Sitting around the lunch table at work the other day, some coworkers started talking about old 80’s shows. Of course the usual Thundercats, Smurfs, etc references came up. Bo-ring. One guy says “Do you remember the Snorks?” Come on, man. Who doesn’t remember the Snorks? You think that’s obscure? Please. How about the shows that never seem to come up during these conversations…

• Danger Mouse - Who doesn’t love an international spy, especially one who happens to be a mouse with an eyepatch? And who could forget the mini-episodes contained within each DM episode featuring Bananaman? Watch the intro
• Scooby Doo’s Laff-A-Lympics - Probably the ultimate collection of Hanna-Barbara characters ever brought together in one place. Three teams compete each episode in a variety of competitions. Technically this first aired in the late 70’s, but you could still watch the reruns in the early 80’s and any kid watching cartoons probably saw this. Watch the intro
• Turbo Teen - A kid who turns into a car and back into human form when touched with hot or cold water. In my mind this was a much bigger show than it was (I even had the lunchbox back in kindergarten!). If you want to talk about a show almost no one remembers… mention Turbo Teen. Watch the intro
• Photon - You don’t get much campier than a teen laser tag idol who gets recruited by space warriors to fight against the bad guys. Wait, this suddenly sounds exactly like the laser tag equivalent of ‘The Last Starfighter’. Live-action, which means all the clips of the space monster fights et al are just as quality as watching a battle in an episode of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. No, wait, this was worse. Essentially a huge marketing ploy for the Photon home laser tag toys.  Watch the beginning of an episode

Now we’re talking about some obscure 80’s shows.

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