9. She-Ra Princes of Power (1985-1986): A spin off of the highly popular He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, She-Ra told the story of Princess Adora (Prince Adam’s twin sister). Adora had been kidnapped at birth by Hordak (the show’s primary villain) and raised as a commander in the Horde army occupying the planet of Etheria. After learning the truth, she defied Hordak and joined Etheria’s rebellion against the Horde. Armed with a magical sword that mirrored Adam’s, she turned into She-Ra: the Princess of Power and became the rebellion’s biggest hero and freedom’s greatest champion.
Like MOTU, She-Ra was pretty much a glorified commercial for the toy line of the same name, designed to appeal to girls the way He-Man appealed to boys (Mattel financed part of the production costs for both shows, which were handled by the notoriously cheap Filmation Studios). She-Ra was the first real female action figure to be introduced to western cartoon audiences, proving members of the fairer sex didn’t always have to be subordinates or damsels in distress (although animators probably should have considered lengthening her mini-skirt when she did roundhouse kicks). You have to wonder how much of this iconic character Joss Whedon channeled when he created Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
8. Centurions (1986): Centurions was set in “the near future” where three special operatives defended the world from the cybernetic menace Doc Terror, his cyborg sidekick Hacker and his army of robotic war machines. The agents-code named Centurions-could bond with highly advanced weapon systems through their exo-skeletons, essentially turning them into living weapons in the war against Terror (imagine the Bush administration having fun with that nugget of a line). Each Centurion had weapon systems suited to their expertise and combat skills; former fighter pilot Ace McLeod patrolled the skies (and occasionally space), marine/army/outdoorsman Jake Rockwell was the ground bound heavy artillery and marine biologist Max Ray fought the underwater battles. This show was never going to get an A+ for original names, but the animation was a step or two above other shows of the day, each episode concluded with a brief science lesson and producers recruited some heavy science fiction names to write some compelling and complex stories.
7. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987-1993): Based on the popular indie (and much darker) comic book series of the same name, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles exploded worldwide in the late 80’s and could be caught on TVs after school until 1993. Following four turtles mutated into humanoid form by a mysterious ooze and instructed in the ways of nin-jitsu by their rat sensei Splinter, the series ran for an incredible ten seasons, making it the longest running show on this list. The Turtles could be seen on both weekday afternoons and Saturday mornings for a few years before moving exclusively to Saturdays in 1993. Even though it was most of the same creators and voice talent, the Saturday morning cartoons weren’t as entertaining as the ones you could catch Monday through Friday. The whole title had to be toned down and kiddified from the violent black and white comic book series created by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird a few years earlier, and it seemed that the Saturday morning cartoons went another step or two in subduing the property.
Fun fact: the only reason the show came about was to satisfy Playmate toys, who was concerned that the Turtles initial audience wouldn’t be large enough to make a toy line worth their while and asked Mirage Studios (publishers of the comic) to secure a cartoon show agreement first. And thus the cartoon was born and for the better part of the next decade Playmate would co-operate with whichever party held the cartoon license (there were more then one) to create and market new toys. Capitalism at its goddamn finest.
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