ArticlesToonsTV

The Ultimate Guide to the Cartoons of the 1980s – Introduction

1980s Cartoons - Introduction

For the longest time I have wanted to write a book completely dedicated to the cartoons of the 1980s. I envisioned this book to be the most comprehensive work on that subject. I spent years pouring over every book I could find about the cartoons of the past including, Hal Erickson’s, Television Cartoon Shows (An Illustrated Encyclopedia: 1949-2003) and Jeff Lenburg’s, Animated Cartoons (The Encyclopedia of).  I even bought every edition of both works. I also started bidding on old editions of TV Guide to verify times and channels in which shows aired. The main difference between these works and what I wanted to do is that they tried to focus on the entire history of cartoons and I wanted to strictly concentrate on the 80s.

For years I was distracted by working on various internet databases that also had a much more broad reach. Recently, I decided that the end goal of getting around to writing an actual book may or may not ever come to fruition. However, in the meantime I could scratch that long time itch by writing ‘chapters’ here on the Geekcast Radio Network.

In the subsequent chapters I will be focusing on one 1980s cartoon at a time, working my way through the entire decade. Instead of going in chronologic or alphabetical order as most other sources do, I will be going through in order of the total number of episodes aired. I will be starting with the fewest number of episodes and working my way to the most. Therefore, there may be quite a few obscure or lesser known titles here at the beginning but as the chapters progress the shows should become more and more well known to the general audience.

This will NOT be just a collection of facts and data that anyone could pull from various internet sources. I will actually be watching EVERY single episode of EVERY single show that I create an entry for. Luckily for me at the beginning that will only require me to watch 5 to 15 episodes a piece. Towards the end, my mission will become much more cumbersome. I do this, because in many of the works I have read and referenced you could tell that the authors may not have had great knowledge of ALL of their entries and I want to attempt to avoid that at all cost. I may not be an expert on every show that becomes a chapter here, but I will do my best to know as much as necessary to do the programs justice. I also will be including as many visual aides as possible, something sorely missing from most reference works and something that effects a nostalgia trip so incredibly. Lastly, I will be including an ‘episode guide’ for each entry where you will be able to read up more on each individual episode. I’ll even be rating each episode along the way.

I hope you will join me and enjoy this trip through one of the greatest decades for cartoons that we have ever had…the 1980s!

Chapter 1: Little Muppet Monsters,  will be out soon!

Show More

Kevin "OptimusSolo"

OptimusSolo is a Cartoon Historian and even has an actual History degree to go with it. He's also an avid Toy collector boasting an over 1,000 piece Star Wars collection and nearly 400 Transformer toys. He is one of the hosts of the Powers of Grayskull series. He also has a passion for cartoon Theme Songs, Star Trek, MacGyver, Baseball, and is a major Movie Geek!

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Back to top button