TV Series Debates #6 [Saturday Morning Nostalgia] - 'G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero', 'He-Man and the Masters of the Universe' & 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'

[RH | 4,895]

This week should be a heavy does of 80s/90s Saturday morning cartoon nostalgia and one that most were waiting for.

This Weeks TV Shows

 

G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero

Air Dates: September 12, 1983 – November 20, 1986

Total Seasons: 2

Total Episodes: 95

He-Man and the Masters of the Universe

Air Dates: September 26, 1983  – November 21, 1985

Total Seasons: 2

Total Episodes: 130, 1 Movie

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Air Dates: December 14, 1987 – November 2, 1996

Total Seasons: 10

Total Episodes: 193

 

[Reed Rothchild | 9,508]

Not sure how to score any of these.

I'd honestly say they're all borderline unwatchable as an adult.

And I say that as a huge GI Joe fan who collects the comic trades, has watched the animated movie a thousand times, and who ran a GI Joe Werewolf round.

[RH | 4,895]

3 minutes ago, Reed Rothchild said:

Not sure how to score any of these.

I'd honestly say they're all borderline unwatchable as an adult.

And I say that as a huge GI Joe fan who collects the comic trades, has watched the animated movie a thousand times, and who ran a GI Joe Werewolf round.

[Rocketship Evan | 55]

Here is my master list for fun

TMNT- 10

'88 DuckTales- 10

70's Scooby Doo- 10

Rescue Rangers- 9

Thunder Cats- 9

The Tick- 9

The Smurfs- 9

Inspector Gadget- 9

Thundarr the Barbarian- 8

Count Duckula- 8

Voltron- 8

Garfield- 8

GI Joe- 8

X-Men- 8

Transformers- 7 (except the movie, its an 11 )

He-man- 7

Everything else

[Hammerfestus | 3,819]

9. TMNT was right there for me but I preferred Real Ghostbusters.  Lorenzo Music Ghostbusters not Dave Coulier Ghostbusters.  I had a lot of toys from both these franchises.  Always wanted that giant Krang. 
 

7. He-Man was always pretty good but not on the Allstar team.  I can’t believe they let us watch this stuff.  The man might as well be in a gimp suit.  Movie is underrated.  Better than suburban commando.

6. I had a bunch of GI Joes but I was never really into it.  This came on when there was nothing better to watch.  
 

 

 

[Link | 2,707]

I haven’t looked at TMNT lately but I think I would agree with Reed “borderline unwatchable”. The 2003 series was good, albeit due to following the storyline of the original comics, no new plots. 4 and I think that’s generous.

I never watched GI Joe. I recently tried on Tubi and found it really boring. I can’t ding it, though. I feel like it has something that I’m missing. Rated no interest 

I never watched He-Man either. I checked it out on late night TV maybe 8 years ago and I actually really like it. It’s corny and cheaply done and the swords are rarely used as swords, to be sure. But the writing, for a juvenile show is pretty good. Much better than the Super Mario show or TMNT ‘86. The lessons about doing what’s right and that kind of stuff way exceed similar tropes in a lot of cartoons and sitcoms later in the decade, and the fantasy setting is well done. Props to the gender balance of characters, too. I give it a 7

[DarkTone | 984]

Gave turtles a 9. 

[arch_8ngel | 1,597]

17 hours ago, Rocketship Evan said:

Here is my master list for fun

TMNT- 10

'88 DuckTales- 10

70's Scooby Doo- 10

Rescue Rangers- 9

Thunder Cats- 9

The Tick- 9

The Smurfs- 9

Inspector Gadget- 9

Thundarr the Barbarian- 8

Count Duckula- 8

Voltron- 8

Garfield- 8

GI Joe- 8

X-Men- 8

Transformers- 7 (except the movie, its an 11 )

He-man- 7

Everything else

You're missing The Real Ghostbusters and Captain N  

[TDIRunner | 2,721]

I never really got into G.I. Joe or He-Man.  I remember G.I. Joe more because I had several friends who were into it, but I never watched either show regularly. 

But TMNT was basically my childhood.  It was probably the first show, and toy line that I really got into as a kid to the point where I wanted to watch everything and get every single toy.  The amount of TMNT stuff I had as a kid was ridiculous.  

[twiztor | 847]

i LOVE 80s cartoons.

Transformers would have been a 10.

