I watch cartoons now and get frustrated with the slapstick humor and violence that seems to have become common.
Back in the day, Doug Funny was the man, Arnold and Gerald were the coolest kids on the block, Pepper Ann was the 12 year old we wanted to be, and the Third Street School kids had the most ridiculous recess breaks of any kid I knew. Maybe I am just too old to appreciate the cartoons now but I still adore the cartoons of my childhood. However, I still maintain that these cartoons were some of the greatest ever.
Doug Funny was ordinary. Painfully ordinary. His closet was full of multiple copies of the same outfit. He had a large nose and very little hair. Yet he was one of the characters we loved the most. He was desperately in love with a totally oblivious girl (whose tan would put Snooki to shame). Porkchop was Dog's sidekick and dog. His other sidekick and best friend was Skeeter, a tall blue kid who wore a lot of yellow.
This show taught me all about racial tolerance. Though I never encountered any blue, green, or purple people in high school which was devastating.
The adventures of Quail man were my favorite but it took me a long time to figure out what a quail was when I was 6.
Helga Petacki was a creep. We knew that but somehow she grew on us. Arnold was adorable and was wearing plaid with sweaters long before the kids watching thought it was cool.
Arnold was a genuine guy with a sweet heart. He always looked out for the misfit kids that were made fun of at recess or at lunch. He spent time hanging out with grandparents who took care of him and always stood up for what was right. He loved jazz music and was a good friend.
Somehow, despite all these awesome qualities, he was unlucky in love. Given he was only in fourth grade but still. His two crushes let him down by being far less kind than he originally thought.
Arnold also had the coolest bedroom. It was because of him that I wanted an attic bedroom.
Pepper Ann was too cool for seventh grade.
I distinctly remember that she had a sister named Moose, which I always thought was strange. And her voice was really deep was in the beginning I was unsure as to whether or not she was a boy instead haha.
Pepper Ann's best friends were Milo and Nicky. She was fairly ordinary in appearance and was relatively nameless in high school (in the theme song there was many references to people not knowing who she is). Her own reflection was a representation of her conscience and it gave her advice when she had a choice to make. She learned a lot of different moral lessons throughout the series, as she pretty much always made the wrong decisions. Personally, when I was twelve I did not had to deal with array of dilemmas that Pepper Ann went through but she did make me feel a lot better about being ordinary.
Pepper Ann Pearson was much too cool for seventh grade. No one is cooler than Pepper Ann.
Spinelli was kickass. This group of six fourth graders went to Third Street School where recess was dominated by King Bob, a fifth grader. There were things they could and could not do according to King Bob. Throughout the episodes they would go to class, cause trouble, and become better friends. The whole gang fit so many adventures into recess time. Sidenote: I wish we had recess in high school.
Anyway, I was not as big of a Recess fan as my friends were but I appreciated a good Spinelli episode, especially the wrestling episode.
I remember that for most of the series, Andy Lawrence did the voice of T.J., and I loved Andy Lawrence. I remember that Spinelli's first name was Ashley and she was bothered by it because she nothing like the other Ashleys at school (who had their own group). I really enjoyed this because it sounded so much like my elementary school. This unlikely group of friends fought the "system" and broke rules early on in life. I learned a great deal from them, haha.
These kids were under two for my entire childhood. Chuckie was the oldest, but never acted that way. Why did we enjoy this show so much? I probably watched it until I was thirteen or fourteen. It was a show about toddlers.. I mean, you'd think that most kids would steer clear of a show about babies. But no, these were the four coolest babies. Of course, we could hear them talking normal while their parents only heard baby talk (a fact that bothered me when there was an emergency, well Rugrats level emergency). Chuckie was a wuss but I just wanted to hug him. When they had the all grown up episodes it weirded me out and I could not watch it. I guess, for me, Tommy Pickles will forever be one and a half years old.
(Patsy, according to Wikipedia Tommy Pickles moved from Akron to California. Fun Fact.)
Okay, okay, technically the TMNT craze started in the 80s, but honestly 90s kids all can relate too. We grew up with the movies and the tv show.
The teenage mutant ninja turtles were a genius concept. Four humanoid (by mutation of course) turtles living in the sewer, out fighting crime.
"Cowabunga", "dude", "bummer", and "bogus" were the most common phrases the turtles used and these words slipped into my vocabulary on a regular basis.
The characters were all named after Italian renaissance artists, something I had no clue about when I was watching it. The first time a teacher mentioned the names Leonardo, Michelangelo, and Raphael in class, I smiled brightly like I had learned some secret information. The four are adopted by Splinter, a mutated rat that was once human. He trains them as ninjas and they fight the evil villains Shredder and Krang.
I was a major tomboy as a child, which you probably could have guessed. Ninja turtles and power rangers were my favorite shows and toys for the entire decade.
Reggie, Otto, Twister, and Squid were pretty freakin' awesome. I was a kid that rollerbladed and rode my bike regularly. I played Tony Hawk and loved skateboarding but wasn't very good at it. Therefore, this show was fantastic to me. It made me want go surfing every time I watched it. Not to mention that it was the beginning of our generation's obsession with California. Come on, they had beaches, piers with amusement parks, awesome people, and you could basically skate or blade anywhere.
Fox Kids saturday mornings were also great. They had Animaniacs and Xmen.
X-men was based in my favorite comic books and the show highlighted some of my favorite characters like Rogue, Jubilee, Gambit and Cyclops. Gambit and Jubilee were given the shaft in the X-men most recent movies (Gambit showed up briefly in X-men Origins: Wolverine but he was far less epic than he was in the series and comic). Not to mention that Rogue and Cyclops were so lame in the movie compared to their animated counterparts. There was also a romance between Gambit and Rogue in the series, if I remember correctly. Which is just another reason Gambit should have shown up in the movie but I digress.
This show was about a bunch of teenage and adult mutants fighting against the evil Magneto (whose ideas weren't inherently bad but he always went about things in the wrong way) while still trying to remain below the radar of normal humans. Each one had different abilities that made them each separately important and interesting. When they were discovered, humans were quite prejudice against the mutants. Essentially I think we were supposed to learn that it is okay to be different and that we should never judge people for their differences, but when I watched it I did not think about any of these things. I just daydreamed of one day discovering my mutant powers. That day hasn't come yet but I am still waiting patiently.
-Brianna