Ha, I didn't know about Urkel doing the voice until years later. By the early 90's I was becoming a teenager, so I wasn't really watching as many cartoons that weren't X-Men or Spider-Man, I still knew of them because they were shows that were on while I patiently waited each Saturday morning, but they weren't things I watched weekly.

Like Eek! the Cat. It wasn't something I watched often, but my wife is a couple years younger than me so it's something she remembers fondly. Over a decade ago I bought a couple custom DVDs from an online seller who had a bunch of 80's and 90's cartoon Christmas episodes you could mix and match, and the Eek the Cat Christmas special was one I included for her. My choices were a little bit older, Ziggy's Christmas, The Raccoons, Chrsitmas Comes to Pacland, etc.

Kumbaya, indeed!(That was Eeks catchphrase)

Cartoon #2 was Dungeons & Dragons. I always thought it ran one season because I don't remember too many episodes but looking at the wikipedia page it ran 3 full seasons on CBS from 1983-1985. There was a toy line by LJN that came out at the same time but weirdly didn't include any of the main characters from the cartoon. I remember a few of them, most noticeaby Grimsword who I always thought was cool looking even though I didn't know his name back then (I would've been 5 or 6) but he was a just a random villain amongst my other action figures.

Anyway, I remember this cartoon relatively well. I could tell you what it was about, but like most great cartoons, the intro does the job for me...



Basically a group of friends got transported to the land of D & D and spent episodes trying to find a way home.

I liked this show. I think it ran around the same time as Spiderman and His Amazing Friends on NBC which is why I didn't always catch it. I think Cartoon Network or Hub ran reruns a few years back, but I know the whole series is available on DVD as I've seen them at Walmart over the years. Worth a watch though.

Bueller?...Bueller?...Bueller?

Is this thing on? Does anyone care? Oh, well, I like reminiscing so I'll just keep doing these for my own fun.

Cartoon #3 is, of course, Dynomutt, Dog Wonder. This is one of my favorite cartoons even though it originally aired a couple years before I was even born, as part of a the Scooby Doo/Dynomutt Hour on ABC in 1976-77. By the time I was around it aired as part of the USA Cartoon Express, which for anyone that doesn't know, was a couple hours long block that aired on the USA Network in the 80s on weekday evenings, Saturday evenings, and Sunday mornings showcasing all different kinds of Hanna Barbera cartoons, and you never really knew what was next, it could go from Grape Ape to Inch High Private Eye, to Dynomutt.



But enough about that, let's talk Dynomutt! I loved this cartoon so much that I made a Blue Falcon and Dynomutt customs several years ago.
https://www.figurerealm.com/customfigur ... w&id=70843

And it also had one of the best intros...


He's a go go dog person! How the hell did this cartoon only last 20 episodes???? Anyway, Dynomutt was a robotic sidekick to a Batman like crime fighter who fought crime in Big City. Except Dynomutt is a bungling sidekick but somehow everything still works out in the end. Loaded with some great villains like Fishface, Mr. Cool, Lowbrow, and Madame Ape Face, who used a device to steal the pretty faces of celebrities leaving them looking like the Super Adaptoid, it's definitely a cartoon worth checking out.

It even had a short-lived Marvel Comic, of which I own the first issue of!


Hey BF, someone talk to me! In recent years he's seen a bit of a revival having appeared in two feature length Scooby Doo videos, Scooby Doo! The Mask of the Blue Falcon (2013) which I really liked, and Scoob! (2020) which wasn't as good, despite also having Dick Dastardly and Muttley in it.

Seriously, if you're here because you love superheroes and you've never seen this show you're doing yourself a disservice.

AcidDragon wrote:Don't forget FILMATION'S Ghostbusters.

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Futura-2.jpg

Ok, this'll be the first one I'll talk about and this escaped My mind because there is so much. I liked this one and it had its moments but I always preferred the Real Ghostbusters because I loved the move but really just could get into this new type of show. I do regret being like and not giving it a bigger chance and not getting the figures. With that being said and faves aside, this was really a great part of 80s cartoons and arguably one of the most unusual entries of all the classics!

