The Top 100 Animated Series: 25-01 | Part 5 – The 15th Anniversary Countdown

Hey, this is David Kaye, and you're listening

to the Geekcast Radio Network. This is Kevin

Conroy, and I am the goddamn Batman. Podcast

good! It's time. The countdown begins. The Geekcast

Radio Network. Top 100 Dirt Added Series. Countdown.

Hello and welcome back to The Geekcast Radio

Network's Top 100 Animated Series 15th Anniversary

Edition. We have finally made it, Toonsters.

We are entering the endgame now. Tonight, we

reveal the ultimates, or as we like to call it,

the Top 25. Joining me on this final leg of our

animated adventure are the usual suspects, TFG1

Mike. Hello. Optimus Solo. I'm here. DJ Valentine.

Just Doctor Strange slowly holding up the wand

to Tony Stark to make the decision. And joining

us in the fray, we have Dan, the comic concierge.

Does that make me Tony Stark then? I don't want

that responsibility. Snap your fingers. Save

us all. Come on, do it. I was going to say, just

don't snap your fingers, damn it. Save us all,

damn you. Yeah. So, multiple episodes are finally

in the books, and to say this 2026 list has been

a wild ride is an understatement. We've seen

massive upsets, nostalgic heavy hitters, and

modern icons already leave the board. We watched

absolute powerhouses like Batman Beyond, The

Real Ghostbusters, and Thundercats get checked

off the list before even cracking the top 25.

We've seen X -Men 97 make a splash, SpongeBob,

Washout, and Family Guy. If those legendary shows

are already gone, what on earth is left for the

top 25? Only one master of ceremonies among us

knows the final list. And frankly, I'm a little

terrified of what's about to happen next. Are

your favorites taking the crown, or are we about

to crown a total surprise? I have my hopes already,

but... There is only one way to find out. So,

Optimus Solo, without further ado, take it away.

Alright, so yes, we have the first 75 have been

revealed, so I wanted to real quick do a recap

for everybody as to what has happened and transpired

so far. Then we will do a quick look at your

guys' thoughts for these final 25, and I'll give

you some things to look out for, and then we'll

start revealing. So, so far, let's start with

our time periods. It's always something that

we like to look at. So, so far, the 1990s is

leading the way. We've had 23 entries so far

on our list that originated in the 1990s. Then

it gets a little close here. We've had 16 that

originated in the 80s, 14 originated before 1980,

13 originated in the 2000s, and down to nine

that originated in 2010 to present. That is where

we sit on the time period. Steve, what are your

thoughts and what do you expect? Do you expect

any movement? Do you expect 90s to hold supreme?

And what time period might come in second? Because

right now it's 16, 14, 13 with three of those

time periods. I'm honestly thinking it's going

to go in about the same order it's going right

now. I think we're going to get a lot more 90s

because there's still quite a few that haven't

been revealed that are heavy hitters. And then,

of course, there's still some left over from

the pre -1980s and the 1980s and then some from

the 2000s. So I think it's still going to kind

of go pretty much balanced with what we've seen

so far. But that being said, I still think that

there's going to be a lot of surprises left with

what we've had so far. DJ, for the 2010 to present

time period, we had four of those in our first

episode. between numbers uh 75 to 51 we had zero

last time so we didn't have any between 50 and

26 are we done with the 2010s to present or has

one managed its way into the top 25 i'll do the

math here i think maybe one i think there's one

that's like i gotta do some more calculations

but yeah i'll let you do some calculations We

were curious to see how those 15 years that more

recent 15 years would influence the countdown.

So far, they've taken nine spots away from from

those that were eligible 15 years ago. So as

far as channels go, we have two of well, I guess

you'd call it a channel. We have two avenues

of watching shows that are currently tied for

the first. That would be ABC, surprisingly, has

had 12 shows that debuted on ABC so far. And

then shows that were sold into syndication kind

of right off the jump is also at 12. After that,

we dropped down to Cartoon Network. We've had

nine that appeared originally on Cartoon Network

and then a tie next with Nickelodeon and Disney,

each having seven. Mike, any thoughts on the

final 25? Will ABC or syndicated shows reign

supreme or will we see a run from Nickelodeon,

Cartoon Network or Disney? really interesting

seeing this data now in 2026 considering that

half this data means nothing in this current

generation because either disney owns all of

this or like you know what i mean like all of

this now is condensed into one streaming service

that's what i'm that's what i mean essentially

yeah that's what i mean it's so weird seeing

this data from you know 30 40 50 years ago and

i don't know i think i think we've been talking

about how in the last four episodes leading up

to this top 25 how obviously Optimus solo is

the only one with the list and everything else.

And that's how we've always done these top 100

countdowns. And because it's just easier that

way. And it's fun for us to be surprised with

what gets revealed. And it's, we've been talking

about how with what's been revealed so far in

the first 75 cartoons. we we've all been just

like clamoring and chomping at the bit like what

in the hell could be in this top 25 compared

to what's already been revealed and we just don't

know what this slobber knocker is gonna be and

seeing the data on the channels i don't know

what channel or what like i don't think the syndication

is gonna get more i don't know though Interesting,

too. Obviously, the landscape has changed with

streaming and things of that nature. But when

you look back at the traditional, and this one's

going to go to you, Dan. So when you look back

at the original or traditional channels, the

ABC, NBC, CBS, and then we'll include Fox that

kind of came later. Right now, the numbers are

ABC 12, NBC 5, CBS 4, Fox 4. Did you realize

that ABC had that much more when it came to cartoons

compared to those other three? Yeah, because

when I think personally of my experience with

Saturday morning cartoons, I didn't really like

the one Saturday morning that that was a good

time for ABC. But even a lot of those shows they

had on that originated Nickelodeon, like Doug

and things like that. And Fox, I honestly thought,

considering its experience, you know, the amount

of shows it had both on Saturday morning as well

as it was, you know, the forefront, which we'll

probably see in this episode. of like adult animation

in a lot of ways. I'm a little surprised that

Fox isn't as prominent, but same time, you know,

I don't, can't really think about back to a lot

of great CBS cartoons that I would watch back

in the day. So there's also that, you know, and

obviously NBC, NBC was the first one that got

away, got rid of cartoons. Like traditionally

that was the one that act Saturday morning first.

Was there a 60 minutes animated version that

wasn't right? Not 60 minute babies? That didn't

exist, right? If the 80s would have lasted 10

more years, because that's how math works, then

I think we would have got to some more babies

somewhere along the way. When it comes to production

companies, I feel like there's six production

companies that have kind of separated themselves

from the pack. So I'll give you the rundown on

who those top six are at the moment. Currently,

right now, Hanna -Barbera is leading the way

with nine entries. We have Disney second with

seven Nickelodeon third with six. And then we

have Marvel with five and we have WB with five

and Cartoon Network for any surprises that those

are the top six. So Marvel, Hanna -Barbera, Nickelodeon,

WB, Disney and Cartoon Network. DJ, is that what

you would expect? uh the fact that warner brothers

and marvel are tied is funny to me uh nickelodeon

being that high is is also surprising to me i

wouldn't think uh they would be trumping the

comic book uh the comic book people so yeah that

is surprising hannah barbara they had just hit

not hit after hit but i mean they're they're

rogues galleries large so let me go right back

to you then so so hannah barbara is reigning

supreme right now at nine that's a a two -show

lead off of Disney. They've had three in every

episode we've done, so they had three in each

set of 25. Do they have three again today, and

will they take the title, or do you think there's

going to be someone that kind of comes from behind?

I think they'll just eke out the title. Disney,

again, as Mike said, they're double -dipping,

but I think Hanna -Barbera's got maybe just another

one that could just push. Just anger Bob Iger

and the rest of those clowns just enough to beat

them out. Steve, when we've been looking at some

of the specific kind of genre separations, I

know it's kind of gets a little muddy when you

try to define like a science fiction or a fantasy

or action because a lot of them can blend those.

But we've looked specifically at superheroes,

anime shows, and kind of that adult comedy, you

know, primetime comedy genres. And right now.

there's basically nothing separating them. We've

had eight superhero entries. We've had eight

anime entries and we've had nine adult comedy.

What are your thoughts on that? And then how

do you see that shaking out in this final episode?

I'm honestly just, I have no idea how this is

going to play out. Like I'm, I'm quite, um, I,

there's a lot of things that I did not expect

through this entire process. And the way that

things keep going in opposite directions is quite

surprising for me. Um, I'm hoping we get a nice

mixture of different stuff here, but I really

don't know. As far as our biases go, we've obviously

admitted that some of us have some of those that

are connected to the network, but we also did

include 44 folks that submitted lists. But from

a franchise representation standpoint, right

now Star Wars is leading the way. They've had

three shows from their universe make the top

100 so far. The next closest to those are Batman

has had two and Transformers has had two. Do

we see anything along those lines, Mike, or is

Star Wars going to run away with it? I don't

know, but it's crazy. It really is crazy. And

the funny thing is, we talk. on the geekcast

radio network we talk about star wars but we

don't talk about star wars as much as we talk

about transformers we don't have a dedicated

star wars podcast we have all between cinema

geeks and studio 2009 and m wire and a bunch

of other stuff we've talked about star wars a

lot in the last 17 years but All Things Transformers

is about to celebrate its 18th anniversary. Like,

we don't talk about Star Wars as much as we talk

about Transformers. And again, I know this is

not just us. It's not just us that make up the

network that have made these lists that have

gone into the overall top 100 animated series

2026 15th anniversary edition. It's 44 people

in total. But it just surprises me that Star

Wars is taking the franchise spot with three.

I'm surprised that Transformers doesn't at least

have one more to tie with Star Wars. And who

knows, maybe that'll show up today. Like I said,

Batman also tied with Transformers currently

with two. So we will have to wait and see how

that goes. Before we get into what we should

expect in today's episode, I wanted to give Dan

a chance to share some of his reactions as he

has perused and heard the 75 shows that have

come prior to this. You've heard that, you know,

obviously we had 44 different people submit lists,

anywhere from, you know, under 10 years old to

over 70 years old has been involved. We had some,

you know, cartoon historians and six or seven

folks that were, you know, above the age of 70

that were either involved in writing, researching,

or voice acting in cartoons and things of that

nature. Dan, what do you make so far of the first

75 that have been revealed? Any big surprises,

or what's your takeaways? I'm such a surprise

that we saw a lot of the classic cartoons actually

go higher. Or lower? I always mix up what direction

you're supposed to. Number was lower on the list.

So whatever direction you want to count that.

And considering that, you would think, especially

those shows being more separated from when they

originally came out, that would that happen?

Especially now where younger generations, when

we were kids, you had to rewatch those shows

because you didn't really have much options.

So seeing that actually, those go up, I think

does. show that the types of people that you

reached out to was expansive and perhaps they

brought some more, you know, respect or knowledge

to some of those classic shows. Not too surprised

that some of the, some of the more recent shows

was happy when some showed up, not surprised

that many on the panel were not fans of any of

those shows or didn't experience them. That was,

but you know, I was happy to see them and I'm

interested to see if we get any. Anything within

the last five to 10 years on this side, there's

one specific show that's in my top 10 that I'm

hoping makes it because I think it's very deserving

for many, many reasons. Legitimately, I think

one of the best shows on TV period right now.

So we'll see. Another thing that we talked about

kind of changing the tune to. what we're expecting

today. So far, we've already let people know

that three of the 44 folks were not going to

see their number one picks revealed in the top

100. So three people, their number one picks

were outside of the top 100. So that leaves 41

left that were going to be part of the top 100.

And so far, we've revealed four of those. So

for those doing the math at home, that leaves

37 to be revealed today. So I don't know what

that says that 37 out of the 44 folks, their

number one is going to make it into the top 25.

So that will be interesting. And those 37 number

ones picks are divided amongst 13 shows. So 13

shows are going to make up 37 of the number one

picks that we gathered as we created this list.

So a lot of them going to be hitting. in rapid

fire today, I think. As far as just a quick points

thing, I know there was less people involved

the first time around, but our last reveal of

last episode, our number 26 show, was the 1985

Thundercats, which came in at 1 ,689 points.

That would have been good 15 years ago for the

number two spot. It's crazy. Our number 26 this

year would have been number two last time with

that many points. So our point range today, and

that's 1689. Our number one last time had 1761

points. So the point ranges today go from 1712

to 3517. That's insane. You had to double the

amount of points that our number one got. From

15 years ago to be our number one this year and

actually a little bit more than double. So that's

kind of crazy. As far as like how many people

on the 44 ranked the shows that we're going to

see today, the lowest show is going to be represented

on 24 of those 44 shows. The highest we're going

to get is 38. So there's going to be no show

that we reveal today that was on 39 or more.

of the list. So the most you could have gotten

on was 38 of those 44. So at least six people

left off every one of these shows that we're

going to be talking about. Only six of the 25

revealed today were not nominated for some sort

of Emmy or major award from the networks, as

far as that goes, that we've been keeping track

of. And as far as the nine lists that we looked

at, the IGN, the TV Guide, the IndieWire, and

all of those lists that we looked at. All of

them today appeared on at least two of those.

And we had six that are going to reveal today

that showed up on all nine reference lists we

looked at. Four of them are going to be showed

up on eight of those and seven on seven. So that's

a quite big representation for the different

reference lists that we talked about. Last thing

before we get to the reveals, as far as the shows

today and if they improved or fell in the rankings

from 15 years ago. We have 11 shows today that

improved their standing from 15 years ago. Whether

it was one spot or up to all the way to 23 spots

higher than they appeared on last time, we're

going to have just about the same number that

dropped. So we have 10 shows that dropped their

rankings from 15 years ago, again, from as low

as only dropping one spot to dropping 12 spots.

And then we have 16 out of the 25 today are within

10 spots of what they were at 15 years ago. Crazy

enough, because we haven't seen this at all in

our prior 75 shows that we've revealed, we are

going to have three shows today that come in

the same as they did 15 years ago. So three will

make the exact same spot. We are going to see

one show today that was not ranked in the original

list. So I will just throw that nugget out there

as far as one show that was not ranked at all,

not voted on at all. 15 years ago. We are going

to have one tie today. So we weren't thought

we were done with ties, but no, we have one more

that we're going to have to decide on air between

two shows. And it'll be interesting to see how

that plays out. So I'm going to go around the

horn and give you guys each a chance to react,

comment or whatever before we reveal. So, so

Dan, what are you expecting or what are you intrigued

about going into today? I'm intrigued about that

one show. I'm also excited to be part of a tiebreaker

because that was exciting to see what shows you

guys were going to pick. So happy to join the

team. And we do have an odd number, so we won't

tie on the tiebreaker. So that's good. Yeah,

exactly. Mike, what do you think about all the

stats and what you're looking for today? My brain

just breaks with all this math. Let's get this

slobber knocker going. DJ, what do you think?

Now that I know that there's a tiebreaker, I

can. infinite power to change things forever.

All right, Thanos. Shut up, Thanos. Balance things

like all things should be. I'm happy about this.

Steve, what do you think going into this final

reveal? Again, I'm scared, but I'm excited at

the same time. I'm hoping certain shows that

I want to hit certain places actually hit those

areas. Well, I think without further ado, then

we can get on into the reveals. Figured why not

start off today with somebody's number one. So

in the 25th spot, we are going to be revealing

one person's number one show overall. It did

drop 10 spots from. 15 years ago we're going

to start with a syndicated show from the 80s

and i feel like it's fitting coming off of the

last couple weeks let's just go ahead and start

we had thundercats end last time we're going

to start with he -man and the masters of the

universe today from 1983 our only uh so far filmation

entry into the countdown it appeared on seven

of the nine reference lists Dan, you are the

newest guest, I guess, to the countdown, so we'll

give you a chance to start. What are your thoughts

on He -Man coming in at number 25? Oh, as you

know, because we recently reviewed Masters of

the Universe, I was never a big He -Man fan when

I was growing up. It kind of came before me.

I had limited access to it. I think for me, He

-Man, what's more interesting about He -Man...

Is the story of the creation of He -Man and like

and how it all came together, you know, basically

having to break the cartoon off of the toy, like

working backwards and like doing it that way

and putting it all together. And, you know, if

you're talking about impact of shows, I know

that's something you guys have been debating.

Certainly helped lead into, I'm pretty sure,

short shows you've talked about and shows we

will talk about regarding those that were designed

to, you know, sell toys. The question is, you

know, is that positive or negative? I'm not sure.

But, you know, I don't know personally if it

had the, like I said, the staying power to be

up this high for me, considering a lot of the

other 80s shows did stick around for much longer.

And, you know, certainly people know He -Man

has that classic raise. The cartoon itself, and

I'm assuming this is the 80s version of it. Yes.

I don't know. I feel like this is a bit too high

for me. I actually didn't have it on my list.

So I did not contribute to this one. But I think

it has a place in the top 100, certainly because

of what it did for the animation industry, both

good and bad. But top 25, I don't know. I'm a

little in disagreement on this one. DJ, what

do you think? This is kind of like the plane

that the Wright Brothers made. Because it's groundbreaking.

But I prefer, like, you know, the private jets.

And to me, the Cartoon Network He -Man, that

was my He -Man. That one, because I grew up with

the 83 He -Man. But if you look back at it, it's

not a great show. It's great for what it did.

But I think the Cartoon Network one, I think,

took that and, like, made it something that I,

like, respected. They made the characters have

a little bit more character, even though they

still had fun and they winked and nudge, nudge

at the camera. But again, as for its groundbreakingness,

I get it. I get why it's here. I didn't have

it on my list because I wanted to give a lot

more love to what I thought was the upgrade,

which I thought was the Cartoon Network one.

To this day, I still love that show. So, yeah.

Yeah, for me, it just kind of goes back to the

debate that we've been having. Like Dan said,

a lot of the whole countdown, do you gauge historical

or cultural impact or impact on the genre or

impact on the time period? Or do you side more

on the quality? The 2002 series is the higher

quality series. The 1983 series had way bigger

of an impact on the cartoon landscape, right?

Like this is the first one. This is the one that,

you know, creates a syndication boom in the 1980s

this is the one that was like the first to come

after a dead period in animation where censorship

was controlling so much in the 70s and then this

one kind of came along yes there was still censorship

and there's still like the parental control groups

out there and all that other stuff but it really

kind of changed the landscape and opened the

doors for some of the shows that we already talked

about last episode thundercats and gi joe and

things of that nature so it really depends on

where you land on on that argument steve what

do you think of human Honestly, I didn't rank

it this high. I actually had it at 55 on my list.

But I can see its placement here just from the

sake of nostalgia and the fact that it did spawn

everything that's come since. But I do have to

agree that the 2002, what I have seen of it,

is a stronger contender. into the the land of

of the masters of the universe than this entry

and i did grow up on like reruns of this one

and uh the the show that shall not be named thank

you that followed thank you shut up thank you

uh but that being said like i i i think that

it's it's well deserved just being on the list

in general but i i do agree it's it's a little

too i in this situation mike we may or may not

have reviewed every episode of this cartoon once

upon a time so what what's my time limit two

minutes you guys no seriously we got a whole

animated series i know i know i know i know i

know okay okay okay like they just said In 2012,

30 years after the fact of when the original

toy came out, one year later, they created in

1983, He -Man and the Masters of the Universe.

So in 2012, Optimus Solo and I created the Powers

of Greyskull series, and we have 135 -ish episodes.

We reviewed every episode up to that point of,

at the time, all four Masters of the Universe

cartoons. He -Man and the Masters of the Universe

in 1983. I was three years old. I would have

seen the episodes as a kid, four, five, six years

old, 84, 85, 86. I would have seen reruns as

I grew older, seven, eight, nine, 10, whatever.

Yeah, the show, here's what I'll say. This show.

Gave us 80s kids and it lives in a time of the

80s and it exists in that time. If you look at

it in that lens and don't look at it with a modern

lens, it's perfect for that time. And this show

walked. So 2002 could run. And there are plenty

of episodes in this show that are really great.

that tell really good stories that are not campy

that are not jokey there are plenty i guarantee

you i'm sure after this record optimus solo could

give you a top five or a top 10 list or something

of really the problem with power is is perfect

perfect example of a really great key man in

the masters of the universe 1983 episode so Does

it belong at number 25? I don't know. Does it

belong maybe at number 40 or 30? Maybe, but it's

here at 25 and I'm okay with that. Again, one

person had at number one overall. So that is

where we start today. Let's see where we go next.

24. That's Stan Lee. He's quite a guy. I think

he's truly special. All right, as far as who

will strike first in the adult animation, anime,

or superhero contest, let's go ahead and put

one in the column for the superheroes. We are

going to have from 1994, a show that only dropped

four spots. It was 20, 15 years ago, and it's

dropped to 24. This is Spider -Man, the animated

series. For an entire generation, this was Spider

-Man. The series successfully adapted decades

of Marvel continuity into serialized television

and introduced countless viewers to major characters

and storylines. Alongside X -Men, it helped prove

superhero animation could sustain ongoing narratives

rather than purely episodic adventures. And its

influence extends directly into modern Marvel

fandom and superhero television. I say all that

because I knew I wasn't going to know anything

more than that about it. So I needed to turn

over to the folks that do. We'll start with Dan

again, Spider -Man, the animated series coming

in at 24 instead of 20, like it did last time.

And honestly, I'm right there with it within

the sense of this. It introduced me to so many

aspects of the Marvel universe. And I'm watching

this with my kids right now. Similarly, his first

time, I think I remember seeing Nick Fury. First

time I remember seeing blade and it did really

expand well beyond the, the traditional, what

you consider, spider -man uh and even you know

thinking of like some of the final episodes having

like secret wars and things like that the crossover

with the x -men cartoon certainly a lot of fun

and i honestly feel like we might see some of

the storylines introduced within this show in

the upcoming spider -man movie actually this

summer with that being said someone who has a

lot of nostalgia for this. I don't think this

is the best Spider -Man cartoon, though. I would

actually fit this with the other Spider -Man

cartoon, which I think is better when it comes

to animation. I think it's better when it gets

to general storytelling. It kind of was able

to, similar to what Mike said about the He -Man

cartoon, kind of build upon what came before.

