15 Amazing Forgotten Cartoons From The 80s (2024)

It's hard to imagine a time when kids didn't have access to whole apps' worth of cartoon programming at their fingertips. However, back in the 80s, that was exactly the case. If a kid wanted to watch their favorite cartoons, they'd have to wake up early on Saturday mornings and sit in front of the TV to catch the,

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Throughout the 80s, networks would throw a variety of shows out there to see what worked – the resulting success spawning similar shows. Many of these shows also spawned franchises that have lasted decades. Conversely, other shows were gone way too soon, and forgotten from popular culture.

15 M.A.S.K.

2 Seasons, 75 Episodes (1985-86)

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Many 80s cartoons were reverse-engineered from ideas for toy lines. M.A.S.K. is one such show. Developed by DIC and Kenner, the series is about a special task force called the Mobile Armored Strike Kommand. Together, M.A.S.K. squares off against the Vicious Evil Network of Mayhem, aka V.E.N.O.M.

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The gimmick with this show was that the members of M.A.S.K. all wore masks. The series was a blatant cash grab, playing ripping off G.I. Joe and Transformers in equal parts. Still, the series had ridiculous action, interesting costumes, and plenty of mindless fun for children of all ages. Unfortunately, the series only ran from 1985 to 1986.

14 Silverhawks

1 Season, 65 Episodes (1986)

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Coming hot off the heels of the success of Thundercats, series creators Rankin and Bass decided to tweak their formula slightly and create Silverhawks. Instead of following catlike humanoid aliens, the series follows a group of humans from the far future, who fight space-based battles against various foes in their shiny, winged metallic suits.

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The characters are described as “partly metal, partly real,” and fight an escaped alien mob boss who turns into a hulking armored character named Mon*Star. While most of the Silverhawks had wings and could fly, one of the crew, Lt. Colonel Bluegrass didn’t have wings. Instead, he fought enemies with his weapons, a super-powered guitar and a lasso. Silverhawks only lasted once season, but lasted for 65 episodes. There was also a Marvel-produced comic book series, and a full toy line, which was very popular with kids.

13 RoboCop: The Animated Series

1 Season, 12 Episodes (1988)

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It’s hard to believe that TV executives watched RoboCop and thought that the film would make a great kids' show, but that’s exactly what happened in 1988. What’s incredible about RoboCop: The Animated Series is just how much of the film makes its way into the cartoon.

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The show begins, not with a catchy rock song, but with a 30-second recap of the film, complete with explaining to young children how Alex Murphy is “mortally wounded” by a group of criminals. The series doesn’t show the gruesome murder, but the intro does show the criminals open fire on Murphy. Heavy stuff for kids! Much like the movie, the show delved into some political commentary, such as racial issues, environmental issues, and peace in the Middle East. Unsurprisingly, the series only lasted 12 episodes.

12 Dino-Riders

1 Season, 14 Episodes (1988)

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Dino-Riders has the distinction of having one of the more difficult to explain premises on the list. The series is about a group of people called the Valorians who are engaged in a war with the Rulons. The Valorians, who are basically humans, are fleeing from the Rulons, a group of grotesque aliens, when the Valorians use their “S.T.E.P. crystal” and are taken back in time 65 million years to pre-historic Earth. There, the Valorians use their AMP necklaces to befriend the dinosaurs and combine forces to battle the Rulons. The Rulons, instead, use “brain boxes” to brainwash other dinosaurs to fight for them. So, basically, lots of super-powered dinosaurs fighting.

The series only lasted 14 episodes, but did spawn multiple, successful toy lines, as well as, a miniseries from Marvel Comics. The series still lives on with fans, with shout-outs in South Park and Robot Chicken. There were also rumors in 2015 that Mattel was going to attempt to create a film based on Dino-Riders, but no news has come out since then.

