on what one through four are. Okay. Besides that,

we know Flintstones should be higher. Yeah. I

don't know. It's kind of tough. I kind of feel...

I don't know that it necessarily would have belonged

in the top ten. I think I enjoyed it. I thought

it was a lot of fun. I thought there are a lot

of shows that were executed a lot better. I think

there were shows that were written a lot better.

I think there were shows that had better animation.

So I don't know exactly... where I would have

put it, but I don't think I would have had it

in the top 10. Steve? I probably would have put

it above the top 10, honestly. So somewhere in

the 10 to 20 range? Yeah, more so there. Okay.

Well, I think it's undeniable, as the best Disney

show, that it deserves discussion somewhere in

this episode. As far as I'm concerned, top 20.

I don't know specifically where I would put it

if I was doing the list again. I had it at number

10 when we did it. But I don't know. I think

it's an interesting first edition of our top

five. And only four spots left, obviously. Four.

So remember Dirt's reaction when we talked about

Flintstones? Because that's my reaction now,

because my number one pick is coming in at number

four, and I think it's a travesty of all travesties.

What? And that is Looney Tunes. Now, I understand

that some people were trying to say that this

shouldn't qualify because it was never an animated

series. Yes, I realize that these were theatrical

shorts, but they did use the Looney Tunes title

to designate a half -hour series that was made

up of these theatrical shorts. So it definitely

does qualify. At some point they called it Merry

Melodies or Looney Tunes or whatever, and I'm

sure there's Looney Tunes historians that might

be able to expand more than I am. But Looney

Tunes, to me, is obvious number one of all time.

Some people had it at number two. Dirt and Mike,

you both had it at number two. Number four? I

don't know. IGN had it at number three, so we're

not very far off from them. I'm speechless. I'm

probably going to have to stop podcasting after

this episode, honestly. I'm never doing a list

like this ever again. You're fired. You can't

fire me. You don't even fucking pay me. This

again goes to this whole idea of, well, what's

number one, two, and three? Because... On the

one hand, I had this as my number two. I had

this behind Flintstones. For me, Flintstones

was just a revolution in animation and animated

series. I made this number two just because,

again, cultural impact. I don't know if there's

anybody on the planet except maybe a factory

worker in North Korea that doesn't know who Bugs

Bunny is. You know what I mean? I'd have to see

what one, two, and three are before I can fully

digest what my reaction is to this being number

four. Beyond that, though, what about the four

people that did not vote this? I pray to God

that the four people that did not put this on

their list were saying that it shouldn't technically

be considered an animated series. I can understand

that because, like you said, they started as

theatrical shorts between the newsreels, and

eventually they... put them into a package that

was sold in the syndication, and that's where

we're familiar with it. So I can see the argument.

If someone wants to make that argument that it

doesn't count as an animated series the same

way as The Simpsons or G .I. Joe or Transformers

or whatever because of the way it was repackaged

and sent out there, then I can understand that

side of the argument. So again, it just kind

of depends on what's considered the one, two,

and three then. Well, I'm going to actually throw

names out, though, because I'm hoping that they'll

maybe call in and leave us a response as to what

their reasoning was, because it's not like they're

dumb individuals here. It's Scotty and Christopher

Stapleton from Chicken Pot Pod and Mike Birdman

Dodd. You mean Scotty Cash? Yes. I thought you

said these people aren't stupid. Well, I don't

know, Scotty. Oh, love, love. But I'm just saying,

those three in particular did not vote for this

show, so please tell me that you guys were just

saying that this is not an animated series, so

it doesn't qualify. I hope that's your reasoning.

And that's actually why I actually sent a second

email out, was for stuff like this, when people

didn't leave it on their list, just to make sure

it wasn't just people who forgot stuff. But,

I don't know. Steve, what do you feel about Looney

Tunes? This should have been, like, number one

or two. At least. I agree. And since Mike and

Dirt and I all voted at one or two, we can back

that up. I mean, I didn't vote it that high,

but still, it's a timeless classic. Well, I don't

know. I'm just so blown. Maybe it's the... Four

people that left it off because they're not saying

it's a series. Because if any of those people

vote for it, they obviously are going to put

it in their top 50. You know, if not top 10.