But I also think some of the animation with the

90s Spider -Man gets a little wonky. You can

see some of the reusing a lot of certain shots

over and over again. I still love it. I still

have fondness for it, but I would switch to Spider

-Man cartoons personally. Are you referencing

the Spectacular Spider -Man from 2008? That's

correct. Yeah, Spectacular Spider -Man. There's

only one right answer. They had a great theme.

Oh, yes. Yes, it did. It did. Both of them have

great themes. Spectacular Spider -Man song is

good. This 94 one was kind of like... scratch

that itch i had uh with iron man movies and the

avenger movie because at the time i had read

comic books before and it's like like dan was

saying like oh wow there's they're gonna show

punisher moving i can see that you know like

i you know and at the time i was watching the

show i was just happy that spider -man existed

in motion because in my life it was just in a

book i never i mean they had the electric company

and they had you know the the fantastic friends

or whatever but this one was kind of like new

age and now i look back at the show and then

i they had that uh video explaining that the

censors wouldn't allow spider -man to punch anybody

i was like that can't be true i've watched so

many episodes and you look back nope he doesn't

do anything and i was like wow i was so rugged

up on the fact that spider -man was on a show

in motion i didn't realize he wasn't doing any

spider -man stuff all the spider -man stuff i

loved he didn't really do it but again it just

scratched that itch i had of oh wow they're they're

gonna take thing i read as a kid take they're

taking it kind of seriously and when i say serious

it's a cartoon but i'm just saying that they

didn't make it like jokey they made it like we're

taking this legit we're gonna we have the punisher

in an episode you know how crazy that is to have

a pun the punisher in an animated cartoon show

in the 90s that's wild yeah yeah i i think every

yeah yeah i absolutely agree every explosion

hits a box watch that intro every explosion hits

a box no i i love this show this show is i wasn't

reading comics as a kid as a kid in the 80s as

a seven eight nine year old in the late 80s i

was still watching cartoons it wasn't until X

-Men, the animated series, and this show, Spider

-Man, the animated series in 94. Those two shows

made me go out to, at the time, Walden Books,

of all things, in the mall. And go to the Spinner

Racks at Walden Books to get comics. It was that

X -Men, the animated series, and this. And this

show was just amazing. I absolutely love the

voice acting, the animation. It was great. And

once again, I'll use my time to say in 2014 for

the 20th anniversary in November of 2014, I got

a chance to interview John Semper, Jr., the head

writer. And man, what a great interview that

was getting the stories from him. It was just

so cool and so fun to talk to him and getting.

like literally dream come true just hearing everything

about the creation of the show it was so cool

so fun uh but i've always loved this cartoon

i still re -watch it here and there i have seen

the spectacular spider -man but i've never actively

watched it all the way through so i would not

say i cannot say that i would switch them i know

i i know i gotta I got to go back and I will.

I've got a lot of homework to do based on this

countdown. But no, Spider -Man 94. Absolutely.

Steve, final thoughts on Spider -Man, the animated

series. It was kind of a gateway into Marvel.

I knew nothing about it. I was always a DC kid.

Still kind of that way. Other than. Certain animated

series or the films DC animation always had me

but this spider -man was what? It was kind of

my go -to like what it would introduce me to

Captain America and all these other heroes from

the Marvel Universe that I had no clue about

I had some exposure to the spider -man prior

to this and Wolverine but outside of that like

I really didn't know anything about any of them

And you got a lot of nice crossovers that kind

of made sense. Had a lot of episodes with a lot

of different villains. Some of it was a train

wreck. Some of it was great. But the voice acting

was always fun and the animation was great. I

don't know. I don't know if I would put it. I'm

a little biased on it just because I did grow

up with this and I still enjoy it. And I've shown

it. you know, to my kids and they enjoy it. And

but I do agree that this the spectacular Spider

-Man is great, too. But again, I think this is

the strongest entry of Spider -Man at this point

in time. Like from everything that came before

it up till this point, it was the strongest and

then it continued to get a little better every

time. So I think it's good. All right, you mentioned

being a gateway series for you. There may be

something that a lot of people would consider

a gateway series coming up next. You're going

to love this. Trust me, what you're seeing now

is my normal state. This is a Super Saiyan. And

this, this is what is known as a Super Saiyan

that has ascended past a Super Saiyan. All right.

So I'll just read a little synopsis and we'll

see if one of you guys can guess. Few animated

series have had a larger impact on global fandom.

The series introduced anime to millions of Western

viewers and became the gateway series for an

entire generation. Its influence on action animation,

power scaling storytelling, and shonen anime

cannot be overstated. Countless creators, animators,

and writers cite it as a formative influence.

Anybody have a guess? Dragon Ball Z. Dragon Ball

Z. This is Dragon Ball Z from 1989 is what we

have it technically listed as. This one came

in at 37, 15 years ago, and it has risen 14 spots

here to 23. Steve, I heard your voice. I have

no comment. I never watched it. I wasn't going

to go to you anyways. No, just kidding. Steve,

I heard your voice first, and I know you're...

a humongous dragon ball z fan so why don't you

start us off with why dragon ball z is top 25

uh warranted so i this was the first anime i'd

ever seen outside of like sailor moon and i loved

the the voice acting i loved the animation i

loved the power scaling uh some of the things

that kind of dragged on with with the series

was uh how they could drag an arc uh for weeks

on end and have nothing happen. Don't get me

started. Don't get me started. They did. They

also they recast the voice cast three times during

the the rendition of this, because one of them

for Goku was in James Corlette. It or through

the the Saiyan saga, which was the beginning

of it. And then they they. uh, recast it as Peter

Columbus and then, uh, Sean Schemmel later. And

then they redubbed everything to get a uniformity.

But that, that being said, like, I, I loved this

show to the point that I was the, the main go

-to dude in, uh, school for everybody to ask

about it. Like I knew everything about it, had

a website on it. Second website ever built next

to a Transformers site was Dragon Ball Z, and

I ran that for years, wrote fan fiction. I have

like a collection of the the figures in my cabinet

here. So, I mean, I'm like I'm all in. I've watched

the series like four or five times all the way

through. And I think that Dragon Ball Z is the.

Quite possibly the strongest entry in the entire

Dragon Ball universe, like. Dragon Ball was great

for the storytelling. Dragon Ball Z is great

for the power scaling and for the battles and

a lot of the new characters and things. And then

supers kind of takes it beyond that. But then

it's got a lot of it tries too hard to catch

the lightning in the bottle that Dragon Ball

Z was. And so I feel like this is I love the

fact that it gained multiple spots on this this

countdown. So I'm happy where it's at. Dan, I

think I heard your voice predicting this or correctly

guessing as well. So what do you think about

Dragon Ball Z? I was also a big Dragon Ball Z

fan, but probably not as much as Steve, clearly.

And I don't know, it wasn't the first anime I

watched, but like Steve, probably the first anime

I watched that I knew was anime. Before that,

you know, like obviously like Speed Racer or

Voltron, but didn't realize that. In my head,

when I thought anime, I thought of Akira. Like

that was, you know, that was anime. And then,

you know, the Toonami explosion. And I kind of

jumped in during the Frieza storyline. Didn't

really know anything else about it. I don't even

remember why. I think maybe just seeing it starting

to get popular. Sorry. Start seeing like the

T -shirts everywhere. So got really into it.

Similarly, like the characters are great. I think

if there's any downside to Dragon Ball Z is like

once you figure out the formula, it gets a little

bit repetitive. I think I ended up dropping out

around the cells. I forget which. Maybe Bajin

Buu or Cell, whoever comes first or second. Because

I was just like, all right, this battle is going

to be a week -long battle. This is not your final

form? Okay, I get it. It's not your final form.

So I was like, I'm out. I couldn't do it anymore.

This wasn't for me. But I will say, last year,

I went through, in red, the Dragon Ball and Dragon

Ball Z manga. I do think it actually tells it

much better because it doesn't feel as stretched

out. Still, the show is quite good. It's quite

great. And hugely talking about impact. I do

think like it was such a huge, like it made Toonami

in a lot of ways. I don't know without it, if

Toonami would even be a thing we remember for

sure. I will say though, you know, it talks about

opening up anime. I think in a lot of ways though,

especially for like younger generations. getting

a little bit surpassed with one piece. So I do

wonder, you know, this, the 30 year anniversary

where this would, if that, if there would be

any change, but yeah, certainly deserving. I

had it at 10 on my list. So I definitely believe

it deserves to be at least on this portion of

the list. I had this ranked number 14 on my list.

This is the first show that we've revealed so

far that was not part of the top 25, 15 years

ago, but it is this time. DJ, your thoughts.

Oh man. You want my thoughts? I'm about to pull

a mic. How long do I have? Oh, no. There's number

four on my list. What's on my list? Out of spite.

This is the show that I was tainted. I went to

college and my roommate, Jay Plummer, he was

huge into Dragon Ball. And he made me watch it

through Cartoon Network like an idiot, which

made me detest the show because I am a big proponent

of, you know. good storytelling and cartoon network

likes to drag things out. Oh, a hundred percent.

So it's like, I'm watching this story. Like the

story is horribly written. And then later on,

I got a job at Sunco's video and somebody goes,

no, no, no, no. You watch it the wrong way. You

should have watched it on tape where they get

rid of all the filler. I was like, I watched

it. I was like, Oh, this is much better, but

it's too late for me. Vader style. I've already

been tainted. I hate your program because I've

did this episodes where. tell is this murdering

people and goku's eating ramen or flying for

five five days straight trying to get to the

i'm like man this is horrible story but again

all that's being said i hate it because of what

it did to me but we play dragon ball at my theater

the from from however long that was i was in

school 20 years ago to now you talk about one

piece we played one piece at our theater And

we play Dragon Ball at our theater. It's night

and day, bro. Dragon Ball will live on forever.

In terms of impact, Dragon Ball got one piece

whooped. Not even close. And One Piece is a...

I'm not saying in comparison. One Piece is a

big deal. Dragon Ball is a bigger deal. And it

will always be a bigger deal. I don't know why.

Maybe in America. I wouldn't say not worldwide.

In America. I'm just talking about what I've

experienced. I haven't gone overseas or anything

like that. I just know we've played maybe four

different Dragon Ball Broly and all that stuff.

And we would schedule around it. And one piece

would come and we wouldn't because it's just

not as popular all the time. And we could keep

it in that in Demon Slayer. We would schedule

around those because no matter what, if it's

a repeat, if it's a Fathom event, it will always

get people. One piece, and that's the anime Bleach

and Naruto. Yeah, sure, it'll get people. Dragon

Ball's forever, man. It's forever. It's never

going away. Interesting that you have that story

because I also had a college roommate my freshman

year that was obsessed with Dragon Ball Z, and

he was also watching it. I don't know what form

he was watching it, but I felt like I got the

gist of it, but I was definitely frustrated with

how long things were drawing out. The cartoon

network destroyed it for me, man. I was like,

I think I got it. I think I got it. That's why

they came out with Dragon Ball Z Kai, which was

a truncated version where they cut out all the

filler. I wish it would have came out. I would

be just like you. But again, they showed me the

wrong version. And I had to sit through that

for a season. So I was just like, I hate this

show. I was done. I mean, it's just not for me.

I did rank it number 14. I can't deal with the

power scaling. like i can't deal with this the

never -ending like power -ups like i'm just like

this could be an episode this whole episode of

uh what did dragon ball do to you don't tempt

me dj you know what i do it did break the internet

though like when goku went uh saying and super

saying yeah no no no well that but then when

he went uh ultra instinct in uh dragon ball super

and but yeah i agree like even even the creator

of it was like yeah the power scaling it needs

to quit like and but the studio was like more

power tim taylor apparently is the person leading

the charge there that was also i think eventually

like Only characters that mattered were the Saiyans,

and it just became a little less interesting

because of that. Well, they fixed Piccolo, so.

So, so far today, we've gone 80s, 90s, back to

the 80s. One thing we haven't done yet in the

entire countdown, though, is reveal a show that

was in our top 10 15 years ago, but we will do

that next. 22. I push it. I push it again. I

push it again and again and again and again.

Don't overdo it, Plucky. Once is enough. Elevator

go down the hall. Like I said, 80s, 90s, 80s,

back to the 90s. This show helped lead the renaissance

of Warner Brothers television animation and proved

that classic cartoon sensibilities could thrive

with a modern audience. It served as a training

ground for a generation of creators who would

go on to define animation throughout the 90s.

And beyond, its success directly paved the way

for other WB productions. It was in our top 10

15 years ago. This time it comes in at number

22. Any guesses? This would be from 1990, the

Tiny Toon Adventures. So from WB syndicated,

though, as far as channels go, had 98 episodes,

13 different awards, appeared on six of the nine

lists we looked at. Do we agree with the write

-up there as far as the training ground for Generation

of Creators and paving the way for the WB throughout

the rest of the 90s? And do we feel that it was

more warranted to be in our top 10 like it was

15 years ago? Or is 22 a good spot? Steve, let's

start with you. What are your feelings on the

Tiny Toon Adventure? I mean, I think that it

was really good for the time. And it was kind

of that gateway for kids that never... never

were raised with Looney Tunes or maybe were and

wanted something a little bit more, you know,

meaty to go with. And I remember watching this

pretty fluently. I mean, there were so many funny

moments between, you know, old and new casts

and, you know, Plucky Duck and Babs and Buster

and all these newer. renditions of old characters

but it's their kids and so uh they were put in

these weird situations consistently throughout

the run and uh it wasn't technically their kids

yeah some of them well like yeah well bucky was

not daffy's kid i realized that i'm just saying

like they basically were their kids They were

a kid version. It was like the Muppet Babies

type scenario where the pup named Scooby -Doo.

It was basically a redo of that but with Looney

Tunes here. I think this was the strongest contender

until some other series that came out later as

a result of this show. Dan, what do you think

of Tiny Toon Adventures? I was a fan of it when

I was a kid for sure. I think this was like The

first time I remember hearing Steven Spielberg's

name, because they always name drop him among

other notable. I think the first time I was introduced

to the movie Alien was through Tiny Toons, because

of course it was. And it was really smart. And

I really remember, too, the musical episodes

they would have that were basically music videos

in some ways. I don't know. Does it belong more

in the top ten or here? I think the one thing

that's hurting Tiny Toons is I don't know. How

much like it exists within today's world. It's

nowhere. I think it's streaming, but I don't

know how many kids today beyond our specific

generation or even a generation younger than

us. How much is that really carried over compared

to Looney Tunes or other shows? I'm not sure.

But the show itself, I think, was quite good.

something that should be awful you know the idea

of like the you know the baby version of looney

tunes but it was a good barrier or a good introduction

into the world of looney tunes well as well as

like bringing us into a new era with a lot of

you know almira and all these other shows that

spawn off of it so certainly you know give it

credit there for as well they did revive it in

2023 as luniversity oh okay i forgot about that

yeah i was gonna say it does it does feel that's

maybe that's the thing though right i reported

it that's why i know but otherwise i have not

watched it i think it does peel back another

uh layer of the impact though like do you view

something that had a major impact in its generation

or in its decade or is it more about long -lasting

impact because i think dan makes a good point

like there's some shows that have an impact over

decades and decades and throughout time whereas

tiny tunes maybe had a huge impact for the 90s

how much has it had since then could be debated

dj what is it where do you feel you land on tiny

tune i think it i was right at the what year

was this again 1990 yeah so i was yeah i might

have been just getting too old to like it because

this hit me after i've seen muppet babies and

i like muppet baby i think i was right that right

age and then this kind of hit me and i was like

well i'm i'm not doing that again but i again

and looney tunes to me wasn't uh i mean i i respect

looney tunes for what it did it's like it's groundbreaking

then they told me okay we're gonna make a like

a the brand new fresh version i was like ah but

again i i gotta hit you with a rolling pin i

know people loved it i know i know i'm just saying

for me personally i did i do know that all the

time if anybody says tiny tunes to me i don't

think of any of the tiny tunes except for uh

i don't know if they're gonna even be on this

let's pinky in the brain that's the only thing

that i remember that lasted long and mainly because

of orson wells nobody knew that's what the guy

was doing with the voice the entire time so yeah

i i in july who says in july Well, yeah, that

was kind of what I got from Tiny Toons, and I

knew that it wasn't me not liking it. It hit

me at the wrong time, but I knew there was a

generation behind me that it hit them at the

right time. So I get it being this high. Mike,

final words on Tiny Toons. The year was 1990.

I was 10 years old, and the first time I watched

Tiny Toons, it was on a Sega Game Gear with the

TV tuner. Wow. Yeah. That's how classic I am,

folks. And the reason why I wanted to distinguish

this between everyone calling it just baby Looney

Tunes, it was not baby Looney Tunes because they

had baby Looney Tunes. They did. I wasn't going

to mention that. There was a baby Looney Tunes.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no. I know, I know. They

had baby Looney Tunes. You did have a separate

show where Bugs and Daffy and Porky and everybody

else was babies. So this was not baby Looney

Tunes. This was Buster and Babs and Plucky and

Dizzy and... Hampton J. Pig and everybody else

and Dizzy and whatever else. And Go Go the Dodo

and Wackyland. You don't ever want to go to Wackyland,

folks. You'll never return. The reason why I

wanted to distinguish it is because Plucky, in

one of the best scenes ever, he flashes back

to when he was a kid. So you get baby Plucky.

And it's one of the best scenes out of this entire

cartoon. Elevator, go up. Elevator, go down the

hole. And then you get Plucky getting potty trained.

And, oh, ding, go down the hole. Everything go

down the hole. Oh, no, the toilet is now clogged.

Uh -oh. And the whole house explodes because

baby plucky clogged up the toilet. But the whole

point is the elevator scene. I have reshared

that clip for the past 35 plus years of him doing

the I push, you know, push the button. I push

the button. I love Tiny Toons. I've always loved

Tiny Toons. It is very staunchly linked and stays

in the 90s because there there is no. Yes, you're

right. They did do Luniversity. I did not check

it out in 2023, and I need to go back and see

if it's good at all. But the 1990 Tiny Toon Adventures,

it is staunchly in the 90s because they constantly,

they literally put it in 1990, and they make

nothing but 90s references. And the last thing

I'll say on it, without Tiny Toons, we would

not have. batman the animated series because

bruce no no no i'm no i'm damn serious don't

tell me to bite my tongue i am damn serious listen

hear me out don't hear me out without tiny tune

adventures we would not have batman the animated

series because young animators and writers Bruce

Timm and Paul Dini were working on Tiny Toons.

They brought their idea for Batman the Animated

Series to Margaret Lesh at Fox. They brought

her the idea for Batman the Animated Series when

they were working on Tiny Toon Adventures. So

without this show, we would not have Batman the

Animated Series. I'm going to say they would

have got Batman the Animus series regardless.

No, I don't think so. Either way. I don't think

so. I refuse to give Elmira the credit for Batman

and Mr. Freeze. We need to get Mike a cold towel

and put him in the corner and let him calm down.

My perception is my reality. Inky and the Brain

have nothing to do with the phantasm. I'm going

to live that life. Inky and the Brain weren't

even on Tiny Toons. They were on Animaniacs.

Get your facts straight, DJ. That's all I remember.

All right. Anyways, we've had a superhero show.

We've had an anime show. One of the other genres

we had yet to talk about. We'll have one of those

coming up next. Peak demand pricing. This weather

has created a propane shortage. Therefore, market

forces dictate that we raise our prices. In business

school, that's called supply. Alright, for our

next show, some say this expanded the possibilities

of adult animation by proving it could be grounded,

character -driven, and emotionally authentic.

Rather than satire or absurdism, it focused on

ordinary people in realistic situations. Its

writing quality, longevity, and critical acclaim

make it one of the most respected animated sitcoms

ever produced. Any guesses on what our number

21 is? King of the Hill from 1997 20th century

and debuted on Fox. It climbed 20 spots. Last

countdown it was at number 41. It comes in at

number 21 this time. Dan, what do you think of

King of the Hill? King of the Hill is interesting

because it's a show that just happens to be animated.

Like I mentioned, it's a bit more grounded. You

could take the scripts of King of the Hill and

do them in live action. You wouldn't really need

to change all that much it wasn't really a show

you know watching it the first time you know

and knowing it's from the brain of mike judge

at that time all i knew him from really was like

he was in butthead and expecting something like

that but king of the hill is much different mike

judge is really great at smart dumb comedy and

you see that a lot with king of the hill And

it is a really good camera drama, and it does

circumvent expectations, especially with Hank's

relationship with Bobby. You think you have this,

like, Texas dad from the down south and a son

who's a bit strange. And the fact that, like,

they still try and they clearly come from different

worlds, but still kind of care for one another

is interesting as well. There's a lot to it that.

It's a lot smarter than you may realize on the

outset. So it lasted forever. And I think it

was always in the shadow of other shows like

Simpsons and things like that. But I know it

also recently came back because anything that

existed previously is going to come back in some

way. But yeah, I think it's I think it was quite

good. You know, you have people like Mike Judge

and Greg Daniels behind your creation. Probably

a good sign that your show is going to work out.

And that was the case with King of the Hill.

DJ, I'm going to go to you next. This had over

250 episodes. It received over 30 awards, Emmys,

etc. It was on all nine reference lists that

we checked. When it comes to adult animation

that is deserving of being in the top 25, is

King of the Hill one of them for you? Hard for

me to say. I would say no, but that's not disrespect

for King of the Hill. King of the Hill, I kind

of had to grow up to get the humor. I think I

was too... closed off from it because this is

a correct me if i'm wrong is this a spinoff from

beavis and butthead because i think it's not

really spinoff there's a character in beavis

and butthead that that sounds like him right

sounds like him and it's but it's not they're

not really connected in that way okay okay because

that's kind of where i first got the inkling

of it because i i came i'm really late i was

late to king of the hill and then i remember

fox used to run the the like At the Fox, I think

it was one of the local channels here used to

run it like five episodes in a row and every,

every weekday or weeknight or whatever. And then

I started getting into it and I started out,

wow, this is really irreverent and smart from

what I thought it was. For some reason, I thought

it was connected to be, because I was like, cause

I was not a fan of Beavis, but so I was like,

okay, wow, this is really smart. And I get why

people would put it high. This might be a little

too high for this, for me. Just for me. I haven't

watched the newer version. I don't know if the

newer versions holds up as well as the, I think

Hank is, Hank and they're a bit older, right?

