The Top 100 Animated Series: The 15th Anniversary Ultimate Wrap Up!

It's time. The countdown begins. Hello and welcome

to the Geekcast Radio Network's Top 100 Animated

Series 15th Anniversary 2026 Edition Rap Party.

That's right, folks. We're rapping dragons over

here. All the numbers have been counted and recounted

for you Florida people. And then we revealed

them. Now we are closing down the Top 100 shop

until the next time. But first, I'm of course

TF2 and Mike. Joining me is Steve Megatron. Hello.

And Optimus Solo. Hello. I had to just copy Steve.

Yeah. Well, it is late at night. So cleverness

is usually a daytime thing around here. Sometimes

we're all tired and whatever. And, oh, boy, is

this been a slobber knocker? And I'm glad we're

shutting down the top 100 shop until summer of

2027 at this point. We need to get our energy

back, folks. Yikes. I feel like a zero at this

point. No more heroics for us. Oh, boy. We've

done nine top 100 countdowns in 15 years for

a grand total, estimated grand total at this

point. This is everything, guys. This is including

the nominees for the lead up to this and including

up to... the top 50 to 26 and the estimated total

recorded and published time of the top 25 episode,

171 hours, zero minutes and 52 seconds of published

audio content. That is not including the thousands

of hours we've put into the work of these nine.

Top 100 countdowns in the last 15 years. Thousands

of hours of work. I'll have my my time card later.

Yeah, I for some reason feel like this is that

scene from Deadpool versus, you know, Deadpool

and Wolverine where he says until he's 90. Uh

huh. Uh huh. That's right. Uh huh. But for now,

we plan and plot. Obviously, we're never going

to get caught. So take it away, Optimus Solo,

and give the people, as well as us, a little

quote -unquote wrap on the wrap -up of the 2026

edition, a .k .a. the 15th anniversary version

of the Geekcast Radio Network's Top 100 Animated

Series Countdown. I'm glad this is the last episode.

I have to say any of that. I was going to say,

I was hoping that was the last time you were

going to say that at all. I'm going to spend

two comments first. I feel like maybe 171 hours

was spent just on this top 100 countdown, but

maybe I'm incorrect on that. It just feels that

way. And also, it's going to take me 171 hours

to understand everything you just said and whatever

you were trying to reference and whatever jokes

you were trying to make. So I'll need the cliff

notes or the like the, you know, when you watch

a movie and you don't understand it, you got

to go to the interwebs and get like somebody

else to explain it for you. I'm going to need

someone else to explain that whole intro to me

later. live in florida how do you not understand

counted and recounted it's election that was

the only one i understood i don't know what the

we plan we plot we never get caught i don't know

what the rap is i'm old i don't get these things

mike i'm old how do you not understand rap are

you talking about like rap music yes man man

i thought we were talking about cartoons Oh,

my God. Anyway, I am your master of the ceremonies

for tonight. We're going to now that we've done

all of the work of revealing the 100 through

one picks. Obviously, when we do that, they tend

to be a lengthy conversations and records. So

once we get to our number one, we generally don't

have a whole lot of time to dissect it, to react

to it, to give you our overall thoughts on everything

that has transpired. So we like to do that in

a separate episode. That's why we're here tonight.

So we can kind of give you all of the final thoughts,

questions, concerns, verdicts on what we have

compiled here as our new version of the top 100

animated series countdown. So we're going to

do that in a number of different ways here. First,

we're going to give Steve, Mike and myself each

a chance to look at the countdown and decide

if there was any entries that we would personally

boot out of the top 100 countdown. If we think

that there's any that maybe weren't worthy, we're

going to boot those out because we need to make

space for maybe some shows that were on our personal

list or just general shows that we thought of

that we think should have made it. So you can't

add stuff to it without taking stuff away. So

that's how that's going to work. And we're going

to get into a quick conversation of some things

we think were overall way too high or way too

low that got revealed. Then I'm going to reveal

in the... pre -episode or the the lead up to

the reveals we talked about the 101 through 110

we're going to give you 111 through about 125

just real quickly just so you kind of know those

and then if steve or mike have any that were

on the ballot that they're curious where they

landed we'll let them ask those questions as

well since as mike has said about 100 times during

this countdown this is the 15th anniversary edition

we're going to look back at that list 15 years

ago and compare Now that we've seen both of them

fully, what differences there were between the

two lists and kind of give some thoughts on that.

I have some final stats as far as what decade

reigns supreme, what production company, what

channel, all of those types of things. So we'll

go through some of the numbers. And then in the

wrap of the wrap, with our both spelled WRAP,

by the way, we will talk about our final thoughts

overall on the list, what we felt worked. Um,

and some, I have some prompts for the guys that

I'm interested, just kind of see there as well

as my closing thoughts on how I think this was

either a success or not a success and, and how

it may shape how we do top 100 list moving forward.

Uh, Mike, any questions or comments before we

get started? I think so. Steve, anything we,

you want to clarify before I get into it? Uh,

nope. All right. So we're going to start with

shows. we're booting out of the top 100 we just

revealed them they just got in the top 100 and

we're wasting no time and trying to kick them

right back out so i'm gonna be interested to

see from the panel if there's any that you guys

feel should not be a part of the list i have

a few that i would probably boot out i think

maybe about five that i'm going to give the axe

to which i think coincides nicely because i I

may be trying to squeeze more and then I'm kicking

out. So I might have to make some tough decisions,

but let's start with Steve. Is there anything

that we revealed in the top 100 that you felt

like, not necessarily that it didn't deserve

it, but that you thought maybe something else

deserved it more. So something that you would

be willing to move outside to make room for something

else. So I actually had a list of five that I

would have removed. My list consisted of, in

no particular order, Rocko's Modern Life, The

Legend of Korra, Speed Racer, the Tartakovsky

Clone Wars, and X -Men 97. Very good. Any that

you want to highlight as far as ones that you're

most passionate about? About removing? Yeah.

Or do you think they're all equal footing as

far as they all are about the same level? Yeah,

I mean, honestly, like I think Legend of Korra

would be one of the number ones I would remove

just because even from my kids standpoint, like

there's not a great love for that series from

what I've heard from a lot of people. Not to

mention. X -Men 97, I would only boot because

technically it's a continuation, but it also

it we're still waiting on season two at the time

of this. this countdown uh i know season two

is coming i first baby yeah uh and then the tartakovsky

clone wars i would remove just because we got

a superior one that came later uh so i mean those

three are kind of like the main one speed racer

i feel like it's kind of a i get what it's going

for but i don't i don't have a deep appreciation

or love for it i found it kind of more like the

the show that i would find at night when I was

younger to go to sleep. And because it was boring

to me. And then Rocco's Modern Life. I'm not

a huge Nickelodeon fan. I did watch it as a kid,

but I never loved the show. Like I would have

rather watched like Angry Beavers or something

else like or, you know, one of those shows rather

than this. To me, they're kind of all on equal

ground. I prefer out of this list X -Men 97.

If any of the five would have stayed, that would

have been it just for the sake of I enjoyed it

overall, but it also has only had one season.

And so I felt like it kind of got in by proxy

of the original show, not necessarily based on

its own merits yet. Yeah, definitely something

we debated back and forth a little bit heading

into this. Yeah, for sure. Those five are pretty

much my kind of staples of what I would have

removed. Totally get it. Makes perfect sense.

