Great Cartoons and Kids' Shows

I still watch cartoons. Why not? It’s better than your Simple Life and Flava of Love and Hardball and your pogs and your dern rock music…

(* is exceptional)

Great Cartoons and Kids’ Shows

• Original Looney Tunes*: Oh em gee. I know you don’t remember these being all that good, but do yourself a favor and rent the Golden Collection and refresh your memory. Not only are many of them hilarious, but they are also FAR darker and nihilistic than you thought they were. My favorites are the Wile E. Coyote bits, but Pepe LePew is also humorously dark (did you remember that time he pretends to commit suicide?!), and the ones with the big dog and the cute kitten are adorable and full of humor and emotion. And Bugs Bunny is a dick, but we all knew that.

• Rocky and Bullwinkle, or whatever name it goes by: Everyone is always talking about how great this show is because it mocks the Cold War blah blah blah. Yes. That is true. And it is funny sometimes. But now, as when I was much, much younger, my favorite bits are still “Fractured Fairy Tales” and “Peabody’s Improbable History.” If you watch the show (and you can if you ask me; I own the first season on DVD), you’ll laugh, but mostly you’ll groan. A lot. Boy, do they love their puns. Yeesh. We should get Bullwinkle, Groucho Marx, and Mel Brooks in a tank and shoot them.

• Sesame Street: Why is Sesame Street one of the only bastions of the supposed “liberal media” left? Heh, I said “left.” Cough. Well, anyway, Sesame Street is quite clever sometimes. Watch some, and you’ll notice all the fun and smart parodies they put in so parents who have to watch it ALL DAY LONG don’t kill themselves. If you can, get your hands on the old episodes from the 70’s and 80’s and feel nostalgic. (They’re also better, grumble grumble, dern kids, grumble…)

• Wishbone: I don’t know if you can even watch this anywhere anymore, and the dog is probably dead, now that I think about it (*lip wobble*), but I’m an English major/almost teacher. I have to love this show. Also I love dogs. And Jack Russell terriers in costumes acting out Shakespeare and relating it to real preteen life? Might as well shoot me.

Good Cartoons and Kids’ Shows

• Animaniacs: Well, maybe. Carlos and I have been watching the first season and it’s just not really that funny… On the other hand, we’ve only seen the first three episodes, and it might just be warming up. We have yet to see any Mr. Skullhead or any Chicken Boo, which were two of my favorite segments, and we’ve only seen one Pinky and the Brain and one Slappy the Squirrel segment, which were pretty decent. Unfortunately, the bits with the actual Animaniacs just aren’t that funny. They’re trying to be like the Looney Tunes, but it’s just not working for them. I’ll update after I’ve seen more. But it must be good for kids, ‘cause it was one of my favorite shows as a child.

• Doug: I used to love Doug. It probably was nonsense, though.

• Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends: This show was recently nominated for an Emmy, and for good cause (although the Emmy’s failed this year on many levels). This show, made by the same folks who brought you the Powerpuff Girls, is deviously clever for a kid’s show. It actually airs during prime time hours, which is right for its smarter-than-the average-Saturday-morning-cartoon fare. The characters are all ridiculously imaginative and well-rendered (especially douchebag Bloo—the main character, funnily enough—and crybaby monster Eduardo), and the show is just funny, plain and simple. The animation and music are also really neat, as an added plus. I should watch the new episodes. It may be one of the greats.
  

• Ghostwriter: My absolute favorite show when I was, like, ten. Man. I would be so excited Sunday nights when Ghostwriter was on. Yeah, I know the child acting was horrendous, and the mysteries were lame…but… Damn it! He helped kids by reading! That’s awesome! Screw you! I’m grabbing a train to Fort Greene and Jamal and Gaby (the original) and Lennie and the rest will tell you what’s what! (Word.)

• Pinky and the Brain: See Animaniacs. Hell, I remember it being great… I’ll tell you after I watch more if our collective memories have failed.

• The Powerpuff Girls: Clever and cute, PPG is great fun for little girls who need role models who blow things up. And the Professor is adorable. Wonder if he has a girlfriend…

• Recess: One of those ABC Disney Saturday morning-ers from a few years back, so it should have sucked. But the characters and plots were interesting, if not incredibly creative. I dunno; something clicked for me. It kinda has a Doug-ish feel. Kinda.

• Rocko’s Modern Life: My favorite of the ye olde Nick Toons, and it’s impressive I ever got to watch these things since our family didn’t get cable till I was in high school. Rocko is quite trippy and all Australian and just bizarre. Now you see why I liked it?

• Schoolhouse Rock: Oh, nostalgia. And I wasn’t even born when they first came out! Some are better than others (that is, the history ones over the grammar ones). Is it sad to you that cartoons aren’t as educational today?

• Spongebob Squarepants: Speaking of cartoons that aren’t educational… But I won’t lie. Spongebob is wildly fun. I know. You think it’s crap. I think it’s postmodern silliness of the highest caliber. You say tomato, I say tomato… Also, I just looked up the show on IMDB, and apparently Spongebob was born in 1986. Why is that creepy to me? It’s like when I found out Keira Knightley is younger than me or that Mischa Barton is around my age and bought a mansion for her mother.

• Square One: Super sweet! Wow. I used to think math was fun. Damn you, Yale!
  
  
• Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?: Noticing that most of the good kids’ shows were on PBS? Where are the good PBS shows? Where?