My Favourite Childhood TV Shows

I don't know what to say about this show. It's the best thing ever. I loved it as a kid, and even now as an adult I look back at when it was at its peak and revel in how perfect it was.

Technically not a television series, but animated shorts. Growing up in the 1990s meant that I was able to to view TV shows that showed these old 1950s classics, so I'm going to include it on here. I loved all the characters, but I was obsessed with Bugs Bunny the most. These were the definitive cartoons in my opinion.

Disney were going through an animation renaissance in cinemas during the early 1990s, and their television cartoons were at their peak as well. Darkwing Duck, by far their best cartoon, would air in Australia on Saturday mornings and some of my best memories included me getting up early and watching this over a bowl of cereal. It was a parody of Batman, but to me it was just awesome in its own right. "Let's get dangerous".

Like most kids at the time, I was really into the Turtles. It was a really silly and ridiculous concept, but we didn't care. It was great fun. And like most kids, I had the toys. They were great!

Everyone at my school was into this show. It would air in the afternoon and so after school everyone would watch this, and then talk about it the next day. It had a good message for kids, and I suppose pointed us in the right direction of being aware of the environment. But we just loved the concept of these 5 teens summoning a superhero with their awesome magic rings.

After the two Tim Burton Batman films, this animated series was released. Like the films it was dark and brooding and actually quite sophisticated for a cartoon series. Not long after there were a string of animated superhero series like X-Men, Superman and Spider-Man. Although I love those shows,none could quite match Batman's quality. Every kid loved Batman in the early 1990s, and this was a major reason why.

I was a massive Looney Tunes nut as a young child, so naturally I took to this right away. I loved it. Even though it was a different take on the Looney Tunes, being a fresh, updated version with the characters being the next generation of Looney Tune stars, it still maintained the classic insane humour of the Looney Tunes.

Blinky Bill is a classic children's character in Australian literature, but I only really knew the 1990s television version. He was mischievous and smart-alecky, but ultimately would do the right thing in the end, somewhat like a marsupial Bart Simpson. Blinky Bill was huge for those who grew up in Australia during the 1990s.

Like Captain Planet, it had an educational message for kids to look after and maintain the environment. But what really appealed to me were the fun characters, and the cool spaceships and alien technology. Widget's watch was awesome, and I loved that Widget could shape shift.

Gumby was awesome. Like Widget, I loved that he could shape-shift, although I was more of a Pokey or Prickle fan. There were two versions of this show, and I watched both. Naturally, I liked the fun, action-packed 1988 version more than the weird, creepy and uncomfortable 1950s version...

The 1960s Hannah Barbera cartoons got a lot of airtime in the 1990s, and I was really into them. Yogi Bear was my favourite character.

I loved the gang, and I loved trying to solve the mystery (Spoiler alert: The villain was always the character they met at the start of the episode). Everyone knows Daphne was hot but rarely solved anything, Velma was nerdy but solved most of the mysteries, Freddy was the leader and would always pair off with Daphne, and Shaggy and Scooby just stole the show.

The best thing about this show was the clever way they would make pre-historic related things like dinosaurs and rocks, and turn them into modern day-like appliances. Oh, and the catchy theme song.

The series followed the concept of 'Who Framed Roger Rabbit?' by having toons live among humans, except the show was completely animated, so it was a tad strange. Nonetheless it was really fun. Bonkers and Lucky were not your ordinary buddy-cops.

Yes, here's another Disney animated show from the early 1990s, but damn it they had some great ones back then. TaleSpin was great because they used the classic characters from The Jungle Book and gave them a anthropomorphic setting. Baloo is a pilot and Shere Khan is a business tycoon. It was great fun. My dad loved this show, and would watch it and laugh with me on Saturday mornings.

And yet another 1990s Disney cartoon. The classic Disney duo got an updated, kick-ass version of themselves in the early 1990s where they would solve crimes and save the innocent. And how about that awesome theme song? One of Disney's best.

I don't know what to say, but... this was one messed up show. I loved it.

Cartoon Network had some goodies during the mid-1990s, and Dexter's Lab was one of their best. An American kid, with an inexplicable German accent, had a secret Laboratory hidden behind the bookshelf in his room. This was awesome.

I remember thinking that this show was just going to appeal to girls, but it turned out to be a really ridiculously hilarious show, spoofing classic Superheroes. The villains were great, the narrator was funny as hell, and the Powerpuff Girls themselves would do massive damage to the city in their attempts to save it. I'm glad I gave it a chance after thinking I would hate it.

Probably one of the first Nikolodean cartoons I got into. It was cute and funny. Everyone loved the kids but personally I always thought the adults were the best characters, especially Stu and Drew.

Yeah, like most kids during the latter years of the 1990s, I got into Pokemon. It just became this massive phenomenon. It's crazy how big this got. In the school yard, everyone would bring their gameboys to school and play Pokemon. The TV show was pretty good. I think it may have been the first Anime I got into. I watched some Astro-Boy when I was younger, but I wasn't into it like this.