I think I'm going to let Mike go next on any

that you would boot out, Mike. Not what you're

adding in, just what you're taking away. Yeah,

no, I know. I understand. I understand the task.

I agree with Steve. Like, I don't understand.

I understand why we separated them because X

-Men 97, even though it is a continuation of

X -Men, the animated series, it was still marketed

as its own separate thing. It was so far removed

in time, obviously from when the original series

was released and everything else and yada, yada,

yada, but it's only got one season. How can you

like we've. already talked about this to death

top 100 series were top 100 list worthy you have

to have more than what you can't just be like

no one's putting stripperella on here stripperella

only had one season it was okay wasn't great

but you know you know like you can't just know

so i would take as much as i enjoy it i would

take x -men 97 off I would take Beavis and Butthead

off. I would take Ren and Stimpy off. This is

just my bias. This is just me. I don't like those.

Beavis and Butthead was okay, but it wasn't my

style. Ren and Stimpy, I don't like Ren and Stimpy.

It's just, and I'm specifically, the reason why

I don't like Ren and Stimpy is when they got

to the gross humor. The more... actual funny

part of the humor i'm okay with but when they

started just doing the gross out humor i don't

like that show speed racer i never watched it

i and the fact that anyone can fall asleep like

i never watched it when back when when i was

a kid is what i mean when i was trying to watch

it to do research for this I don't know how you

fell asleep to this, Steve. Like people tell

me, I don't know how you fall asleep to forensic

files. I'm like, listen to Peter Thomas's voice

for more than five minutes. You'll fall asleep

immediately, even though he's talking about murder.

Like just the man's voice is amazing. But anyway,

the only other thing that I probably would remove

that I don't think belongs on here. There was

one that was too high that I thought was too

high. No, I think that's it. i think it's just

those i'm i'm re -looking through because well

because as we were doing the countdown i was

i i have the whole countdown list here so as

we were doing it i was writing them all down

so i'm looking through it and i'm like no okay

well that's it all i got what do you got kev

well so when i was looking at mine it was uh

as far as which ones remove i'm trying to balance

a little bit like some of it's going to be biased

as far as which ones i want to put in but when

it when it's Trying to decide what to remove

and what to put in. I'm trying to think of what

makes it more of a consensus list and what makes

it a better list overall. Trying to remove as

much as I can of some of my personal biases.

But there is a couple changes that I would make.

Now, I'm a little bit more extensive because

I'm like that, I guess. But I have 10, but I'll

go through them fairly quickly because some of

them have already been mentioned. So I would

also delete Legend of Korra, like you guys said.

I would probably delete Rocco's Modern Life,

like you guys said, and Star Wars, the Clone

Wars, the Tartagoski one, just because it's not

my style. And I think we already have Rebels

and we already have the Clone Wars. So I feel

like the Star Wars is well represented, as is

with a couple entries in the top 100. There's

a few others that I would kind of ping along

that same line here. I think just like we had

enough Star Wars, and I know personally, I would

probably have these on my own list. because i'm

a huge transformers fan but i think we have g1

and we have beast wars i may squeeze out beast

machines and transformers prime just to add a

little diversity into some that i feel like we're

missing so i'm gonna it'll make more sense when

i go to the ones i'm gonna add but i think out

of reboots and spinoffs and stuff like that we

could remove a couple of the transformers ones

and get a couple different spinoff reboots in

that i'll highlight in a second I also think

there's a couple classic shows that we were missing

that I would substitute in for the likes of Underdog.

And I know, Mike, you like the show and I do

too, but I would actually take Wacky Races and

Underdog out. And I have a couple other classic

shows that I think are more worthy of those two.

So I would change that as well. And then I'm

kind of on the fence between Invader Zim, Recess,

and the Super Mario Bros. Super Show. I'm still

debating on those three, but those are ones that

I would have to do some thought and really think

of those compared to some of these ones that

I'm trying to squeeze in. So transitioning somewhat

because it fits this conversation into what I

would squeeze in. So I talked about the classics

and taking underdog and wacky races out. And

I know this is more the historian in me and more

kind of the old school person in me, but I would

like Mighty Mouse to be involved somewhere in

the top 100. For me, some form of Mighty Mouse,

whether it might be Mighty Mouse Playhouse or

something like that, I would think would be able

to take one of those spots. And then I think

another one that I would put in that would both

be a classic and also speak to another thing

that maybe was a little underrepresented in our

list would be Astro Boy. So I feel like the combination

of Speed Racer and Astro Boy and a couple of

those classic anime shows could do well. When

it comes to the spin -offs and things of that

nature, reboots, the reason I would take Transformers

Prime and Beast Machines out, even though originally

I enjoyed Beast Machines more than any other

Transformers series outside of G1 for a long

time. Beast Wars has surpassed that in future

viewings. But I would take those out and I would

actually make room for a couple other reboots

that I think deserve it. So I have four that

I think deserve. some attention and that would

be scooby -doo mystery inc which we talked about

a little bit when we did the the reveal of the

regular original scooby -doo i think mystery

inc is worthy of being in the in the conversation

i would consider the 2003 turtles uh series to

to be put in there there's you could also go

with you know one of the future ones as well

but i think 2003 turtles is a good good one there

i know it got cut short but i would at least

like to talk about masters of the universe 2002

he made 2002 i think that's that's worthy and

then one that i'm surprised didn't make it i

guess it just didn't have enough love from our

specific group of 44 folks but i have a feeling

if we had a different group maybe it would i'm

surprised my little pony friendship as magic

didn't at least crack it now i know there's different

feelings or opinions about the show but i don't

think anyone can deny how much of a impact it

had for a specific part of the culture and like

there was a show that was more popular than it

during its time and it has produced a lot of

spinoffs and things of that nature as well so

i would try to make room for that as far as a

couple other ones i think from an anime standpoint

we could probably add in uh neon genesis evangelion

i think that was perhaps a miss It just missed

it, though, right? Yeah, it just missed it. It

was 107. And then the other one that I think

would serve another portion of the anime fandom

population would be some representation from

a Mobile Suit Gundam or something of that nature.

I think that could be worthy. The only other

one I had on my list was Bojack Horseman, which

just missed it. I feel like that probably was

deserving of being in there. It landed at the

104th spot. And then I will agree with Dan from

last week. I would probably make way for Bluey

to be in there somewhere, which was 105. So I

know a couple of those just missed with Bojack

Horseman, Bluey, and Evangelion. But I think

when I compare those to like, I don't know, Invader

Zim or Rocko's Modern Life or The Legend of Korra

or Underdog, like I feel like they're probably

a little bit more worthy. What about you, Mike?

We'll go in reverse order. So anything that you

would add in that didn't make it? Well, now that

you're saying all this, I would put He -Man 2002.

I would put Turtles 2003. I would actually put

My Little Pony Friendship is Magic, because like

you're saying, not only for the fact of the giant...

fandom that it had it was a really good show

it really really like i watched like maybe half

of the first season and just was really really

good i'm trying to think oh for the for me when

it comes to anime there's one show and really

there's only one show that i've ever fully gotten

into That's Yu -Gi -Oh! Dual Monsters. It's the

one with Yugi and Kaiba and Joey and Blue Eyes

White Dragon and Red Eyes Black Dragon. It's

the famous one from 2000 with the cards and Grandpa

and this and that and the other thing and everything

else. I would put that in as my anime choice.