Or top five. So I'm just saying that would be

a lot more points. So maybe it would have completely

changed things. But I don't know. I'm speechless.

To me, this is number one. And like Dirt said,

Flintstones should be right with it at the top.

Three left, folks. It's getting interesting.

Scary. Very fucking scary. This is Scourge, presenting

number three. So another one that 16 people voted

for and only three of them had it not in their

top 30. A lot of people had this in their top

10 or top 20. Kind of goes back to that bias

we talked about in episode 20, and that is Transformers

Generation 1 from 1984 coming in at number three.

Now, to preface this, I think all of us will

agree that this is too high of a placement. This

is extremely too high. But, but, but. I think

you have to take into account, number one, the

group of people that are in this, the 20 people,

are a lot of Transformers fans. So that probably

played some part of what happened here. But please

don't be too mean to us because we're all in

agreement that this is probably too high. It

is too high. I wonder if you, because you did

this by the rank. adding the points together,

I almost wonder if you redid the list doing the

average of the people who voted for it. So if

only 10 people voted for it, but those 10 people

all made it number two, then that would rank

it higher than the way this had been put together.

Well, see, what I wasn't expecting when we did

this, and I'll probably get more into this in

the wrap -up, expecting as many things to be

completely left off of lists, I guess, is what

I wasn't expecting. But there were way too many

cartoons to sit there and rank. I mean, if we

made this, like, say next year we do another

project like this, instead of doing top 100,

we did top 200, I guarantee you this would rank

anywhere from the top 50, maybe the top 60. I

think it would still come in. No, I'd actually

disagree with that. But I guess my question is,

we're all saying that it's too high at number

three. IGN had it at 23. Should it be around

there? Should it be higher than that, lower than

that? Where should it come in on just our list

of top 100? Compared to our list, I think if

you switch this and Flintstones, I would be okay

with it. Have this at number nine and Flintstones

at number three. Yeah, that would seem to make

a lot more sense. Or even have Flintstones at

number four and Looney Tunes at number three.

But I honestly have to say that I think IGN got

it better at 23 than we did. Now, I think the

other question is, let's take a step back then

and just compare it to the other 80 shows we've

seen in the top 20, which was He -Man, Teenage

Mutant Ninja Turtles, and G .I. Joe. Where should

those stack? What should the order of those four

shows be, Dirt? Wait, hit me again. Transformers,

He -Man, G .I. Joe, and what was the other one,

Kevin? I threw Turtles in there, even though

it's a little bit later. I'd probably put Turtles

at four. I'd make this one probably three. Then

G .I. Joe, and then He -Man would be the first

of the four. How about you, Steve? I would probably

have to say that Ninja Turtles would have to

be the highest and then having G .I. Joe, Transformers,

and He -Man. Mike? I would put Transformers the

lowest and put Turtles probably the highest.

You'd put Transformers lower than G .I. Joe?

Yeah. That surprises me. Just because, again...

It doesn't surprise me if the rest of us say

that. It surprises me that you say that. Well...

I went through a full -on 24 -episode podcast

reviewing the entire series, and just looking

at it analytically, G .I. Joe was way better.

Analytically, G .I. Joe is better. Nostalgia

-wise, I prefer Transformers, but there's just

so many issues with G1. You know, I'm not surprised

that it came in this high because I knew we were

going to have an 80s action bias. But I am surprised

that I never, ever, ever expected it to beat

things like Looney Tunes or Flintstones. Well,

and here's the other thing. Or Scooby -Doo. I'm

looking at these numbers, and I just kind of

real quick tried to add them up and take an average

of where people ranked them who had this on their

list. And doing it that way, it shows up at 18

.6875 is the number that I get doing a quick

and dirty average there. And for me, 18 out of

100, that makes a lot of sense for this series.

