# Lamest Cartoon Series Ever **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 12, 2019, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lamest-cartoon-series-ever/829409 "2019-02-12T16:22:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![bmoak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9dc877/32.png) [@bmoak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bmoak)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2019, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lamest-cartoon-series-ever/829409/81 "2019-02-18T05:51:09Z")
I almost forgot. The worst cartoon series ever is [Rude Dog and the Dweebs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVGzXn9MX5Y), a cynical attempt to market a surfer line that lacked any sort of redeeming features. ---
**Author:** ![Miles\_Standoffish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/54ee81/32.png) [@Miles\_Standoffish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miles_Standoffish)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2019, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lamest-cartoon-series-ever/829409/82 "2019-02-18T06:14:13Z")
> [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](#): > > **Davy & Goliath.** > Christian TV at it’s nadir. Hm. I disagree strongly on this one. Handmade stop motion is difficult and painstaking, and these were done well (imo), by Art Clokey, a pioneer in the field and the same guy who created Gumby. It’s charming as hell and I’d rather watch these shorts than 99.9% of what came after them. ---
**Author:** ![Sarabellum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sarabellum/32/3492_2.png) [@Sarabellum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sarabellum)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2019, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lamest-cartoon-series-ever/829409/83 "2019-02-19T06:03:52Z")
No hate for Max and Ruby? Ohhhh… I hated, hated, HATED that show, when my kids were little. Max is a little shit, and Ruby is a sanctimonious twit, and an episode or two made me want to defenestrate myself. I can’t think of a more annoying kid’s show. (Caillou was very close, though.) ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2019, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lamest-cartoon-series-ever/829409/84 "2019-02-19T14:30:04Z")
> [@Pardel-Lux](#): > > Aphrodite fought by firing her breasts as missiles against the enemy. [Here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXQT99470wI)you can see 36 really hard seconds. Dear Lord have mercy. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2019, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lamest-cartoon-series-ever/829409/85 "2019-02-19T15:01:13Z")
One thing that really annoyed me was the “\_\_\_\_ and Friends” trend. As in pay the royalties for one quality short, usually from Warner Brothers, and then pad the rest of the half-hour with forgettable entries from various C-list animation studios. “And Friends”? Bugs Bunny’s bodyguards would tackle any of these loser “friends” who tried to walk up to him on the street. ---
**Author:** ![P-man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/p-man/32/3606_2.png) [@P-man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/P-man)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2019, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lamest-cartoon-series-ever/829409/86 "2019-02-19T16:40:59Z")
> [@Sarabellum](#): > > No hate for Max and Ruby? > > Ohhhh… I hated, hated, HATED that show, when my kids were little. Max is a little shit, and Ruby is a sanctimonious twit, and an episode or two made me want to defenestrate myself. > > I can’t think of a more annoying kid’s show. (Caillou was very close, though.) I always said that Max needed a good butt whuppin’. Ruby was the stereotypical bossy older sister. The thing is, Rosemary Wells’ other characters tend to be fairly likeable. ---
**Author:** ![bmoak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9dc877/32.png) [@bmoak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bmoak)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2019, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lamest-cartoon-series-ever/829409/87 "2019-02-24T05:04:58Z")
> [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](#): > > **Davy & Goliath.** > Christian TV at it’s nadir. Sadly, Davey & Goliath and Veggie Tales were Christian children’s TV at its apex. Those two had enough quality to have some crossover appeal. The real dreck was stuff like Bibleman or Psalty the Singing Songbook that no kid outside the fundamentalist Christian community ever saw. ---
**Author:** ![bmoak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9dc877/32.png) [@bmoak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bmoak)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2019, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lamest-cartoon-series-ever/829409/88 "2019-02-24T05:33:15Z")
> [@Pardel-Lux](#): > > Were the USA spared the Japanese manga inspired animated series in the 70s? In Spain we had to endure \*Heidi \*and _Marco_, two really soppy but incredibly popular animated series, specially with the pre-pubescent girls. And then there was Mazinger Z, called Tranzor Z in some countries, which was just… hard. An enormous super robot, commanded by a child, aided by another robot, a female one called Aphrodite A (commanded by another child). Aphrodite fought by firing her breasts as missiles against the