Anything else that you would add in? Steve, anything

you're putting in that missed? So. It's funny

because I have like more than what. Than what,

you know, we have. Yeah. There were. And I agree

with like Mario and, you know, some of those

other ones removing them in favor of others.

Some that like a couple that were in the last.

Top 100 like Slaughter Deathmatch, Mighty Max,

Pirates of Dark Water, Hong Kong Fui didn't make

this one. So some of these like I do think the

2003 Turtles definitely should have made it Neon

Genesis or at least definitely Mobile Suit Gundam

of some force just because. It kind of lived

in tandem with Dragon Ball Z on Toonami. Because

I remember Peter Cullen doing the announcement

for it. I would almost argue like Naruto or Inuyasha

being on there. Because again, those were ones

that were kind of played in the Konami run as

well. And those have pretty decent followings.

I think for... a difference of shows star trek

lower decks yes could have been in there because

it was star trek it stayed true to the canon

but it also was a comedy and it was kind of like

if you like and this is this is what i've heard

from people is if you like rick and morty you'll

like lower decks because there's a very similar

like humor to it right in animation style I'm

not like the biggest fan of the animation, but

at the same time, I was able to overlook it because

the story was interesting. And so. Plus, it's

Star Trek, so I was going to tune in. So, I mean,

I think those shows I would definitely have in

there. Some I'm kind of on the fence about, like

a celebrity death match or. like hong kong phooey

or pup named scooby -doo or things like that

just because while i remember them more recent

generations aren't going to have a clue and there's

been no continuation or revival or reboot or

anything to keep that title going so right i

think the the few that i did mention though would

would kind of fit still with replacing what i

mentioned yeah i don't necessarily specifically

what pup named scooby -doo i don't think necessarily

there needs to be something to keep that going

i think that was specifically a series of its

time like if you want to do that again for a

new generation that is not that style like not

that and like if you want to do that like a new

version of that that's fine but i don't think

they're gonna do a continuation of that x number

of decades later like Oh God, we're almost coming.

Oh God, we're two years away from the 40th anniversary

of the show. Oh God, I'm so old. Oh God. So when

it comes to things that we would rank lower or

higher, I don't know how you guys did this. The

way I kind of looked at it was just the top 50

versus bottom 50 and ones I would kind of make

a move. Mostly that's kind of how I looked at

it. So I'll start us off with this one. There

was only two shows in the top 50 that I didn't

vote on specifically on my list. So I was. happy

with you know all of them showing up and one

of them was just a technicality i didn't vote

for justice league unlimited because i just voted

for justice league instead um and then the only

other one that i didn't vote for was the tick

so everything else in the top 50 i voted on but

as far as just because i voted on doesn't mean

i would have the same top 50 so there's some

that i definitely would put in the top 50 that

didn't quite make it um so i'm going to go over

those real quick first the ones that i think

should have been a little bit higher and there's

going to be a theme here with my historic classic

cartoon love so i guess you can prepare for that

but there's a there's a quartet of shows that

i would put in the top 50 that didn't make it

from the classic era so that would be the the

woody woodpecker show the pink panther show the

huckleberry hound show and popeye the sailor

i would i would probably make a case for all

four of those to be in the top 50 just from an

important standpoint um they ended up at 60 72

73 and 76 so almost all in the top 75 but i would

make a case for those to be higher as far as

other ones outside of that from a personal bias

i guess i would have loved to see danger mouse

crack the top 75 it landed at 93 so i would i

would love to see that i thought dj made a pretty

good case for robot chicken maybe being a little

bit higher and then the only other one the only

other two that i had that were well one on one

on this side of 50 and one on the other star

wars the clone wars at 52 i think that's probably

a top 50 worthy cartoon and then i could see

even though i have never watched a single episode

of it just from the reach that it has had and

the staying power i could see a lot of people

making the argument for spongebob being higher

than 42 being maybe somewhere in the top 30 top

25 and things like that and then Even though

they were 34 and 35, I would make a case for

the Tom and Jerry show and the Yogi Bear show

to both be a little bit higher as well. So a

lot of classic love that I'm trying to show out,

I guess, for those. But go to you, Steve. Next,

anything that you felt like, you know, that we

talked about maybe in those first two episodes

that you were hoping would have stuck around

until the final two episodes. So in the first

two. I felt like a lot of them. I wasn't decided

in either direction on some of them. However,

that being said, I feel like Dragon Ball probably

should have gotten a little bit higher just because

I know Dragon Ball Z put everything into the

mainstream, but Dragon Ball kind of lit the fire

that everything else kind of copied from there.

I would almost argue... I would have liked to

have seen like Freakazoid a little bit higher

or, you know, Robot Chicken, Beast Machines.

I'm not like the biggest fan of like Pokemon

nowadays, but I could see that being a little

bit higher just because it's the longevity of

it. There's a number of other shows I probably

would have moved. a lot farther down the list.

Yeah. Yeah. But I mean, but I mean, as far as

the first, the first 50, like that's, that's

kind of the shows I would pick. Okay. Any in

that second group of 50 that did make it to the

top 50, but you would have preferred that they

were closer to, you know, maybe the top 20, top

15, top 25, something like that. out of any of

the numbers or just yeah just anything you know

maybe it was something that was like I don't

know 26 through 50 in that third episode that

you would have preferred to be in the last episode

or something along those lines that you just

thought was more top 10 top 20 worthy that didn't

quite make it I would argue I would almost argue

like Phineas and Ferb should have been in there

Spongebob just because the longevity of it I

would argue like Batman Beyond. Yeah, I would

have argued probably Superman, the animated series.

I could see it. This landing with some people,

maybe not me personally, but like Rugrats. Girls

like I could see those landing. But yeah, I think

that would be it as far as me for that. block

between 25 and 50. Okay. Mike, what about you?

Anything that you would like to slide up closer

to the top half of the countdown or into the

top 10, 20? Yeah. So there's basically two shows

from the bottom 50 that I want to be in, in the

top 50, if not the top 25. And basically I've

picked two numbers where I think they should

go and where the shows that are in those current

numbers that they should move to the other slots.

So Ren and Stimpy gets kicked to 81, and Jem

goes in the 36 slot. Okay. And Family Guy gets

kicked to 65, and Kim Possible gets put in the

32 slot. Jem is more of a... We've already talked

about Jem. It was the 80s girl. I feel it's not

just a girls cartoon. It's for everybody, boys

and girls. But it was basically, hey, look, we

can do anything. We're the superstars. But it

wasn't just that. It was just really for anything.

Same thing with Kim Possible. Her whole thing.

I'm Kim Possible. I can do anything. And then

on the flip side of that, her buddy Ron Stoppable,

voiced by Will Friedle, a .k .a. Batman Beyond.

