Forgotten Children’s Television Shows From the 80s
Saturday mornings in the 1980s meant waking up early, pouring a giant bowl of sugary cereal, and parking in front of the TV for hours.
Kids had their favorites that everyone remembers like He-Man and Transformers.
The 80s produced so many shows that plenty of them slipped through the cracks of memory.
These forgotten programs entertained millions of children before vanishing into obscurity.
They were rarely mentioned and almost never rerun.
Let’s dive into some shows that time left behind.
The Littles
Tiny people living inside the walls of a regular house sound creepy now.
Kids loved this show in the early 80s.
The Littles were a family of small humanoids with tails who had adventures while avoiding detection by the big humans.
They rode mice like horses and turned everyday objects into furniture and tools.
The show ran for three seasons and even got a few TV movies.
It never reached the popularity of similar concepts like The Smurfs.
Most people under 35 have never heard of it.
Turbo Teen
This show had one of the strangest premises ever put on children’s television.
A teenager named Brett crashed his car into a science lab and somehow fused with his vehicle.
He could transform into a red sports car whenever he got too hot.
Cold water turned him back into a human.
The show tried to be serious about this ridiculous concept.
It treated it like a superhero origin story instead of the bizarre body horror it actually was.
It lasted just one season before disappearing completely.
Kidd Video
Four teenagers and their dog got sucked into an animated music dimension by an evil villain named Master Blaster.
The show mixed live action bookends with animated adventures in the cartoon world.
Kidd Video and his band had to perform and survive in this strange place while trying to find a way home.
It aired for three seasons but fell into obscurity because the music rights made reruns nearly impossible.
The soundtrack featured original songs that sound hilariously dated now.
Pole Position
Stunt driving siblings ran a secret crime-fighting organization out of their stunt show business.
The show was based on a racing video game but had almost nothing to do with the actual game.
Dan and Tess drove advanced vehicles with artificial intelligence and fought random criminals each week.
Their uncle knew about the secret operation and just let two teenagers risk their lives regularly.
The show lasted two seasons before people forgot it existed.
The Kwicky Koala Show
Hanna-Barbera pumped out so many cartoons in the 80s that even they probably forgot about some of them.
Kwicky Koala was the fastest koala alive, constantly outsmarting a dim-witted dog named Wilfred.
The show featured several other cartoon segments including Crazy Claws and Dirty Dawg.
Everything about it felt like a discount version of better Hanna-Barbera properties.
It lasted one season and left virtually no cultural impact.
Rubik, the Amazing Cube
Someone looked at the Rubik’s Cube craze and decided it needed to be a living character.
Three kids found a magic Rubik’s Cube named Rubik who came to life when they solved him.
Each episode involved the kids getting into trouble and needing Rubik’s help to escape.
The cube had different powers depending on which color faced up.
The show lasted one season.
Even during the height of Rubik’s Cube popularity, nobody really cared about it.
Galtar and the Golden Lance
This show wanted to be He-Man but never came close.
Galtar was a muscular hero with a magic lance who fought an evil princess named Tormack.
His companions included a princess, a magic shield maiden, and various creatures.
The animation quality was poor even by 80s standards.
The stories were forgettable.
It lasted just one season with 21 episodes.
Kids watching it probably wished they were watching He-Man instead.
The Biskitts
These weren’t cookies despite the spelling suggesting otherwise.
The Biskitts were a group of tiny dogs who guarded a treasure on a hidden island.
They fought pirates particularly a group called the Shecky crew who wanted to steal their gold.
Hanna-Barbera made this show, and it feels like they were running out of ideas.
It aired for one season in 1983.
Even die-hard 80s cartoon fans struggle to remember anything about it.
Foofur
A blue dog inherited a house from a woman who used to feed him.
He turned it into a haven for homeless animals in the neighborhood.
They all lived together while avoiding animal control and a mean lady who wanted the house for herself.
The show had a surprising amount of heart for a cartoon about stray animals squatting in real estate.
It ran for two seasons but never built much of an audience.
The concept was too grounded and realistic for kids wanting fantasy adventures.
Centurions
Three heroes named Max, Ace, and Jake could receive weapon systems beamed directly onto their bodies from a satellite.
They fought Doctor Terror and his evil organization with the help of a scientist named Crystal Kane.
Each episode featured them suiting up with different equipment depending on whether they needed land, sea, or air capabilities.
The toy line failed, and the show vanished after one season.
The animation was decent, but the characters had zero personality.
Sky Commanders
Military action figures fighting on a planet covered in dangerous web-like formations sounds like someone pitching ideas after too much coffee.
The good guys used grappling hooks and cable systems to navigate the weird landscape while fighting the evil General Plague.
Every episode involved someone swinging on a cable or climbing something.
The show existed mainly to sell toys that featured working grappling hook mechanisms.
It lasted one season, and the toys didn’t sell well enough to justify continuing.
Dinosaucers
Intelligent dinosaurs from space came to Earth to protect it from evil dinosaurs also from space.
They could transform into anthropomorphic versions of themselves with enhanced abilities.
Four human teenagers helped them fight the bad dinosaurs called Tyrannos.
The show tried to teach science facts between action scenes which slowed down the pacing considerably.
It lasted one season with 65 episodes but made almost no cultural impact despite the decent episode count.
Spiral Zone
A scientist named James Bend created a plague that turned people into mindless slaves controlled through special helmets.
The Zone Riders fought to free captured territories from Overlord and his evil organization.
Everyone wore masks constantly making it hard to tell characters apart.
The show was darker than most 80s cartoons dealing with themes of mind control and oppression.
It ran for one season, and the toy line failed to compete with G.I. Joe.
Defenders of the Earth
This show brought together Flash Gordon, The Phantom, Mandrake the Magician, and their kids to fight Ming the Merciless.
It should have been huge given the famous characters involved, but it never caught on.
The animation was inconsistent, and the stories often felt rushed.
Adding the heroes’ children to the team seemed like an attempt to make it more relatable but just watered down the concept.
It lasted two seasons but faded from memory almost immediately after cancellation.
Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future
Live action mixed with CGI created this ambitious show about soldiers fighting machine overlords in a post-apocalyptic future.
The show featured interactive toys that could shoot at targets on the TV screen during special segments.
Captain Power led a team of freedom fighters against Lord Dread and his Bio-Dread Empire.
The show was surprisingly violent and dark for a children’s program which limited its audience.
It lasted one season, and the expensive toy integration failed to catch on.
Kissyfur
A young bear and his father escaped from a circus and tried to build a new life in a swamp.
Kissyfur made friends with other swamp creatures while dealing with threats from alligators and human hunters.
The show had an unusual focus on family dynamics and adjusting to new environments.
It ran for two seasons but never attracted much attention.
The cute character designs couldn’t overcome stories that often felt more educational than entertaining.
Visionaries
Knights in a magical world discovered they could control powerful animal spirits through special staff.
Some knights could also recite spells that activated for short periods.
The show took place in a world where technology had failed and magic had returned.
Hasbro produced toys with holographic stickers that showed the animal spirits which was innovative for the time.
The show lasted only one season because the expensive holographic toy technology made the figures too pricey for most kids.
Where they all went
These shows vanished for many reasons from poor toy sales to complicated licensing issues to simple lack of interest.
Some deserved to be forgotten, while others had potential that never got fully realized.
The 80s produced so much children’s content that only the biggest hits survived in public memory.
These forgotten shows remind us that not everything from childhood was actually as good as nostalgia suggests.
Sometimes obscurity is exactly what a show earned.
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