Yeah, I'd agree with that. So we'll see. Maybe

we'll put out a second version or something that

has the averages just to see what it would have

done. Or we should do a top 200 next year instead

of a top 100. Well, I don't think it's necessary

that we have to do a top 200. I think, first

of all, obviously we've seen a lot of things

and shows have been brought up that people forgot

about or reasonings have been brought up that

people didn't think about. There's different

ways to adjust it. Everybody that's listening,

you don't need to write a thousand comments that

we put this too high because we're agreeing.

Yeah, we know we put this way too high. The only

saving grace for this series for me, as I said

before, analytically and not looking at it nostalgia

-wise, is the voice acting. Oh, the voice acting

is incredible. And what does it for me is the

animated movie, actually, with the deaths. Right.

But that's a whole other story. Yeah, but the

movie isn't the series. No, I know. That's why

I'm saying it's a whole other story. Yeah, it's

a whole other... Again, I would be very interested

to see if you took all the same data. and just

compiled it a different way, came up with a different

set of statistics. I'm going to be up a long

time tonight. If five people out of 20 rate something

as being number 10, how does that compare to

when you've got 15 people rating something as

number 17 or whatever? I think what you get into

then is what if you only have a show that got

voted on by two people, but both people put it

at number one. Right. I think, you know, we've

talked about this before, and we will bring it

up in the wrap -up show, but if we do revisit

this exact list with this data, I think that,

Kevin, we should do the data another way, like

Dirt is saying, and just figure it a different

way. No, I will do that regardless, just to see

what would have happened, because I'm curious

now. Right. But what I'm saying is for next year

to, like, you know, we've talked about it, and

we'll talk about it again, about updating the

list, like, maybe once a year. Maybe we'll do

that for next year. Yeah, I mean, I'm going to

do it with the data for this just to see what

would happen, and we'll see if that would have

made a big difference or not, but I'm not looking

forward to that project. I also kind of wonder

if you weighed it in such a way also, where two

people are the only two people that voted for

it, and they voted it number one, but then you've

got something else where ten people voted for

the same thing, and they all voted for it number

one. That would outrank the ten people voting

for it. So I almost wonder if there's, like,

you know, do better math. Yeah, I love my mathematical

formulas, so I'll come up with another way, but

let's see what our final two are. Two. So...

This one that's coming in at number two on our

list came in at number one on a lot of people's

lists. Number one on Jackson from BTBA. Number

one on Mike Laidman. Number one on Birdman Dodd.

Number one on Mike's. And number one on IGN's.

Number two for us. Blowing away everything that

came before it by over 300 points. And that is

The Simpsons. One person left it off of their

list. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Now I'm really

wondering what the hell number one is going to

be because I think I know, but I'm hoping I'm

right because if that one show isn't number one,

we have a real problem since it hasn't even shown

up on the list yet. Oh, all right, so there's

still hope for Ultimate Muscle. No, there isn't.

There was never hope for Ultimate Muscle. 21

seasons of The Simpsons so far, or, I mean, more

than 21 seasons, more than 440 episodes. Obviously,

I said it was ranked number one on IGN, and I

think this is the example where it's strictly

based on the longevity, and that's why I did

not vote for this number one. The Simpsons? When

it started, like when it launched on Fox, not

the Tracy Ullman shorts, but when it launched

on Fox and then it waited a year and went through

its animation changes, because if you watch that

first season, you're like, who the hell are these

characters? They don't look like the people,

the animation that I know. 90 to 91 to 92, those

three years was Simpsons mania. You could not.

You could not spit half a mile and you would

hit a piece of Simpsons merchandise. That is

an interesting phrase. It's true. Spit half a

mile? You know what I mean. You can't spit half

a mile. You know what I mean. You can't swing

a dead cat without hitting Simpsons. Yeah, but

you couldn't throw a cat without hitting a Simpsons

merchandise. You couldn't swing a dead cat without

hitting bootleg Simpsons merchandise. Yeah, that's

true, too. To be fair, though, I've never seen

any type of list done by anybody of animated

series that doesn't put this in the top one,

two, or three. So we're not alone. Obviously,

IGN put it at one. We put it at two. To me, though,

it's not as good as people. To me, it's overrated

slightly. Just because of how long it's been

on, I'm not saying that it doesn't deserve to

be number one, two, or three somewhere in there.