I'm Ron Stoppable. I can't do anything. I just

can't do anything. I love this show. This show's

amazing. It's so fun. It's so good. It's just

awesome. I feel like those two. entries should

have been much much higher even though they're

not uh as far as other things like yeah i would

have liked to see things higher batman beyond

going from 16 in 2011 to 27 it kind of hurt but

at least it's still in the top half at least

it's it's still in the top 50 if it had dropped

any lower i might have had my batman beyond blood

boiling a little bit more than what it was but

again it's an amazing show it is what it is i

really can't complain with what we've put together

for the most part and what you know we're always

gonna have things that we want to see higher

or lower or things move around or whatever phineas

and ferb would i love to have seen it not be

38 and maybe be 21 or or whatever and hey at

least it made the countdown at least it wasn't

104 and didn't make the countdown because you

know 104 days of summer But it is what it is.

I do have to put it on the record that I just

so everyone's clear. This is Optimus Solo speaking,

and I do not support the hate for Ren and Stimpy

or the Family Guy. So direct that message to

TFG. I do not generally hate Family Guy. However,

as I said, I don't mind when Ren and Stimpy has.

decent humor but i'm sorry i do not laugh at

grossed out humor i puke at grossed out humor

sorry that's that's just the way it is that show

just making it clear to the listeners who to

direct what opinions at towards you know as far

as some some ones that i thought maybe were were

too high i don't have a lot i only really highlighted

two on my kind of run through here i thought

that rescue rangers at 15 was a little high for

me i do like the new rangers is it was 100 or

60 yeah uh 16 excuse me it lost the tie break

um whatever it was tied with picking the brain

uh before the record and i don't i didn't update

my numbers after that rescue rangers just being

in the top 20 to me i'd love the disney afternoon

i probably wouldn't have put it in the top 20

so i would probably have moved that outside of

the top 25 to make room for something else. And

I'm a fan of Voltron, but I probably wouldn't

have put Voltron in the top 50. I just think

there's a couple other shows that I would have

rather slid into the top 50, like the Clone Wars

or one of those classics like Popeye or something

of that nature instead. But those are about the

only two I highlighted. Steve, anything that

you would have lowered and then, and or anything,

well, let's start with that. Anything you would

have lowered in the countdown? So lowering, I

would have lowered Ren and Stimpy, Ghostbusters,

Muppet Babies, Teen Titans, Gravity Falls, Adventure

Time, Smurfs, and Thundercats. Everything he

said except Thundercats. Which leads me to another

question, and Steve can continue on some of his

thoughts with those shows too, but I was also

curious what some of your biggest surprise moments...

in the countdown were so for me the fact that

one of my overall biggest surprises was gi joe

at number 28 and i bring that up because you

said thundercats and i would have never put and

i would have never thought thundercats would

have beat out gi joe this time around yeah having

gi joe at 28 and thundercats at 26 was probably

for me one of the biggest surprises any steve

i'll let you comment on the ones you would have

moved a little bit more or anything else that

you were surprised by Honestly, I was super surprised

that Thundercats beat out G .I. Joe, Inspector

Gadget, Jetsons, and Batman Beyond. I would have

put it in the 40s. I would not have... 40s or

50s. Or at the very least, 50. I don't think

that it... has the longevity or the care that

the rest of the shows do that actually preceded

it and so i would have i would have moved that

that one was kind of shocking to me uh i was

shocked mostly about gi joe yeah um in that regard

uh i was i was also kind of shocked that you

know spongebob went where it went and although

it kind of landed right where it did last time

But seeing some of the flip -flops of numbers,

Family Guy dropped, Beast Wars actually went

up, which I was fearful it was going to drop

farther. What do you think Family Guy dropped?

It was 21st. I thought it was at 100 last time.

You voted for it at 100. It was 21. Damn, your

hate couldn't overpower the panel last time.

God damn it. Yeah, I mean, I was surprised that

Dragon Ball even made it on the list. I was surprised

that Dragon Ball Z went up 14. And there was

a lot of numbers that did a lot of flip -flopping,

and I was quite surprised the ones that did.

And then, of course, I was ecstatic when certain

ones didn't. such as our number one, number two,

and number five, that essentially stayed exactly

where they were. Speaking of which, you talked

about some movement. I'm going to give you real

quick the shows that increased their standing

20 spots or more. These are shows that increased

where they landed by at least 20 spots. So we

had Huckleberry Hound did that. We had Powerpuff

Girls, Cowboy... bebop phineas and ferb and king

of the hill and avatar those were the ones that

climbed the most and uh oh and i'm sorry teen

titans and daria uh if i didn't mention those

daria was the biggest climber of the entire group

going up 61 spots and then teen titans 58 spots

powerpuff girls 54 spots so those were like the

huge movers everything else was closer to 20.

And then as far as like the biggest drops, we

had Star Wars Clone Wars dropped 31 spots. Super

Friends dropped 52. Alvin and the Chipmunks surprisingly

dropped 46. Beavis and Butthead dropped 31. And

I think those are the only ones over 30. So there

was definitely some big movers one way or the

other. Mike, any other big surprises for you?

No. not really all right well let's get into

uh another part here where we talk a little bit

about some other picks that we haven't revealed

yet so like we said we talked about the 101 through

110 that we revealed in the pre show and then

i figured it'd be fun to take a quick look at

111 through 125 i'll go through these fairly

quickly since there's 15 of them or whatever

we're talking about which i think is fitting

15 years 15 more picks that will reveal i guess

so like we talked about with 101 through 110

that was georgia the jungle magic school bus

young justice bojack horseman bluey captain n

and genesis evangelion winnie the pooh american

dad and a pup named scooby -doo those are those

we had already revealed if we pick up after that

with 111 we would have transformers animated

at number 111 We would have had Star Trek The

Animated Series at 112. This is where we would

have gotten the 2003 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Selection at 113. Doug at 114. Gumby Show at

115. The Boondocks at 116. Sonic the Hedgehog

at 117. Goof Troop 118. Harley Quinn 119. Star

Trek Lower Decks 120. Quick Draw McGraw 121.

2012 Turtles at 122. Hey Arnold, 123. My Little

Pony Friendship is Magic, 124. And the 2017 DuckTales

at 125. Mike, any thoughts about those 15 that

came close but didn't quite make it? Damn, TFA

got in at 111. Was that close to having five

Transformers series in our countdown? That's

not that close. That's 11 spots off of getting

in. It was like 90 points away. Oh, God. You

failed us, Mike Seibert and Michael Andrews.

Two Mikes, two Furious. You failed us, people.

It's interesting the amount of reboot love that

came in there. We had Transformers animated,

2003 Turtles. We had the 2012 Turtles, My Little

Pony, Friendship and Magic, and DuckTales, the

reboots. Those were all within 25 spots of making

it. Mike or Steve, any other thoughts on those

15? What was 121 through 123 again? 121 was Quick

Draw McGraw, 122 was the 2012 Turtles, and 123

was Hey Arnold. The good old football head. So

interestingly, from a 90s standpoint, we would

have only added A few, Doug, Sonic, Goof Troop,

and Hey Arnold. From the more modern, we would

have gotten quite a few. Harley Quinn, Lower

Decks, 2012 Turtles, Friendship is Magic, and

the 2017 DuckTales. No additions in that section

from the 80s. There would have been no additional

80s shows in there. And then we would have gotten,

from an older school standpoint, Star Trek, Gumby,

and Quick Draw McGraw. It's kind of funny because

out of this 111 through 125, I would have probably

put Transformers animated. Star Trek, the animated

series was not very good. I would not have. I

would not have been for that. TMNT 2003, like

100 % would have been for that. Yep. I know there's

a following for Boondocks. Sonic the Hedgehog,

of course, like I would have voted for that.

