Hell yeah! Cartoon Network rocked back in the day. I think their best shows were the ones that my parents liked to watch with me too and enjoyed as adults, since that meant family time and that the show really was appealing to both audiences. I think the only one they seemed to really love that I actually didn't like (I dunno why, I didn't hate it but I got tired of it quickly) was Johnny Bravo.
Dexter's Lab will always be my favourite. The next show I'm going to mention, I actually think I like more overall, but Dexter's Lab has more nostalgic value for me. This was one of the first Cartoons I became obsessed with along with my parents, and when they moved the brand new episodes to a later timeslot, it was the first show my mum was willing to let me stay up later than usual to watch.
Then there was Courage the Cowardly Dog. This was also my mums favourite, in fact I didn't watch it for awhile but she wanted me to watch it with her and when I did I fell in love. Yeah, okay, the plot is almost always the same structure, but the characters and set ups were bizarre, creative, and really fun and of course Courage was a cute little fella. My favourite episode was the one where a zombie movie director comes to the farm and promises Eustace and Muriel they can be in his next film. Naturally, Courage is freaked out and suspicious and researches the director, and it turns out he was an infamous snuff film maker (I never thought a childhood cartoon would mention snuff films...) and he and his actor were executed a long time ago, no one knew what happened to the directors body but the actor was buried under the farm and the director starts his "film" in the basement, resurrecting his pal as a zombie and then of course Courage realizes he has to stop them from making Muriel and Eustace zombie chow. Eustace wasn't so lucky, though it was funny seeing a zombie Eustace xP
As I said Courage is probably my favourite, although Dexter's Lab was more nostalgic.
Cow & Chicken was okay, but not my favourite. I remember the characters more than actual episodes, my favourite was always the Red Devil Guy with no pants who had an obsession with pantsing people... y'know, saying that sentence as a grown up makes me realized how utterly messed up that is. I am Weasel was fun too and one of the few episodes I remember is when we were introduced to Chickens cousin, who happened to be completely flat and Cow flew him like a kite. That was pretty funny. I also remember an episode where they were telling weird campfire stories involving vengeful, flying roadkill and a horror story where they weren't so scared that it was about a witch but were horrified wondering what the heck a "uvula" was. I also remember watching an episode recently because I heard it caused a lot of controversy for making fun of Lesbians, and so they only showed it like once or twice. I actually did catch it when it was on TV because it was familiar when I rewatched the episode, but I think I would be breaking the rules just giving the set up of the episode, it really DID push a pretty dirty joke. It is true it was definitely making fun of Lesbians as well, it had all the stereotypes and I'm amazed that my parents; who were a Lesbian couple, actually found the episode funny, some of the stereotypes and a really dirty joke at the beginning are usually the kind of stereotypes that offend them. I do admit it is funny, but I can understand why there was some upset.
This is an obscure one, but does anyone remember "Sheep in the Big City"? I loved that show. I can't remember any episodes, but I remember what it was about and essentially how it progressed, and that it was really, really really weird. When the pilot aired, my parents & I were rolling on the floor despite also kind of going "What the hell?" It involved a sheep escaping into a big city to escape a farm and be with a poodle he loved while being chased by General Specific and Private Public who want to capture him and use him in a sheep powered doom ray. Did I mention this show was really weird? I loved the character of Oxymoron and the Angry Scientist. They were great. I'm not sure what happened to this show, it wasn't on for very long... I heard it was more successful in the UK, and seeing as I'm originally from the UK (though I did see it in the US) maybe thats why it appealed to me more.
Ed, Edd & Eddy was good, but I consider it lower because my parents didn't like it as much as I did and as I said, the experience of being able to have fun with these shows with my family made them a lot more fun to watch.
The last one I want to comment on is The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy. I know it started out as "Grim & Evil" but I didn't like Evil Con Carne NEARLY as much as Grim Adventures and was glad when it got its own show. I was in Japan when this show started, so I saw it a little later after it got subtitled, but I loved it and so did Chie, who is now my wife. I think this is the most recent Cartoon network show I really was into, but I LOVED it. Chie & I would watch it all the time back there and even when we got married, we'd still watch it. I do remember it slipping in later episodes much like the later episodes of Dexter's Lab, but it had a pretty good run. Not only does it get points for having a Jamaican Grim reaper, arguably the best idea ever, it had a lot of truly terrific characters and the title characters were some of the best that the channel ever came up with. Plus this show introduced me to one of my favourite musicians, Voltaire, as he did the song "Brains!" for an episode called "Little Rock of Horrors" where an evil brain sucking meteorite crash lands and convinces Billy into harvesting brains, and eventually gets Mandy's brain, but Mandy's brain is so evil it takes over the rock. That episode was one of the best. I can't remember his name, but there was another character I loved; I do remember that he was a mixture of Ash from Evil Dead with the Chainsaw on his arm and Snake Plisskin from Escape from New York in looks and a bit of both in personality. Can anyone remember that characters name? Its bugging me trying to remember.
So yeah, the old Cartoon Network rocked.