It obviously probably does, but I put it at number

six because I just think there's some other ones

that are better to me. Looney Tunes is better

to me. Flintstones, a couple of those other shows

are better to me than this. I don't know. Steve,

you didn't put this even near your number one,

so are you in agreement that this is somewhat

of an overrated show? Yeah, I'd have to say so.

I think it's past its prime. It needs to go.

Should we throw somebody under the bus who didn't

put it on their list? Yeah. JT from Saskatoon.

JT, you better be calling the voicemail line

and leaving us some explanation. To be fair,

JT is Canadian, so they probably didn't have

it up there. To be fair, JT could have put this

at his number one, and it would still be our

number two. So it made no difference. I will

agree with Steve that in recent years, it's kind

of gone downhill. I think after season 9 or 10,

it's kind of taken this slow decline. For me,

it used to be, oh my god, every Sunday at 8 o

'clock, turn on Fox and watch The Simpsons. Now

it'll get to Sunday night at 8 .30. I'm like,

damn it, I missed The Simpsons. But it really

wasn't that big of a deal. I will agree the show

overall is kind of overrated. But in the beginning,

I don't think it was. I think it deserved every

bit of success that it's gotten up until a certain

point. I don't know. It's just one of those things

where you could argue either way for this show.

It's just something that I'm hoping, and I've

said this before on other shows, I'm betting

they're going to let it ride out until the 25th

season and just end it somehow. I could see that.

Dirt, what are your opinions on Simpsons? I actually

failed a math course in college because of Simpsons.

My second year of college, I was taking whatever...

I need a credit. There's a requirement in order

to get a diploma. I just take whatever class.

And the class was at 6 p .m. And in Bloomington

Normal, Illinois, 6 p .m. there was an hour block

of Simpsons on WYZZ 43. Boy, nine times out of

ten, I did not make it to math because I did

not want to miss that hour of syndicated Simpsons.

I was dedicated to that show for the first, I

don't know, five, seven, ten years. I couldn't

even begin to imagine. Nowadays, I don't even

watch it anymore. It hit some point five years

ago, maybe seven years ago. I don't know. I'm

getting old. But at some point, it just kind

of hit that. It's redoing the same jokes that

it used to do. It's riding the coattails of its

own success. You know, and I kind of gave up

on it. But those first, okay, not the first year,

but second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh,

eighth, whatever. I mean, all of those are just,

they are. They are episodes that people rip those

off all the time. And, you know, you talk about

Family Guy being a ripoff of The Simpsons. You

know, a lot of Family Guy stuff comes right out

of those early seasons of Simpsons. And to be

fair, so does a lot of stuff in regular sitcoms,

too. And being just that whole idea of a cultural

phenomenon, you could not. I would walk out of

my high school and walk over to McDonald's for

lunch, and there was a house next door to the

McDonald's where someone had put a clothesline

in their front lawn, and they were selling their

own bootleg Jamaican Bart Simpson T -shirts.

It was one of those things that it was everywhere,

and it all came out of this animated show. It

was referenced by presidents. It was referenced

by Nobel Peace Prize winners. It was referenced

by other animated characters in other shows.

It's just one of those things where you can't

deny the success of the show, and I think it

does deserve to be way up there at the top. And

the one thing about The Simpsons that they have

done so well, is Simpsonizing celebrities. They've

had not just the people that do regular voices

on the show, but the people that they bring in,

they animate to that person's likeness. You know,

just was so, so great. But... And they get people

to also not be afraid to make fun of themselves.

