>Excuse #3: Nothing Good Came From The 80s

That excuse constantly echoes in the vaults where ten years worth of animation is seemingly locked forever out of public view. Shows transferred to different owners for over 20 years shifting them from one dust-filled vault to another. Nothing good has ever come from the 80s.

And yet, here we are talking about the cartoons of the 80s, many of which are still unseen by today's audiences. In fact, a lot of good things came out of the decade.

- The birth of Walt Disney Television Animation: Disney had its hands in the medium of television ever since Walt himself did the first infomercial for his dream to build a theme park in his own image. It was due to the combined tandem of Eisner, Katzenburg, and Wells that actually utilized the medium to their advantage being at the right place at the right time. They developed animated programming for broadcast television and The Disney Channel, which was still relatively new at the time. The Disney Channel cartoons gained a wider audience once they left the network in favor of more pleasant environments like ABC (which continues to house Disney cartoons) and syndication, culuminating with the creation of The Disney Afternoon by decade's end.

- The Hanna-Barbera reinaissance: This isn't as strange as you think, but get a group of people between 25 and 35 together and ask these two questions: When was the first time you saw a Yogi Bear or Huckleberry Hound cartoon, and where did you see it? Chance are the older the person is, the more likely they'll say in the 80s and on the USA Cartoon Express. USA Network was THE place where classic Hanna-Barbera ruled the airwaves in the 80s. Whether it was the pic-a-nic basket thief, the dog of many hats, or any other title, a good portion of the Hanna-Barbera library was seen on the Cartoon Express, even titles that wouldn't have gotten a second light in syndication. By decade's end, the Yogi Bear cartoons briefly aired on Nickelodeon, just as Viacom and Turner were bidding on the entire studio and library. Turner got Hanna-Barbera, and that was the beginning of a whole other era. Or rather, the evolution of another era.

- Ted Turner discovers animation: Mr. Turner may be an arrogant soul of a beast, but he's also one of the craftiest minds in the business. Not only did he turn his local independent network into a national superstation and launched the first 24-hour news channel, but he made a lot of inroads in the 1980s in the world of animation. He bought MGM/UA and sold the studio, but he wisely kept the library, which also included a huge bulk of animation from Warner Bros.and Fleischer/Famous/Paramount as well as the MGM library of characters. Turner also acquired broadcasting rights to The Flintstones, placing it prominently on his stable of networks, TBS and later TNT, which launched a block of animation to directly compete against the USA Cartoon Express on weeknights that included an hour of Bugs and Daffy at 6 PM. By decade's end, he owned Hanna-Barbera and made plans to launch a new network that would become hailed as the ultimate statement that animation is worthy of carrying a whole network. Ted Turner appreciated animation as an artform and hired people who felt that way. Golly, I miss him.

- The anime revolution really began: Sure, the 60s gave us a few blips of Japanese animation like Astro Boy, Gigantor, 8th Man, and Speed Racer. And the 70s gave us Battle of the Planets, Star Blazers, and Force Five. But the 80s actually put Japanese animation on the radar of American consciousness. Mighty Orbots was a major part of ABC's Saturday morning lineup. Voltron and Robotech both spliced multiple Japanese series to make two very legendary series. Even viewers noticed how "Japanesy" Transformers, The Real Ghostbusters, and Thundercats looked (by the way, little known fact: although the show was created by Ted Wolf for Telepictures, the actual animation was done by a studio whose members became the core of Studio Ghibli). When Akira opened to limited audiences, the country was introduced how epic Japanese animation could really be. Almost a decade later, Americans were introduced to one of the greatest animes of the 1980s: Dragon Ball.

- The rise of home viewing: It's taken for advantage today, but back in the 1980s, being able to own copies of your favorite cartoons was a luxury. The home video market was slowly entering the mainstream in the 1980s and two formats (Beta and VHS) made it possible for us to actually record cartoons and other television programs. Yeah, there was a bugaboo about folks like us recording material off of television, but that's the nature of the entertainment industry and a fear that continues with the recent introduction of DVD recording technologies for the home market. The underground home video market helped build the anime fandom that exists today, and video trading is still prevalent in the 2000s.

- The animation fan community was born: The combination of all of these events all played a part in what we now recognize as the animation fan community. Whether it's those that look back with fondness of cartoons from an earlier period, fans of the era's cartoons, fans of Disney cartoons, fans of classic television animation, fans of the so-called golden age of theatrical cartoons, or fans of Japanese animation, the elements of the modern animation fan community were planted in the 1980s. Some had actual meetings where they watched and traded Super 8 reels or bootleg videos. Others talked about it over modems at electronic boardrooms and newsgroups in the infancy of the internet as we know it today. Others forged friendships and connections and began conventions dedicated to animation over the decades.

The current generation of new animators are children of the 80s, either born in the decade or witnessed the shows themselves. Owners of the brands that made up the 80s are still inspired by the decade, evidenced by the reintroduction of known brands like G.I. Joe, Transformers, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Strawberry Shortcake, Care Bears, Holly Hobbie, and soon theatrical versions of The Smurfs and Transformers. The 80s is a decade of animation that deserves a lot of respect, and I'm glad to see it slowly taking place.

However, one of my readers, Jorge Garrido, doesn't feel that way and he wrote a rebuttal to this article, so, in all fairness, here's his rebuttal, uncut for your perusal.