I have survived Atlanta. It was cooler than here in Alabama, a fact that surprised me but helped me survive seeing The Decemberists outside in July. Misty didn’t kill Eli, Liza, or herself, so overall I count the weekend to be a success. I got home late Sunday afternoon, just in time to play with Eli, eat dinner with Misty, and smell Liza’s head. The baby wash we use makes the top of her head smell like a thousand babies sighing contentedly.
Here’s a random topic that came up this weekend: 1980s cartoons and action shows. What ones do you remember watching? I watched the usual range of action shows — Knight Rider, Airwolf, Magnum P.I. — but as far as cartoons go, I watched some weird ones. The weirdest involved strange talking animals, such as Shirt Tales, but nothing beat Pandamonium for wacked-out cartoon strangeness. See, there’s this mystic pyramid that an evil guy wanted, only it broke into bunches of pieces and fell to Earth. Two kids tried to rescue all of the pieces of pyramid before the evil guy could find them. The kids had help in the form of three talking pandas who could smush together into a single super-panda.
There’s no need to give me that look. Why would I lie to you? Besides, now that YouTube exists, I can prove that the cartoon existed by forcing the opening theme on you.
Not since the heyday of Sid and Marty Krofft was kids’ programming so crazed. Go ahead, I dare you: come up with a stranger cartoon that you watched.
14 Comments
You do realize that we are cynical and jaded and will refuse to believe things merely on principle, even when they have been proven with irrefutable audiovisual evidence?
It’s on YouTube! And Wikipedia! How can it possibly be fake?
Funny… I would have been alive when this was on, and I don’t recall it at all. Go fig.
The thing about the triangle of power… I think this forms the basis of the plot of the South Park episode with Robert Smith.
I remember that. I remember not really getting why we had a giant panda, but it was cool that Americans had a panda.
Shirt Tales was totally awesome.
What was the one with the small fuzzy round things that lived in the giant tree? This is quite possibly not specific enough.
Replying to myself: Skeet on ifMUD has correctly identified my memory as being Monchhichi. I feel peace after all these many years.
I love the shirt tales. My nickname going up was Bogey. I also loved watching Pandamonium too. I guess have a soft stop for cartoons with talking animals.
Did you ever see the Get-along-gang. Very cool 80’s cartoon.
Stephen, you know good and well I could go on for hours about 80’s cartoons and action shows.
I won’t do so, but the post did remind me to go look up one that not everyone at lunch on Sunday remembered.
I give you The Might Orbots. There’s actually another Youtube link that has the long version of both the theme song and the transformation sequence. I’m going to save that for a Sliding Constant post, though. It triggered a lot of thoughts and memories.
Grr. Make that Mighty Orbots.
Then there’s also Automan. I love how Cursor gets a credit.
I also never knew that Desi Arnaz Jr. starred in the show.
treeva: I saw ads for the Get-Along Gang, but never watched it.
Jeff: I watched both The Mighty Orbots and Automan. I remember the SciFi Channel launching with no real content, so they showed episodes of Automan a lot.
The Snorks! I mean, why wouldn’t there be weird little people living in the ocean that have snorkels attached to their heads?
Okay…so for 80’s cartoons:
The ubiquitous Dungeons and Dragons
Fraggle Rock (okay so not technically a cartoon and you had to have HBO but still)
Kwicky Koala
Richie Rich (read the comics too)
Voltron
The Hair Bear Bunch
Foofur (my sister watched it)
The Get Along Gang (again blame my sister)
But nothing..and I do mean nothing can/could/will ever compare to the Krofft Supershow. I mean, come on, you had Kaptain Kool and the Kongs (starring Michael Lembeck and Bert Sommer and Louise Duart) plus Dr. Shrinker, Electra Woman and Dyna Girl (go go Diedre Hall), Wonderbug, Magic Mongo and Bigfoot and Wonderboy.
Plus throw in H.R. Pufnstuf, Land of the Lost, The Bugaloos, Lidsville, Sigmund and the Sea Monsters (excellent Rush cover band btw), Far Out Space Nuts (starring Gilligan), and the Lost Saucer.
Sorry..tangential reference there…I tend to get lost in fond memories thinking about psychotropic drug induced television.
More to the point…there hasn’t been a good new cartoon created since Camp Candy. And Stephen..you KNOW you wated the All New Ewok Adventures..admit it.