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Listening to: Ray Parker Jr's - "Ghostbusters" From the Ghostbusters Original Soundtrack
Weather: Stinkin' hot (peaked at 79 degrees!) and it's January for goodness sake!

There is something about cartoons that just sums up the 80's for me.  Though there are some stellar cartoons today (Spongebob is a great one) that instill the same silly somewhat innocent spirit, there just really is no substitute for the great tv that is the 80's cartoons...so here are ten of my favorite, and my ultimate favorite cartoon of all time...

 
He-Man: Masters of the Universe (1983-1987) and She-Ra: Princess of Power (1985-1986)
Spirit Unicorn, Cringer Tiger...the two coolest animals ever.  Twin siblings Adam and Adora (aka He-Man and She-Ra) spend their existence trying to maintain peace on their respected planets against their respected bad dudes...I went to Universal Studios when I was oh maybe about 6?  And there was this buff dude dressed as He-Man and he let me try to hold up his Sword of Power...I think I might have passed out that I was standing next to the immortal hero of all time.  That was the coolest moment ever...second was when I got to talk to KIT the car from Knightrider on the same trip.  Though, why is He-man look like he had one of those fake Hollywood spray tans?

 
Beverly Hills Teens (1986-1987)
Okay so technically this show was wack...spoiled rich Beverly Hills teenagers who for the most part are pretty nice ride around in a crazy stretched limo that has a hot tub in the back...led by Lark and her boy toy Troy, (I hated Lark by the way I liked Blaze the horse riding one) they went through life and as usual faced schemes by raven-haired Bianca, the usual vixen/bad guy of each episode and her bumbling dutiful servant Winston.  I don't know why they thought a story about rich spoiled teenagers would EVER make good money...what a dumb concept!  Ahem, cough cough...

 
The World of David the Gnome...only twenty-six episodes! 1988
 The voice of David The Gnome was none other than Mr. Cunningham, Tom Bosley, from Happy Days didn't know that...also didn't know that Christopher Plummer narrated it!  What a classy show!  And it only lasted one year?  The world wasn't and in my opinion never will be ready for a show like this...a show that promotes environmentalism, animals, etc...oh that's right kids today prefer blowing up stuff or animals that pop out of a ball to fight with...

  
The Real Ghostbusters 1986-1991
 With the popularity of the movies, of course the next logical thing is to make a cartoon right?  And don't forget the cereals and me and my sister's favorite, the Ecto Cooler flavored Hi-C.  You were considered one cool dude if you went to school with this in your lunch box/bag.

 
Rainbow Brite 1984-1986 but only 13 episodes: Twink

lunch box/bag.  My grandmother still has our Rainbow Brite doll...unfortunately we lost our Indigo doll, and our Twinks dolls (you know those cute furry things) but at least the Rainbow one has survived and will be a memento of remembering that a world with color is always better than a world without one.

 
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1987-1996
Talk about a successful franchise...cereals, fruit snacks, and of course the standard action figures...and I just found out that the voice of Shredder the evil guy with the weird metal dentist mask over his face was voiced by none other than James Avery, aka Uncle Phil from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.  I don't know about you guys but the cool meter of this show just rose that much higher...

  
Smurfs 1981-1990
Ah the Smurfs...my older cousin who lived with us for awhile once took these three crab apples, piled them up on each other and said, hey this is how tall a Smurf is!  I freaked out imagining a hundred of those living in a mushroom village and have never been able to look at them the same since...and a CGI movie coming out later this year?  We'll see how that works out.

 
Garfield and Friends 1988-1994 Heathcliff 1984-1988
These two cartoons focused mainly on cats...which I actually don't really love...like the amiable ones are cute but my allergy to most cats tends to put me off...but what's weird is the Catillac Cats on the Heathcliff cartoon...a curvy sexy cat named Cleo, the others kinda acting like pimps...it's weird that in hindsight they were such adultish characters...but it was entertaining and Heathcliff walking with that plate of fish always made me laugh...though today, I prefer the Garfield comics over Heathcliff...
 
Care Bears 1985-1988
I love the Care Bears...was shocked to find out that they and Strawberry Shortcake were American Greetings characters and that Rainbow Brite was a Hallmark character...I also found out that Tenderheart Bear, the lead brown one, and the Raccoon were voiced by the same woman who voiced Rudolph in those claymation movies!  The trivia I'm learning is so enriching!

 
Jem and the Holograms 1985-1988
Jem is the precursor to any Hannah Montana type of show we ever dreamed of...and infinitely cooler than anything else ever brought to television...no exaggeration...that pink hair, the weird pink eyeshadowblush thing...and what was with the boyfriend thing?  It was weird...

AND FOR THE GREATEST 80'S CARTOON EVER!
EVER!!!!!!


 
Voltron: Defenders Of The Universe: 1984-1985
 Somehow by some unbelievably remarkably dumb luck and probably some dumb people, this show only lasted a year...there have been many times where they tried bringing it back, even in CGI form but it just didn't seem to have staying power...so tell me this: how the HECK did a show like Power Rangers become the biggest thing to hit since oh I don't know, The Beatles, when it was a way less cooler premise of Voltron?  Seriously beats me...and don't think I'm a freak but I had a major crush on the blue one...I still do...and apparently there are talks of a real-live movie in the works...Transformers has turned out pretty well, I hope this one does too, it deserves so much more attention and hype than it's been given...

So please...don't go out Thundercat oh-ohing to the horror of your neighbors, and please don't throw self-destructing notes at your boss because you are a weird trench coat wearing klutz with a hand coming out of your hat...but anyone who says that the Ipad or any other Tablet is cooler than Penny's computer book is seriously and sincerely delusional...

Tomorrow, the last 80's January blog...topic?

MOVIES!