Like, his name is, his son is growing up at this

point. Bobby's old grown, right? Yeah, it's,

yeah, it's, I haven't, I haven't even watched

like the first episode, but it does, like it

takes place in the future. I wonder if it's as

funny as it is, as the original. I doubt it,

but you know. The animation style just didn't

work. It's like the fake hand -drawn animation

that just always looks off to me. I had this

one ranked number 34, so I had it just on the

other side of the top 25. Steve, what are your

thoughts on King of the Hill? I mean, I wasn't

a huge fan of it as a kid, but I think it was

also I was getting busy with just regular life

stuff, and I just really wasn't watching. Plus,

I really wasn't interested in any of the adult

animation stuff i haven't checked out the new

stuff uh of king of the hill but i mean i can

see it being on the list and and just longevity

alone uh i don't know if i would put it in the

top 25 but definitely the top 50 um but a lot

of it's still kind of hung out in pop culture

circles and they've you know made fun of it in

other ways i mean it was even on a sketch in

saturday night live at one point recently with

uh when they were doing the joke about the beavis

and butthead thing um so i mean it it's definitely

like infused into pop culture but yeah i i think

it deserves a spot on the list i don't yeah i'm

not the biggest fan of it but i i would prefer

this over some of the other adult animation we've

already covered mike what about you yeah i watched

like maybe one or two episodes of this originally

when it was on the air and it was okay i didn't

dislike it but it's not as memorable to me as

like what steve said take anything else in the

top 50 and put it here and put king of the hill

anywhere else like literally you could put the

tick samurai jack and just flip -flop anywhere

it didn't it doesn't really matter i don't think

it's top 25 worthy okay on that note i'm gonna

stick with it a little bit longer i want to get

dan and dj's thoughts one more time here i'm

gonna go down the adult shows that we have revealed

so far so we had space goes coast to coast at

74 we had robot chicken at 71 We had Bob's Burgers

at 61, Venture Brothers 59, Beavis and Butthead

57. Then we got into Archer at 50. And then there

was one more Family Guy at 32. And now King of

the Hill at 21. Dan, how do you think we're doing

with adult animation? How would you arrange it?

I mean, I guess not that different. I like Bob's

Burgers more than most, I think. I think that

it has a similar vibe to King of the Hill. I

think we're not giving it enough credit for it.

A show doesn't exist that long when it when it

has everything against it, especially when you're

having to live up the expectations of everything

that's around you. And I think it's storytelling

is quite strong, like I said, and I think there's

a lot to it that we're not, you know, but I think

overall that listing seems pretty good. I probably

would put Robot Chicken a bit higher, although

that's. Robot Chicken is, you know, with the

sketch comedy show, it has a, its hit rate can

be hitter there. But, and probably would be Bob's

Burgers. I'm actually really surprised that Family

Guy is not higher than it is. But I also know

that Family Guy is also polarizing as well. There's

a lot of people who love it. There's a lot of

people who hate it. Where I think King of the

Hill is kind of one of those shows that's like,

you hate King of the Hill. Like, I get it's not

for you, but someone who's hating it seems strange.

So I'm not surprised it's higher than this, higher

than those. But yeah, I don't have an issue with

what the ranking is thus far. DJ, I was going

to ask. So I think something that maybe separates

King of the Hill a little bit for me is that

it is unique compared to all those other ones

that I mentioned for the most part. Like you

think a family guy, you know, you have the Cleveland

show, you have America. american dad or you have

like you know a lot of shows that kind of feel

the same and like it's talked about you know

a lot of adult animation throughout the last

25 30 years has been more on the satire absurdism

nostalgia like references and and things like

that king of the hill is more of almost like

a straight sitcom so uh how do you feel when

it comes to all the ones that i mentioned dj

i mean i would again i would rank it venture

brothers would be way higher than this but uh

In terms of all of those shows you've mentioned,

I think King of the Hill is the only one that

has a bit of, I hate to be the cliche, has more

heart than the rest of those shows. It actually

is a little bit more earnest than the rest of

those shows. That's what makes it, I think, different

where there's some episodes where you're like,

wow, that was actually not a funny joke or a

joke at all. It was just like, oh, that was a

very good moment. A lot of those other shows,

even though I worship on the ground of Venture

Brothers. They don't have those moments. They

excel in other areas. So you're right about it

being different. I think it's still a little

bit too high. Again, Archer, I think it's a better

show. Venture Brothers, of course. Family Guy,

of course. But again, this is just my personal

taste. I get why King of the Hill would be up

there, mainly because of what you just said,

where it's a little bit of originality to it

that those other shows can't touch. We'll have

to see if we have how many more we have that

come in the adult animation genre left to go.

So let's see where we go for our first entry

in the top 20. So we are now face to face. Optimus

Prime. In one future, you awaken and become the

great leader of the Autobots. But time shall

take a different track now. I am Alpha and Omega,

the beginning and the end. All right. I'll tell

you one place we're not going is outside of the

90s. So we are going to stick right there for

our third pick in a row from the 90s. This show

was on the least amount of the list that we kind

of referenced. It was only on two of those. It

has been nominated for some awards and it is

actually. climbing up a few spots from where

it was last time. Probably most known for its

technical achievements at the time and helping

pioneer a different style of animation, as well

as some sophisticated storytelling and serialized

narratives that elevated expectations for something

that was a franchise animation project. I'm interested

to hear how the panel feels on this one. Our

first entry into the top 20 was 23 last time.

It's 20 this time. We are at Beast Wars here

from 1996. Steve, I know this is your baby here,

so I'll let you go first. I am just glad that

it made it to the top 20 this time and not the

top 25. It's interesting. Before you give your

thoughts, it is interesting. I just want to throw

this real quick. that last time we had a much

smaller crew and we're much more surrounded by

people of the same generation and more of a geek

centric people that were submitting lists and

it ranks higher this time with 44 folks all the

way up to the age 70 and something that surprises

me but steve go ahead yeah wait wait wait before

he goes steve you have to give all your thoughts

in megatron's voice now go no No, what's funny

is both my kids had this on their list. One of

them, I think, had it in his top 10. The other

one was top 20. So he was actually far more on

base than I was. I had it like, I think, number

two. So which is what I had it last time. I love

this show. Like, I love the animation. I love

the CGI. Like, this was my first introduction

to like mainframe entertainment stuff like CGI,

you know, the on on animation. The voice acting

was stellar. They had a very condensed cast.

I mean, and it was it was awesome because it's

like it's animals that transform like what dinosaurs

like what's not to like there. I owned a ton

of the toys back in the day. I actually own more

now because I have more masterpiece and a lot

of the figures from season one, two and three

of the series. I can do a number of their voices

like I've. built entire like website crap around

them like we've done the podcast the beast unleashed

i mean the my my love of this series goes on

and on uh absolute favorite uh animated series

of mine outside of another one but it it kind

of flip -flops between one and two and uh so

many funny episodes too so i i definitely recommend

this show like out of even even today I think

the animation still holds up compared to some

of the, the newer renditions of transformers.

I think that it's still there. Yeah. The, the,

the water and things like that don't hold up

or the textures of landscapes, but the robots

themselves. Yeah. I think they're great. All

right, Mike, you have a two minute limit on this

one as well. Go ahead. Uh -huh. Well, I mean,

he's the one that should have had the limit.

I stopped. I trust you. I'm just kidding. Mike,

what are your thoughts on this one? Beast Wars,

it reignited the franchise. And even though they

are on the apology tour, it seems like they don't

give two craps about the franchise that reignited

their brand. What the hell is wrong with you,

Hasbro? All right. Anyway, no, I love this cartoon.

The infamous story for me is when I was 16 years

old, I didn't know the difference between Beast

Wars and Reboot. I thought the other show was

the Transformers show at the time, but I was

16 years old. I was 11 years out of my Transformers

fandom at the time because in the 90s, I didn't

do anything with Transformers. It was the whole

thing, but by the time I got straightened out

and realized Beast Wars was the Transformers

show. Which was hopefully the first time that

they referenced Megatron. Well, yes. Not Megabyte.

Yeah, but it's a whole thing. It was the way

the shows were aired. It was just the way the

shows were aired in Kentucky at the time. But

anyway. Uh, no, but David Kaye is Megatron. Gary

Chalk is, is Optimus Primal. We've interviewed

them both multiple times over the years. Amazing,

amazing voice actors. Uh, just absolutely love

them. But the show is great. The animation was

wonderful. The storytelling was amazing. And

the way they tied it into G1 in season three

is my favorite. I love, I love season three,

but Beast Wars. Yay. Top 20. Yeah, I was 10 when

it came out. DJ, what do you think of Beast Wars?

I'm old school other G1. Sorry. I'm old. I'm

older. So I dismissed the show originally when

it first hit the airways. And again, I was kind

of onto other interests at the time. But going

back, I was like, wow, this... This is not going

away. The fandom is really, really large. So

I checked out some of the episodes. I was like,

wow. For a show with, you know, that's way past

the prime of the IP, the storytelling is really,

really good. So I appreciate it. It wasn't, again,

not for me because it passed me. And I had allegiances

to Orion Pax. So I get it. But this being in

top 20 to me makes all the sense in the world

because you essentially had one of the most enormous

child IPs of all time. It kind of fizzled out,

and this literally brought it back from the dead.

Yep, pretty much. By that respect, it needs to

be in the top 20. So I get it. I understand.

Again, it's not my favorite. drink, but I get

why everybody orders it. Since he said that,

I have to say this. Remember, folks, if you want

to be a monster, unleash the beast in you and

listen to the Beast Unleashed podcast. I feel

like I'm moderating a political debate. I think

so. The candidates just won't shut up when you

want them to shut up. No, I'm just kidding. I'm

not debating anything. Dan, what do you think?

What do you think of Beast Wars, Dan? I was never

a Transformers kid growing up, but I did get

into Beast Wars and didn't have any of the Transformers

background at all. And I did enjoy it. I thought

it was a good time for sure. Even stayed with

it into the Beast Machines. Although that kind

of went off the rails a bit. And so it was a

good introduction into the world of Transformers

because it did have some mentions. It looked

upon those previous Transformers cartoons with

a reverence that was very apparent. So that was,

that was intriguing and even got some of the

toys. I will say, I know mentioned the animation.

I think for the time it was good. I have tried

to go back and watch it. Cause I'm like, I wonder,

I think I can't, I find it unwatchable to be

honest with you. I just don't think it looks,

it's, it's like watching a PS once cut scene.

It just doesn't. It's just, I think maybe if

I got in the mindset, I could do it, but I just

can't do it for the time. You have to think about

it in, this was made in 1996. Well, there's a

lot of animation that came out in 96 that holds

up. So that's the thing, right? It's not supposed

to hold up to today. It's not supposed to hold

up. It's supposed to be looked at in the time

it was made. Yeah, he's comparing it to other

stuff that he watched during that time period.

But I'm talking about other shows that came out

that same time that have held up and continue

to hold up. I'm not saying it doesn't belong.

I'm saying I can't watch it today because I don't

think it looks very good. Which is okay for an

animated cartoon show from the 90s that was trying

to play with the world of CGI in a way that wasn't

done before. But certainly shows have come and

done it better. But I also, I don't know. I think

it also could all, moving towards that, you know,

CGI animation in some ways I think was a negative.

So there's like, did that, was the impact a net

positive? I'm not sure. But it was a good show,

certainly. And like I said, it introduced me,

someone who didn't really care about the Transformers,

into the Transformers. So that was cool. Absolutely.

So I mentioned starting today that we were going

to have 37 people yet to see their number ones.

We've only seen one of those. So we still have

36 left to go. We're going to hit a few of those

next. And we're also going to get out of the

90s for the first time in a while. So let's see

where we go for number 19. 19. Oh, there you

are, darling. What do we do next? We do what

any intelligent, self -sufficient spy with real

initiative would do. We wait for instructions.

All right, two people had this next show as their

number one overall. One of the smartest and most

influential comedy cartoons ever made. Proved

animation could appeal to adults through satire,

wordplay, and political humor while still entertaining

children. Many later comedy cartoons owe a debt.

to its layered writing. Does anybody have a guess?

That's kind of vague, but does anybody have a

guess as to what our number 19 is? Something

else, but I'm going to say The Simpsons. This

is going to go back for the first time pre -1980s,

so we've had only 80s and 90s shows. We're going

to go back to the 50s with this one. What was

that? Flintstones? Nope. Looney Tunes? Nope.

if it's in the 50s um debuted on abc it is rocky

and bullwinkle award debuted on abc it was on

seven of the nine reference lists it was two

people's number one overall it was originally

15 years ago coming in at number 25 it climbed

six spots to number 19 mike what do you think

of rocky and bullwinkle i love rocky and bullwinkle

moose and squirrel oh man i love this show uh

what i love about rocky and bullwinkle is honestly

while i love the moose and squirrel stuff while

i love rocky and bullwinkle adventures with them

versus boris and tasha i think my favorite thing

was either peabody and sherman or ace ops fables

yeah i love all of all of the stuff around rocky

and bullwinkle as much as i loved their adventures

they were cool i loved the other characters but

the best thing about that show was the narrator

yes the narrator was the best coolest thing the

beginning of the show and the end of the show

that was cool it was like next time on rocky

and bullwinkle we'll have this or this will happen

or this yeah yeah yeah no that was the best that

was the cool i love this show love rocky and

bullwinkle all right dj what do you think of

rocking bullwinkle one of uh a very few shows

that were 1950 like obviously we did pre -1980s

it's kind of like a all -encompassing thing we

have not had very many 1950s shows huckleberry

hound comes to mind we have uh I have to look

back on Woody Woodpecker, but Rocky and Bullwinkle

here at 1959. What do you think of that one?

I mean, I had it in my top. I think I had 35

or 34. It's. I mean, the humor, the smarts, as

they say, it's so smart for what it is. It's

a moose and a squirrel running from. russian

kgb operatives or something like that across

the country and doing political stuff i mean

it's way smarter than it should be and then there's

goofy moments but then they have asap's tables

where it's almost like they're breaking the fourth

wall this might be one of the few cartoons that

break the fourth wall all the time so yes uh

well i guess i guess bugs did it too but uh again

yeah it's not a rock i mean this is one of those

shows or animated shows where i can pop it on

anywhere oh yeah any any episode and you'll get

just about it you could follow it or you could

just throw a random roll the rolodex and if i

find a random show you'll get enjoyment of it

and it's smart remember kids they used to be

cartoon shows that were for kids that were actually

smart that would teach you things about the world

It wasn't sharks and peppa pigs and all types

of crap. I know you guys have kids and you guys

make them watch that, but look, look, look, look,

look, look, okay? I wasn't your kid's age, and

I was being force -fed this and Looney Tunes

and Tom and Jerry. Stuff that was smart. And

Pink Panther. We're probably spoiling a lot on

the list, but yes, we'll just say Rocky and Bullwinkle.

The very, very, very smart show and very funny.

And the voice acting is great. The nostalgia

and the rustic nature of the animation, I still

dig. So yeah, the movie is horrible. Don't ever,

ever, ever watch the movie. Ever in your life.

There is no care and sympathy for that movie.

But watch the cartoon, it's fine. Yeah, watch

the cartoon, it's fine. It was number one overall

for Jerry Beck, cartoon historian. It was also

number one for Buzz Dixon. Number six on my list

overall. I gave a lot of love to Rocky and Bullwinkle

and what it meant for. the future of animation

and comedy and animation and all the things like

it's, it's one of the pioneers. So I give a lot

of credit to that. So I love that it's in our

top 20. Dan, what do you think about Rocky and

Bullwinkle? Yeah. And when you say movie, like

which one, because we got a few movies out of

it because we also have the Dudley do right movie.

And, you know, was there a Peabody movie? Yeah,

there was a Peabody movie. Don't bring this up.

It never happened. The one that DJ was referencing.

I know, I know. The one with Piper Pear. That's

patient zero. That's the. And Robert De Niro

was in that. Don't forget that. Oscar winner

Robert De Niro was in that movie. Yes, Robert

De Niro was fearless leader. Jason Alexander

is Boris. And what's her name? Renee Russo was

Natasha. Yeah, that happened. That was a thing.

But the show itself, it's interesting you mentioned

political because when I think of Rocky McGold,

it doesn't come to mind. But when you obviously

think about within the context of the Cold War,

it makes a whole lot more sense regarding what

they're doing and the satirization that was happening.

And then. As mentioned, like the amount of shows

that spawned within the show, like Peabody and

Dudley Do -Right that were good enough to kind

of handle their own shows later on isn't pretty

incredible. So yeah, I think, you know, at first

I'm like, is this too high? But if anything,

it might not be high enough the more you look

at its impact overall. Yeah. Steve, final thoughts

on Rocky and Bullwinkle? Like I grew up on the

original one somewhat just from seeing it, you

know, obviously reruns. It was entertaining for

what it was. Like, I did enjoy the different

voices. I enjoyed the different characterizations.

Rocky, Boris, Bullwinkle, Natasha. You had all

those different voices there. And then, you know,

Deadly Do Right. I haven't watched the new stuff.

Like, I know DreamWorks came out with a new,

you know, The Adventures of more recently. the

old stuff was pretty good for what it was i don't

i don't remember where i had it in my list uh

in particular but um if yeah i don't even think

i had it on my list yeah if i remember right

that's june foray pulling double duty as rocky

and as natasha yep yeah yeah i was gonna say

we just renamed a whole lot of actors and actresses

so i'm not gonna let us not mention june foray

and bill scott like some of the most legendary

voice actors of all time involved in this one

so i had mentioned that rocking bullwinkle was

my number six coming up next was my number five

we'll see what that was 18 what a nervous night

to be walking home from the movies scooby -doo

and all because you had to stay and see star

dog ranger of the north woods twice so obviously

a little bummed that i'm having two of my top

uh six year fall at 19 and 18 but i am happy

that they are in The top 20. Read the synopsis

here and let you guys guess again here. This

show may be one of the most successful animated

franchises ever. It essentially created the animated

mystery formula and remained culturally relevant

across multiple generations through endless reinvention.

Very few animated characters have achieved this

level of longevity. Dan, say it again. Scooby

-Doo, where are you? Scooby -Doo, where are you?

Another one from pre -1980s. We're going to 1969

for the debut of this one. It was 14th last time.

It drops to 18th this time, still in the top

20. Like I said, I had it at number five and

my premise is more of its longevity. And I think

the number of shows that tried to recreate what

Scooby -Doo did originally, especially throughout

the 70s and almost for like a, you know, not

quite as many through the 80s, but the 70s, like

every show was trying to redo Scooby -Doo. Where

are you? And then we've gotten a lot of different

versions, obviously since then, you know, mystery

ink comes to mind and different things like that.

But we've had, you know, endless reiterations,

a pup named Scooby -Doo, like all the different

things. So, you know, I think it just did something

that was successful that a lot of people tried

to copy that couldn't. And then it's, it stuck

around for like a gazillion years. Like my, I

remember when my niece was born, like it was

my, the first present I ever got her was a giant

Scooby -Doo stuffed animal. Like, and she, she

loved that thing, but like. who doesn't and i

now it's i don't know there's a new movie coming

out right or a new something yep there's something

tv show that's what it is yeah so yeah so uh

i'm a huge fan of this franchise so i have no

problem with it being here at uh in the top 20

comes in at number 18 mike what do you think

love scooby -doo where are you absolutely love

it just amazing show and everything has spawned

over the last you know decades of of time And

yeah, it definitely deserves it. I mean, do I

wish it was the higher spot that it was 15 years

ago? Sure. But man, this show just absolutely

love these characters. So yeah, it appeared on

all nine of the reference lists that we talked

about. It is also our first sighting of Hannah

Barbera and a show that debuted on CBS DJ. What

are your thoughts on Scooby -Doo? This is the

first cartoon show. My sister and I watched together

because she's 13 years younger than I am. So

I remember when she was getting old enough to

watch stuff, I was like, I'm going to make it

a point. Give you good taste, Taylor Pearson.

So I was like, I was giving her good taste. I

was going to start you with Scooby -Doo. I want

to move you forward. And we, it was one of the

few bonding moments we had. And, uh, I'm going

to just say this. Screw you, Mindy Kaling. Screw

all of you. for actually taking this and another

cartoon show, I love Venture Brothers, trying

to put them together and made an abomination,

which was that, the Velma show, is that what

it was called? I don't even remember the name

of it. I watched three episodes of that dumpster

fire and realized not only do you not understand

Scooby -Doo, you hate it because it is so bad.

How can, we were just talking about stuff that

spawned off of it. that might be the worst spawning

off of it. That is the redheaded stepchild of

Spawn from Scooby -Doo. Scooby -Doo deserved

better than that. A pup named Scooby -Doo, infinitely

better than your Velma show. Jabberjaw, infinitely

better than your Galloping Ghost. All these spinoff

shows of Scooby -Doo. Great Bape and Speed, but

infinitely better. Mindy Kaling, screw you for

trying to, I guess, throw a bird up at at one

of the greatest cartoon shows of all time that's

still getting stuff today unlike your show because

they needed to renew the copyright or the trade

it felt like it was up it felt like it was like

somebody somebody walked up to her and say you

know what my favorite show is scooby -doo and

it was like an ex -boyfriend so she decided to

make a show to screw it up and she used glenn

howerton from Always sunny in Philadelphia. One

of the greatest comedy shows of all time. As

Fred. And wasted it. So, yes. Screw Mindy Kaling.

Scooby -Doo deserved way better. And hopefully

the TV show will keep that up. I didn't have

screw Mindy Kaling on my bingo card tonight.

I'm going to underline screw. Screw. A lot of

W's. Mindy Kaling. I didn't have that. I wouldn't

have predicted that we went there. But we did.

So, Steve, what do you think of Scooby -Doo?