So, like, Paul McCartney is on the episode of

Simpsons, and they actually get Paul McCartney

to be on The Simpsons. And what do they do? Well,

he's actually hiding up on the roof of Apu's

quickie mart with his little herb garden up there

where everything's organic, but you have to open

the case of light beer to get there because nobody

drinks light beer. And it's this idea that Sir,

quote -unquote Sir Paul McCartney, is going to

be hiding. hiding in this garden above the Kwik

-E -Mart making his organic foods because he's

this hippie weirdo. You know, it's like there

aren't a lot of shows, maybe nothing since Laugh

-In got Nixon to be on the show, where a celebrity

was willing to go on there and just make fun

of themselves to that degree. So, Simpsons at

number two? What is at number one? One. Oh, yes.

and the ultimate number is mine. Go kill Captain

Clown, Batman. So our number one, the only show

that was on every single person's list, it is

not even close. It even blew The Simpsons away

as far as points go, and that is Batman, the

animated series. Four people had it at number

one. Three people had it at number two. IGN had

it at number two. So basically we have just flip

-flopped IGN's number one and number two as far

as our list goes. Let's start with one of those

people that did have it as their number one.

Steve, are you happy that you got the number

one right on the dot? Yes, I'm ecstatic. I believe

that is the greatest show in the world. The voice

acting in it is superb. I mean, it's got the

ultimate Batman, the ultimate Joker. I mean,

the ultimate versions of every character. The

darkness in it. Of course, the audio, the music

that they use, the plot lines. I mean, you have

the greatest Batman series of all time. Right

here in this version, even today, it still stands

tall. And it resulted in the creation of the

DCAU. Mike? Yeah, this... Technically, this is

what began the journey of DCAU, but really where

the continuity type stuff started was... I mean,

technically, this series stands on its own. But,

yeah, just like Steve said, Shirley Walker, amazing

music. Danny Elfman did the theme for this. Now,

a lot of people, a few people that I know really

don't like Tim Burton's Batman film, the 1989

Batman film. Honestly, if that film was never

made, we would not have this cartoon. Why do

you say that? Because this is what was one of

those things that inspired Bruce, Tim, and the

rest of those guys to do this cartoon. Actually,

I... Oh, go ahead, sorry. Well, first of all,

they got Danny Elfman to do the main theme. I

mean, it's just a rework around his theme to

the 89 Batman film, but it's still... Anyone

hears that little instance of intro music, you

know immediately what show this is. Oh, I wouldn't,

but that's okay. Well... For those of us that

watch superhero cartoons... Mike, is it number

one of all time, though? Because you didn't have

it there, so is this the number one show of all

time? I would have to say so because of the stories,

because of... Again, this is another one of those

shows that has groundbreaking feats. They drew

this on black paper. That, I don't think, has

ever been done in animation to that point. And

I'm not sure if it's ever been done since. And

they were technically mini -movies. I mean, this

was a series that didn't need to rely on continuity.

This was like you are watching a mini -movie

every day or every week. And I think I'm very

happy with it coming in at number one. You just

didn't want to put it number one on your list,

right? You know. I'm just kidding. Dirt, how

do you feel about this being our number one overall?

I can see the argument for it. I had it in my

top 20. I didn't have it as number one. I didn't

have it in my top 10 or anything like that. I

can see the argument for it. One thing, you were

talking about Batman, the Tim Burton movie, and

how it led into this. I can remember, I used

to work in a comic book store. Well, I do now,

but I worked in a different one when I was in

high school. And I used to do comic book conventions

and I would go, you know. two weekends out of

every month i was setting up tables and selling

comics at conventions and i can remember in ninety

ninety ninety one somewhere in there somebody

had a videotape of this uh... little bootleg

uh... animated short of of uh... batman and it

was this kind of forties noir looking gotham

city and these thugs and batman appears and their

blimps in the sky and and and we didn't know

it at the time we just thought this was some

little like you 90 -second, two -minute animated

short somebody had made, but it was the intro

to the show. But there were no credits. There

was no title card. There was nothing like that.

And so we were just kind of excited about the

fact that somebody had made this short, and we

didn't know, is this part of a movie or whatever?

And there was a lot of excitement for it. And

when the show premiered, it lived up to everybody's

expectations. I mean, it was very well done.

And it was one of those shows... Talking about

Animaniacs and Tiny Toons and Zany and every

moment is packed with 19 ,000 things going on,

this is one of those shows that was not afraid

to be quiet. You had those well -paced, slow

scenes. You had characters just working and unfolding

before you, and it had that theatrical... feel

to it that you didn't get in a lot of stuff.