I think I did vote for that. Harley Quinn, I

know there's a following and there are some humorous

aspects. Still haven't seen that all the way,

but I've seen enough episodes to know that it's

pretty good. Quick Draws, good. Lower Decks,

I would have voted for because I did. 2012 TMNT

was really good. Had a nice crossover at the

87 Turtles. Hey Arnold had a good following.

My Little Pony had a good following instead of

the DuckTales. I think these are all solid contenders

to get into the list. And they just lost out

to other shows that had more notoriety and popularity

from our panel of 44. Yeah, it was interesting.

There was no 80s in that section. It would have

actually taken us down to 131 to get to our next

80s. There's only actually three other 80 shows

in the top 140. That would have been Dungeons

and Dragons, Heathcliff, and She -Ra would have

been three that were in the top 140. But otherwise,

they had no representation from 111 to 130. So

interesting from there. As far as shows that

were on our nominees ballots or the 50 shows

from each decade, is there any that you guys

or stuff that you had on your list that you're

curious as far as where they came in that we

haven't revealed so far? Steve, anything that

you're curious about where it fell? I would say,

where did the Masters of the Universe 2000X show?

That would have been 149. So, 104, well, it was

tied with, it was tied, 147, 148, and 149 were

all tied. That was Arthur, Fat Albert, and the

2002 He -Man series were all tied right around

that. 149 spot. Interesting. What about... I

know you were a fan of Dragon Ball. Dragon Ball

Super would have been 145. Been in the top 150.

What was What If at? What If? Marvel What If.

Well, everything got votes except for four. The

four shows we revealed in the pre. What if would

have been 139? 39. Mighty Max? Mighty Max. Let's

see where that one fell. Perusing Mighty Max

would have fallen all the way down to 198. Wow.

Damn. Mega Man? Mega Man was 197 right before

Mighty Max. Okay. Swatcats? I just saw that one

a little bit ago. Where was that one? Apologize

for my scrolling. Swatcats, 164. Hmm. Nice. Interesting.

I had a few others that I voted on that I was

curious about. What about the cybernetic space

cube transformers generation two? That was not

an option. I know, I know. That's the point.

Lord have mercy. It's so obscure, it's not even

a contender. The only shows that received...

Let's see. The only shows that were on only one

list. So only one person voted for these shows.

So outside of the four that didn't get any votes,

these would have been the next ones that only

received one vote. And that would have been C

-Lab 2020, The Backyardigans, We Bare Bears,

New Adventures of Flash Gordon, Big Hero 6, the

series. banana splits adventure hour marvel spider

-man harlem globetrotters wild kratts those were

the ones that were only on one list interesting

i know wild kratts was on my sons there we go

i thought about voting for it for sure um another

interesting thing we can do that i didn't uh

forgot to put in the script here but everybody's

number one so we did reveal that three people's

number one did not make the countdown so uh going

through that here obviously we had The top, the

most number one entries was actually Looney Tunes.

Looney Tunes made it on nine people's number

one list, even though it wasn't our number one

overall or our number two overall. It did have

the most times on the number one list. That was

followed by Batman, the animated series, which

was on eight people's number ones. Then the next

highest would be three appearances on a number

one list, which would have been Gargoyles and

Avatar, the last Airbender. Those both appeared

on three. As far as ones that appeared on two,

that would have been the 1980s DuckTales, Transformers,

the Flintstones, Turtles, and Rocky and Bullwinkle.

Those all made two appearances on people's number

ones. And then for the ones that were only on

one, that would be The Simpsons, which came in

number two, but it was only on one person's number

one. The Animaniacs, South Park, He -Man, Batman

Beyond, The Ren and Stimpy Show, Reboot. sailor

moon and then the ones that didn't make the top

100 which would have been bojack horseman then

we got to go down to 148 somebody did have fat

albert and the cosby kids as their number one

and then we got to go all the way down to what

would have came in at 199 visionaries knights

of the magical light was one person's number

one overall and i will uh i will maybe reveal

that that might have been the person that wrote

the show so point dilly definitely had visionaries

as his number one oh i mean you know you know

if you write the show it's your number one show

i mean even some love to it i understand why

so um that was definitely some interesting things

to see some of some of their their picks um to

go over some of the i guess the celebrities that

we had involved or the historians, voice actors,

writers, et cetera, what their number ones were.

So Flint Dilley had Visionary as number one.

Buzz Dixon had Rocky and Bullwinkle. Tom Ruger,

no surprise here, he had Animaniacs as his number

one. We had Keith Scott had Looney Tunes. Greg

Airbar had the Flintstones. And Jerry Beck had

Rocky and Bullwinkle. So those were some of those.

uh votes as far as number ones from from those

folks so let's do a little comparison contrast

from 15 years ago to today so i'm going to give

you a set of shows and i'm going to go through

them fairly try to do it fairly quickly there

was 27 shows that switched so we had 27 that

exited the countdown 27 that entered I'm going

to give you that block and see what you guys

think is the block that we ended up with better

than the block we kicked out. So here's the 27

new shows to the countdown. We have Justice League

Unlimited, Teen Titans, Daria, Archer, Schoolhouse

Rock, The Venture Brothers, Bob's Burgers, Rick

and Morty, Gravity Falls, Kim Possible, Star

Wars Rebels, Adventure Time, Beast Machines,

Robot Chicken. Underdog, Invincible, The Legend

of Korra, Rocko's Modern Life, Wacky Races, Beetlejuice,

X -Men 97, Dragon Ball, Transformers Prime, Invader

Zim, Speed Racer, Hopcat, and Full Metal Alchemist.

Those were all new to the countdown. As far as

the ones that left, Mask, the 2002 He -Man, the

2003 Turtles, She -Ra, Silver Hawks, Bravestar,

Johnny Bravo, Doug, Death Note, Spider -Man and

His Amazing Friends, Captain N, Aladdin, Care

Bears, The Original Spider -Man, Mighty Max,

Static Shock, Arthur, Cops, Harvey Birdman, Where

on Earth is Carmen Sandiego, Mobile Suit Gundam,

Fat Albert, Captain Planet, Hong Kong Phooey,

Swat Cats, Magic School Bus, and Neon Genesis

Evangelion. Just when you hear those two groups,

Mike, do you feel like the 25 that we put in

this time outweigh the 25 that we took out? Thanks

and match. No, can't mix and match. If you had

to take one set of 25 or the other, do you think

we ended up with a better one? I don't know.

That's why I asked. Can we mix and match? Because

some of the ones from the other group are better

than some of the ones from the group we ended

up with. I would argue it's subjective just based

on opinion and what you grew up with because

there's a lot of the shows that... made it in

this time that would have been introduced either

just before or during the time span of the last

top 100 yeah so that would be like yeah we had

justice league archer bob's burgers rick and

morty's gravity falls star wars rebels adventure

time invincible legend of korra x -men 97 and

transformers prime wouldn't have been eligible

yeah so i mean I feel like the original list

of the ones that didn't make the list, I mean,

obviously, I wish I could mix and match between

the two because there's ones that made this list

that I was like, eh. But if I had to choose between

those two, like the ones that left and the ones

that entered, I would go with the ones that entered

because we got a much more diverse group of shows.