Followed a similar formula to Sylvester and Tweety/Speedy Gonzales, or Coyote and the Roadrunner so it very much appealed to me, even though the Looney Tunes were way better.

I loved cartoon ducks, there were a lot of them at the time. Monsters and horror were appealing for young boys as well. Count Duckula fit right in.

This came out while I was in the latter years of Primary School. It painted an image in my head of what High School was going to be like.

There are a few really messed-up cartoons on this list, and here is one of them.

Even though this was one of the earlier Disney cartoons, harking back to the mid-'80s, I probably didn't get into it until the re-runs of the mid-to-late '90s. It was actually a really good show. Great characters, silly moments meshed into some epic stories.

'Aladdin' was one of my favourite movies when it came out. A few years later the sequel, 'The Return of Jafar', was released and kickstarted a spin-off television series. I loved the series, it was awesome. I was happy to see the Aladdin story continue.

Much like 'The Flintstones', except set in the future rather than pre-historic times. Although it was a 1960s series it got plenty of air-time on Agro's Cartoon Connection during breakfast. The Jetsons Movie was released in 1990 so it certainly had a presence during my childhood.

I watched a lot of Babar as a child. Looking back at it now, it was really quite good.

Spinning off from 'The Animaniacs', this cartoon about two mice who plot to take over the world kept with the insane humour from not only 'The Animaniacs', but also Warner Bros. cartoons of the past, like 'The Looney Tunes'.

Yeah, another really messed up show. I didn't fully appreciate it as a child, even though I did like it. I enjoy it more so now as an adult though.

After the success of 'Batman: The Animated Series", Warner Brothers then tried to do the same thing with Superman. It was a great result. I was a Superman fanboy as a kid so I really got into this show.

Although I was into Batman and Superman more, X-Men was a great animated superhero series. There was a diverse range of characters. I loved Gambit and Beast, but Wolverine was definitely my favourite. He was just bad-ass. I'm proud to say I still have this show on VHS.

Yeah animated superhero series were a hit in the 1990s. This was the show that got me into Spider-Man. At one stage he even surpassed Batman and Superman as my #1 superhero. This was partly because I felt sorry for him because he didn't have a movie and the other two did, but it was mainly because I had stopped watching at least the Batman series and my attention turned to Spidey in this series. He was cocky, but still kicked arse. I also loved Venom, what a great villain! Anyway, it wasn't long until my short attention span made me miss the Bat...

This was one of those shows I would catch after school on ABC as part of their ABC Kids arvos. I liked monsters, and I liked Nickelodeon, so this appealed to me. It's concept was somewhat like Monster's Inc., with some various differences of course. Ickis was my favourite.




aaahh real monsters opening

Hey Arnold! was great, but my sister was the real fan, It was one of her favourite shows. I did like it though thanks to its slick characters urban setting.




Hey Arnold! intro

DuckTales was a great show and I see it as being the one that kicked off Disney's magic run of great animated TV shows during the 1990s. Well, Gummi Bears did come before it, but when you look at the shows following DuckTales, they resemble DuckTales and not the Gummi Bears. I was familiar with Huey, Dewey and Louie through this show before I had seen their classic Donald Duck cartoons. Fun adventures and characters made for an iconic show, not to mention an extremely catchy theme song.




Ducktales Intro

Of the classic Disney characters, Goofy was always my favourite, so I really loved the updated 1990s version which saw Goofy and his son Max living next to Pete and his family. The show was somewhat like an animated Disney version of Home Improvement.




Goof troop theme

While Yogi was my favourite classic Hanna Barbera cartoon character, Top Cat was by far the coolest.




top cat introduction

If you watch the intro for this show again, you'll come to realise how freaking weird it was.




Superted

Kids, especially boys, like trains. I'm not sure why that is. As such, I really liked this show as a child. Back then I had no idea that the narrator was the one and only Ringo Starr.




Original Thomas Opening

I watched this during the latter years of Primary school, so it did resonate with me. I like how the playground acts like a small community.




Disney's Recess

Most people, including myself, love the movie Jumanji. But I think most people forget, or perhaps did not even know, about the animated series based on the film. It made several changes to the movie, and it was awesome. It was nice to see a different approach to the concept. In my opinion, this is one of the most underrated TV shows ever.




Jumanji Animated T.V Show Opening Theme

The catchy theme song, the awesome gadgets, the zany characters and the mysteries. What wasn't to like? Inspector Gadget was a show from the early 1980s, but I was still able to watch it in the early 1990s. Thank you re-runs!




inspector gadget cartoon intro theme

Yes, I had the toys...




He-Man - Open

Swat Kats- Intro

The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh Intro

Another early 1980s classic I was able to watch during the early '90s thanks to re-runs. Sure they're cute, but I remember it actually being pretty funny.




Alvin and the Chipmunks - Original 80s Intro

Animals of Farthing Wood - Intro

the smurfs intro