enemy. [Here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXQT99470wI)you can see 36 really hard seconds. I remember the episodes as really repetitive, the same sequences shown over and over again. They were so bad, they were almost good again. In the 70s, the anime shows that were broadcast in the US were pretty much the same shows that were broadcast in the 60s: Speed Racer, Marine Boy, Kimba the White Lion, etc. In the late 70s, both Battle of the Planets/Gatchaman and Star Blazers/Space Cruiser Yamato hit American airwaves. These were both shows that aired in the mid-70s in Japan and were a huge step up from the Japanese shows of the 60s. Mazinger Z was Tranzor Z in the US. It was produced in Japan in the early 70s, but wasn’t shown in the US until the mid-80s, in an attempt to cash in on the robot craze of that time. It looked very very dated compared to other robot shows of the time (Transformers, Robotech, Voltron, etc). I didn’t watch it, but I’m pretty sure that the giant breast-missiles were edited out in the US. Mazinger Z was actually a historically important show. It was the very first manga/anime to have a giant robot controlled by a pilot inside the robot. (Prior to that, robots were either autonomous or remote-controlled). Heidi, Girl of the Alps was never broadcast in the US. It is best known here as a historical curiosity, as it was a series that both Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata worked on before going on to found Studio Ghibli. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2019, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lamest-cartoon-series-ever/829409/89 "2019-02-24T16:34:30Z")
> [@bmoak](#): > > I didn’t watch it, but I’m pretty sure that the giant breast-missiles were edited out in the US. Nope. And the station I watched it on was WGGS, the local Christian broadcast station. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2019, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lamest-cartoon-series-ever/829409/90 "2019-02-24T17:43:50Z")
> [@bmoak](#): > > The problem with naming bad cartoons, is that for every one that sticks in your mind, there are probably three or four knockoff cartoons that were even worse that you’ve forgotten about because they had a brief existence. Think Scooby-Doo was bad? You probably don’t remember dreck like Clue Club, The Buford Files, or Jabberjaw. Think Space Ghost was bad? It’s brilliant adventure compared to, say, Young Samson, Shazzan, or the Mighty Mightor. Some [Saturday](http://www.misterkitty.org/extras/stupidcovers/stupidcomics89.html) [Morning](http://www.misterkitty.org/extras/stupidcovers/stupidcomics90.html) Cartoon showcase ads courtesy of Mr Kitty’s Stupid Comics page. Thrill to Frankenstein Jr, The Impossibles, Partridge Family (in space!), the previously mention Clue Club, Kwicky Koala and more. ---
**Author:** ![Teuton](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/teuton/32/3864_2.png) [@Teuton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Teuton)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2019, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lamest-cartoon-series-ever/829409/91 "2019-02-24T17:48:00Z")
> [@DCnDC](#): > > I grew up in the 80s, a time when network execs in charge of Saturday morning cartoon would literally greenlight _anything_, giving us timeless classic such as: > > Denver the Last Dinosaur - he wears sunglasses, skateboards, and plays the electric guitar. If your grandparents were forced to come up with a “cool” cartoon character in the 80s, it would be exactly this. Nothing wrong with a bit of Denver the Last Dinosaur! ---
**Author:** ![furryman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/furryman/32/99_2.png) [@furryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furryman)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2019, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lamest-cartoon-series-ever/829409/92 "2019-02-24T19:04:45Z")
> [@bmoak](#): > > Heidi, Girl of the Alps was never broadcast in the US. It is best known here as a historical curiosity, as it was a series that both Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata worked on before going on to found Studio Ghibli. They sure do like to make fun of it in anime, probably mostly because of Miyazaki. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2019, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lamest-cartoon-series-ever/829409/93 "2019-02-25T00:36:52Z")
> [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](#): > > Milton the Monster. You’ve been warned. I dunno, given a budget for flip-card level animation and probably about four hours to write each script, I think they did the best they could. It seemed like the show writers themselves were aware of how bad the show was and poked fun at it. Like naming the two mad scientists “Dr. Weirdo and Count Kook”. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2019, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lamest-cartoon-series-ever/829409/94 "2019-02-25T03:12:52Z")
^ Now that you mention it, they wrote _songs_ for that show, too. Pre-dates the Groovy Ghoulies by, what, five years? ---
