When Thundercats and Voltron premiered on Toonami that beautiful Monday morning, fans that grew up in the 80s were in awe that these shows were back on the air for the first time in ages. Finally, many of us thought, somebody finally understands us to but the shows WE like back on the air. Afterall, that was an initial reason for the creation of the block in the first place, airing the BEST action-animation on the planet. Not an anime majority, not a North American majority. Just the best of both worlds, and that's what Toonami excelled in. These old-school shows are, correction, WERE the cornerstone in the block, and kept a lot of fans drawn in. Older fans were reliving their childhoods watching these old-school shows while younger fans were being introduced to shows that withstood the test of time, like Thundercats, which is STILL animated better than most of the dreck that is on television today.

But what makes the shows of the 1980s so memorable? Why do so many people have a fondness for these shows and franchises after all these years, yet many of them haven't been on the air in over 10 years? In short, why are so many people drawn to old-school?

It's quite simple.

They were fun to watch. I mean, if these shows weren't so popular, why do you think fan interest for these shows are at an all-time high? Thundercats is about to get a publicity rebirth courtesy of 4Kids Entertaiment, which renewed its merchandising and marketing contract they had when they were known as Leisure Concepts in the mid-80s (yeah, they helped co-develop the original show as well and know the characters very well. They're not just Pokemon-crazy, you know). Voltron is about to get a new life in comic form with newer adventures, staying truer to the original series even more than the recent CGI series, which didn't impress the Voltron fan community much. But the king of all old-school shows is Transformers, which is enjoying a major reinassance as of late. Besides selling thousands of video tapes and DVDs, import sales of newer Carobots figures (not to mention this spring's import figures based on the classic cartoons) are through the roof, and Hasbro is relaunching the vehicle Transformers in this country with a new toyline and a dubbed version of the most recent Japanese Transformers series. Transformers are back in a big way.

Another reason why old-school is so popular is, well, check your local listings. Besides Thundercats just before Toonami, you won't see many 80s shows on television today. This disturbing trend has been going on since the mid-90s, "thanks" to outlets like Fox Kids, Nickelodeon, and especially USA/Sci-Fi, which were two great outlets for classic 80s cartoons. I mean, how would you feel if all of a sudden, everything you watched when you were younger vanished from the face of the earth? Shorts from the 40s and 50s and shows from the 60s, 70s, and 90s are on constant airplay throughout the planet. It's almost like the 80s never happened. Trust me, it happened, and those that lived through it look back on the cartoons with great fondness.

And unlike many anime fans, we're not as close-minded about our choices in programming. We just want more shows from this era back on the air. They exist (Cartoon Network, you even have a few good shows from the era like Centaurions), and there's plenty of them. It's not like they're hard to find. Some distributors are looking for airplay, but they can't get it, unfortunately.

But forget old-school cartoons for a moment. North American cartoons in general hasn't been treated fairly as of late on Toonami. Let me explain.