11 BraveStarr

1 Season, 65 Episodes (1987-88)

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Not too many people know that BraveStarr technically started as a spinoff of the animated Ghostbusters series in 1986. When the writers of Ghostbusters created the character Tex Hex, they decided to create a series around the character instead of using him in Ghostbusters, and thus, BraveStarr was born.

The series tells the story of New Texas, a planet almost 2000 light-years from Earth, where BraveStarr and his trusty horse, Thirty/Thirty, protect citizens from the evil Stampede and his sidekick, Tex Hex. The show only lasted only a single season, but produced 65 episodes. Each episode features a moral at the end, similar to He-Man and the Masters of the Universe.

10 Defenders Of The Earth

1 Season, 65 Episodes (1986-87)

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Defenders of the Earth featured the titular super-team, comprised of Flash Gordon, The Phantom, Mandrake the Magician, and Lothar, Mandrake’s super-strong sidekick, as they fought a green-skinned version of Ming the Merciless.

Perhaps worried that the series featuring heroes from another generation wouldn’t appeal to children, the Defenders also had four young teens helping the main four heroes. Each teen was the child of one of the main four Defenders. Ming the Merciless also favored nepotism by having his son fight by his side. The series only lasted for one season.

9 The Legend Of Zelda

1 Season, 13 Episodes (1986)

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The Legend of Zelda animated series was released in 1989 and based on the video game of the same name. The series follows our hero, Link, as he teams with Princess Zelda to defend Hyrule from the evil Ganon. Unfortunately, the series wasn’t just a retelling of the first game. Instead it had all the same issues that most cartoons of the era had, complete with Link having his own signature catchphrase. “Well, excuuuuuuuuse me, Princess!” rendered Link a bit whinier and more obnoxious than his video game coutnerpart.

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However, the series also gave Princess Zelda a chance to shine. She was given a bow and arrow and she routinely fought alongside Link. The series only lasted 13 episodes, at 15 minutes a piece.

8 Snorks

4 Seasons, 65 Episodes (1984-89)

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The most popular show on this list (based on number of seasons), but still forgotten by most everybody, is “Snorks.” Lasting a total of four seasons, the show was just never able to reach the popularity if its sister-show, “The Smurfs.” The similarities between the two shows are pretty obvious. “Snorks” is about a group of a small race of beings living in Snorkland with snorkels on their heads, which they use to travel around. Take away the snorkels on their heads, and the Snorks are pretty much the same as the Smurfs, just underwater.

It’s clear that Hanna-Barbera, the creators of both shows, phoned it in with “Snorks.” Every aspect of the show is just inferior to “The Smurfs,” and it’s not like “The Smurfs” is Emmy-worthy television to begin with. From character designs to the writing of the show, “Snorks” was clearly just a cash grab for Hanna-Barbera and NBC. You can’t blame 80s kids for completely forgetting this series.

7 Challenge Of The GoBots

2 Seasons, 65 Episodes (1984-85)

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A series about two warring factions of transforming robots that’s not called “Transformers.” Welcome to “Challenge of the GoBots!”

The “Transformers rip-off” as most people know it as is about the good robots from the planet Gobotron named the Guardians as they battle the Renegades. Unlike the Transformers, these factions didn’t have any distinguishing marks in the TV show. There wasn’t a cool symbol for each, as seen in “Transformers,” and the character designs all looked the same, which caused confusion among viewers.

However, that didn’t stop Hanna-Barbera from pushing these robots for two seasons and a movie. Yes, just like “Transformers,” the GoBots were featured in a movie, released the same year as “Transformers: The Movie,” called “GoBots: Battle of the Rock Lords.” You may be let down to know that this movie doesn’t have the GoBots crossing over with late 80s rockstars. Instead, the film has them interact with transforming rocks. Yes, transforming rocks.

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Eventually the feud was put to rest when Hasbro decided to buy Tonka, who created the failing property, in 1991 and Transformers canon was updated to show that the GoBots lived in an alternate universe.