**Author:** ![bmoak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9dc877/32.png) [@bmoak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bmoak)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2019, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lamest-cartoon-series-ever/829409/95 "2019-02-25T19:11:20Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > Nope. And the station I watched it on was WGGS, the local Christian broadcast station. Given that pretty much all Japanese cartoons were pretty heavily edited for US broadcast until relatively recently, I’m actually pretty surprised they let that go. ---
**Author:** ![bmoak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9dc877/32.png) [@bmoak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bmoak)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2019, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lamest-cartoon-series-ever/829409/96 "2019-02-25T19:12:49Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > Some [Saturday](http://www.misterkitty.org/extras/stupidcovers/stupidcomics89.html) [Morning](http://www.misterkitty.org/extras/stupidcovers/stupidcomics90.html) Cartoon showcase ads courtesy of Mr Kitty’s Stupid Comics page. > > Thrill to Frankenstein Jr, The Impossibles, Partridge Family (in space!), the previously mention Clue Club, Kwicky Koala and more. I was a big comic book reader as a kid and I used to pore over those preview ads, trying to plan out how to waste my Saturday mornings. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2019, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lamest-cartoon-series-ever/829409/97 "2019-03-05T21:54:28Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Crusader Rabbit was GREAT! Jay Ward wasn’t just “involved” - he created the show. As with his later series (especially Rocky and Bullwinkle, which used the same “short smart hero/big strong dumb sidekick” dynamic), he didn’t have the money or resources for quality animation, so he made up for it with clever writing. > > The Crusader Rabbit cartoons I grew up on, though, were a slightly later vintage, not actually made by Jay Ward, but with a lot more animation (and color). But they kept up the witty writing and wonderfully atrocious puns. I’ve never seen any _Crusader Rabbit_ but I have seen _Rocky and Bullwinkle_ and I agree they’re great. They’re radio shows with drawings, but that hardly hurts them: Their writing carries them through and it holds up well. As for lame, my contribution is _Captain Planet and the Planeteers_ and, by extension, every cartoon (every show, really) made to push a message to the exclusion of being a good show. It’s possible to have messages in good fiction, and it’s certainly possible to have messages in good cartoon shows, but there was a dark period in the 1970s through the early 1990s when cartoons were seen as _purely_ disposable and the ones which weren’t simply toy commercials were used as cheap wrapping for whatever message the creators wanted to get across. It’s condescending shit which degrades the message, as it’s being conveyed by something nobody can take seriously or is taking seriously, and destroys any entertainment value the show itself might have had. There’s plenty of good in tying art to real social issues, but there’s nothing good in doing it in a ham-handed way. ---
**Author:** ![CaptMurdock](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/captmurdock/32/11736_2.png) [@CaptMurdock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaptMurdock)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2019, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lamest-cartoon-series-ever/829409/98 "2019-03-06T16:54:41Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > Some [Saturday](http://www.misterkitty.org/extras/stupidcovers/stupidcomics89.html) [Morning](http://www.misterkitty.org/extras/stupidcovers/stupidcomics90.html) Cartoon showcase ads courtesy of Mr Kitty’s Stupid Comics page. > > Thrill to Frankenstein Jr, The Impossibles, Partridge Family (in space!), the previously mention Clue Club, Kwicky Koala and more. That page broke my mind. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2019, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lamest-cartoon-series-ever/829409/99 "2019-03-06T17:16:07Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > I’ve never seen any _Crusader Rabbit_ but I have seen _Rocky and Bullwinkle_ and I agree they’re great. They’re radio shows with drawings, but that hardly hurts them: Their writing carries them through and it holds up well. _Crusader Rabbit_ had even worse animation than _Rocky and Bullwinkle_. It was one of the first cartoons made for TV and the cut so many corners it became a circle. Much of it was still pictures with no animation at all (other than perhaps some camera movement). But it had great writing and was a terrific show. ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2019, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lamest-cartoon-series-ever/829409/100 "2019-03-06T17:22:01Z")
remember yogis ark? and hb’s last tom and jerry series ? I don’t know who was in charge but about 1975 someone decided hb cartoon was too violent and decided to be ghandi its why scooby doo went to mysteries to straight alleged comedy ……………. ted turners ownership of Hanna- barbera unleashed some of the worst cartoons ever made……… 2 stupid dogs tom and jerry kids captain planet swat kats the remade droopy and son was the only bright spot but if you want to know what saved cartoons in the 80s? the smurfs ……if it wasn’t for their surprise popularity nbc would of switch to its current news and sports line up about 1982 ……. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lamest-cartoon-series-ever/829409.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lamest-cartoon-series-ever/829409.md?page=6)