The Best Saturday Morning Cartoons Of The ’80s!

Saturday mornings in the 1980s were sacred. The ritual was simple: roll out of bed before your parents, grab the biggest mixing bowl you could find, dump in enough sugary cereal to make a dentist cry, and plop down in front of the TV. For three glorious hours, the world didn’t matter—only cartoons did. And now Entertainment Weekly has crowned the 20 best Saturday morning cartoons of the ‘80s, giving us all the perfect excuse to relive that sugar-fueled nostalgia.

At the top of the heap:

1. Transformers – Autobots vs. Decepticons. The sound of metal clashing was basically our Saturday morning soundtrack.
2. Super Friends – Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman…all in one place, long before Marvel made team-ups cool.
3. He-Man and the Masters of the Universe – He had the power, Skeletor had the best insults.
4. DuckTales – Admit it, you still sing the theme song.
5. G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero – Yo Joe! And don’t forget the PSA at the end.
6. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – Pizza, ninjas, and attitude—what else did kids need?
7. Dungeons and Dragons
8. Jem – Truly outrageous.
9. Muppet Babies
10. The Real Ghostbusters
11. My Little Pony
12. Spider-Man / Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends – still trying to shoot webbing from wrist
13. She-Ra: Princess of Power
14. ThunderCats – Hooo!
15. Thundarr the Barbarian
16. Chip ’n Dale: Rescue Rangers
17. The Smurfs – I’m still trying to figure out why there is only one female Smurf
18. Alvin and the Chipmunks – anytime I see someone wearing big round glasses, I still call them “Simon”
19. The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo
20. Garfield and Friends – Mmmm, lasagna

Sure, kids today have endless options at their fingertips, but they’ll never know the thrill of racing down the stairs at 7 a.m., milk sloshing out of your cereal bowl, just in time to hear Optimus Prime declare, “Autobots, roll out!”

Those mornings weren’t just TV—they were childhood itself.

Doug O’Brien