Where are you? I remember watching the original

show again, rerun stuff, but I. I never really

fully enjoyed Scooby Doo, like I understood that

it was it was a big part of pop culture and it

was kind of this staple of everything that was

the mystery side of things. I still don't love

it. I honestly, the only times I really enjoyed

it was. When he crossed over with like. Batman

or, you know, the Harlem Globetrotters or movie

movies. Yeah. Any any time that they crossed

over with another franchise, that's when I enjoyed

it. But on its own, I didn't I never really was

a big fan. But I do get that it deserves a placement

in in this top 100. And it does serve, you know.

multitude of other renditions of scooby that

have come since so i i'm not against it um i

i ranked some other ones like i enjoyed pup named

scooby -doo more than this one 13 ghosts of scooby

-doo yeah 13 ghosts is amazing for a number of

reasons it was different but it is amazing for

one simple reason no well i mean if you want

if you want to go there that's fine but for one

simple reason they got the master of horror i'm

in surprise baby for that show the 13 ghosts

of scooby -doo like oh my god not a lot of animated

stuff tackles mysteries i guess um dan final

thoughts you can put the the final note on scooby

-doo yeah i mean i think scooby -doo it had a

formula you know how to stick to it for the most

part i think that's why i kind of had to keep

reinventing itself because eventually it had

to introduce something new to that formula to

try to make it a little bit different but certainly

it worked and i mean it's it has so many you

know who doesn't know the ending of scooby -doo

right and so you can't deny it's you know iconic

state state no matter like how much people get

mad about a show they don't like so but somebody

pull the face off I'm going to pull my care and

say without Scooby -Doo, there'd be no guardians

of the galaxy because James Gunn wrote the live

action movie of Scooby -Doo. So there you go.

I'm gonna do the same thing you did. Well, nobody

had Scooby -Doo number one overall, but the next

show appeared number one for three different

folks. So let's see what it is. 17. Thank you

so much for saving Goliath. For me. Wait. You

said that destroying my brother is the only way

to survive. Is that all there is for us? Mere

survival? Isn't that enough? No. Gargoyles protect.

It is our nature. Our purpose. To lose that is

to be corrupt. Empty. Lifeless. And what do you

protect? Enough of this. No! All right. We can't

leave the 90s for too long. So let's get back

there. And like I said, three people had this

show as their number one, including my wife.

So we are going to go to the wonderful world

of Disney, a show from the 90s, among the most

ambitious action cartoons of its era. Blending

Shakespearean themes, serialized storytelling,

mythology, and mature character arcs help push

children's television towards more sophisticated

narratives and remains one of Disney television's

animation's most acclaimed productions. Anybody

know what our number 17 is? Did Disney buy the

Mysterious Cities of Gold? Nope, neither of those.

This is 1994's. It appeared on seven of the nine

reference lists, 13 different awards. We're talking

about Gargoyles. Gargoyles here at number 17.

And it was actually 13 last time it dropped down

to 17. So it dropped four spots. Dan, we ended

with you on the last one. So let's start with

you here. What do you think of Gargoyles? And

the show that might be one of their most ambitious

productions might be one of the shows that they

sometimes try to ignore that they made. But what

do you think? The Disney unique show, Gargoyles,

that came out of that. kind of time period i

don't think i didn't ignore that the mania because

like it is like super popular in the world of

comics right now we have like even crossovers

with uh darkwing duck and everything like that

i remember just watching gargoyles in disney

afternoon and it just it felt like like it felt

too dark like i wasn't supposed to be watching

it because you know it's you're watching tailspin

and rescue rangers and then gargoyles comes on

and it's you know it's it's such a tonal shift

but i think in a good way it is it is very ambitious

you know with This fantasy epic in an urban setting,

putting a castle on top of a skyscraper is just

a great image as well. And it has, it creates

its own lore too, right? It's not like based

upon with something that, you know, it's not

like it's taking classic Disney characters or

anything like that. It's creating something.

Are you talking about an original idea by Disney,

Dan? Is that possible? They used to do those

back in the day. Used to do original content?

They do occasionally. This was the 90s. I mean,

original in the eye of the beholder, you know,

because it's not like it's got hugely influences

by a lot of other things, but great set of characters,

you know, and it just, like I said, it felt very

different and it's a show that I think they've

always tried to go back to and never, it's also

because of its willingness to try new things.

I think it had a type of audience that would

not normally watch Disney cartoons that brought

it over. So it was like the, I wouldn't, I don't

want to say the name of the cartoon, but there

was like that version of Disney afternoon compared

to the rest of the cartoons. But I don't know.

It was quite good. And the animation also really

strong for that era as well. Steve, let you go

next. Gargoyles warranted in our top 20 here.

Oh, a hundred percent. I, I think it's funny

that Disney still really doesn't recognize this

show. And it was such an iconic show because

it was the only thing dark that Disney did. And

it was such a solid show and it was totally different

than anything else that was out. I mean, the

voice cast alone was awesome. Keith David is

Goliath at Asner is Hudson. Jeff Bennett is Brooklyn.

Riker. You had Jonathan Frakes as. Xanatos, uh,

Welker's Bronx, Tim Curry is Savarius. Uh, you

had, uh, Michael Dorn in it. Like, I mean, it

was a bunch of Star Trek cast. I mean, you had

LeVar Burton, you had Marina Sirtis, you had

Kate Mulgrew, you had Brent Spiner, Fancy Brown.

I mean, we, it was kind of like Star Trek meets,

you know, big name actor meets, you know, everybody

else that's in a, like a WB program. So, I mean,

you had this like conglomerate of awesome voice

cast. in all of these roles and it kind of started

getting a little weird towards the end of the

show like in the third season but as a whole

like this was such a fun and like gripping show

like it gave me like batman the animated series

vibes but not you know from but it was from a

disney perspective yeah um dj what do you think

gargoyles best thing about gargoyles is the worst

thing that it's so good and original I'm surprised

Disney hasn't tried to remake this or do another

version of it yet. Because you know, it would

mess it up so bad. Exactly. And we were talking

about Disney not appreciating it. Might be a

good thing. Because if they did, they would have

probably already tried and ruined this already.

Like they've done to so many of their properties.

Just hold Gargoyles in a little ship, like the

little ship in the glass bottle. Just hold it

there and covet it and hold it to your heart

and hope that they do not see it. Like the eye

of Sauron. Do not see. Oh, wait a minute. We

have another property? Wait, wait, what? Can

we make something out of it? Yes. It is groundbreaking

in its morose darkness and its originality. It's

just so, like, different from. all the stuff

they were making that they're making now to this

day it's nothing like gargoyles really so yeah

so yeah but yeah just please disney look away

look over there hey look look look okay make

another one go ahead and do that ew why would

you reference that it's a bluff man it's a bluff

yeah i know it's a bluff but there are better

bluffs than coco oh no gargoyles was amazing

for what it is and like dj was saying They will

not. They should not even try to remake this.

And like Dan said, it is still popular. I think

what we were saying about Disney not noticing

it or not paying attention to it, it's the thing

of they weren't paying attention to it then.

They were ignoring it back then when it was happening.

And they're still ignoring it now, which I think

is good, even though there are comics about it.

And I think that's the thing. I think personally,

certain TV shows, cartoons, other things in visual

media, once they're done, once they've done their

run in visual media, I think they can transition

into comics and exist there better than they

could if you continued it. on television or whatever

gargoyles is a perfect example gargoyles has

made that transition into comics and it's way

better than they could even attempt to do a rebooted

animated series are comics not visual no okay

i'm saying i know what you mean i know what you

meant i know what you mean In the point of doing

a new... Okay, would you... I know they already

did this, but DuckTales 87, DuckTales 2017. Would

you rather have a new DuckTales 2027 and they

screw it up, or would you rather read a bunch

of DuckTales comics where it's awesome? I'd rather

read Uncle Scrooge comics because they're better.

Exactly! That's my point! I'm talking about Carl

Banks, the show that DuckTales stole all from.

All right. Yeah, well, you know. Moving on. It's

that time in the show, guys. I got to sound the

alarm and ring the bell. We need to break a tie.

16. Then we'll scare him away, just like Sherlock

Jones did in The Adventure of the Ghoul Next

Door. 15. Are you pondering what I'm pondering,

Pinky? Sure, Blaine, but... How are we going

to find chaps our size? I think so. But where

would we find an open tattoo parlor at this time

of night? I think so, Blaine. But if they called

them sad meals, kids wouldn't buy them. Here

we go. So this is going to determine our number

16 and our number 15 spots. So who's in the top

15 and who just missed it, I guess, if you want

to put it that way. So I am going to read you

a quick synopsis of both one. We'll have you

guess as to which two they are. And then I'm

going to go around and give you each a chance

to kind of talk about them at the same time and

give your vote. And it's interesting here because

we are having a battle of the 80s versus the

90s. And we're also having a battle against WB

and Disney. So for the first one, one of animation's

greatest comedy concepts. became a defining example

of character -based comedy writing. Its catchphrases

and premise remain deeply recognizable decades

later. For the other one, one of the cornerstones

of the Disney afternoon helped establish Disney

television animation as a major force and transformed

previously minor characters into franchise stars.

Its adventure format influenced numerous children's

action comedy cartoons that followed. Does anybody

know which two shows we're talking about? DuckTales

and The Simpsons. Incorrect on both. Rescue Rangers.

Rescue Rangers is our Disney. The other ones,

we've mentioned it already today, actually. Successful

spinoff from the Animaniacs. This would be Pinky

and the Brain. So we have Pinky and the Brain

against Chippendale's Rescue Rangers. Just before

you guys, as you guys started thinking about

that, I'll give you some stats here. So last

time around, Rescue Rangers was 30th on our top

100. Pinky and the Brain was 24th. So they have

both climbed the spots. Pinky and the Brain potentially

climbing eight or nine spots. Chippendales potentially

climbing 14 or 15 spots. They both had the same

amount of episodes. Pinky and the Brain was more

nominated as far as recognized in the award circuit.

Out of our nine reference shows, Pinky and the

Brain was on seven of them. Rescue Rangers was

on four of them. They both appeared. Let's see.

Chippendales Rescue Rangers appeared on 30 of

the 44 list. Pinky and the Brain appeared on

31 of them. So let's start with DJ. Rescue Rangers

or Pinky and the Brain. Thoughts on both of them

and then which one should be ranked higher? Of

that whole Tiny Toon, Animaniac, Freakazoid,

anything, as I said previously, Pinky and the

Brain was the only thing that ever stayed up

in my brain pan up here. But, bro, what are we

doing here? In July, podcasts grow there. Sorry,

guys. I mean, what are we talking about? Chippendale

Rescue Rangers? One of them is dressed like Indiana

Jones, and the other's dressed like Magnum P

.I. There's a freaking mouse called Monterey

Jack that solves crimes and then is attracted

to cheat. They're flying bleach bottle limp.

They're saving people's lives, man. What is Peaky

and the Brain doing? Trying to ruin our lives.

They're trying to take over. They're evil. Chippendale's

Rescue Rangers are good. They're so good. They're

wearing the iconography of two of the most good

fictional characters of all time. What are we

talking about? Chippendale. And that theme song

slaps, as the kids say in the streets. Slaps.

Still. It's still back here in the brain. It's

just chanting. Rescue Rangers theme song? Are

we kidding here? Let me get an EMD track to that.

I can bustle a move to that Chippendale Rescue

Rangers song. There's nothing, nothing, nothing

that those Warner Brothers guys. And I'm defending

Disney here. There's nobody coming at Chippendale.

Are you a crazy zipper? That's it. What are we

talking about? Get out of here. Get out of here.

Um, before I, so I obviously know what your vote

is at last thought for you, DJ though, is do

you think they're both very vague on that one?

Do you think they're both top 25 worthy? One

of them is going to be 16. Yes. Pinky in the

brain. No. Okay. Definitely. Yes. All right.

I like it. I like it, Dan. Let's go to you next.

Where do you side on the rescue Raiders versus

pinky in the brain? I'm going to say I'm the

opposite of DJ. You're right. I mean, there's

no denying Rescue Rangers theme song is great.

Certainly a fun show. It's a great adventure

show. I don't think it's even the best Disney

afternoon show, right? I would agree with you.

They did something that often does not happen.

It was a spinoff that actually worked. Usually

when you have the Star characters from a show,

if their own show, it tends to fail. But it didn't

with Pinky and the Brain. I was surprised that

their idea could last for an entire episode.

Not only an entire episode, but four seasons.

And it does. DJ, you've talked about how much

you love writing. I think if you looked at the

writing of both these shows, I think it's very

clear which one is better written. But they're

also trying to do very different things. I do

think I would say both deserve to be was in the

top 100. Do they both deserve to be this high?

I don't know. It's tough. I think especially

if you have Animaniacs in here someplace, I think,

you know, it's hard to say. But I don't think

it's the distance between these cartoons is vast.

I do think that the theme song for Pinky and

the Brain, although it's not maybe not slaps,

but it's effective. And, you know, you know,

did you say slaps? Did you say that one more

time? I'm just making sure. No, I can't. I only

get, I only get one. That's why my kids only

get one a day, one a day. And, you know, the

brain strain is evil. Pinky isn't, he's innocent.

He's just, you know, he's just, he's just trying

to have a good time and, you know, and their

dynamic works. But yeah, I, I would give the

slight edge, the slight edge to Pinky and the

brain. All right, Steve, you're up next. I like

both shows for different reasons. I can't deny

that Chip and Dale and along with things like

DuckTales and stuff like that, Disney had some

pretty iconic theme songs. That, Tailspin, you

could sit there and sing them. All of them are

super iconic. There's nothing like those themes.

Yeah, Warner Brothers does have some of the weaker

theme songs. I mean, they're either I love the

orchestral stuff, but I also, you know, a lot

of them are just singing about the show and it

gets a little grating on the air, whereas I feel

like the Disney ones you can sit and just listen

to. And it's just like. Mind crack, like you're

just sitting there, like enjoying the whole thing,

even if you listen on repeat. Now, I will say

as far as like a programming in a show. perspective

i enjoyed pinky in the brain more uh just because

i grew up during that era of you know the animaniacs

and things like that and not that i didn't like

rescue rangers but i had easy access to the wb

stuff compared to disney's and so plus i enjoy

watching pinky in the brain with my kids so and

they find it entertaining and funny and uh especially

pinky responding to brain uh so i i gotta give

it to pinky in the brain all right mike that's

two for pinky in the brain one for rescue rangers

i'm gonna cut your mic no you're not oh boy well

here's the thing folks Pinky and the Brain for

me only existed in Animaniacs because as soon

as Elmira joined the crew, I was out. And I only

remember Rescue Rangers. I only can remember

those episodes. The only Pinky and the Brain

episodes I remember were in the Animaniacs shows.

And yeah, like it's already been said about the

theme songs for Disney. Those were so much better.

So it's definitely rescue Rangers over pinky

in the brain. Oh, you guys did it to me then

two to two. All right. That's right. Do you feel

like they're both top 25 worthy or top 50 worthy

or where do you think? I can't. I can't really

say too much about Pinky and the Brain because

I've only seen episodes here and there. I haven't

sat down and actively watched the number of seasons

it had. Like I said, I have bad memories of that

show, and the bad memories are, like I mentioned,

when Elmira joined. Rescue Rangers, I think,

is top 25 worthy. I don't think it should be

this high. I think maybe it should be number

25. or something or 24 or whatever. But yeah,

I think they're both at least top 100 worthy.

Right. So as far as the theme song debate, I

will just say that we listen to cartoon theme

songs on our way to school every morning, not

every morning, but most mornings with my five

-year -old and she enjoys both of them equally.

So she likes the Rescue Rangers and the Pinky

and the Brain theme song. I know if I said to

her, sometimes some crimes go slipping through

the cracks, she's going to start vibing out in

a way that you weren't prepared for because she

knows deep in her soul is a Chippendale Rescue

Rangers theme song. I personally would rank Rescue

Rangers as the better theme song, but I don't

think I would. I wouldn't sell Pinky and the

Brain short from that standpoint. They're mice.

Yes, they are. In one way, you could do like

the one logic where someone says like, you know,

one of them gets thrown in the incinerator and

we never get to see it again. And I would then

say, well, I'm still going to get Pinky in the

Brain and the Animaniac. So it makes more sense

to save Rescue Rangers. But I think the only

fair way is to just look at my own personal list

and see where I rank them both. So I had Rescue

Rangers at 65 and I had Pinky in the Brain at

48. So I had Pinky and the Brain about 17 spots

higher on my own list. So I think I will go with

that one. I think they're both quality. I think

they both deserve to be in the top 100. I loved

Pinky and the Brain when I was whatever age I

was when this came out. So that was about 14

-ish, 13, 14, somewhere in there. And I really,

that was my favorite part of any WB thing that

came out. I also loved rescue Rangers, but I

think the other thing for rescue Rangers is if

I'm looking at the WB stuff, pinking the brain

for me is like top tier. And if I'm looking at

the Disney afternoon and the Disney stuff, I

would put a few shows ahead of rescue Rangers.

So I guess for that reason, I would vote for

pinking the brain overall. What would you say

is better? Disney afternoon or the animaniac

Steven Spielberg, tiny tune world. Oh man, it's

better. It's close. It's close. Yeah, it's close

for me. You're putting Tiny Toons above DuckTales

and you're putting Animaniacs above Tailspin?

Is that what you're saying? I will let you know

as we progress, just in case any of those may

or may not come up. I think Pinky and the Brain

is winning because everything else around it

is crap. That's what I think. Compared to Chip

and Dale Rescue Rangers, which everything in

that universe was great. Everything was great.

All right. So we have Chip and Dale at 16 and

Pinky and the Brain at 15. That is how we have

decided. Yes. And a 3 -2 vote. I think it's close.

Okay. Moving on. Fourteen. Meanwhile, it's past

time that Luthor's partners in crime were locked

up. Wait a minute. We help you guys save the

world and we don't even get any consideration?

You're right. Five minute head start. Five minutes?

Are you kidding? Four minutes, fifty seconds.

A head start. You're getting soft in your old

age. Don't you have a tall building to go leap?

Technical difficulties. Let's move on, shall

we? One place we have not gone to today. We've

had quite a few shows from the 90s so far. I

think we're at six so far from the 90s and we're

at three from the 80s. We've had two prior to

1980s. We've had zero from the 2000s until now.

So we are going with our first show from the

decade of the 2000s. Represents the culmination.

Of a certain universe. As an expansive roster.

Interconnected storytelling. Ambitious scope.

Demonstrated how shared universe storytelling.

Could work years before it became the dominant

model. In live action entertainment. We're going

from. The year 2004. From the WB. Aired on Cartoon

Network. I believe originally. This would be

Justice League. Unlimited. Justice League Unlimited.

Oh my God. Did not appear on our original countdown

at all. It comes in here at number 14. DJ, I'll

let you go first. How long do I have? Two minutes.

How long do I have? Because I could spiral off

into something. Look, all right, we've been saddled

with, since Christopher Nolan decided to go blow

up the world and find Homer, we've been saddled

with WB garbage in terms of the DC universe,

all right? garbage, trash, horridness, except

for the Batman. You got like one movie. My whole

complaint the entire time this has been going

on is, guys, you've got this show called Justice

League Unlimited and Justice League. It's right

there. You don't even need to do anything but

go copy, paste, copy, paste, copy, paste, and

you would have your universe already. But they

keep missing the target. I don't understand.

This is one of the greatest shows ever. This

show not only gave depth to... the og the trinity

so superman batman wonder woman last green lantern

it made you appreciate people like the question

the question huntress booster gold uh just randos

that were you're like wow i really like the question

you would have asked me 20 years ago who the

hell the question was you would even know who

the hell he was and i read comic books i was

not even up in the he wasn't even in my sphere

but the catch that the justice league unlimited

show is only trumped by its predecessor in terms

of a comic book show to me because it has all

of these characters and gives them all depth

vixen for christ's sake had character development

in this show and for some reason this is all

under the same warner brothers umbrella they

can't make movies Based on it. I don't understand.

It's so annoying to me that this greatness is

right there. And it's still right there. And

they keep doing the opposite of it. They keep

going, well, that was good, but let's do something

completely different that sucks and makes no

money. We're going to keep doing that over and

over and over and over. And Matt Reeves is like,

well, I'm going to, I'm going to, I'll take the

animated series. Batman air series one is fine.

Whatever you do in your own universe. And you're

going to be the only movie that makes money while

we keep making trash garbage. Wait, wait, what

day is it today? Is it June 15th? Just wait a

couple weeks when Supergirl tanks because they

don't even know how to do Justice League Supergirl,

Justice League Unlimited Supergirl, who is also

very, very good on the Justice League Unlimited

show. Kids, watch the Justice League Unlimited

show. My long story short, watch Justice League

Unlimited if you actually want to know more about

DC characters in motion. That's it right there.

Fair enough. A heavy case of support for Justice

League. unlimited steve uh agree i i honestly

can't say it any better than dj like i 100 agree

water brothers has had the formula in their hands

with the dc animated universe from the 90s and

early 2000s and have managed to botch it every

step of the way every step of the way i've i've

enjoyed the the stuff here or there if i look

at it like it's brainless you know shut off stuff

but i have not really and I've not enjoyed anything

in years from DC. So that's, that's where like

the animation of old seems to be their crowning

achievement. Whereas Marvel had the Marvel cinematic

universe for the longest time until end game.

And then they kind of did the same thing DC is

doing. So I, I a hundred percent agree with DJ.

And I think that this. 100 % deserves to be here

because it showed us what an ensemble cast can

do when you don't focus on Batman and Superman

100 % of the time. Mike, your thoughts on Justice

League Unlimited? Okay. You also have less than

two minutes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. DJ went a little

bit longer than two minutes. I gave him some

of my time. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Whatever. Justice

League Unlimited, technically, Justice League

and Justice League Unlimited, they're the same

show, but the thing is, they were done at the

end of Justice League, and they had to come back

and ask for more. They weren't sure they were

going to get picked up. You know how the season

pickups and whatever else, they weren't sure

they were going to, and then they finally came

back and they did this whole... rebrand and redesign

wherever else and i love this show i love how

they changed it up because the first part in

justice league they did two multi -parters for

the whole uh series this one they did basically

single episodes weekly or daily or whatever it

was uh but everything in this just it all comes

back to batman and superman at the end all right

Y 'all get a five minute head start. Five minutes,

four minutes, 59 seconds. All right, we're going,

we're going. Superman comes up. Five minutes,

you're getting soft in your old age. Don't you

have a tall building to go leap? Best ending

ever. It has the best Superman speech of all

time in the episode where he's explaining to

Darkseid. Why he doesn't just, Superman, why

he doesn't just murder everybody. He has to hold

back. But for him, I think you can take it. And

he just destroys Darkseid. It's such a good show.