6 Popples

2 Seasons, 44 Episodes (1986-87)

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The only series on this list based on an idea inspired by rolling up socks (literally), “Popples” is the pseudo-adorable series about teddy bear-like animals that roll up into little pouches on their backs. The show follows these Popples as they interact with neighborhood kids and convince the kids to get into all kinds of mischief. Of course, everything works out in the end, but the children hide the existence of the Popples from any adults.

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The Popples’ pouches aren’t just for rolling into and turning into a ball. These pouches are also used as a way for Popples to store anything they want. They can literally pull anything out of these pouches, no matter the size. In one of the episodes, when a child looks into the Popples’ pouch, it’s shown that inside their pouches are objects floating in a void. That’s enough to give little kids some nightmares.

5 Mister T

3 Seasons, 30 Episodes (1983-86)

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Bookended by live-action segments featuring the man himself, Mister T was about Mr. T, the coach of a gymnastics team. They would travel all over and solve mysteries; something along the lines of Scooby-Doo.

It’s still unknown why anyone thought that it would be a natural fit for fictional Mr. T to be the coach of a gymnastics team, but that didn’t stop the series from being successful. Surprisingly, the series was a hit, lasting a total of three seasons from 1983 to 1986 on NBC.

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4 Denver The Last Dinosaur

2 Seasons, 50 Episodes (1988)

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Denver the Last Dinosaur was about as 80s as the 1980s could get. Featuring a group of California teens that discover and hatch the last dinosaur egg, these kids teach the dinosaur, Denver, all the best parts of life in the 80s, like skateboarding and wearing super cool sunglasses.

In addition to riding a skateboard and getting into trouble, Denver also had a piece of his shell that, when used, would allow himself and his friends to go back in time to pre-historic Earth. The series came about in a time when cute dinosaurs were all the rage. Unfortunately, the series only lasted two seasons.

3 COPS

1 Season, 65 Episodes (1988-89)

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Not to be confused with the 1989 reality series of the same name, COPS tells the story of a futuristic group of super-cops who protect Empire City from "Big Boss" Babel and his gang known as the CROOKS.

The Central Organization of Police Specialists, aka Cops, have more in common with superheroes than with everyday police officers. Each member of COPS had a unique ability, including their leader Bulletproof, with a cybernetic torso that made him actually bulletproof. The CROOKS also had special abilities, like Buttons Mc BoomBoom, who also had a cybernetic torso. However, his torso concealed twin machine guns. COPS only lasted one season, but also had a 15-issue comic series published by DC.

2 The Centurions

2 Seasons, 65 Episodes (1986)

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With concepts and design work by comic book legends Gil Kane and Jack Kirby, The Centurions should've been a major success. There were even episodes written by none other than Gerry Conway. Unfortunately, the series failed to be the success that anyone had hoped it would be.

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The Centurions tells the story of a group of heroes known as the Centurions that shout “PowerXtreme” and turn into half-mech, half-human weapons and fight the evil Doc Terror and his drones. Instead of working with cheaper animation houses like much of the 80s cartoon fare at the time, The Centurions was animated by Sunrise, known for Gundam, Cowboy Bebop, and a ton of other series.

1 Dinosaucers

1 Season, 65 Episodes (1987)

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In Dinosaucers, four teens meet a heroic intergalactic group of anthropomorphic dinosaurs named the Dinosaucers. Together, they wage an ages-old war against a group of evil anthropomorphic dinosaurs known as the Tyrannos.

As absurd as the premise is, Dinosaucers was created by Michael E. Uslan, the producer of the live-action

As silly as the premise sounds, Dinosaucers was created by none other than Michael E. Uslan, better known as a producer of Tim Burton's live-action Batman. The series shares a strong resemblance with Transformers, with its warring factions of aliens from a distant world. The series only lasted one season, but stands out from the rest of the lost 80s cartoon crowd with its lack of toy line.

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15 Amazing Forgotten Cartoons From The 80s (2024)
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