1980's Saturday Morning Historical Preservation Society

Last week you all voted the first season of The Daffy Duck Show as the best thing in the NBC Saturday Morning Line-Up over a pretty impressive list of contenders such as The Flintstones, Godzilla and even BATMAN!

Today is an ULTIMATE SHOWDOWN to determine which cartoon of 1980 wa the BEST. To make things even more difficult and/or fair, I've also included the runner-up from each network so the votes can be more evenly spread. And please remember... this is for *SCIENCE*!
[Poll #1920224]

In The New Adventures of Batman & Robin, the "Dynamic Duo" fights crime in Gotham City, encountering the classic Batman rogues gallery as well as some original villains. Complicating matters is Bat-Mite, a well-meaning imp from another dimension called Ergo, who considers himself Batman's biggest fan. As a result, he wears a variant of Batman’s costume and attempts to help him, only to often create more problems (although he is occasionally an asset). Missing is Alfred, the faithful butler of Batman's alter ego Bruce Wayne; also notable in this series are the inverted colors of the "R" on Robin's costume.

This was an excellent Filmation cartoon from 1977 featuring the voices of Adam West and Burt Ward (the live-action Batman & Robin from the 1960's Batman TV show). This cartoon stayed closer to the more serious Batman comics that were being published by DC Comics at the time, with the glaring exception of BAT-MITE (who is an honorary member of the Scrappy-Doo Club).

Only one season of this show was ever made, and it was then re-packaged over and over again till some undetermined year of the early 80's.

Once they figured that they could shuffle the episodes in to the Super 7, they kind of abused it and over-ran the show. Still awesome, though!

The Legendary Super Powers show was the first BIG CHANGE that The Super Friends had seen since the introduction fo The Wonder Twins back in 1977. Two great big changes, in fact; first of all, the introduction of new team member FIRESTORM (aka "The Guy In The Creamsicle-Colored Band Uniform With His Head On Fire"), the other being the introduction of a main Super Villain (DARKSIED). An epic change in direction and tone for what would become the shows penultimate season.

Leave your own personal memories or reflections regarding this version of The Super Friends in the comments below, and if you haven't already taken the time to do so, be sure to go and vote for this cartoon in our Best of 1985 Poll!

1981 marked the departure of The New Adventures of Batman, a cartoon that I hold near and dear to my heart. Not only did it feature the vices of Adam West and Burt Ward (the Batman and Robin from the 1960's live-action TV show), but it also included my two favorite terrible cartoon ideas:

• Bat-Mite: If you think Scrappy-Doo is annoying, just give Bat-Mite a try for a while!
• The Bat-Computer: As we all know, our cartoons had to convey some sort of moral or socially-conscious message like "Always brush your teeth" or "Drugs are bad mmkay?" For the most part it was up to the kids to figure out the message of the show on their own. But on The New Adventures of Batman, every epiode ended with The Bat-Computer blaring a flashing and loud alert of "BAT-MESSAGE! BAT-MESSAGE!" which would then lead to Batman and Robin and Bat-Mite all talking about what the message of this episode was. IT WAS ASTOUNDING!

So if The New Adventures of Batman is one of YOUR favorites like it was mine, then be sure to go and vote for it in our Best of 1981 Poll and leave your own personal memories or feeling about the show in the comments below :)