Do you remember running into the living room on Saturday mornings when you were little, a bowl of cereal in one hand, a remote in the other? Those were the days. We would sit down and watch our favorite cartoons while acting out episodes with the toys from whatever cartoon was popular at the time. If anybody asked, you would say whatever cartoon you were watching at the time was the greatest one ever made. Then after a year or two you would completely forget about that show. This is a tribute to those forgotten cartoons.
Street Sharks
The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles had their start in the 80′s and became wildly popular. Thus the Street Sharks were born. There were some subtle changes made, in Street Sharks four human brothers were turned into shark-like human mutants rather than four turtle brothers being change into human-like turtle mutants. Also, the Street Sharks totally did not like pizza or know ninja stuff. That was different enough for me as a kid and I immediately went out and got all the Street Sharks toys I could. The Street Sharks would beat the Ninja Turtle toys by virtue of the Ninja Turtles fitting perfectly into the mouths of the Street Sharks. Good planning on that front, Mattel. All in all, the two cartoons were very similar. The Street Sharks spent pretty much every episode stopping an evil scientist from turning everyone into mutants and yelling their catchphrase: “Jawsome!”. Those were the good old days.
Biker Mice from Mars
Biker Mice from Mars was a well thought out show about the danger of corporations spoiling the environment, much like Captain Planet. If you believed that sentence you must not have read the title of the show. Biker Mice from Mars actually did have a touch of environmentalism though, as the mice were trying to stop an evil race of fish people from stealing all of the Earth’s natural resources. Those same fish people had ruined Mars for the mice already, and they weren’t about to let that happen again. Of course I never really noticed that part of the show when I was little. I was far too busy watching aliens who also had robot parts ride awesome motorcycles that could shoot missiles. Now that I think back on it, those bikes couldn’t have been good for the environment. I still want one.
SWAT Kats: The Radical Squadron
Swat Kats took the whole “cool vehicles” theme and ran with it. By day, Chance “T-Bone” Furlong and Jake “Razor” Clawson guarded a dump. By night, they used various items found in the dump to build stealth fighter jets, motorcycles, hovercrafts, and pretty much any other awesome vehicle you could think of. They would then dress up and use these vehicles to stop crime all over Megakat City. What made this show so enjoyable is also what got it canceled. Swat Kats was not afraid to show some cartoon violence as Jake and Chance showed the criminal element the error of their ways. In the end, programmers deemed the violence would make kids like me punch a neighbor in the face or something. Ironically enough that didn’t happen until after Swat Kats was canceled.
Gargoyles
Gargoyles was a hell of a show. It was about gargoyles who were cursed to remain and remained as statues until their castle was rebuilt on the top of a skyscraper. Moving a castle from Scotland to the top of a skyscraper in New York is obviously the best use of somebody’s money. When the gargoyles awoke they got into fights with Xanadu, the obviously evil guy who moved the castle in the first place, and tried to adjust to living in modern day New York. Strangely enough, the Scottish gargoyles didn’t have Scottish accents, which was odd considering where they came. Goliath did have Keith David providing his voice. That beats a Scottish accent any day.
Aaahh! Real Monsters was an interesting show. It followed a group of young monsters living in the sewer and learning how to scare people in a sort of monster school. It was kind of an earlier Monsters, Inc. in that way. It was actually pretty dark for a Nickelodeon kid’s show. One of the monsters would actually pull out her guts to scare children. The headmaster of the monster school would even eat monsters when they failed to scare children, but he’d always spit them out before they got digested. Stern but fair. Aaahh! Real Monsters was on the air for around 3 seasons before Nickelodeon pulled the plug, but it was good while it lasted.
