Oh sure, everyone knows The Flinstones and the Jetsons. But the other day I was playing the newer Chipmunks movie soundtracks for the boy I babysit, and his mom told me to look up the Alvin and the Chipmunks theme from the 80s, thinking I had never heard of the show. I had forgotten about it until I looked it up, and then remembered it was one of my favorite cartoons growing up.

Sure it’s an 80s cartoon and I grew up in the 90s, but back then Nickelodeon played more than two shows repeatedly during the day. (Not that I have anything against the current Nick shows, but it wouldn’t hurt them to throw the Rugrats or something on at a time other than 2am.) According to Wikipedia, the show was actually in production from 1983 to 1990. Thanks to Cartoon Network (from 1993-2001) and Nickelodeon (1995-1997), this show lived on for another generation.

This got me thinking. What other shows did I grow up watching that ended before my time. Of course there was The Muppet Show (1976-1981) and Fraggle Rock (puppets 1983-1987, animated 1987), but I knew those were old. Muppet Babies overlapped into my lifetime (1983-1991), and Garfield and Friends (1988-1994) was half-new when I was watching. I also remember watching You Can’t Do That On Television (1981-1990) a couple times when I was younger. And who could forget The Smurfs (1981-1990).

Today, thanks to the magic of Netflix, iTunes, the Internet, and DVD, we can share our old favorites with new generations anytime we want. Well, as long as you can find them. (PS, anyone looking for the 90s Nickelodeon Programing: 90sareallthat.com will help you waste hours you meant to be working with the original Rugrats, Doug, CatDog, etc. You’re welcome.)

What shows do you remember when you were growing up? Anyone else grow up watching shows they didn’t even know were out of production?