GI Joe is a 9

TMNT, He-Man, and Thundercats would all be 8s.

[arch_8ngel | 1,597]

15 minutes ago, twiztor said:

i LOVE 80s cartoons.

Transformers would have been a 10.

GI Joe is a 9

TMNT, He-Man, and Thundercats would all be 8s.

Rewatching some of these with my kids, Thundercats definitely ranks higher than I originally remembered, and original He-Man quite a bit lower.

 

That said, I'm excited for the new animated series of MOTU from Kevin Smith.

[The Count | 526]

I just wish dudes got legit shot in G.I. Joe, like soooo many missed bullets/lasers, and everybody was fine in the end.

[arch_8ngel | 1,597]

28 minutes ago, The Count said:

I just wish dudes got legit shot in G.I. Joe, like soooo many missed bullets/lasers, and everybody was fine in the end.

They were dealing with the same censorship rules that led to He-Man fighting like a pro-wrestler rather than actually ever using his sword.

[The Count | 526]

9 minutes ago, arch_8ngel said:

They were dealing with the same censorship rules that led to He-Man fighting like a pro-wrestler rather than actually ever using his sword.

I totally get that, but what a waste of a great show. What could have been...

[RH | 4,895]

3 minutes ago, The Count said:

I totally get that, but what a waste of a great show. What could have been...

I'm pretty sure they made a G. I. Joe movie based off of the 80s cartoon and there was killing in it.  Might be worth hunting down.

[Tulpa | 3,488]

47 minutes ago, RH said:

I'm pretty sure they made a G. I. Joe movie based off of the 80s cartoon and there was killing in it.  Might be worth hunting down.

Not really any killing in the movie, though it's darker than most of the episodes.

They were planning on it, as it was a way to introduce new characters (read: we have new action figures and vehicles and need to clean house.) Same way Transformers The Movie was a bloodbath.

GI Joe was supposed to come out first, but they got delayed. So Transformers was first, and when they got some backlash primarily from killing off Optimus Prime, they hastily sanitized GI Joe. So Duke went into a coma instead of dying (and getting a throw away line at the end saying he recovered.) I mean, if you watch the scene and ignore the dialog, it's pretty clear he's supposed to be dead.

But apparently it was meant to be a bloodier film.

Edited June 7, 2021 by Tulpa

[Reed Rothchild | 9,508]

Duke gets impaled through the heart.  Everyone cries.

Guy on radio: "Turns out Duke's okay!"

[Reed Rothchild | 9,508]

While I don't care for the show I've always really liked the movie.  Awesome intro too:

 

[JamesRobot | 5,786]

I went 5, 5, 10 according to the descriptions.  Joe and He Man are not something I particularly want to seek out for fear of tainting the impression in my memory.  And like Turtles, much of my appreciation comes from experiences with the toys as a kid.

With TMNT, I have watched some of the series as an adult and it held up pretty well and was enjoyable.  

[Tulpa | 3,488]

I think GI Joe still holds up a little, even close to 40(!) years later. The biggest thing I noticed watching it today is that I never noticed how fast it was paced when I was a kid. I was like "I know I had ADHD when I was younger (and still do to a degree) but I don't remember it blazing through plot points this quickly." I liked the five episode miniseries ones better than the stand alone episodes, though the one two part episode, "There's no place like Springfield" was frickin crazy. Shipwreck getting gaslighted by Cobra was pretty heavy.

TMNT was also good, and I'm sort of surprised the original lasted as long as it did, and sort of not surprised at the same time. Weird that I think of it as a show I watched at the tail end of grade school, and it was still on the air when I was in college.

The other thing I remember was the sheer number of rip-off shows they both spawned. GI Joe had MASK, Spiral Zone, STARCOM, Inhumanoids*, Wheeled Warriors, and others I'm forgetting. Even shows like Transformers* and Real Ghostbusters are arguably in that mold, a plucky team of good guys and technology up against bad guys and technology. TMNT had Street Sharks, Cowboys of Moo Mesa, The Mighty Ducks, Biker Mice from Mars, and really, Battletoads and Cheetahmen, which didn't make it to TV (though a Battletoads pilot exists), but they sure tried.

Was never that into He-man, though I did watch it. I remember She-Ra being terrible even back then.