I didn't have this ranked as high as Looney Tunes

or Flintstones or things that I felt were either

more iconic to the general pop culture or kind

of revolutionized the whole idea of animation,

but I definitely think this was a very well -crafted

series. It's very well done, and for being number

one, I'm perfectly okay with that. Yeah, I mean,

I did not have it as high on my list, obviously,

either. I had it in the top 30. But I've never

heard anyone say a bad word about it. Yeah, I

mean, there are a couple episodes here and there

that are, again, looking at it analytically,

that are kind of eh. But the overall series was

great. Dirt mentioned the fact that it didn't

actually have a title card. It didn't actually

say that. oh, hey, this is Batman the Animated

Series. But Bruce Timm said in the very first

commentary in the very first DVD disc for the

complete series on Volume 1, he says on the On

Leather Wings commentary, they felt that you

know, like once you see the figure, you know

this is Batman. You don't need a word saying

this is Batman the Animated Series. And it was

just an excellent, excellent series. So that

is our number one animated series of all time,

Batman. The animated series. Shit can now hit

the fan. That's it for the Geekcast Radio Network's

Top 100 Animated Series of All Time list. We

would like to thank the entire list of contributors,

BehindTheVoiceActors .com, Blogomatic3000 .com,

ChickenPopPod .com, PopCultureNetwork .com, and

ThisWeekInGeek .net. We would also like to give

a shout -out to the TuneZone forums and Sketch,

who posted the countdown over there. We got six

pages of feedback. Thanks, TuneZone, and even

though some of you might not... So far. Yeah,

so far. Even though some of you might disagree

with our list, we appreciate the support. And

Tim and a lot of people over at Geekcast Radio's

website. Yes, a lot of people that commented

on the website. A lot of people that commented

on the thread over at Pop Culture Network's forums.

A lot of really, really good feedback here and

there. Actually, huge thanks go out to GCRN's

own Kevin Optimus Sulla -Thompson because without

him, this project wouldn't be what it is, and

we thank him for doing all the math because none

of the rest of us were ever going to fucking

do that. And like we said before, maybe we'll

improve in the future. Yes. For those of you

wanting to leave a voicemail or audio feedback,

please do so by emailing an MP3 file to steve

at geekcastradio .com or calling the voicemail

line. The deadline is Wednesday, April 13th.

The actual list will be posted on the website

after the wrap -up episode has been released

on April 18th. So there are some ways to get

in contact with us to leave feedback for the

show. Visit the website, geekcastradio .com,

where you can comment on each episode post. Leave

the show's feedback in iTunes. Please do this.

Follow us on Twitter. The show name there is

GeekcastRadio. Mine is TFG1Mike. What's the Pop

Culture Network Twitter, Dirt? I think it's just

Pop Culture Network. It's actually Pop Culture

Net, but okay. Well, I don't run that one, so

I don't know. I've got my own personal Twitter.

Do you even use Twitter? I do. I don't know who

runs our Pop Culture Network. I don't know if

that's Dan Killen or who, not my department.

Okay, so what is your Twitter name, Dirt? I didn't

know you used Twitter, so. Yeah, it's PCN underscore

Dirt. Okay. Kevin, yours? Optimus Solo. Steve?

SCP -21. Become a fan on Facebook. Go to facebook

.com slash geekcastradionetwork and you can search

out popculturenetwork .com for them. The voicemail

number is 502 -526 -5821. So, again, leave feedback

by the, what did I say, the 13th? Yeah. Yes.

By April 13th in order to get a new one wrap

-up show. We hope you enjoyed this episode of

The Countdown and wish you'll join us next time

for the wrap -up show. For now, I am TFG1 Mike

with... Dirt. Optimus Solo. And Steve Megatron

Phillips. Thank you for listening. Until next

time, when we will be doing the Top 100 Wrap

-Up Show. You've just heard 20 through 1 of the

Top 100 Animated Series of all time. Thank you

for listening, and enjoy the list.