We got things that have... More or less resonated

with the public are not forgotten. A lot of the

shows that were that were in the last block from

15 years ago were either even recent as the 90s

or some of them are from, you know, 60s on up.

And. I feel like because there's been so many

new iterations and the scarcity of seeing those

shows now because, I mean, we don't have Saturday

morning cartoons. We don't have Cartoon Network

on cable. We don't have, you know, all of these

things that we had back then that introduced

us to a wider variety of content. Plus, we didn't

have streaming and YouTube where, well, yes,

you can find them. The likelihood of someone

clicking on them unless they grew up with it

is very slim. And yeah, I feel like any of the

things that made the list this time as opposed

to last time, that would that would be why that

they were seen is because they had a more broad

marketing appeal to the more recent generations.

And so I feel like those have stuck around a

little bit better. I think you can make an argument

for the He -Man reboot, the Turtles reboot. I

think you can make an argument for Mobile Suit

Gundam and Genesis Evangelion. I think those

are maybe the ones that you might want to put

in. Maybe Doug. But when you think about the

list that replaced it with stuff like Star Wars

Rebels and Daria and... For me, Archer or, you

know, we added a few other like the original

Dragon Ball and Robot Chicken and the Venture

Brothers. Like, I feel like there's some heavy

hitters that we added. I know one group that

definitely took a beating in the 15 years, and

that was 80s action cartoons. So we probably

had a little bit more biases toward those 15

years ago. But when you're looking at the fact

that when we're talking about the countdown,

you know, G .I. Joe fell to number 28 and. You

know, we talked about some of that, but then

you look at the ones that didn't make it. So

we have Mask that didn't make it, She -Ra, Silverhawks,

Bravestar, Captain N, Care Bears, Cops. All of

those fell to the wayside. So there was definitely

a swinging of the pendulum back away from some

of these 80s action. And I don't necessarily

think it's wrong. Like, yes, a bunch of those

are ones that hold a special heart from a special

spot in my heart. But I do think we've kind of

landed on some of the best of the best that made

it right. Like we got our turtles, we got our

transformers, we got our He -Man, our Thundercats,

our G .I. Joe. And then some of the non -action

ones when you go to like Muppet Babies and Inspector

Gadget and Alvin and the Chipmunks, like some

of those like that kind of stuck around. I'm

not surprised to see some of the likes of Mask

and Cops and Silverhawks and Bravestar not make

it this time around. Mike, any thoughts on the

two lists comparatively? Yeah, I mean, they're

just very, very different. And again, like you

guys have said, it shows the difference in the

time span since we started this 15 years ago

and just how the times have changed. I mean,

like we were talking earlier about what we would

take off and what we would add in. Honestly,

I would probably replace Brendan Stimpy with

mask, you know, like, no, it's not, not for me,

not for me personally. Just saying that some

of the ones that missed it didn't miss it by

that much either. The Turtles would have been

113, Doug would have been 114, Captain N 106,

we have Magic School Bus 102, Evangelion 107,

so even though they didn't make the countdown,

they didn't necessarily fall that far. The ones

that fell far, Bravestar would have been 221st,

and Spider -Man, the original, would have been

231st. Those would have fallen quite significantly.

um other than that but spider -man the original

what year are you talking about i don't i don't

have all that listed there were so many spider

-mans uh yeah so the one we have on here the

one we have on here spider -man 94 that's the

one that counts well we have two we have that

one and we have the uh spectacular spider -man

whereas last time we had last time we had the

original spider -man and spider -man and his

amazing friends so we had a much heavier spider

-man last time than we did this time. But Spider

-Man and his Amazing Friends would have fallen

to 173, Mighty Max 198, Pops 170, Carmen San

Diego 171. So those would have been not as close.

But we did have quite a few that were pretty

close to making it. And we had some that just

missed last time that made it this time. Teen

Titans last time was 104, Dario was 107, Schoolhouse

Rock was tied for 100, Impossible 110, Beast

Machines 106. So all of those were able to just

get enough to kind of bump into the top 100 this

time around. And another thing we did is we kind

of looked through the list and had those revealed

as we did talk some stats and things like that

as far as decades and channels and production

companies. So the final stats on that went as

follows. It was interesting to see, especially

how it progressed over the time. So we had the

2010 to present. It had 10, I believe it was

10 shows total. All of those were in the first

two episodes. So if they were appeared in the

last 15 years, they weren't going to crack the

top 50. They didn't have enough time to do that,

but we did have 10 of them that made it onto

the countdown. Then the 2000s was next with 16

entries. They were spread out pretty evenly.

We had five in the first episode, four. and the

second, four, and the third, and three, and the

last one. So the 2000s were kind of just divvied

up equally amongst the group. 90s, we only had

three of them in the first episode. Then we had

nine in the second, and then 11 in both the third

and the fourth. So they're going to reign supreme

with 34 entries total. 80s was also an interesting

one. Eight in the first episode, only one in

the second, and then seven in the final two.

So they had 22. And then the classics. kind of

evenly spread out five six three and four so

there was 18 of those so 90s reign supreme with

34 then the 80s with 22 then the old classics

with 18 then the 2000s with 16 and then the last

15 years with 10 steve any surprises or did that

go kind of how you expected i mean kind of how

i expected yeah it's yeah i was surprised that

the 90s had an episode where they only had three

and the 80s had an episode where they only had

one just how they're kind of broken down in the

rankings but uh they did obviously reign supreme

but 80s only four more shows in the 80s than

there was in the classics so it was a little

closer than than we had last time that's for

sure and then i know yeah that's different well

i think the difference is we're getting closer

to where and no disrespect to the 80s obviously

i'm an 80s kid but The difference is we're getting

to the point where the 90s is. Obviously, it's

30 years away from where we are now, but it's

going to get closer to the point where it's 40

years away and the 80s is going to be 50 years

away kind of thing. So when the 90s gets to the

point of hitting that 40th anniversary. it's

going to hit nineties kids like Steve, like a

ton of bricks, a lot more. It's kind of like

when the eighties got to the 40th anniversary

of stuff, like right now in 2026, we're celebrating

the 40th anniversary of transformers, the movie,

and it's all, it's hitting all of us like a ton

of bricks kind of thing. So I think that's why

this time around. the 90s reigned supreme and

again like we've mentioned this whole time in

the countdown episodes in the nominee episodes

we had 44 people versus last time where we only

had 20 21 whatever it was i think it was 20 so

we had double the people this time doing so i

think one thing that we've found out through

this countdown is that at least that I think

reveals in the numbers is that 15 years ago,

the classics were already kind of cemented as

the classics, right? So when we're looking to

see like, what's going to these 10 shows that

are going to be entering from the last 15 years,

the likelihood of those taking one of the classic

spots, maybe not as high because they were already

old, right? Like they were already classic. So

like, we're not going to change our opinions

too much on the classics. So for me, those 10

spots have to steal from somebody else. and the

80s makes more sense, I guess, because there

was probably a little bit more biases in there

to steal from the 80s. I don't think you're going

to steal a whole lot from the 2000s because some

of those were just needing a little bit of time,

unless there was a recency bias and somebody

voted on it just because it was current. So I

think it makes sense for those additional shows

to not necessarily take from the classics, but

maybe take more from one of those other time

periods. So eventually you get to the point where

those 18 shows that we included in the... classic

era would probably be relevant and mentioned

almost no matter when we do this and over time

i think that happens to the 80s and the 90s as

well right like the the more the time goes on

i guess you know like a polishing stone or stone

polishing stone or whatever that iron sharpening

iron or whatever you whatever phrase you want

to go like you'll you'll whittle yourself down

to like these are the shows yeah that's one I

haven't heard before, but these are the shows

from the eighties that are like, are just going

to make it no matter what. Right. Like you're

going to have your transformers. You're going

to have your turtles. You're going to have your

duck tails, like whatever those shows are. And

it won't matter when you do this, like those

will appear. And so I think the further you get

away from stuff, maybe the more you end up with

like the best of the best from that era. Yeah.