*fun fact: GI Joe, Inhumanoids, Transformers, and Jem and the Holograms were all in the same shared continuity. The Hector Ramirez character is in all four shows. They even tried to put him in My Little Pony. That would have been awesomely insane.

[Webhead123 | 675]

I haven't tried watching G.I. Joe again since the 80's, so I have no idea how well it holds up. Based off of gut feeling, I gave it 6/10. Like many cartoons of the era, the intro was (and still is) epic as hell...but that could be said of all 3 of these shows.

He-Man, on the other hand, I've tried to rewatch in the past couple of years. I didn't last long.  Awesome intro aside, the actual show is *very* stiff and simplistic both in character personality and animation. I mean, I know it was a kid's show created to sell toys but even so...it's very limited. I gave it 5/10 for nostalgia but it probably deserves closer to a 4.

TMNT is dear to my heart and I will say that, at least the first season, is still pretty watchable today. Yes, it's silly and has lots of "kid-appeal" but much of the animation in the early seasons is still pretty good, the characters are fun and they at least attempt to tell a long-term story at times. The quality does drop off rather sharply starting around season 3 but the early stuff is mostly worthwhile. 7/10.

Edited June 9, 2021 by Webhead123

[Estil | 1,261]

Interesting how Saturday Morning just like soap operas had a ABC vs CBS rivalry.  My wife was very much an ABC soaps person back in her day (especially that whole Luke and Laura thing) though for my Saturday Mornings in the 80s/90s was I very much a CBS person..you know, Muppet Babies/Garfield/Turtles/Pee-Wee?   You guys do know what to do whenever anyone says the secret word right?

I wasn't really a GI Joe fan back in the day but seriously, you can't get anymore patriotic than this!  

 

Edited June 10, 2021 by Estil

[AstralSoul | 502]

I never watched a single episode of GI Joe. I never had any interest.

He-Man I've seen very little of, it was before my time so I missed that whole thing when it was popular. But in the last 5 or 6 I don't know why but I kinda want to watch it. That's when I saw a few episodes, but to be honest I'll probably never watch it. But it looks like something I would've loved had I grew up with it.

As a kid TMNT was my absolute favorite franchise. Would've been an easy 10/10. Absolutely loved the show, loved the movies, had nearly all the action figures too. I was obsessed with the turtles. After a while I grew out of them. I watched the cartoon reboot in the 2000s more out of curiosity than enjoyment and just didn't get into it as much. Then I kind of didn't think TMNT for years. The Nickelodeon reboot came out in 2012 and I watched the first season and thought it was good but not enough to keep my attention.

Since then I've rewatched a ton of the original cartoon and... It's nostalgic. But I don't think it's that great. Okay, I gave it an 8/10 so I think it's pretty decent but it's probably mostly out of nostalgia. I also found myself having lost some love for the franchise as a whole. I was intensely into it as a kid but over the years I think I just grew out of it. Not at all judging anyone who never lost interest..I think that's awesome. I guess aside from gaming I really don't care about anything else from my childhood. All the Disney movies I used to watch, the Nickelodeon, Fox and Cartoon Network cartoons I used to watch, TMNT... I wish I was still passionate about those things but I'm really not. Anyway I digress. TMNT is pretty good, I think there is definitely something to enjoy especially fans of the franchise and even though I have lost some love for it over the years I still think it's the best incarnation of the franchise as well as the first live action movie. Still classics.

[AstralSoul | 502]

On 6/6/2021 at 3:49 PM, Rocketship Evan said:

Here is my master list for fun

TMNT- 10

'88 DuckTales- 10

70's Scooby Doo- 10

Rescue Rangers- 9

Thunder Cats- 9

The Tick- 9

The Smurfs- 9

Inspector Gadget- 9

Thundarr the Barbarian- 8

Count Duckula- 8

Voltron- 8

Garfield- 8

GI Joe- 8

X-Men- 8

Transformers- 7 (except the movie, its an 11 )

He-man- 7

Everything else

The Tick! F yes! Have you seen Gargoyles? That series is an easy 10 for me. 

[Rocketship Evan | 55]

7 hours ago, AstralSoul said:

The Tick! F yes! Have you seen Gargoyles? That series is an easy 10 for me. 

Haha, yeah, the Tick was great.

Gargoyles, I had forgotten about that show. I remember thinking it was great when it came out... then it left on a cliffhanger and dissappeared. I need to track it down now.