Batman avoids the Omega Beam. I'm sending Steve

that audio to put in. It's so good. It's such

a good show. Combination of Mike and DJ's time

has expired, so we have to go to... We're good.

I'm sticking my tongue out at you. Yeah! Dan,

final thoughts on Justice League Unlimited. So,

yeah, I mean, talking about, like, why does this

work in other shows or other things DC has tried

not work as well? And it's because of the people

behind it. We had Dwayne McDuffie. When you have

a mind like that, it helps a great deal. And

he understood not only DC superheroes, but superheroes

in general. You don't create the Milestone universe

without knowing that. Even, like, Gail Simone

was... And not necessarily the writer she is

now, but on the precipice of becoming that. And

they gave her the opportunity to write a few

episodes. J .M .D. Mateus as well. And I think,

too, like superheroes, I think it's a lot harder

to say, like, we did this in animation. Let's

do this in live action. I think we're making

that a lot, making that seem a lot easier than

it really is. Because I do think animation is

almost like the best vehicle for superhero stories

because you can. utilize a lot of the same craft

that you get with comics uh without having like

the baggage of live action or you know the budget

it requires or what have you or worry about cgi

and they took advantage of that and like i agree

that it is the best and having the foundation

of the previous dc shows behind it these characters

were well established you had that history that

it would pull from but not in the way that we

had it convoluted and hard to get into you can

kind of jump in at any time it was Like this

is the perfect example of how to do a superhero

show. And I don't know. I don't think it's really

come close since. Very good. So we have 13 shows

left to reveal. 10 of them are going to be somebody's

number one. Let's see where we go next. 13. Why

don't you enjoy a cup of calming Jasmine tea?

I don't need any calming tea. I need to capture

the avatar. Helmsman, head of course for the

light. All right, we just got our first entry

from the 2000s. Let's stay there for the next

one. Also, our first entry from Nickelodeon and

three people's number one. We're talking about

a show that one of the most universally acclaimed

animated series ever made. Combined serialized

storytelling, character development, world building,

emotional depth and thematic sophistication at

a level rarely achieved in children's television.

Its influence continues to grow with each generation.

Some critics would argue that it's relatively

short run limits. It's broader cultural footprint

compared to decade long franchises, but many

others would say that this is top 10 worthy.

We have it coming in here at number 13 from 2005.

It is. It's football head doing here. Avatar.

The last airbender. It appeared on seven of the

nine list as over 20 awards. Last time it was

ranked 36 for us. It had just come out, you know,

not too many years before we did that countdown.

So with some more time, it has climbed from 36

to 13. So Dan, I'm going on mute. That's the

best thing I've heard in the last five minutes.

So Dan, go ahead with your thoughts on Avatar.

So Avatar was number three on my list and I came

to Avatar super, super late. I only watched it

because my niece was now staying with us and

she was a huge fan and was always on. And I was

like, I don't know. I wasn't sure about it, but

I got into it. And it is like, you know, you

talk about the expansive world, the characters

within it, love character development. That certainly

show that show has a lot of it. A few months

ago, I got the opportunity to. i'd go to the

library and um king yong yang who is one of today's

best comic book writers dragon hoops american

-born chinese uh he was speaking and he actually

wrote on uh the comics of uh of avatar last amber

and ben bent avatar last airbender and he spoke

about the show and why like it was why he found

it so admirable as this at that time he was an

acclaimed writer uh and how he brought in him

into the world and how even though he's done

all these other things and he's won eisner's

uh people still like one of the things to talk

about the most are the avatar comics he wrote

like when he was first starting out or you know

or he writes now and i think there is a huge

like fandom within this uh and like i said i

came to it late like i was apprehensive it's

like i don't know it looks like it looks kind

of cheesy it looks very much like it looks like

it's trying to be anime without being anime But

once I got beyond that, those biases and was

able to actually just enjoy the show, you know,

it's not it's not one of my personal favorites.

But when I just look at the achievement, what

it means for a lot of people, especially younger

than us and the legacy of it and the craft of

it, I thought, you know, certainly deserves a

lot of recognition. So I'm glad it's this high.

I'm actually you know, it seems I was wondering

if it would make the list. So it's good to see

that at least. it's you know upward at where

it's at all right dj what are your thoughts on

avatar i'm right with dan i had it in number

five it's in my top five it's i think the best

thing nickelodeon has done ever it's so good

uh i remember watching it like the first couple

episodes i was like this is really good and near

the end i think the jet episode i think that's

season one where jet gets almost mortally wounded

i think he was dead I don't know, he gets messed

up, a character named Jed. And I was like, wow,

this is way better than it's supposed to be.

And when you're reaching like the season three,

you're just like, wow, you're so invested. And

I was so excited when they were going to make

the live action movie for it. And I was like,

oh man, they lost that heart that the animated

show had because it's so much more than just

hours. It's in the world building. It's just

the heart that Osaka and Aang and Katara have

together. That movie was devoid of it. It made

me appreciate the cartoon more. This is what

this thing is about. It's their relationship.

How much they are fighting for each other and

Zuko and all that stuff. It's such a good show.

And it is evergreen. You can watch it now. If

you've never seen it, mike if you've never seen

it ever you need to put it on and you'll be like

oh wow this still holds up it's still great the

animation gets better and better every season

it's funny it's serious action the the for animation

for american animation especially the action

scenes are great uh i i can't highly i can't

recommend enough i think honestly it's the it's

in my top five and the the the four i have above

it are heavy hitters And it's mainly because

it is, one, different than everything ever that

I've ever seen at that point. Because the amount

of world building is also amazing for it. Where

you got, it's Earth, but it's not Earth. And

you got animals that are like conglomerates of

other animals. You can be lost in an Avatar universe

for a while. I was going to watch the Netflix

one, but I got the same fear that they're going

to lose the heart of those characters. So I say

watch. The three seasons of the Nickelodeon show,

Katara, the last year, but it wasn't as great

as this. But yes, Avatar last year, but they're

excellent. Excellent, excellent show. I had this

one ranked at 16. It comes in here at 13. Steve,

final thoughts on Avatar. Not really a show that

I more so got into. I don't even know where to

start on it because I tried watching it and I

couldn't really get into it. both my kids seem

to enjoy it. My youngest had it in his top 15

and my oldest had it in his top 30. So, um, obviously

there's something there. And they said that the,

uh, the followup series was crap compared to

it. So, so, uh, obviously I've trained them in

good taste. Uh, absolutely. I, I don't know.

Like, I don't, I don't know what I'm missing

as far as it, like, I couldn't get into it from

the initial parts that I watched, but maybe I'm,

in the minority here but i i've heard a lot of

good things about it so i i can see it being

on the list i just i don't know it doesn't resonate

with me all right it was the first time we've

gone three uh three reveals without going to

the 90s uh and it'll be the last time we go three

reveals without going to the 90s let's get back

there next Of course, even if it is possible

to analyze the message, there's no way of knowing

how long it would take. It could take an hour,

or it could take a hundred million years. Magnify

that death sphere. Why is it still blurry? That's

all the resolution we have. Making it bigger

doesn't make it... clearer. It does on CSI Miami.

Alright, this show successfully blended science

fiction, satire, emotional storytelling, and

intellectual comedy in a way few series have

matched. It remains one of the most critically

respected animated sitcoms and has produced some

of the most emotionally resonant episodes in

animation history. It was on all nine of our

reference lists. It's received over 30 awards

from 20th Century and Fox was the channel that

it debuted on. Does everybody know what we're

talking about at number 12? Science fiction,

animated sitcom, Futurama from 1999 is our number

12 entry. It was 18, 15 years ago. It has climbed

six spots to number 12 here. So that's where

we're going with it. Who would like to start?

Steve, why don't you start with Futurama? aside

from the fact that this show has been canceled

and revived multiple times, I think it's, I think

it's pretty solid show. Like I, I will actually

watch random episodes of this show before I watched

the Simpsons, uh, because it honestly, I just

liked the sci -fi aspect of it. And the fact

that it's got the Simpsons familiarity, but it's

also very crude and goofy. Um, plus I just love

the voice cast too. Like there's a lot of fun

with it. um and then the absurdity of it all

like fry waking up a thousand years in the future

and uh with his descendant and you know there's

like a whole episode where he opens up his like

bank account or whatever and he has like this

anchovy and worth like an obscene amount of money

and then he eats it like i don't know like just

the whole show is just entertaining and fun i

It's one of the few other shows created by Matt

Groening that I think is pretty solid and I actually

will watch. But, I mean, again, you have a lot

of Warner Brothers people as a part of this,

too. So, I mean, I feel like a lot of these shows

that kind of resonate, especially for me, are

ones where there's a lot of overlap on voice

cast. So like it almost gives you that familiarity

to the show and it causes you to like kind of

be more open to it, I think. And plus this thing

has won a buttload of awards. Yeah, it has. DJ,

we talked about the adult animated shows when

we talked about King of Hill at 21. And this

is the next one that has come up here at Futurama.

So what are your thoughts at this one being at

number 12? uh this was a future i was always

a little hit or miss with me because i was more

simpsons i'm more of a simpsons guy even though

it's the same my groaning but uh when it hits

it's like oh my god that's brilliant and then

sometimes it gets a little too zany for me but

again the the fan base of this show you gotta

i always have respect for shows that were out

it canceled and then the fan base erupt in like

it's it is mob and and it comes back and it seems

like it's it gets its feet again it's just you

know i i i feel bad because i heard the the more

recent one wasn't as good kind of like arrested

development a lot of those shows like when they

come back it might have come back a little bit

too late but futurama is fan base is legion so

i i i get it i you know i know why it's this

high again i was i'm more uh another show a fan

of than Futurama. But again, I think everybody

in my family loves the show. My mother loves

Futurama. There we go. Dan, what do you think

about the next adult animated series that we

have here in Futurama? Yeah, I think DJ's right

because when Futurama hits, it hits really hard.

I'm thinking of an episode like Godfellas or

whatever, the episode where Bender meets God.

Which should be awful. Right. And then we saw

that in Star Trek. It doesn't always work out

very well. But, you know, the way they approached

it and it has like a quote, like I think about

a lot, you know, the when you think when you

do things right, people will think that you haven't

done anything at all. And like they get like

life advice from a cartoon about a robot that

says bite my shiny metal ass doesn't seem like

something you'd want to do. But sometimes it

works out. So and I think it did do the Simpsons

thing in the sense of having a good. expansive

cast of characters where you could you could

go like anywhere within the universe and be able

to like have someone like keep it fresh even

though it went on forever and one thing too that

it had that simpsons and it had more i want to

say topical but the concept of like using celebrities

heads in a jar and because with the simpsons

you didn't didn't really use real life people

all that much they typically typically did like

simpson caricatures of them and it wasn't really

arnold schwarzenegger right it was someone who

clearly was meant to be him but with futurama

like they had nixon as president things like

that so it was intriguing how it it was different

in that way and i mentioned how king of the hill

was like in the shadow of simpsons i mean if

anything was it was futurama i remember watching

the first episode and you're like okay like where

where's the couch gag like what how is it going

to do the things the simpsons did and it it didn't

necessarily do that. Like, it has some of those

elements, but it was able to, I think, really

form its own identity, which, like, as mentioned,

the other Matt Groening shows, not nearly as

successful. It's interesting, because the little

blurb I have says, you know, it occasionally

lived in the shadow of The Simpsons and never

reached the same cultural saturation, but many

fans would argue that at their peaks, that Futurama

was the stronger show creatively at their peaks.

Mike, final word on Futurama. When I first saw

the show, I'm like, oh, wow, it's Peggy Bundy

with purple hair and then the robot always wanting

people to bite his shiny metal ass. I like Futurama.

I thought it was fun. A part of the revival stuff

or part of the fandom coming together because

I don't remember off the top of my head which

character he played, but I do remember. Part

of the assembly of the fandom was Maurice LaMarche.

He would always be on social media telling the

fans to go support whatever the petitions were

to sign the petitions to get Fox to get their

heads out of their asses to get the show back

on the air. I like Futurama. I thought it was

fun. I thought it was funny. I thought it was

awesome. Right. There's only one spot left on

this side of the... Before we get to the top

10, so let's see which show takes that one. All

right, another two people's number one will fall

next here at our number 11 spot. Interested to

see your guys' take on the order of these because

we had at number 28, we had G .I. Joe. At number

26, we had Thundercats. At number 25, we had

He -Man. Now at number 11, we have the 1987 Teenage

Mutant Ninja Turtles. It was on eight of the

nine lists we referenced as one of the few awards

that could go back to the argument on is it the

cultural impact that should be more important

or the artistic merit? Dan, we'll let you start

with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. It spawned.

A phenomenon in the late 80s and into the early

90s that would be seen in toys would be seen

in live action movies and future cartoon series

and more movies, et cetera, et cetera. What do

you think of the thing that started it all here?

Yeah, I mean, I was part of that phenomenon.

Well, I mean, not part of the show, but obviously

part of it. But. Yeah, that was probably the

first major cartoon I got into at that time.

And thinking of theme songs, another great theme

song, really loving it. The movies, loving the

movies as well. All three of them, you know,

Kevin, we did our Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle

retrospective a few years ago going through all

the films. And that was an interesting adventure.

I will say, though, you know, with all that nostalgia,

with all that love, I had the toys. I remember

going to KB Toys and like still those stories

when I see them on shelves like it brings back

a lot. I think this is incredibly too high for

the show. I don't think it's a very good show.

Oh, definitely. It's not even the best Teenage

Mutant Ninja Turtles show, I would argue. Yeah.

Especially going... Does that mean that you're

weighing more on the artistic merit versus the

cultural impact? Definitely, because I don't

know if the... Yeah, first and foremost, craft

is the thing I'm looking at first. But also,

is that impact a net positive? That's the question.

And I don't know if that's always the case. I

mean, it's not positive for the creators, of

course, but it also, I think, you know, actually

going back and reading the original comics, where

it came from and what it did. I mean, even even

like the creators of it didn't love the show.

Like it was a little cheesy. It was it did what

it was supposed to do. It was effective. Certainly,

like they knew something because it caught on.

I'm not saying it doesn't belong on the top 100,

but we're talking about the best animated TV

shows of all time. And when I'm looking at, especially

the top 25, you need to have, you need to do

something special. You need to break the mold

in some way. And yeah, you could say it was super

popular, but like, I don't know, like Transformers

movies are super popular. Does that mean like

I would rank them as one of the best movies of

all time? Not necessarily. The show is fun and

enjoyable and certainly a good time, but I don't

necessarily think I'm looking at the greatest

shows ever. I'm looking at all those elements,

writing, craft, animation. It has their voice

acting is strong for sure. I think that it does

have. But I think like I would probably say that

2003 version of the show was able to kind of

take elements of what worked with this, elements

of what worked with the comic and kind of create

its own lore and kind of find a happy medium,

which is why I placed this higher. Like I had

this in the 80s, which is where I think it would.

personally belong compared to like best shows

of all time i just i don't know i i can't see

myself agreeing to that personally that's just

my take we had it ranked six uh 15 years ago

we dropped it five spots down to 11 this time

i know it's not a dramatic drop but a drop nonetheless

dj what do you how do you feel about teenage

manager turtle it's kind of like the opposite

argument i had with myself about he -man i like

the Cartoon Network version, but I understood

the cultural relevance of the Funimation one.

The cultural relevance of the 80s Turtles show

is so high. I mean, I had it at 21, but I mean,

it took over the world for a while. I mean, I

had the shirt. I'm literally holding in my hand

because I reached over here in my bookcase, The

Last Ronin. uh one that eastman laird uh did

recently or not recently a couple years ago i

was in chicago at a comic book shop and i literally

like my eye just caught that's rafael and that

that moment in my brain stems from the show where

every time i see something cool that has something

to do with turtle i had the games i had the shirts

i had the the freaking uh the little thing the

skate the skateboard with your finger thing i

had all that stuff and it all stemmed from This

show and the movie, the, the, the original movie.

Yep. Yeah. That, that thing, the, the cultural

relevance of this show is so big. And again,

and it's right in terms of writing and animation,

even that show, the, the, the more, the more

recent turtle show can kind of make the lampoons

this show, but man, the cultural office of the

show is so high. It being this high makes sense

to me because, and again, I don't mean, the song

to slap. So it's, it's so big. I have to go.

I have to appreciate it being this high. I mean,

I, again, I only had it in 21, man. It, you,

I live this. I remember this was the world. I

could not, you could not get away from. Vanilla

Ice was singing songs with Turtles, man. It took

over the planet for a very long time. He -Man

didn't take over the planet. It was cultural

revenue for what it did. But Turtles were freaking

everywhere, man. Everywhere. what that show that

they went to oprah and they had that uh yeah

man that concert which is so was this at concerts

where people the kids were just coming watching

people in animatronics yeah it was the world

i still have the coming out of your shell soundtrack

i listened to it i listened to it like two days

ago why did we listen to that why because of

this cartoon show bro i still listen to it This

series and the original movie inspired me to

try to draw for the first time. And I'm not an

artistic person, but I was trying to learn how

to draw the turtles. I was listening to their

CDs. This took me out of the 80s and into a new

thing. And it did take over the world. It was

everywhere. So for me, I do think a perfect blend

of cultural impact and artistic merit could make

something more warranted towards the top of the

top 100. but as like more of a, you know, I was

a history major. So like, this is what I, like

the cultural impact for me almost always outweighs

a lot of the other factors. So I had this one

ranked at 13th on, on my list. It comes in here

at number 11. Like I get what Dan's saying. And

I probably would vote both the 2002 He -Man and

the 2003 Turtles. And then some of these, you

know, maybe even Mystery Inc is a better show

than Scooby -Doo. Where are you? But I would

never rank. misrank ahead of Scooby -Doo Where

Are You when I'm talking about what I think was

the most important. I guess I do it more of not

what is the best series of all time, but more

as what is the most important series of all time,

I guess is how I view it. So that's what made

me rank Turtles at 13 on my list. Steve, what

do you think of the original Turtles? So I was

a huge fan of this growing up. I literally had

every action figure, every base, every like vehicle,

everything. Watch the crap out of this. Like

I had all the VHS tapes. Yeah. So I was a huge

fan of it for many, many years, even more so

than the comics, like the comics, because I grew

up on this. The comics were always weird to me

because they were just all over the place. So

I think during this time, too, though, I think

this is when the toys were also the strongest.

Like you had the most variety, you had the most

crossovers, you had the most everything. And

then we started getting into, you know, the movie

stuff. And then we started getting into the 2003

series. And then progressively, I mean, that's

I mean, looking at it now, like Playmates toys

doesn't even have the license to turtles anymore.

And I feel like a lot of it has to do with like

the medium kind of. changing and evolving in

different directions and the toy is not really

keeping up and they're not really of interest

anymore and so like i feel like this was where

turtles was its strongest and then it's kind

of just it kind of floated on the coattails of

this series over the years and not that i i i

don't particularly love this one the most but

i would say it is the most iconic both in the

the logo and the music in the you know the voice

cast which fluctuated as the length of the show

went on and then like the toy line so I think

this one is definitely deserves to be here now

as far as enjoyability I enjoyed this one the

2003 and the 2012 but it was always I feel like

I got back into it and I enjoyed it again when

the 2003 series came out and then we got a nice

crossover with Turtles Forever with that series

and this one to kind of wrap them up. And so

I don't necessarily have an issue with it being

here. However, I think that this version of it

may be a little too high just because the stories

kind of go all over. Yeah, it was six, 15 years

ago, 11 this year. As far as that goes, Playmates

does have six months left. Just FYI, they have

six months left until their license expires and

then Mattel takes over next year. Oh, geez. Well,

Mattel did do a good job with the DC figures

that are coming out, and they're cheap. So I'm

in favor of seeing what they do. Yeah. Mike,

final thoughts on Turtles. All right. So the

year was 1987. I was seven years old, and the

first thing with Turtles that I got was the Burger

King VHS tapes. They were amazing. I did not

get into the comic. The comic, as Steve said,

was weird. It was too adult. As I said, I was

seven years old at the time. From this cartoon

all the way up to today, this cartoon influenced

everything with me with Turtles. As Steve said,

I was the same as him. I had all the toys, everything.

If you're looking at the 87 Turtles cartoon as

the what is the content of the cartoon, is that

good or bad? There are some good episodes, there

are some bad episodes in its 10 -season run.

But the fact that it had a 10 -season run, amazing.

Not many cartoons get that. It ran from 87 to

96, and I know you're going to say, oh, that's

nine seasons, but it was a weird numbering thing,

whatever, it's weird. What it led to, obviously,

2003, yada, yada, yada, yada, yada. All this

to say is that cartoon eventually led up to the

fact that IDW Publishing got the license. And

since January 22nd, 2014 to now, my buddy Joe

Reed and I have been reviewing everything in

the IDW Publishing TMNT comics. And that run,

that 150 issue run that they've been doing. or

that they did is the best turtle storytelling

ever. But this cartoon is why that happened.