Yeah. So, um, as far as channels go, obviously

we had more syndicated shows than anything else.

They reign supreme. When it comes to actual channels,

though, I was shocked that ABC was the most represented.

I didn't realize that was a thing. I had no idea

between CBS, NBC and ABC which one had more of

a cartoon presence. But ABC came away with 14

shows. Fox or Fox Kids had 11 and Cartoon Network

had 11 and then down to Nickelodeon and Disney

with eight apiece. Steve, anything surprise you

as far as that goes? No, I mean. I really didn't

expect anything like as far as that. I was more

dialing into the shows. So like, of course, it's

interesting when I hear the metrics on channels

that these actually came from. Yeah. But it's

also like they've all changed so much over the

years because people have bought different ones.

So it's kind of like, what one did that actually

belong to? For sure. No, I totally get that.

And we had five companies that kind of separated

themselves as well. We had Nickelodeon that had

seven shows represented. Marvel had eight, Disney

10, Hanna -Barbera 11, and the WB 12. WB kind

of has a benefit there of not only having some

of those DC shows, but then also having the Animaniacs,

Tiny Toons, Pinky and the Brain, WB shows as

well. So WB edges out Hanna -Barbera by one,

and Hanna -Barbera edged out Disney by one. Mike,

any surprises there? no all right so because

again because again you're you're even though

the reason why it doesn't surprise me is because

wb and hannah barbara were both at the time in

the olden times they were theatrical shorts and

disney when they started doing like the full

-fledged theatrical stuff they shifted their

focus to that like they still did the mickey

shorts and the mickey stuff and the goofy and

then the donald and all that but starting in

37 and going forward the focus was the features

and warner's for the most part for animation

like i don't remember hearing about in the olden

times Full -fledged Warner Brothers animation.

I remember hearing about shorts for Bugs and

Daffy and Porky and everybody. Same thing with,

with Hanna -Barbera. I don't remember, like,

I remember I'm a steely -eyed, blue -eyed stranger.

I remember Huckleberry Hound having like, but

that was, you know, cobbled together kind of

thing. But like, so no, that doesn't surprise

me at all. Because again, that's the classic

era. where Warner Brothers and Hanna -Barbera

are going to edge out Disney on certain things.

Going back just real quick, last thing I want

to just mention on the time period piece, because

that's kind of what we've been talking about.

But the 90s, I think sometimes may get, you know,

you see this list and you see the 90s reign supreme,

you know, quite a few more shows than any other

time period. And you might get some people that

say, you know, 90s nostalgia or what's the age

of the folks involved. and things of that nature

i would say that that's not what happened for

me like yes i will always be an 80s kid and that'll

always be like my generation and then the stuff

that i love to go back to but i don't think 90s

reigning supreme is just a 90s nostalgia thing

or has anything to do with the age of the folks

that were present and taking a part of this poll

the 90s really were unique because Every major

corner of television animation peaked at the

same time. And I'm going to give you guys a rundown.

So you had Disney afternoon reaching its peak

in the nineties. You had Warner brothers having

their television Renaissance in the nineties.

You had Nickelodeon creating Nick tunes in the

nineties. You had cartoon network launching original

programming during this decade. You had Fox redefining

adult animation. You had Marvel television animation

exploding. You had DC creating the animated universe.

And you had anime entering the American mainstream.

No decade before the 90s or since has had all

of those movements happening simultaneously.

So I don't think it's nostalgia. I don't think

it's an age thing. I think it's talking about

a decade that in multiple facets was expanding

and reaching different things. during the 90s

and i don't think that can i don't think anybody

can like really make an argument against that

and i'm just looking at our top 20 hell our top

21 starting with king of the hill going to batman

the animated series in our top 21 of this top

100 there are so many different things and maybe

one or two or maybe 10 of them out of the top

21 might be outside the nineties, but most of

them are inside the nineties in the top 10 alone.

There are one, two, three that I can count without

like actually having to count kind of thing,

uh, that are like designated. technically four

now that i can see south park uh but like designated

90s cartoons that actually start because for

me like turtles i don't count turtles as a 90s

cartoon even though it went into the 90s it started

in 1987 like that's when it started Okay. That

that's how I count something. I don't count something

as a nineties thing. If it started in the previous

decade. Okay. Like the Flintstones started in

the sixties. I don't count it as a seventies

card. You know what I mean? Even though it didn't

last until the seventies, obviously, but like,

you know what I mean? Like, I don't understand

people that will do that. That will say, oh,

well it started. It's a, like if something aired

the first episode. December 31st of 1989 and

then aired all the way up to 1996. Oh, it's a

90s cartoon. No, it's not. It started in the

80s. I still would say that's a 90s cartoon.

Okay, but you know what I mean, though. But you

know what I, you know what, you get what I'm,

you see what I'm saying, though. But like, if

you look at our top 100 countdown this time around,

15th anniversary, 2026 edition, I would say that.

this time around we do have more of a overall

rounded like every era is represented even though

some people might say oh i want just like us

we want this in this number we want this higher

we want this lower it's a really great representation

of of of everything i think Yeah, I think it

goes into some of the arguments that we had or

the debates we talked about. Like, what do you

value? And like some people like myself, you

know, historical foundation or, you know, importance

to like what what they open doors to. I think

we have a good spattering of that, right? We

have the Flintstones and Rocky and Bullwinkle

and Scooby -Doo and Popeye. Obviously, some of

those classic Huckleberry Hound Looney Tunes.

We also have stuff like Space Coast Coast to

Coast, which kind of opened things up for Adult

Swim. And we have Reboot, which was the first

fully CGI television series and things of that

nature. So we have some. historical foundation

shows we have some cultural phenomenon shows

like you know you get into pokemon spongebob

um you get into stuff like south park dragon

ball z family guy sailor moon uh some of those

that are just like you know cultural yeah obviously

our stuff too transformers and turtles and he

-man and gi joe and things like that but they're

just like we're had cultural phenomenons they

became bigger than television right and then

you had shows that like literally changed television

so you think of Simpsons, South Park, those things

changed television. Batman, the animated series

in many ways. You think of Avatar, Animaniacs,

Ren and Stimpy Eye, whatever Mike says, it's

still something that helped change television.

