Silhouette

Issue date: 4/10/03 Section: Opinion

Hey, remember the '80s? It was a magical time, when hair spray ruled America, make-up on guys was acceptable, and even encouraged. Micheal Keaton was still Batman and Saturday morning cartoons ruled.

Flash to the present: 2003. Now we have hair where we didn't then. The change in decades might not appear that dramatic until you compare our childhood with kids today.

Remember arising at 6 a.m. to watch your favorite shows like the ThunderCats, Transformers, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, G.I Joe, He-Man, The Hulk, Care Bears, Rainbow Brite, Fraggle Rock, My Little Pony, Cabbage Patch Kids, Strawberry Shortcake, and more? We cheerfully gave up five hours of sleep to watch these cartoons every Saturday morning.

You see, we didn't have a Cartoon Network showing cartoons 24 hours a day. Now, kids on Saturday mornings sleep and don't worry about getting up early.

Back then, if you had a Lion-O action figure and Optimus Prime, you were in. You were the coolest. These days, you're not cool unless you have the ultra-rare Yuh-Gi-Oh! card... which still confuses me. How can playing a game of cards be cooler than getting your hands on some action figures and have Leonardo duke it out with Skeletor?

If you were a girl, you would have probably played for hours on end just by brushing your My Little Pony's hair until it fell out, or played with your Popples, Teddy Rucksbin, My Pet Monster, My Buddy and Kid Sister.

Never fear - there's still hope for this new uncultured bunch of heathens. The '80s are making a comeback. He-Man, The Teenage Muntant Ninja Turtles, Transformers and Strawberry Shortcake are back on the small screen and better than ever with new computer animation and better art.

The original Thunder Cats still airs on Cartoon Network and has a complete clothing line of its own. With all these shows making comebacks, some may think it can't be better than the original.

My response to that is, some of them are way better than the original, for example, Masters of the Universe. I watched one of the old episodes not too long ago and I must say, the characters were very flamboyant. I didn't notice how oddly the characters behaved when I was a kid, but man, that show was weird. I like the style of the new one better. It's a little more appropriate.

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