And this cartoon is just amazing. And the fact

that it's still just outside the top 10 now and

not in the top 10 is awesome. Now, does it deserve

to be as high as this? Maybe not, but it still

deserves to be in the top 100. Well, let's see

what does crack our top 10 next. That man won't

quit as long as he can still draw a breath. None

of my teammates will. Me? I've got a different

problem. I feel like I live in a world made of

cardboard. Always taking constant care not to

break something, to break someone. What we have

here is a rare opportunity for me to cut loose

and show you just how powerful I really am. All

right, so this next one, we're going back to

the 2000s for a show that was on six of the list,

has 10 awards. It was number 17 15 years ago

with number 10. So we've climbed 10, or excuse

me, seven spots here. We already talked about

Justice League Unlimited, so now let's talk about

Justice League. Justice League from 2001 takes

our number 10 spot, starts off our top 10. Go

back to you, Dan. What do you think? And do you

differentiate Justice League Unlimited and Justice

League as two separate series, I guess, to get

that out of the way? And what do you feel of

this entry? It's hard. I literally, I rank Justice

League 19, Justice League Unlimited 20. To me,

they're all kind of one continuous story in a

lot of ways. But I think in some ways, what's

great about Unlimited is you have the larger

cast. the focus of justice league and its ability

to kind of uh tell those stories i remember like

back in the day like watching justice league

for the first time i had no idea it was coming

out because in in that time like you weren't

bombarded with news it was on cartoon network

i'm like oh there's like a batman and not not

realizing it was like a movie because it was

that in multi -part episode not realizing it

was a series like that part of discovery also

was a huge fun thing to happen just not knowing

this existed and it being an amazing way to go

into this world. And at that time, I didn't know

a lot about DC. I just read Marvel. So outside

of the main DC characters, I didn't really know

anyone. So Martian Manhunter, other things. So

similar to how Spider -Man was an avenue into

the world of Marvel, this was an avenue into

the world of DC. And again, a lot of the same

creators. So pretty much copy and paste everything

I said about. unlimited here and they're both

great shows all right dj what do you think how

long do i have no i'm supposed to this uh this

show is i mean again think about this show which

i love uh and the thing i differentiated from

unlimited is i think justice league made batman

at least solidified conroy as my favorite batman

He was there. He was like, him and Michael Keaton

were fighting for me. And there's moments in

Justice League where they're, they just give

Batman scenes and have Superman play up on the

mythos of Batman to the other members of the

Justice League, which I loved. Like when he's

questioning Deadshot and he says, I'm going to

tell you this one time. And they cut to Superman,

who's like 20 feet away with the rest of the

Justice League. And then Deadshot just starts

telling him everything. What did he say? superman

goes you don't want to know like stuff like that

or when he play face pretends to be the flash

and he keeps saying hey bat hey yo and batman

goes catch and he shoots him in the chest with

a electrite electrite uh you played your part

a little too well yeah yeah play your part a

little too well yo this that made batman cooler

and made me love kevin conroy as batman more

because they sprinkled him in a lot where he

was the focus. He was kind of like the semi -leader

because Superman was the leader. But that dynamic

of seeing them together, working together, it

was because we had Batman -Superman crossovers,

but then you had Batman with the Flash, Batman

with Wonder Woman, Batman with Martian Manhunter.

And I really wasn't a huge Martian Manhunter

fan until this show. And this show starts off

all about Martian Manhunter. They were just doing

things with these characters correctly. And you

can tell. by this from the first episode you're

like these guys not only do they love these characters

they understand these characters yeah from the

first three episodes yeah yeah yeah the long

ears batman i love long i love a long ears batman

this gave me long ears batman i love that suit

that suit is by far the best suit ever watch

a cartoon you can just tell the people making

it like loved what they were doing That's just,

I can tell they love Conroy. It looked like he

was having fun. He's having fun again. So yeah,

yeah. Justice league. It's, it is quality. I

had it number six. I had unlimited number 13,

but it's, it's just quality, man. It's not, it's

quality and they won't pay attention to it. I

don't understand why. I'm kind of glad they,

I'm, I'm kind of glad they won't pay attention

to it because there's no way that. momoa could

do the enemy below justice there's just no way

there's just no way uh justice league no no no

the enemy below aquaman he can't do that but

he could do lobo well yeah he can do lobo he

is that dumb um it's not so hard to do no uh

justice league simply amazing uh it had two seasons

Uh, everything about this show is simply amazing.

And, uh, one of the best episodes, uh, is only

the two -parter only a dream. Uh, because again,

spotlight on Kevin Conroy as Batman and he's

whistling and he's in, uh, Johnny, uh, Dr. Dr.

Destiny or whatever. What are you doing? Oh,

I'm just doing this to keep you out, keeping

you out of my brain. My brain's not a nice place

to be. And he's whistling. Oh, my God. I know

there are a bunch of other Justice Leaguers in

this show, Superman, Hot Girl, all that, and

great. But, man, Kevin Conroy as Batman in this

show makes this show everything he does. Damn

it. I miss Kevin Conroy. Conroy was, he's the

bat. He's Batman to me. When I read a Batman

comic book is, is the voice I hear every single

time. Yep. The final thoughts on justice. Uh,

this, this was one of the, the great series that

gave us the league. Plus it gave us a different,

uh, green lantern than what I was exposed to.

Bill Lamar as Jon Stewart. Oh, Jon Stewart's

so much better than Hal Jordan. Scream Jesus

Jordan and Jeff Johns. Jeff Johns and Jesus Jordan

can jump off a cliff. Go start fights, man. Go

start fights. Yeah, whatever. This was like the

ultimate Justice League, honestly. I loved the

cast here. They were great. And they did butt

heads like they did have differences in opinions

on things. And so it was nice to see that, you

know, not everything was just, you know, great

between all of them all the time. And even how

they all came together in the, you know, the

first three episodes. I mean, it's the whole

series is just a great continuation of Batman,

the animated series and Superman, the animated

series. And it gave us some of the other characters

we would have never gotten otherwise. um absolutely

in there and uh it bridges nicely as you know

we get to know these characters into the justice

league unlimited and i agree that they both kind

of are continuations obviously of one another

just a different title change uh but it's it's

still like this whole universe together is just

epic i love the line at the end of secret origins

we really should find a place to to get together

and compare notes and this that and the other

thing and flash is like what like a bunch of

super friends no more like a justice league there

was a nice was this the series where they had

uh there was an episode where superman gets shot

with the toy man's blazer and he goes into the

future and he's stuck that is one of the best

freaking superman stories ever man why are you

not mourning superman he's not dead he's not

dead batman wouldn't do it you oh so it's so

good yeah it's okay yeah all right all right

so we've started off our top 10 here and i can

say man looking at this list we got some heavy

hitters coming so let's get to the next one it's

all a bunch of tree hugging hippie crap all right

we have 26 number one still to reveal luckily

we only have nine spots leave that for what it

is this one appeared on all nine reference lists

Few animated shows have influenced comedy, satire,

and popular culture more than this one. Its ability

to comment on current events at extraordinary

speed fundamentally changed expectations for

animated satire. This one is one person's number

one. It was ranked eighth last time. It is ranked

ninth this time. Steve, did I hear you say something?

I said South Park. It is South Park. This was

my number three overall. It falls here at number

nine. I will let somebody else go first though.

So Steve, why don't you start us off at South

park? Yeah, I had it in my, in my list. I can't

remember where, but I, I used to watch this show.

I haven't watched it in years, but I remember

watching it years ago and I even saw the movie

in theater, which that was a, that was a treat.

But yeah, I mean, they produce episodes so fast

that they can comment on low on current events

faster than the Simpsons does. And the Simpsons

is good at like future casting and South Park

is good at, you know, making fun of everything

in the moment. The characters are hilarious.

And a lot of the, a lot of the stuff is. really

goofy and you know how they portray Americans

Canadians and you know everything in there it's

and they kind of make fun of everybody equally

like there's not really anything that they kind

of you know nothing sacred to them they attack

everything on equal fronts and there's still

you know the one joke that I love even still

referencing today is the underpants gnomes You

know, stop on their underpants. Stop to stop

through profit. You know, and they're like, what's

up to? You know, so yeah, so I use that whenever

I'm referencing some stupid decision a company

makes. But I don't know. There's just so many

iconic moments from this show, you know, goofy

characters, and it definitely deserves to be

in the top 100 list. And I think that. For its

longevity, along with, you know, other shows

like The Simpsons and things like that. I mean,

I can honestly see why they're in the top 10,

even if they're not my favorite now. At one point,

I was a frequent watcher of these shows. Mike,

what do you think about South Park and being

number nine? Well, it's tree hugging hippie crap.

All as I remember about like I've seen. south

park episodes here and there but it's not something

i've ever sat down and oh my god i have to either

marathon this or watch a certain set of episodes

or whatever all as i remember is whenever the

episode it was when cartman said knock off all

this tree hug and hippie crap the next day at

school everybody was talking about that episode

and imitating matt or trey or whoever does cartman

uh yeah uh Just that line is stuck in my head

the last 30 whatever years. But no, like Steve

said, I mean, South Park has done everything.

And I don't know if they're still relevant today,

but, you know, hey, legacy, yay. DJ, thoughts

on South Park? I mean, it's probably given me

some of the hardest belly laughs in my life.

To this day, if I see naggers anywhere, I die

laughing because of that episode of Stan on the

Wheel of Fortune. It is what I laugh so hard.

I think I was laughing for about 10 minutes.

I was him. I was like, I think it's this one.

The show, and what Steve was saying about the

turnover rate of the show, it's freakish how

quick they make an episode and how funny it still

is. Usually you make a show, you have that little

thing, fast, good, or cheap, and you can't have

all three. They do all three. For some reason,

they can do fast, good, and cheap because the

animation is very simple, it's very fast, and

it's very good. So yeah, South Park, I had it

in my top 10. It is amazing. It's amazing. what

they do and originally it was you're following

the kids it's like nah i don't really care about

that i care about stan now or butters or it could

just go anywhere and you'll be enthralled think

of a comedy show where it doesn't matter who

the main character is and you're still gonna

love it think about that so yeah all right dan

your thoughts yeah it's interesting like seeing

how that show evolved because when i first oh

you know it started as what like a video christmas

card that they made and it was funny because

the kids were cursing and you know remember the

first like you hear people talking about it it

was like oh it's this edgy show about you know

these kids and it's all about like the the crash

humor a lot of that was what it was to begin

with but it did involve like you know it didn't

really have that you know social commentary the

political leaning at first it evolved into that

if anything it kind of I think the first time

I did it was with the whole Robert Streisand

thing, because it was a reaction to like the

reactions he was giving. And they went, went

from there. Mike mentioned that he wasn't sure

how relevant it is. I think it's still very relevant

because of how angry some, you know, people within

power get mad at it when it doesn't portray them

like they wish it would portray them. So clearly

as some sort of political impact, I had it at,

or I think though, like sometimes people take

it like too far and the sense of like, they,

they like, treat like a South Park, like a source

of like information as if like it's argument

is like, okay, well, South Park said this. So

that's like, as if it's a fact, which is kind

of weird. Like, no, they're, they're, they're

funny, but they're still two white guys from,

you know, from Utah that are now millionaires.

I think their perspective is very specific. I

don't know if they can say everything about everything,

but you know, anyways, it is. I also think it.

able to maintain its quality in a lot of ways

that a lot of shows has lasted as long as South

Park have haven't because it doesn't put out

like 30 episodes. It puts out like three here,

three there. So they're very specific with that.

But yeah, is it as popular as it once was? Probably

not. But we'd even like, you know, that has the

video games and things like that as well. So

seems to at least maintained in some ways. It's

one of those series that I actually avoided when

it first came out. It was probably one of the

first shows that I remember there being watch

parties for. As far as like in my world, because

I'm in high school during when this debuted and

they're literally like all of the people in my

school would get together on whatever night it

was. I don't know, Wednesday nights or something

and watch South Park together when there was

new episodes. I don't remember that being a thing

like that before that. I saw that later on in

more adult shows that weren't animated and things

of that nature, but I'd never seen it from an

animated show where there was watch parties.

Unfortunately, the people that it was popular

with when I was in high school was a crowd that

I despised, so I kind of stayed away from it

for a while. It was the biggest douchebags in

school that were all about South Park. I just

was like, oh, it's just something like Beavis

and Butthead. I hadn't watched it or whatever.

I was a teenager and a dumb. And then I remember

going and seeing the movie. I don't know why

or how or whatever, but I saw the movie and it

was like, oh, wait, this is not at all what I

had pictured in my head when a bunch of dummies

from school were apparently enjoying this because

this is way more intelligently written than they

probably didn't even get half the jokes, but

it was popular for them, I guess. But I don't

know of many shows that were written. in the

comedy world more intelligently than south park

and and the movie kind of turned me on to it

and i haven't watched like a billion episodes

or whatever but all the episodes i've i've watched

i've enjoyed i like everybody i feel like another

thing like with south park is everybody remembers

specific episodes like whatever that might be

and like for me there was one on that was kind

of making fun of uh motorcycles and people that

ride motorcycles um and like i found that absolutely

hilarious and Um, but I think we all have an

episode like that, that we think of. So that's

why I had it at number three and I'm happy. It

comes in in the top 10, just like it did 15 years

ago, just off one spot. So, all right, let's

see where we go next. All right. Coming in next

two more people's number one, Greg Airbar, one

of the cartoon historians and my number one,

uh, is coming right here at number eight. This

was the first animated primetime television hit.

Proved animation could succeed in a mainstream

family sitcom format. Influence on television

history extends far beyond animation. I obviously

view cultural impact and animation impact and

television impact and historical impact, all

that kind of stuff, very highly. That's why this

was my number one overall. We're talking about

1960s Hanna -Barbera, ABC classic, The Flintstones.

So I just... I think this paved the way for a

lot of stuff that would come later. And for me,

it does still have a balance of not only the

impact, but the actual merit from an artistic

standpoint or from a creative standpoint. I still

think it does. Maybe some would argue that it

doesn't, but I think it has a nice blend of both

of those elements. It was on nine of the nine

lists that we looked at. And like I said, it

was the first animated primetime television hit.

So Flintstones is easy for me. It was number

one on my list. It comes in number eight here.

Interesting. Last time we did this list 15 years

ago, we had Flintstones at nine and South Park

at eight. This time we have South Park at nine

and Flintstones at eight. So that's how we're

doing it this time. So Dan, what do you think

about the Flintstones? I had Flintstones at 13,

so I'm right there with you, but I think it certainly

has argument for being in top 10. Like you mentioned

it. It does really hold up in the sense of quality

of it. The animation is strong. It too has actually,

I think, you may not realize it at the time,

but certainly has some commentary to it. Also

clearly inspired by things like the Honeymooners,

building upon that as a framework, but doing

it in a completely different world. I still use...

Flintstones gifts all the time at work, you know,

anytime it's Friday, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm pulling

out the, you know, Fred going down the dinosaur.

Cause like, who doesn't love that? So, and I

think it has maintained in some ways and odd

ways. Like there's, there was a great comic by

Mark Russell and CPU from DC, the Flintstones,

which looks different. And people may look at

the art style. I'm like, that looks really weird.

And then it's different art style, but it's legitimately,

you want to see. like some of the best social

commentary within anything. It's, it's that book

and it's taking, you know, what the Flintstones

had and kind of modernizing it or updating it

or having it exist that same time, but for today's

audience and in a very effective way, but that

would not work without the show being what it

was at that time. So yeah, it's great. DJ also,

I didn't mention, but a legendary voice cast

here, Mel Blanc, Dodds Butler. Don Messick, John

Stevenson, Gene Vanderpile, Faye Benadryt, a

lot of just legendary voice actors as well. What

is your thoughts on the Flintstones? Back in

the day, we had the USA Network and they had

this show called Calliope. It was like all their

animated block and Flintstones was there. Captain

Caveman was there. Flintstones was kind of like,

you know, you're building blocks of all cartoons

for me. So, I mean, not saying that I loved it.

Like, I think I had number top 50, I believe.

But it's like one of those things you have to

watch. You have seen. I grew up with this. I

sat my sister down in front of this. You will

have taste. Damn it. So, you know, these are

the things that you. It's a building block of

learning about animation style. And you can have

cartoons like this. it's kind of like a predecessor

to the simpsons a little bit so uh in terms of

got this zany concept but uh they they're they're

hitting vibes that are a little bit like too

smart for kids or this or not too smart for kids

but not entirely for kids i would say so yeah

flintstones is it's groundbreaking has been thrown

out a bunch of times but this is literally groundbreaking

and boy Halle Berry was in the movie. So, I mean,

always a plus there. Great theme song as well.

Steve, what do you think about the Flintstones?

I think that this is a pretty solid choice. I

mean, everybody grew up with this show. The voice

cast is great. The animation is still fun and

still holds up. The dynamics, the behavior of...

of fred and uh barney and their whole friendship

and how fred's always you know you can kind of

i mean they're all pretty easy to guess their

personalities and how they're going to act in

episode to episode but uh it's still entertaining

to see how they're going to screw something up

and then how they have to recover from it um

so i i think that it's a pretty solid pick and

i i like the fact that it kind of one -upped

south park this time so it's it's deserving it's

it's 100 deserving it's on 33 of the 44 lists

mike final words on the flintstones oh the flintstones

yeah but ever do this uh summer fall at some

point i've had this plan forever Optimus Solo

and I are going to be doing Flintstone Fridays

on ToonCast, where we actually rewatch the whole

series. So, yeah, because we've never done that

before. But yeah, no, the Flintstones, absolutely

love the Flintstones. I think it's a tie between

Dino and Bam Bam for my favorite characters when

I was a kid. Barney, man. Barney Rebel, bro.

I was always a Barney Rebel fan. I was, but...

I mean, bam, bam, man. He just bam, bam. Like,

that's all he's got. That's all he needs. Another

show that obviously had a bunch of different

things spawn off of it and other Flintstones

kids and the Flintstone movie and everything

like that. So that is our number eight. Let's

see where we go next. Seven. Their defenses are

broken. Let the slaughter begin. May have some

debate on this one. It was on six of the nine

lists that we looked at. One of the most influential

and enduring franchises in animation history.

The cartoon helped launch a global phenomenon

that continues to thrive across multiple generations

and media formats. We've had a bunch of them

as far as 80s action cartoons. And this one was

number three 15 years ago. It drops to number

seven this time. This is the 1984. Transformers.

So Transformers here at number seven. Like I

said, it was number three last time, so it dropped

a few spots. It was on 32 of the 44 lists. Like

I said, six of the nine reference lists. So that's

the order that we go. We have G .I. Joe way back

at 28, then Thundercats, He -Man, then Turtles,

and now Transformers. Dan, you weren't a fan

of He -Man or Turtles being in the top 25. I'm

guessing that is the same for Transformers. I'm

going to make enemies. I don't want to say anything.

I'm going to make me an enemy. Be careful. I

absolutely love and adore the Transformer comics.

They're really great. It's currently right now.

It's been amazing. The Energon universe overall

is fantastic. And yeah, so this is this number.

So go everybody else. Yeah, I like I said, I

didn't I miss Transformers as a kid. I did like

Beast Wars. And so I just going back to it, I

couldn't get into it as much as everyone else.

But I'm not really the I don't think I wasn't

wasn't there at the time. So I can't really speak

to that because as someone who came in after,

I just couldn't really enjoy it like everyone

else seemed to. Oh, no problem with that. I feel

like Transformer comics. So if that gives me

anything, I'm big. That'll keep the people good.

At least so. It was a couple people's number

one, including one person on the panel. So, DJ,

why don't you go next? I was raised by Optimus

Prime. My first toy was Optimus Prime. I cried

in a movie theater when Optimus Prime died. This

is like DNA. If you split me open, you'd find

Energon. No, you wouldn't. That'd be really creepy

if I had some glowing pink stuff inside of me.

But no, it's Transformers, man. What was cooler

than an animal that turns into a robot? A car

that turns into a robot. A jet. turns into a

submarine a spaceship that turns into a robot

and starts talking to you and and then it gives

you a suit you turn into a robot it's it's i

i dna of me transformers it's my number one it

will always be my number one because it was the

one i i would say it's the first cartoon where

i was addicted to like i mean teenage mutant

turtles was like a phenomenon you know but transformers

is like no i must know more I must read more.

This is not enough. I have to branch out and

read the books and study the wiki page and all

this other stuff. To this day, when I watch the

Michael Bay movies, I cringe inside. Not because

they're just solely bad. It's just like, oh,

it's like watching somebody beat up somebody

you love and you can't do anything about it because

it was a part of me. Yeah, Transformers. And

it taught me so many lessons. Good versus evil.

Might versus, you know, might and right. There's

so many cartoons and everybody has their one

that taught them everything. And mine's always

been Transformers to this day. And the animation,

there was nothing like it. Again, we've said

that about some other stuff too, but when you

tell eight -year -old DJ, hey, see that truck

over there? It's going to change into a robot

and then have the voice of a god start talking

to you. And then his hands are going to disappear

and turn into an orange battle axe and fight

a gun that turned into an evil. Why? Why have

you given me such beautiful things? So yes, Transformers

will always be number one. I love this show.

It reaches the peak of cultural significance

and goodness and quality i guess i would say

so yes transformers will always be my number

one i fight me fight me in the streets i don't

care it was the uh two things it was the first

show that i ever searched out tv guide listings

to try to find where else it was airing after

its original air date like i was searching for

like you know was it on the sci -fi channel or

was it whatever and i actually woke up i never

did this ever because i don't do this i don't

wake up earlier than i have to but there was

a time where i found it airing on the sci -fi

network at like 6 a .m or something and for a

good period of time was waking up an hour earlier

than i needed to before school so i could catch

reruns of this this is obviously pre -streaming

and pre -internet type stuff and all that other

jazz but i did the youtube channel that displays

them in the loop yeah right and it also was one

of the first uh thing i know this isn't the series

is the toy line but after the g1 toys had no

longer you know they weren't on shelves etc i

would still every time we went into like a kmart

or you know not necessarily your walmart or targets

but like your your kmarts or your other like

budget retail type stuff like would still search

out to see because my my young self thought that

there was a chance that i may still find one

somewhere on a shelf um and i was still looking

for them but uh dan if it helps you you ranked

Transformers higher than Mike did. You had it

around, I think, 75 -ish, and Mike had it in

his 80s, even though his name on social media

is TFG1Mike. He did not rank this in his top

80. Send hate mail to Mike, not me. I'm aiming

the gun away from you, Dan. Mike, defend yourself.

Look. I knew it was going to be up here. I knew

it was going to be in the top 10. I knew I didn't

need to boost it. Oh, I knew. No, no, no. I knew.

I already knew because I didn't want to. I didn't

want us to get the. Oh, my God. You had it at

number three again. How dare you people have

this cartoon at number three again? I knew it

was going to be in the top 10. My thing this

time around, 15 years later, which I didn't even

succeed at considering it got in at 27, which

it didn't even hit at 16 like it did 15 years

ago. I needed to get Batman Beyond higher this

time around. Oh, you failed, my friend. And because

you failed, Transformers is not number one. You

have nothing to blame. No one to blame but yourself.

Yeah, but Transformers was never going to be

number one. We knew Transformers was never going

to be number one. Never say never. It was Bond.