Robot Chicken, things of that nature. You had

superhero animation that got redefined by Batman,

the animated series, X -Men, the animated series,

Justice League, Batman Beyond, Spider -Man, the

animated series, Superman, the animated series,

etc. Children's animation that went to new levels

with a lot of these things. You have shows that

define their generation. So for baby boomers,

you have Looney Tunes, Flintstones, Rocking Bullwinkle,

Yogi Bear, Huckleberry Hound, right? For Gen

X or whatever you want to call it, you have He

-Man, Transformers, G .I. Joe, DuckTales, Scooby

-Doo, Millennials. You have all of the Marvel

and DC things. You have the Animaniacs, Tiny

Toons, Rugrats, Pokemon, Dragon Ball Z, SpongeBob.

And then, you know, for the more modern stuff,

you have stuff like Avatar, Adventure Time, Gravity

Falls, Phineas and Ferb, and Rick and Morty.

You're speaking to a lot of different things.

And another thing that's interesting, and I'll

kind of get your guys' final thoughts, but I

thought it was interesting that if you look across

all of the top 100, it is almost a history of

animated television told through these 100 series.

So if someone watched all 100 shows that we put

on our top 100, they would experience the following

things. The birth of television animation. They

would experience Saturday morning cartoons. They

would experience the rise of the syndicated action

cartoons. They would experience the Disney afternoon

and the Warner Brothers Renaissance. The rise

of Nickelodeon. The originals that came out of

Cartoon Network. Anime's explosion in the West.

Superhero animation's evolution. Rise of adult

animation and some... Really high quality serialized

animation, which kind of changed things across

the industry. So it's not just a ranking of shows.

It really accidentally also tells the story of

how television animation has evolved over nearly

70 years. We planned it the whole time, folks.

We did somehow manage to capture all of that.

Steve, when you look back at kind of what this

list represents, because I think there was a

couple important things that came out. And I

know Dan at one point had said, you know, the

best cartoons of all time. And that's one way

to look at it, right? What are the best cartoons?

I think I have a different approach. I view it

as what are the most important cartoons because

I do put a value in stuff that opened up doors

or had an impact on the industry or different

genres and sub genres, et cetera. So everybody

has a different way of looking at this, but when

you look overall at, you know, this experience

and kind of what we crafted here, with the 100

that we landed on what are your takeaways and

kind of how do you feel about the project overall

i i feel like i i learned something new about

this process every time and and the shows that

are represented just because uh one i i did make

the attempt to watch every single show uh this

time around as opposed to the last time where

i was like i don't know Just because I wanted

to kind of understand it, even if it was like

animation that I hated or I couldn't get into

the art style or the storylines or the voice

acting or, you know, I tried to give all of them

a fair shake of at least three episodes just

to kind of see, you know, what. What the redeeming

qualities are, what the. behind the shows are,

why they're important to animation. Because,

I mean, if you go through this list, say what

you will about any of them. Like, I wouldn't

say it's like the ultimate top 100. No, I would

say it is, as you mentioned, the most memorable

of the animation. And each one of them revolutionized

animation in some different way. Like some of

them brought some specific ounce of something

to the animation sphere. And I mean, if we didn't

have, you know, as it was mentioned, you know,

Tiny Toons and then leading to, you know, animated

Batman, the animated series or, you know, Batman,

the animated series has been kind of the poster

child for every superhero cartoon since. And

they've just one up certain aspects of it. But

each one of these shows. has been not only a

gateway for people getting into animation, but

it's also been something different. Like most

of these, even in the different iterations of

the shows that are represented here, like Dragon

Ball to Dragon Ball Z, they're totally different

styles and tones, but it's the same universe.

You look at Batman, the animated series, and

Superman, and Justice League, and Batman Beyond,

they're all the same universe. different tone

and style to each one of them you know you look

at uh like pretty much any of these shows in

here there's something different to each one

but it's something that causes them to be memorable

and to stand out and i feel like well yes there

are a ton of new cartoons all the time most of

the stuff that's coming out now i don't feel

like has I feel like we hit that that peak in

the 90s and then it's been kind of, you know,

we've had the random hits here or there, you

know, but I feel like that was peak animation.

And now we're kind of like on the downward decline

to where animation is at this like five to six

minute episode thing where it's very low entry.

It's very like placating to trying to get kids

to watch it. But I feel like they've dumbed them

down so much that there's nothing interesting

to the new stuff. Whereas the old stuff, it was

not written totally for kids. It was written

for the people that literally were writing it.

And they hid things in it, yes. But it wasn't

an in -your -face thing that caused the show

to fall apart based on it. But the show persevered

and we ended up with... all of this stuff that

we remember today yeah no i totally agree i i

did throw this into our list overall and the

ai and asked it to you know pressure test us

and tell us how we did and i think it was interesting

the results that it shot back out it said um

it said it could tell or based on the top 100

that voters tried to balance four main criteria

which was historical importance cultural impact

artistic quality and then personal affection

or nostalgia and it says for the most part i

think that succeeded you know batman being number

one tells tells told ai that quality mattered

transformers being in the top 10 told you that

cultural influence and impact mattered flintstones

being in the top 10 you know history mattered

ducktales being in the top five you know nostalgia

and personal affection wasn't ignored said you

know as far as like looking at this overall that

It not only gave us a snapshot of the history

of televisions, but it also made it that there

was an interesting balance between history, artistry,

influence, cultural footprint, nostalgia, and

that it didn't overcorrect or show a bias in

any one particular way. And where it may not

be what some people would say is the best cartoons

list, it is a snapshot of the history of animated

television and more of a consensus. top 100 which

i think is a word that came up multiple times

that we would probably agree with that nobody

got you know uh an extra boost based on one category

or the other it was a more of a consensus look

based on 44 contributors with the various ages

and and experience and things of that nature

so i think we struck a good balance of what could

be seen as a consensus look at like some of the

most important or most relevant cartoons that

have defined a history of animation so i'm pleasantly

surprised with how this uh this went mike any

other thought i think i'm good well that's all

we have if you have more questions about this

countdown and things like that mike will give

you more information on how you can reach out

to us and do stuff like that and and some maybe

some teases along the way mike we got a teaser

for you folks we've been talking behind the scenes

and i did a little math and a little other things

uh around here behind the scenes and i found

out that uh 10 years ago in 2017 because i have

a a master list in a different document because

i keep track of all the top 100s we do and we've

done nine of these as i mentioned earlier in

the show and our 10th top 100 countdown will

be coming up in the summer of 2027 and i looked

at all the ones we did before and in 2017 we

did a top 100 countdown that was very very evil

because we did the top 100 villains and i talked

to steve and i talked to kevin and i'm like what

if we did something heroic let's be heroes And

we talked about it and we talked about it and

we're going to do it in the same way we did this

one. We're going to do nominations like we did

with this. And then where you guys get to vote.

So there'll be nomination episodes and then there'll

be the countdown. So in the summer of 2027 coming

up, the top 100 geek cast radio network, top

100 heroes is coming soon. Anything you'd like

to say, Steve, before I run through the outro?

No, I think I hear a voice or anything. I know

you usually do villains, but. Yeah, I don't have

any heroes off the top of my head right now.

That would be interesting to hear a hero side

of Beast Wars Megatron. Shattered glass. Oh,

yeah. Work on that. oh damn i don't even know

what colors you would be oh wow that that's a

whole idea that's a whole thing for next time

folks all right thanks for joining us if you'd

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GCR 367, all good podcasts go to heaven as long

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I am TF2 and Mike with Steve Megatron and Optimus

Solo. Thank you for listening. And until next

time, unleash the geek in you. What dreams are