Cartoon Cartoon!

Or how Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network generated a veritable Old Faithful, oozing out classic after classic like clockwork (not orange).

Ah sixth grade, back to New York, new school, middle school awkwardness (which from my eventual escape of said awkwardness is still in question) and... cartoons :D.  Nicktoons... so good that i'm feeling warm fuzzies as i write this.  Started of course with the insanity of Ren and Stimpy, though I don't remember that being on a ton.  The era of Rugrats and Doug was a ton more innocent but nonetheless adventurous creative and tons of fun while teaching mini morals.  Doug had street cred when banging on a trash can with The Beets.  Tommy Pickles was leader among babies. The best parts of the shows were the imagination of the worst case scenarios of Doug in a moral or social pickle, and of course when the babies went on epic imaginary adventures.

That was the first round of Nicktoons, I remember the premiers of many of the later ones.  Hey Arnold premiered on SNICK and I was pretty excited for it.  Turns out it was filled with sweet Jazz, cool handshakes and amazing urban legends such as Stoop Kid.  My favorite of the second gen of Nicktoons however was KaBlam!  It was a lil comic book variety show with such classics as Sniz and Fondue (my favorite was the the previous link and the one with the Scorpion... Sniz's voice makes me happy)  Next favorite was Action League Now!  It was pure kid fun, and I loved the intro (and not just because the Flesh was Super Naked).  Prometheus and Bob asked the timeless question of what would have happened if an alien came to our planet in the cave man days to teach us.

Ok Ok i promised some Cartoon Network goodness here too.  Johnny Bravo, Powerpuff Girls, Cow and Chickin, and of course What a Cartoon,... i heart you guys but my real favorites were Courage the Cowardly Dog, Dexter's Laboratory and Two Stupid Dogs.  Cartoon network was really outlandish, epic and ridiculous.  Actually they still are, but they aren't "indie" anymore (same with Nick) {yes i went there, prideful hipsters unite}  The voices alone were amazing, the animation choppy (not always on purpose, but always unique).

Next post, more cartoons!

-Mr. James E Harrington