For those wanting to come after us, Mike didn't

have it in his top 80s. Steve didn't have it

in his top 30, so it wasn't us. It wasn't us

this time. It still got in the top 10. It doesn't

matter. There's no need to yell, Mike. There's

no need to yell. send all hate mail Mike said

it was the worst cartoon show he's ever seen

everybody heard that right what the hell I said

shut up he said it was the worst thing he's ever

witnessed with his own two eyes is that what

he just said stop saying stuff like that Mike

people can hear you Steve final thoughts on Transformers

so I wait a minute I didn't even get to go you

were yelling too much you've done enough Mike

you fuck Yeah, the show, this show, I would rank

like I enjoyed the original movie, even though

they completely ruined it by killing all the

original cast. I love all of the now the studio

series figures that have come out of this so

that I can own a part of the animation, basically.

But the original show was just. I don't know,

fun, like even though some of the episodes were

crap and then some of them like. It wasn't like

my favorite animated series, but I enjoyed it

more than like G .I. Joe or Thundercats or some

of those from the 80s. I would say it's probably

one of my favorite like action cartoons from

the 80s. But I caught it on reruns, obviously,

in the 90s and. uh not that g2 crap i caught

it on like the sci -fi channels cartoon express

um years later around the same time i was watching

beast wars and so when i was getting engrossed

into beast wars as it was airing new uh i was

able to catch g1 and g1 had Like it was just

a whole nother world. I was like, oh, there's

other Transformers stuff. And I started getting

more interested in it. And I started running

this stuff at the video store. And then I, you

know, I saw the 86 movie. And then, I mean, it

kind of snowballed. And I was like, oh, there's

so many awesome things. Like, oh, there's vehicles

that transform. And then we had, you know, it

of course started my collecting process between

Beast Wars and G1. and we had you know local

comic shops that had these old transformer toys

and i was able to own some of them and so this

has been like one of those series that that's

kind of resonated with me over the years uh we

had a stellar voice cast some of them you know

are still playing the characters in various degrees

um or have in recent years um but I just feel

like this is this has got a pretty solid voice

cast, even if the show's not always firing on

all cylinders because we've had other shows that

have been better. I feel like Beast Wars is like

the definitive Transformers series in the sense

of like writing and voice acting and kind of

continuity. But G1 is is probably my favorite

as far as watching. If I was going to pick up

random episodes like I don't feel like I have

to. oh, I need to watch these other eight episodes

to understand what's going on, like any of the

modern Transformers shows. So in that regard,

I feel like this still resonates, and I'm glad

it didn't hit number three this time. I still

think there may have been some other stronger

contenders, but if you're going to have a Transformers

show in the top ten, I feel like it's this or

Beast Wars, and so I'm not unhappy about it.

Let's see. What comes up next? Six. Don't y 'all

leave now. The fun just started. Previously on

X -Men. All right. I'm going to do my thing.

I'm going to read it and let you guess. Revolutionized

superhero animation by embracing serialized storytelling,

mature themes, and comic book continuity remains

one of the most influential superhero cartoons

ever made. This is the only show in our top nine

that was not somebody's number one. And this

is X -Men, the animated series from 1992. It

was on seven of the list, but nominated for a

couple awards. It actually climbed up the rankings.

It was 11, 15 years ago. Ends at number six,

this time around. Steve, we ended with you last

time. We'll start with you here. What do you

think about X -Men, the animated series coming

in at number six? I love the voice cast. I loved

the theme. The theme was like the one thing that

would get you jazzed into the show, ready to

go. And the fact that it's so popular, it spawned

a revival in X -Men 97. That's fantastic. I love

the voice cast in this. My favorite character

was always Wolverine in this. That was my favorite

one to watch in here. Cal Dodd does an awesome

job playing the character. I didn't watch later

on as it was finishing out. But I did catch the

early years of this, like the first three or

four years of the animated series. And what I

remember about it was great. And it was very

gritty and had a lot of interesting characters

that showed up outside of the X -Men. And then

a lot that I was just like, I don't know who

this is. I don't know who this is. uh but i still

watched it anyway just because it was enough

to get me uh very interested in the uh the storyline

so i i think that this is this is deserving and

um i i think that it's also interesting that

it made the top 10 this time but i think it has

to do with the fact the revival yeah i could

see that as well dan what do you think The X

-Men cartoon is probably a big reason I'm even

doing this show right now, because it got me

into kind of the world of geek culture. Being

correspondent to the X -Men comics at the time,

the Jim Lee X -Men comics, it was a huge revolution.

It was my introduction, like Spider -Man, into

the Marvel Universe, but specifically the X -Men

world. There were some, like... They did play

fast and loose and hint at some other characters

that maybe legally they weren't supposed to.

So that was great. And you mentioned serialized

storytelling. That was something that wasn't

really popular before this to this length. And

you mentioned with the Justice League, like,

why can't they just do that in movie form? And

in a lot of ways, this still has given us some

of the best adaptation of some of the most classic

X -Men stories. Like when it comes to the adaptation

of the Phoenix Saga. We've seen that try to be

done in film twice now, not nearly as successful

as the comic. But again, has the benefit of the

fact that you have five episodes and inbuilt

upon previous history. But again, it showed you

it could possibly be done if there is one knock

against it. I would say it does become a victim

of the Marvel bankruptcy. And like the last season,

the animation goes downhill and a lot of ways

to cut costs. So that's, you know, that certain

element to it. And I don't know, you know, I'm

again, not making a lot of friends here, but

I don't know if it like, again, this is a huge

part of my childhood, but is it the best X -Men

comic or cartoon? And I don't perhaps, but I

think there's a lot of, I love about Wolverine

and the X -Men as well. And I think that has

some decent competition too. But again, it's

interesting. It's this high. Steve makes a good

point. Maybe it is the people were kind of combining

this with the, the revival and just putting it

all together to give it that extra boost, which

I could understand for sure. But I don't know.

It's, it is, but just like justice league though,

we gave specific instructions to split them apart.

Like we told people always follow instructions.

Well, no, but I'm saying, I'm talking about just

when people in their head, like when they're

bringing it together or just like, or maybe they

revisited that show and it, you know, helps spark

that interest or like what Steve was mentioning.

I'm not sure. But again, I don't know if I would,

is it one of the top 10 greatest animated TV

shows of all time? I would, I would say no, I

don't, I don't think so. I think it has its place

top 50 for sure. Top 25. I think it has that

argument, but I don't know. Like it, I don't

think it. has the consistency uh because of like

not things of its own accord like it unfortunately

was you know it became a victim of other issues

maybe even had that opportunity like we're seeing

now with the 97 show but it could do what it

wanted to do it was even better um but yeah i

mean i glad it made the list but i would not

have put it aside personally it was like 32 for

me um it was actually 36 for me So we're right

in lockstep there. Dan, Mike, what do you think

about X -Men, the animated series? Where did

I put it? I don't remember. I would have to get

back to you. All right, we'll get back to me.

X -Men 92. Here's the thing. Looking at our top

five with what we don't have revealed yet, looking

at the rest of the list, I would say that with

the ambition that X -Men, the animated series

was launching Fox kids back then. I think it's

worthy for being where it is compared to the

rest of the list. We have now talking about X

-Men, the animated series in general, I think

personally looking, cause I'm actually looking

at the entirety of the show on Wikipedia, the

episode list here, the problem that X -Men, the

animated series had was that final season. The

only thing that final season had that was good

was graduation day. Because here's the thing.

When I was a kid, from 1995 to 1997, all as I

knew of X -Men, the animated series, is when

season four ended with Beyond Good and Evil,

parts one through four. This was the big apocalypse

cable, that whole saga thing. That's what I knew

of the end of this show. I thought at the end

of Beyond Good and Evil Part 4, the end and beginning,

that was the end of the series for me. I knew

nothing about Season 5. And then all of a sudden,

on September 20th, 1997, I saw Graduation Day.

I did not see any of the other Season 5 episodes

at all. when they aired and I was watching TV

back then. So for me, where this series ended

was that final big arc. And that was awesome

at the time, as far as the rest of the series

goes in, in the continuity of what they adapted

into it. Amazing storytelling, amazing animation,

the voice acting top notch. Steve already mentioned.

Cal Dodd as Wolverine. Absolutely love him. Absolutely

amazing. The rest of the cast, just top -notch,

honestly. They really, really are, yes. None

of us had it rated this high. Dan just said he

had it in his 30s. I had it 36 -ish. uh mike

you had it 21 or somewhere around there i think

dj had about 31 steve had about 18 so none of

us quite had it you know top six necessarily

but that's kind of we all had it in uh 40 so

okay yeah i mean i this is x -men the animated

series is a show that for the first four seasons

is great storytelling it brings you in it's storytelling

at its best i think for the marvel universe and

dan you're right wolverine and the steve you're

right wolverine and the x -men is also great

storytelling i think the difference is animation

style obviously i think that's really my only

difference between the two series is like i love

steve bloom as wolverine absolutely love him

i actually in whichever promo it is that i when

we interviewed steve bloom whichever promo it

is i actually have him saying you're listening

to the geek cast radio network snicked like i

i i got him to say that for us so you know but

this series it just like he man of the masters

universe just like transformers generation one

it walked so everything else after it could run

dj final thoughts on next one oh no you guys

pretty much hit everything i was thinking i mean

i had a 32 so i'm i'm i think i have the revival

above it because again just like mike just said

it walks while other things can run revival essentially

is just an amped up version of the show that

i watched in the 90s so And Gambit was my favorite

character, mainly because he was the coolest

character for me. Wolverine was there, too. And

the revival is making me like all the other characters

and make me go back and watch the original. Oh,

no, they were always cool. I just didn't. For

some reason, I was blinded by Gambit Wolverine

glasses and Storm was always cool. I just never

I was just so. So, yeah. So this show in terms

of. People who are, like, comic book fans, this

is just good. If you're a comic book fan and

you're watching, you get these shows. It's...

Go ahead, I'm sorry. Oh, the man. No, finish

your thought. I'll say it after. No, I was just

saying, like, with Spider -Man and this, when

you read comic books growing up and you get these

kind of shows, it's like, oh, wow. It's always

good when you see somebody take your stuff serious.

And one thing you can say about X -Men anime

series is that they took it serious. and not

be the greatest animation as it went on, but

it weren't like, uh, limbing up on the writing.

They were, they were trying to at least do the

comic book justice, which I got from the show.

And I think by that fifth season, I think the

money probably was running out. I think that's

why it kind of dwindled. And I think that was

the problem. Hence why I said, I always felt

that season four beyond good and evil was the

end, but man, 97. They don't slap. They don't

slim on those promos. We're back, baby. I'm like,

when he said that, I'm like, damn, I first can't

get here soon enough. It means it's time for

our top five. 12 million. No, 20. All right,

15. 20. 17's my final offer. All right, starting

off our top five, this show was ranked by 33

of the 44 folks. It was ranked number one by

two of them. It was on seven of the nine lists

that we looked at. Transformed expectations for

television animation, production values, and

adventure storytelling. It helped establish this

channel as a dominant force in TV animation.

became one of the most beloved children's series

ever produced, and may possibly have one of the

best theme songs of all time. Coming in at number

five, 1987's Duck Tales. My daughter made me

play this on repeat. Probably 19 times in a row

after the first time she heard it when we were

getting ready to drop her off for school. She

was like, no, play it again, please. Play it

again, please. And by the end of it, she had

it down. She had all the words down. So DuckTales,

I didn't have it quite this high. I had it number

22, but it was ranked 5 15 years ago. It's ranked

5 this time. So it has not changed at all. DJ,

start us off with DuckTales. What do you think

of it? And is it worthy of the number five spot

that we've given it both times? I mean, of all

of this, I mean, we were talking about doing

a show about theme music of all the theme musics

that slap the hardest. Yes, we're using slap

again, baby. DuckTales song slap. It'll slap.

It kicks, it slaps, it punches, it spits, it's

violent. It's a bop. It's a bop. Best theme song

in Disney history to this day. I think when they

did the remake, did they change the theme song?

No, they used a female singer. No, but they still

changed it a little. It feels the same, but it's

slightly different. How would you change perfection?

It's not bad. It's not bad, but I have the Mona

Lisa here, and I'm going to try and recreate

the Mona Lisa. Why would you make her look different?

It's perfect. This song is perfect. And you've

got to understand, it's eating out, for me, Tailspin,

which is even an awesome song by the DuckTales.

Okay, I'm talking about the song. Anyway, the

show is great. I used to be, when I was a little

kid, watching Disney and stuff like that. I didn't

like Donald Duck, really. I was a Mickey and

Goofy guy. And then they introduced Uncle Scrooge

to me on this show, and I was like, this... Real

cool. Get Uncle Donald out of here. I want Uncle

Scrooge. He's got a money pit. He's got a lucky

dime. He's got Flithard Glumkos. He's got a whole

bunch of crazy eagle boys chasing him out. This

guy's life makes Donald be like in the Navy,

just bored out of his mind. Meanwhile, Scrooge

McDuck is doing Indiana Jones style adventures.

Week after week, he's 83 years old. He's like

an old man. He's running around, saving the day.

He has Launchpad McQuack. It's such a good show.

It's such a good show. And again, here's Mo Duck,

man. And it spawned many shows after it. So yeah,

it's the atlas of the Disney afternoon. It's

the, whatchamacallit, just holding up the whole

thing. It's the center. The center will hold.

There's certain sounds and certain things that

will just instantaneously take me back to a specific

time in my life. For some reason, the introduction

to GoBots does that. The theme music to that.

Not that I was a fan of that series, but the

intro takes me back to that specific time. Hearing

Huey, Dewey, and Louie talk takes me back. Hearing

the original voice of those characters takes

me back instantly to when DuckTales was airing.

It just transports me in time. Dan, what do you

think of DuckTales? Yeah, I mean, also, I do

love DuckTales. I made a joke before regarding

how, you know, it took ideas from people like

Carl Banks, which it did. Like, it is heavily

influenced by Carl Banks' infamous, like, Uncle

Scrooge comics. It does go in a very different

direction. They're not very, like, referrals

aren't one for one, but it is heavily inspired

by his Uncle Scrooge books, which are legitimately

some of the best adventure comics ever written.

If you love DuckTales, highly advise going back

and checking his stuff out, Don Rosa's stuff

as well. Don't ever say DuckTales around Don

Rosa, though. He's not a fan for a lot of reasons.

But the show itself, I think it does represent

that world. And then, again, talking about spin

-offs, it has a pretty impressive character list,

too. Different characters that show up, some

great villains. And I didn't even realize that.

It has still a pretty big cultural footprint.

We're talking about the revivals or whatever,

but also last year we had three ongoing DuckTales

slash Uncle Scrooge comics. Dynamite had a DuckTales

book, Fantagraphics had an Uncle Scrooge book,

and Marvel had an Uncle Scrooge book. I don't

think any of those exist to that extent without

DuckTales because it was a lot of people's avenue

into it. I'm a bit shocked that it is so much

higher. I'm assuming there's no other Disney

afternoon shows than a lot of the other Disney

aftershooting. Like it is seen as like the best

of the best of that. Like it does make sense.

I do agree with it. Um, but, and also great.

And it's an NES game as well. So going down the,

uh, going down the Disney afternoon of what we

ranked, we have gummy bears was at 95. And then

we went to Tailspin at 55. Then we had Darkwing

Duck at 30. And then obviously we had Gargoyles

at 17, Rescue Rangers 15, and now DuckTales at

five. So that was the order that we put them

in. Steve, thoughts on DuckTales? Love this theme

song. This is like... This is one of those ones

I jam out to with kids. I have cartoon theme

songs that I'll play in the car. And this is

one of the few that I let it play all the way

through. And I force my kids to listen to it.

And they actually find the show enjoyable. And

they're like, this is a good theme. And I was

like, see? I have DuckTales and Gummy Bears both

in my top five for theme song. Just for whatever

that's worth. Steve, anything else? Or should

I pass it to Mike? No, I mean, I love this show.

This show's great. So I have nothing else. Mike?

Yeah, DuckTales is awesome. It just is. It's

so good. It's just amazing. I remember watching

this all the time as a kid. The theme song is

great. And just the sheer amount of characters

that come out of this show. Oh, God. like i mentioned

earlier gizmoduck in fact not even darkwing darkwing

doesn't even really come out of this show launchpad

launchpad goes over comes out of this show and

goes over to darkwing and then you have all of

that and it's like oh my god and then just but

yeah no huey dewey and louis being dropped off

and yeah kev you're right it's like okay Donald

is dropping off his nephews at Uncle Scrooge's

house. And it's like, okay, Donald. I love Donald.

It's kind of like Toca and Rezar. In smaller

doses, but not through future mutants at this

point. I like Donald in small doses. He's okay

in small doses. But no, DuckTales, absolutely

awesome. i could not get into the 27 i'll have

to 2017 uh reboot i'll i'll no i know i'll have

to give it a shot yeah i'll have to give it a

shot but i i i couldn't get past and i know this

is so silly i couldn't get past the theme song

because it's not um i know this is so stupid

it's not a male singer It's not the fact that

they changed some things in the song. I don't

remember the song. That's how I know it wasn't

good because I've seen that show. I don't remember

it at all. All right. I think that show gave

us one of the best interview moments ever, though,

on Larry King. So there's that. I'm on duct tape,

Larry. Number four coming up next here. Let's

see. Four. All right, kiddies. Let's see what

your drawings say about you. Dot. I drew a picture

of the Eiffel Tower in Italy. But there is no

Eiffel Tower in Italy. Exactly. Yakko, what have

you drawn? It's a cow eating grass. But where

is the grass? The cow ate it. But where is the

cow? Well, he's not going to stick around if

there's no more grass to eat. Let's see yours,

Yakko. It's a cartoon. There's nothing there.

That's not a cartoon. Sure it is. It just hasn't

started yet. All right, another show. All the

shows from here on out are on somebody's number

one. This one only appeared on one person's number

one, but it was on eight of the nine reference

lists. It was on 36 of the 44 lists, so only

eight people left this show off of their list.

The show blended educational content, satire,

pop cultural references, and classic cartoon

energy into one of the smartest children's shows

ever made. Its influence on comedy writing and

television animation remains. They guess on number

four. Maybe consider the crown jewel of the Warner

Brothers animation. 1993 is Animaniacs coming

in here at number four. It was number seven 15

years ago. It's climbed three spots to number

four. Another WB show. Another Fox kids show.

I had this one ranked at number 11. It comes

in here at number four. To me, I love Pinky and

the Brain, but Animaniacs is where it was for

me. The combination of Tom Ruger, Rob Paulson,

everybody. Tom Ruger, Rob Paulson, Chris McNeil,

Maurice Lamarche, Jess Harnell. It's so good.

The songs, Yakko's World, and all the different

things. phenomenal intelligently written comedy

so like i have no problem with it being here

in our top 10 since i had it at number 11 um

mike why don't you start this one off what do

you quickly think about animaniacs oh my god

animaniacs nowadays i feel so great about animaniacs

in 1993 when i was 13 i loathed this show i did

not understand at that time what this show was

uh Just personally, and I've talked about this

before on air, I was in a shelter house at the

time. I was in a YMCA shelter house, and the

lead staff member, who unfortunately was named

Kevin at the time, he loved this show. He would

show it to us all the time, and I just didn't

understand that. Fast forward all these years

later. I have loved this show. I don't know.

I don't know when I initially found the enjoyment

of it, but just absolutely love the show. The

humor is great. Uh, just the writing, the comedy,

the, just everything about it. Absolutely. The

voice acting is amazing. We have interviewed

so many people from this show on the geek cast

radio network, Rob Paulson, a couple of times,

Maurice Lamarche once that, um, uh, Nearly drove

me insane and got me into a mental institution.

If you know that story, you know that story.

Tom Ruger, Jess Harnell. Animaniacs was so cool.

And the reason why it was so cool is because

it was a cartoon variety show between the Warner

Brothers and the Warner Sister and Skippy and

Slappy Squirrel and just everybody. This is just

so fun. Pinky and the brain. Oh, my God. That

Orson Welles thing. In July, podcasts grow there.

Obviously, that's not what he said. He says peas

grow there in July. In July. Why am I focusing

on in July? Oh, my God. That whole thing is just

absolutely hilarious. Anything Pinky and the

brain did was so fun. And yeah, just. Seeing

Maurice LaMarche and Rob Paulson work off of

each other is always such an amazing, amazing

thing. Absolutely love Animaniacs. Steve, your

thoughts? This has some of the greatest music

that's educational ever. My kids were like, when

I started playing those, because I would play

those at the same time I play the theme songs,

my boys would be like... Is that actually? And

I was like, oh, yeah. Yeah, that's that's if

you want to learn your, you know, states and

capitals. This is the song, man. And then the

countries of the world is interesting, even though

it's outdated now, it's still fun to hear even

the more up to date versions of it. But there's

so many there's so many fun songs and antics

on this show. I didn't love the revival on Hulu,

but the original stuff. uh, including the, uh,

uh, chicken boo and pinky in the brain and, uh,

the, the good feathers and, uh, good idea, bad

idea. Like all of that stuff was just so much

fun to watch. DJ, we got the, what many would

say was the crown jewel of the Disney afternoon

with DuckTales. And then maybe the crown jewel

of the Warner brother animation Renaissance with

Animaniacs. I know you said pinky in the brain

was more your thing. So what are your thoughts

here? I did like the songs about the countries

in this capitals. And that's kind of where my

love for Animaniacs died. I'm in the minority.

I know everybody loves Animaniacs. It kind of

annoyed me a little bit, but I get it. I understand.

For once, somebody else can get the hate. Yeah,

they can point the gun at me this time. I'm right

here. I'm right here. But no, I know people love

Animaniacs. Everything I mentioned, what I got

out of it, I love Pinky and a Brain because I'm

John Orson Welles. uh and the song with the country

i thought that was clever when they're like doing

just regular like stuff not singing i i didn't

like them fair enough i like people around them

it's not them yeah i used to give extra credit

and when i was teaching for anybody that could

memorize the countries of the world and it's

not in class i i love the song i could never

memorize it's so long come on dj you know you

love wali lama I did not like that. Come on,

you know you love Wally Llama. All right, Mike,

calm down. Dan, take us home on Animaniacs real

quick. It somehow introduced me to one of my

favorite movies of all time and didn't even know

it at the time with Good Feathers. And as mentioned,

there are a lot of bits within that that work

out of context, like the good idea, bad idea.

be able to move from you know transition from

one cartoon to the next was done really well

too so uh yeah it i mean i think it did it it

took what tiny tunes had and went even further

with it and you're talking about adult jokes

like there were so many within that going back

and you really realize how a lot much dirtier

that the comedy was in that show than you realize

when you're a kid so i remember the best joke

they ever did Fingerprints? No, not on this show.

