5.) Legends of the Hidden Temple (1993 – 1995)
IMDB Rating: 8.5 / TV.com Rating: 8.8
Some coked out Nickelodeon executive was high during a pitch meeting in the late 1980s and randomly blurted out, “We should do a game show for kids where they answer questions about ancient history, but then also have to do some American Gladiators type shit, but give it a Mayan-esque feel and have a huge talking rock with glowing red eyes named Olmec!” And that my friends is how Legends of the Hidden Temple was born.
None of the kids were really great athletes, and they didn’t know trivia about Sultan Suleiman I of the Ottoman Empire and nobody could assemble the Shrine of the Silver Monkey (C’mon, it was three lousy pieces, get your shit together), but yet it was still entertaining as fuck.
4.) The Adventures Of Pete And Pete (1992 – 1996)
IMDB Rating: 8.3 / TV.com Rating: 8.8
For a shitty little kids show this program had an impressive list of cameos by celebrities including Patty Hearst, Chris Elliott, Steve Buscemi, Janeane Garofalo, Debbie Harry, Kate Pierson, Michael Stipe, Selma Blair, LL Cool J, Luscious Jackson, Frank Gifford, Vincent Pastore, Juliana Hatfield, Iggy Pop and even Hunter Thompson, which seems like a quizzical idea in a time that everyone was wearing D.A.R.E. shirts and warning of the dangers of drugs.
3.) Are You Afraid of the Dark? (1990 – 2000)
IMDB Rating: 8.3 / TV.com Rating: 8.8
Hey girl, did you know that there were a ton of celebrity cameos on this spooky Nickelodeon show too, including Ryan Gosling. The Hollywood hunk was offered a part in the original Midnight Society, but he decided to appear in the The Mickey Mouse Club instead. Gosling did later appear in 1995 episode “The Tale of Station 109.1.” Other celebs who were in Are You Afraid of the Dark were Hayden Christensen, Eddie Kaye and Gilbert Gottfried. Plus there were a whole lot of girls who turned out to be Holywood sexpots including Neve Campbell, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Elisha Cuthbert, Mia Kirshner, Joanna Garcia, Rachel Blanchard, Emily Vancamp and Laura Vandervoort. What an eye for talent the casting director had. Not bad for a television version of Goosebumps books where kids got together around a campfire, toss some magic dust and tell ghost stories.
2.) Salute Your Shorts (1991 – 1993)
IMDB Rating: 8.4 / TV.com Rating: 8.8
Every summer I begged my parents to send me to Camp Anawanna because I thought Camp Anawanna was a real camp. What a dopey kid I was. But Camp Anawanna ruled! There’s was very little adult supervision except for Kevin “Ug” Lee, and somehow there were no real catastrophes. But thankfully there was plenty of pranks and hi-jinx by Donkeylips, Budnick and Sponge. You really can’t blame them for scheming to hijack the nurse’s huge stash of ice cream.
For some odd reason Salute Your Shorts only ran for two short seasons. Probably because the camp was shut down because the director, Doctor Kahn, tortured the children, including stealing all of the prizes from the cereal. I mean what kind of ghoul does that? Or maybe it was canceled because Zeke the plumber scared the shit out of kids.
Were you Team Michael or Team Pinksy?
1.) The Ren & Stimpy Show (1991 – 1996)
IMDB Rating: 7.6 / TV.com Rating: 8.7
Along with The Simpsons, Ren & Stimpy were the influential precursors that paved the way for adult cartoons such as that Beavis and Butt-head, South Park, Family Guy, Archer and pretty much every show on Adult Swim. So the cultural affect from this cartoon about an emotionally unstable, hyperactive and psychotic chihuahua named “Ren Höek,” and a good-natured, but dumb as fuck cat named “Stimpson ‘Stimpy’ J. Cat” can not be understated.
The sophistication in this “kids” cartoon was well ahead of it’s time, and they definitely pushed the envelope over five years and 52 episodes. The show had so much sexual innuendo, extremely dark humor, and even violently gruesome themes. Bur
Voice-over legend Billy West and former member of The Howard Stern Show was the voice of both Ren and Stimpy. He was also the voice of Doug Funnie, Porkchop, and Roger Klotz on Doug, as well as the voice of Philip J. Fry, Professor Farnsworth, Dr. Zoidberg, Zapp Brannigan and a number of other characters on Futurama.
The cartoon had so many memorable characters like Powdered Toast Man, Waffle Woman, Mr. Horse, Muddy Mudskipper, George Liquor, Abner Dimwit and Ewalt Nitwit, Haggis McHaggis, and who could forget Mrs. Buttloaves?
Happy! Happy! Joy! Joy! Indeed.
Editor’s Note: Sorry, Bill Cosby’s 1991 animated Nick Jr. show titled “Little Bill” did not make the list, and now in the light of recent accusations, it sounds really gross and perverted.