I never watched much of Ghostbusters. I remember it was on weekdays on ch 11 around here, WPIX out of NYC. Actually, I never watched The Real Ghostbusters much either back in the day. Most of the Saturday cartoons I watched were on NBC or CBS, Spiderman, Gummi Bears(except the last year was on ABC), Thundar, Alvin and the Chipmunks, Smurfs, Snorks, etc. were on NBC while CBS was pretty strong with Muppet Babies, Pee Wee's Playhouse, Garfield and Friends, and Rock n Wrestling. ABC always kind of felt old and stale to me with Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, Bugs/Road Runner Show (Looney Tunes were on weekday mornings all the time so why watch on Sat?), Snoopy, Richie Rich, Gilligan's Planet (really?), etc. It felt like your parents cartoon channel. Though I did really love The Flintstone Kids, A Pup Name Scooby Doo, and The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh on ABC, but those were more late 80's. i guess the Real Ghostbusters were mid to late 80's as well, but I just didn't watch much ABC. And I remember it being in syndication for a while weekday afternoons as well, but it just wasn't a show I was ever drawn to. Never really owned any of the toys, either.

I actually never had a chance to watch the D&D cartoon until the 2000s. I'm sure it aired but I just didn't know about it. I would definitely have loved it back then.

Cartoon #4 is the stuff of nightmares...



1983 ABC Network Meeting:

Boss: "So what kind of cartoons can we make this year?"
Suit 1: "Well, Knight Rider is big, kids seem to love talking cars."
Suit 2: "Well, boss, these transforming toys in Japan are all the rage."
Boss: "How about a cartoon where a kid can transform into a talking car?"
Suit 1: "That's brillaint, boss!"
Suit 2: "Pass the dutchie 'pon the left hand side."

And thus, in 1984, Turbo Teen was born. Teenager Brett Mathews sucks at driving (probably speeding, lord knows he wasn't texting, maybe he was drinking?) during a storm and swerves off the road crashing into a government lab. I mean, jeezus, how fast was that dude going? Anyway, he drives right into an experimental laser that doesn't vaporize him or give him amazing stretching abilities (or maybe it kind of did?) but instead fuses him and his car together (this was two years before Jeff Goldblum's jaw fell off in The Fly remake). What exactly were they trying to make with their experiments? Who knows, kid. It's science. Vroom vroom.



Now, whenever he gets really hot, like when he swipes his dads nudey mags (my assumption, this does not occur on screen) he transforms into his car in an animation sequence you can't unsee once seen (suck on that Belloq!). How does he transform back? Well, he has to cool down by doing things like driving through a car wash, silly, or think about his 70 year old teacher Mrs. Langford stripping (again, my assumption). It's all science, dummy.



So what's a teen to do when something unfortunate like this occurs? Why, gather up your best girl who's a reporter of course, his BF who's a mechanic of course, and his dog who's a dog of course, and fight crime! How does he fight crime?Well, forget that, did I mention he turns into a smoking hot car? Vroom vroom! There's also a monster truck villain, kids love monster trucks, named the Dark Rider who is after Turbo Teen because he wants to be able to transform into a monster truck or something? I don't know. Nevermind, kids. Did I mention it was a monster truck? Crush crush. Imagine if the military got a hold of this technology! But hey, the Dark Rider was voiced like Dr. Claw by Frank Welker! But what cartoon hasn't Frank Welker voiced a character in? In fact, Webster's Dictionary defines cartoon as "any animated program containing a voice by Frank Welker", or maybe it doesn't. Give me a minute to edit the Wikipedia page and it will.



Did Dr. Chase ever find a cure for Turbo Teen? Who knows, the show only lasted one gloriously horrifying 13 episode season on ABC (possibly another reason why I watched NBC and CBS more). I think TT just moved to Alaska where he opened up a frozen foods company with Victor Fries. But vacations to Florida are nuts! I think I saw this more on the Cartoon Express then when it actually aired. Turbo Teen was never high on my list. Serioulsy though, how fast was he going on that turn? Yeah, it was downhill but dude was like ten feet in the air still when he crashed through that giant WOODEN door, nice security you guys have there. "No one will ever suspect we're running top secret experiments behind this old barn door!"

Yeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaah, were gonna do experiments
behind this old barn door
gonna make a ride that can transform...CRASH!



Even Colt Seavers was impressed by that car jump. Hey hey.

So go watch full episodes on Youtube, or don't. It's not really that great. I mean, he transformed into a car, it's not like he could do something really cool like transform into all different kinds of animals.

"Hey, that was our idea!"--Glen A. Larson.

LOL. Another cartoon I've never seen growing up. This one is crazy.

This reminds me of when Bender became a werecar on Futurama!

Like I said, the stuff of nightmares!