Good night, everybody. All right, so that leaves

only three spots left. Three. You smug son of

a... We have 18 people's number ones still to

go. We have three shows left to reveal. So we

are going to start with one that was on nine

people's. Number one overall. Nine people's number

one overall. It was on eight of the nine lists

that we looked at. It has 34 of the 44 lists.

It was number four 15 years ago. Yeah, 15 years

ago it has climbed one spot to number three this

time. One of the foundational pillars of animation

itself. Characters help define animated comedy

for generations. Influence on timing, character

animation, humor, and popular culture is almost

immeasurable we are talking about looney tunes

here at number three like i said it was number

four 15 years ago it's number three here everybody

knows looney tunes so we probably don't need

to go too long on this but uh mike real quick

uh looney tunes number three how do you feel

duck season i'm duck season bro i'm duck season

all day rabbit season duck season rabbits look

it everything they did everything they did it

didn't matter what they did everything they did

was golden i it just every little thing i literally

just bought and it's a little too early for halloween

i just bought quack busters on blu -ray a couple

of months ago uh steve what are your thoughts

on looney tunes yeah what's up there uh I don't

know. My favorite character was Bugs Bunny as

a kid on Looney Tunes and Daffy. I love this

cartoon. It seems to be timeless. Even if you're

watching some of the really old stuff, if you

can still find some of it, that is. You can find

a lot of it. You can still find a lot of it,

but I'm sure there's some that are censored or

have something written on them now. Physical

media is the best way to find all of it. pretty

much I agree no I'm saying it's they're re -releasing

a lot of the stuff it's good but yeah I mean

I think that this is one of those series that

seems to be timeless and kind of has transcended

time that everybody's heard of it at some point

or seen something from it and it It's like this

multi -generational show that seems to keep on

living and it still stands the test of time.

I had it ranked at number four and it came in

here at number three. So I guess that's fine

by me. I had it in my top ten. DJ, what do you

think of Looney Tunes being number three? We're

talking about shows that I appreciate that come

out and get canceled and come back. uh coyote

versus acme anyone that was so bad i mean it's

so good that they canceled it because they wanted

to save money and the uproar was so large they

said screw it we won't get the tax write -off

we want to release it because it was so good

and this is a movie about the coyote suing acme

yeah yeah i mean you want to talk about litany

of characters i was daffy all day but uh marvin

and marsh i mean everybody it's it's it's right

there with the flintstones as like one of the

pillars of of animation so and let's talk about

jokes steve was touching on that aren't for children

oh boy oh yeah so yeah i don't know what they're

gonna do that in coyote for zach me i highly

highly doubt it but uh uh yeah it's it's it's

great man timeless non -sequitur shows that don't

ever connect with anything. You could just fall

back. I mean, there's episodes where Bugs Bunny's

fighting in a boxing ring that had nothing to

do with Daffy Duck trying to shoot him with a

shotgun. It's all over the place, but they're

always enjoyable. You can put them on now, and

they still hold up. That's what makes me excited,

this Coyote vs. Acme movie, for them to do that.

That was a lot of money they gave up to re -release,

to not shelve it like Batgirl did. The fact that

they're doing that, it must be good. It must

be good. They said, we don't want the money.

We'll release it. What the hell? For them to

do that, that shows the power they think this

property is the last. Dan, final word on Looney

Tunes. My only struggle with Looney Tunes is

considering a lot of it originated as short movie

shorts first. It's like, where does the movie...

Is it a bit unfair? I still ranked it in my top

10 because they were still original content and

still the ability to make something like that

and still be able to put it on TV literally generations

later and it still worked out. And yeah, I am

interested in the upcoming priority first acting

movie. Last year, though, the Day the Earth Blew

Up was a little bit of an unrated movie. I thought

that was quite good. And considering that was

a pretty big bomb, they must have some faith

in that. in the new film. But if you do like

classic Looney Tunes, I do think The Day the

Earth Blew Up from last year was a good watch.

Plus, this year is the 30th anniversary of Space

Jam. Yep, that is true as well. That was a movie.

Alright, so that means there's only a couple

spots left. I didn't think it was physically

possible, but this both sucks and blows. Unprocessed

fish steaks. Ouch! Watch it, Cody! Oops. So going

from a show that was nine people's number one

to a show that was only on one person's number

one. Interesting how that worked out, but it

was on 37 of the 44 lists, so only seven people.

left this one off it was on nine of the nine

reference lists i don't know 160 plus awards

total uh obviously it'll give away the number

one when i reveal the number two but for number

two we're going to 1989's the simpsons so the

simpsons it was number two 15 years ago it's

number two this time as well um i mean what else

is there to say about the simpsons it's approaching

800 episodes probably sometime soon and it is

transformed both animation and television legitimized

primetime animated sitcoms influenced generations

of writers and creators probably one of the most

important television shows ever made regardless

of medium Dan quick thoughts on The Simpsons

I mean obviously The Simpsons is The Simpsons

I think everyone has like a favorite Simpsons

episode also like look at some of the great writers

that helped make the simpsons what it was like

conan o 'brien in a gold i think it has one of

the greatest lines in comedy history uh from

the spoof of planet of the apes i hate every

amp uh i hate every ape i see from champagne

champagne i'm murdering it uh from chimpanzee

like why we wrote comedy after that i don't know

um but yeah and then There were so many references

to things I didn't know were references within,

but still work as jokes by themselves. So I don't,

yeah, it went on for too long, but when I don't

rate Jerry Rice based upon his time with the

Seahawks, I rate him based upon his time with

the 49ers, which is also probably the time when

the Simpsons were at its best as well. Great

analogy. DJ, your quick thoughts on the Simpsons.

It's the Doctor Who of animation. It's been on

forever. It's literally like, it's the news at

this point. It's been on so long. How long has

the news been on? Forever. How long has this

been on? Just as long. Forever. Yeah. Forever.

Every time a movie comes out, like a newer movie

comes out, I listen to a podcast with these three

or four guys and they're very, very, they break

down, their shows are like seven hours long and

they're breaking down the movie from beginning

to end, critiquing it. Very smart gentleman,

like way smarter than me. I like listen to them

from just to hear movie breakdowns. And then

about the third hour, someone will make a Simpsons

reference. These are smart, genius level guys.

And they will devolve into a 10 minute tangent

on some episode of the Simpsons where McBain

shot somebody. So the Simpsons is an institution.

I think that's the word I'm looking for. It is

everyone. It has touched everyone. And so, yeah,

I, the fact that it's still on the air is. not

even amazing anymore it's just like wow all right

what what are we what else can they touch they've

done they've literally done everything they've

had a movie they're about to make another one

i think yeah the simpsons movie too coming soon

yeah yeah it's just like geez man how much territory

are you you've made the foundation you're good

guys you could you could stop anytime right i

think they're gonna stop in 2029 that way it'll

be 40 years exactly years Are they trying to

get to 1 ,000 episodes? Is that what they're

trying to get to? Yeah, I think so. The next

time that the voice actors' contracts are up,

because good Lord, they're expensive at this

point. Mike, quick thoughts on The Simpsons?

Oh, The Simpsons. I remember a time in 1989 when

my then -stepmother thought she heard them curse

on The Simpsons. They didn't, but... She thought

they didn't. She's like, you're not watching

that. That's a horrible show. It wasn't my stepmother

anymore after that. Thank God. So, yeah, no,

I was banned from watching The Simpsons when

I was a kid, when I was with my dad. But anyway,

30 something, 35, almost 40 years later. No,

I love The Simpsons. I'm still actually on my

Simpsons watch through journey. I haven't finished

yet, but. I'm in the middle of writing a whole

bunch of Simpsons stuff up for geekcastradio

.com to see if the show actually does hold up

to 40 years, almost 40 years later. I'm going

season by season kind of thing. But no, the early

seasons I absolutely loved, and I've fallen off

over the years, and I've picked back up, and

I've watched episodes here or there. The characters

are great. I don't know. It's the stories that

I don't know that hold up. So, but no, The Simpsons

number two. Yeah. Just like 15 years ago. I,

like I said before, I think that The Simpsons

deserves to be here just because the epic voice

cast, the longevity of it, everything that kind

of it stood for. I'm not a huge fan of it anymore,

but I can still see it being where it's at. Obviously,

it hasn't changed much in 15 years. So, yeah,

I mean, I'm kind of in agreement with the rest

of the panel here. I had it ranked number two,

and that's where it came out as well. So that

obviously leaves only one spot. Ms. Gordon, I

heard you discovered our little secret. Yes,

I admit it. I am Batman. Boring. Lame. Not funny.

Been done. Too ridiculous. What? I am vengeance.

I am the night. I am Batman. All right. Obviously,

it's probably self -evident of what this is going

to be, but I do think there's some stats here

that I can give you that might shock you. It

did appear on eight of the nine lists that we

looked at. Interesting that Looney Tunes was

on nine people's number ones. Then we went to

Simpsons, who was only on one person's number

one. This one is on eight people's number one.

So it goes back there. But the point difference

here is ridiculous. So He -Man and the Masters

of the Universe started today, and that was at

1712 for points. Just to give you kind of a feel

for where we're going. Then Beast Wars at 20.

We were into the 18s. Gargoyles at 17. We were

in the 19s. Justice League Unlimited at number

14. We were in the 2 ,000 point range. Got up

to the 22 in Justice League, 23 in South Park,

24 Transformers. Then we got to 2 ,600 for both

DuckTales Animaniacs. We got to 2 ,851 for Looney

Tunes, 2 ,896 for The Simpsons. And then a almost

700 point jump to 3 ,517. for batman the animated

series with an average ranking of 7 .45 on 38

of the 44 list this was a absolute blowout so

i've been saying 600 and 620 some point jump

where everything else was like almost the same

spread from 25 to 2 and then a gigantic jump

so Only six people left it off. It was number

one 15 years ago. It's number one again. That

means, Mike, if we roll back the tape from an

earlier episode, you now have to eat your microphone.

You said you were going to eat your microphone

if Simpsons was number two and Batman was number

one. So we will expect a video on YouTube of

that happening sometime here in the future. it

was number two or it was number one on two people

on the countdowns list so we'll start with them

both dan and steve had this as their number one

so dan real quick batman the animated series

number one how do you feel see you're my joke

so i was gonna say like i you know trying to

build it up that i didn't like it like the other

shows and then i get it but but it's okay it's

all right but yeah it was my number one and uh

When making my number one reason and the reason

why, like other shows like X -Men and other shows,

I'm like, I wouldn't put there because I am comparing

it to Batman, the animated series and what it

was able to accomplish. And when you're not as

good or to that level. And the reason for that,

we look at the time Batman, the animated series

comes out. Batman is already an established icon

from the 1930s, 40s, 50s to the point where it

has a movie in 1989 that makes. you know, millions

upon millions of dollars based upon a poster

that just has a symbol on it. So all that going

into this show yet within all that, like hard

to look at anything outside of maybe the comics

that has had more of an impact on the character

of Batman than this show from its ability to

create characters, of course, to redefine characters,

you know, giving us one of the best Batman stories

with a Mr. Free story. And then. As well as just

being able to show what you can do with a Saturday

morning or afternoon cartoon within this. And

then also, if you know what's going through the

life of Paul Dini at the time, there's a great

comic that he wrote, Dark Knight, A True Batman

Story, where he kind of goes through some of

the tribulations of his health issues at the

time. Because he was basically attacked one day

and going through him. after that mugging and

trying to recover. And then he's making, making

this show within it. It's, it's remarkable on

so many different levels. So considering all

that, it's ability to take the character of Batman

and somehow elevate it. And everything we talked

about with justice league and all these other

shows, none of that happens without this. So

with all that considered, that's why it was my

number one. My little blurb said it's one of

the rare animated series respected equally by

critics, fans, creators and historians. So the

blend of the impact of the quality, all the different

things when it comes to that. Steve, it was also

your number one. So give me your quick thoughts

on your number one coming in number one overall.

I actually chose this last time. I think my top

three were exactly the same as the first time

around. So I was. secretly hoping that the you

know if beast wars didn't make it into the top

10 that this would land number one and i was

correct um i love this show this was the the

very first movie i ever saw in theater was batman

the animated series uh mask of the phantasm and

then i i watched the animated series on television

um had all the stuff had all the toys had you

know everything i I have some of the McFarlane

figures of of the animated series Batman and

in my cabinet now. So but I at one time owned

pretty much everything on that, too. The voice

cast is stellar. The stories are stellar. The

the animation, the colors, the darkness in it,

the orchestral music. Just everything across

the board. Like I. There's very few episodes

that I do not care to watch, and it still is

one of my all -time favorites to the point like

I'm on the cusp of rebuying the Mask of the Phantasm

and DVD series of it again. So it's still one

of my all -time favorites next to Beast Wars.

Awesome. Mike, you got two minutes. Give us your

thoughts on Batman the Animated Series. So, like

everyone's already said, it's just simply amazing.

When La La Land Records started putting out the

music for this show, it was the first time I

got to hear the music outside of the show. And

me being the music guy, I'm like, oh my God.

And when they got to... There's an episode called

The Forgotten. When they got to that, I was like,

holy crap, this is amazing because that is an

episode where Bruce just, he hits his head, he

loses his memory. He goes undercover to investigate

a disappearance of Gotham's homeless people.

He gets amnesia. And he gets imprisoned. The

music in this is just so amazing in that episode.

And that's an episode that a lot of people don't

really talk about. Like everyone's already listed

about Heart of Ice and Two -Face and everything

else. But that episode, just the music in it

is so great. But what this show did and what

Shirley Walker did with the music. Going on to

passing that on to Christopher Carter and Lolita

Romanis and Michael McQuistion, who make up Dynamic

Music Partners, who do pretty much all the other

music for the rest of the DC animated universe.

Just absolutely amazing. We actually have a whole

podcast, Legends of the Dark Knight, where we

reviewed all of the stuff for Batman, the animated

series and Batman Beyond. But no, Batman, the

animated series, number one. 15 years ago, number

one now, well -deserved. Go get your trophy.

DJ, you had this at number three on your list.

It comes in at number one. Give us final thoughts

here on the countdown with the Batman The Animated

Series taking the top spot. I mean, I think the

descriptor for this show, all of the shows, is

the most apropos. This show is art. It is clear

from beginning to end, art. There's nothing in

it. And I wouldn't hold up to anybody, any skeptic

of animation, any skeptic of comic books, any

skeptic of television and say, look, look at

this, criticize this. You're going to be fine.

You're hard pressed to find anybody. Oh, I don't

like it. It's so good. It's it. And he was bringing

a mask of the phantasm. I've been beating this

drum. And this is probably why I like the Batman

so much. The Batman to me was the closest movie,

even to Nolan's. I got to this Batman. This Batman

was the detective Batman. And I was like, let's

make, make the sequel back mask of the phantasm.

Just like when I watched mask of the phantasm,

which is a spinoff of the series and heart of

ice and all these others, the two phase, the

clay face. It's just like, man, this was so ahead

of its time. It's still like just worshiped to

this day. And a friend of mine at work who's

not into comic books, he was just asking me a

question. And he was like, what's the most popular

comic book character? And I was like, well, there's

three. Spider -Man, Superman. But the thing that

will always sell until the end of time, there's

gold and there's Batman. It will always be the

number one. And then there's sometimes golden

Batman. Golden Batman will work too, yeah. But

yeah, Batman anime series is art. It is pure

and simple art. And you can drop in at any episode

at any day. Condiment King episode, and you'll

be like, this is great. I love it. It's fantastic.

Sadly, he's right. I was going to argue on that

one, but unfortunately, even the Condiment King

episode is good. It's still good. So we're going

to have an entire wrap up episode where we get

into the stats and we get into more of like how

the channels and the production companies and

the decades and all that other stuff works. I

will tell you that both Fox as far as a channel

and WB as far as a production company, both had

seven entries in today's list. So they made a

big push at the end. I'll say that much for sure.

But if you want to, you know. get more of that

from a stat standpoint, you'll be able to tune

into the, the wrap up episode, but just real

quick to end it. I wanted to give you guys each,

you know, 30 seconds or so to, to react to the

countdown overall, now that it's all been revealed

and fresh in your minds. And then I'll toss it

back over to Mike and Steve to close out. So

Dan, real quick, what are your thoughts on the

overall countdown and how it all turned out?

It was certainly fun. It was interesting. Some

surprises along the way for sure. And obviously

like with any list. It is a challenge. It's always

going to be biased. It's impossible to have a

perfect list. My thing with lists, as long as

you're being honest, it's all that matters. There

were some disappointments for me. I was really

hoping a show like Bluey would show up. I do

think it is legitimately one of the best shows

on TV right now. Even though it's a kid's show,

I hear you guys keep talking about how there's

no good kid shows today. I don't agree with that.

I shouldn't say it. See, I'm speaking for everyone.

I've heard a lot of conversation how the kids'

shows aren't that good. I don't agree with that.

Less good, I'd say. I don't know if I agree with

that because I think shows like Bluey, Storybots,

there's a lot of great stuff on PBS Kids that

are able to educate in ways that are smartly

done. But still, I was really happy to see some

of the anime show up on this that wouldn't show

up. It's had some things like, even things I

don't, like I'm not a fan of, like Attack on

Titan, not getting a spot. But that's probably

for the wrap -up episode. But generally, it was

because of the surprises. I think it made it

much more interesting to listen to and be a part

of, including the ties. So that was a good time.

But for you, Kevin, Steve, and Mike, you obviously

did much more work on it. You all put a lot of

work in this, and I think it certainly showed

off. So congrats to all of y 'all. DJ, what are

your thoughts overall? I make these, every time

I'm invited to do this, I'm happy. And I do most

of it just to get all my personal biases to get

respect. I'm happy a lot of mine were on here.

The only one I was kind of disappointed for,

I got two, which was Venture Brothers and Samurai

Jack. I think they should be way higher. Samurai

Jack, especially. I think Jenna Tartofsky is

a... freaking mad genius so but the fact that

he samurai jack's on the list is happy for me

uh and i think younger child version of me would

have been angry at this list but adult version

of me is like yeah this list makes sense so i

mean it's hard for me to argue with a lot of

the ones that are in the top and so yeah i i

i think that i think it came together perfectly

uh steve what do you think Overall, I'm really

happy with how this this entire list came out.

I feel like it's a much more balanced top 100

compared to the last time we did this. Some of

them obviously have moved around quite a bit

and then some of them barely moved at all, if

at all. I'm happy with where this episode ended

up. I'm happy that one of my favorites in my

top two. Beast Wars made it to at least 20 instead

of 23. So it moved up, which I'm like, yay. And

and Batman, the animated series remains the king

of the pile here. And so. It goes really well

with my tirade about the. The Amazon animated

series that. Oh, God, don't hold strong. I must

not have been here when you said that. I must

not have been here when you brought this up,

Steve. Well, I brought it up because it was an

article or a post by the creator of Deadpool

comparing this with the animated series. And

so I brought it up and I'm like, I think this

is going to reign true. So anyways, yeah, I'm

happy with where this all transpired. and all

of the newcomers to this list that didn't make

it the first time. Yeah, which we'll highlight

those in the wrap -up episode as well, and we'll

also reveal more of the shows as far as the ones

that just missed it, and where specific shows

ranked. We'll reveal some of that. Mike, final

thoughts here before I close my thoughts out?

Yeah, no, it's the new list. It's the new defining

list. I don't think we need to do this again

for a while. I think we can wait another 40 or

50 years at this point. Oh my. Um, I'm, I'm happy

overall. Like there was a lot of shows in the

bottom 50 that I didn't vote for, but when it

came to the top 50, there was only two shows

I didn't vote for. So I didn't have the tick

on my list, just barely missed. And I didn't

have justice league unlimited cause I just voted

for justice league instead. So those are the

only two that I didn't vote for that made the

top 50. So I'm, I'm fairly happy with, uh, how

that turned out. I did, uh, like that, um, due

to expanding into more folks. providing lists

and older generations being represented that

I felt like some of the old classic shows did

get a little bit of a boost. So I appreciated

seeing some of that and kind of where they ranked.

I wasn't sure how that was going to influence

everything. So it was cool having some of those

folks participate. 44 lists is the most we've

ever had. So it was fun gathering that we obviously

tried a different thing with, you know, nominating

shows that would be eligible to be voted on,

which was something we didn't do 15 years ago.

So I think there was some experimental stuff

that we did here and it was a lot of fun. Hopefully

everybody listening and enjoyed it, whether you

agree or disagree, that's part of the list, right?

Everybody's going to say this shouldn't be on

here. That should be, it should be higher. It

should be lower. That's, that's for the comment

section and that's for a fun debates with us

or with your friends or, or colleagues or whatever

it may be. um i'm happy with the the final product

and uh i think uh 15 years later was a good time

to do it again yeah and folks you can always

listen to the original list and then listen to

this and compare and contrast and decide for

yourself which list you like better and all that

good stuff and everything else so yeah there

is that yeah Like I always say, folks, like I've

been saying, from the nominations to the top

25, and I'll probably say it in the wrap -up.

15th anniversary, 2026 edition of the Top 100

Animated Series countdown here on the Ecast Radio

Network has been a slobber knocker. Thanks for

joining us, Toonsters. If you want to share feedback

or connect with us, here's how you can find us.

Check out geekcastradio .com to listen, comment,

and support us with a purchase on our store at

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at geekcastradio .com. Find us on Apple Podcasts,

Spotify, YouTube Podcasts, or your favorite podcatching

client. Join our Discord channel at geekcastradio

.com slash Discord. Next time on Geek Cast Radio,

we are wrapping up the Top 100 Animated Series

2026 Edition Wrap Party. For now, I am TFG1 Mike

alongside Steve Megatron, Optimus Solo, Dan the

Comic Concierge, BJ's Vocal Nerd Rage. We need

more of that. Thanks for listening and until

next time, unleash the tune in you. in the comedy

scene.