As soon as I started school, I left Barney, Mr. Rogers, and Shining Time Station in my past. When I heard my fellow classmates making fun of Barney and praising Power Rangers and my father laughing every two minutes while watching Taz-Mania I knew that I had to check what other shows this channel had on it. Of course there was ABC and the CBS blocks but I don't remember watching every show on it. I only liked a few shows on those channels like TMNT, Sonic, Marsupilami, and Garfield and Friends. But when I discovered Fox Kids I soon found a channel that I could watch the whole afternoon afterschool, and the whole morning on Saturdays.


One show that had my love from the start was Batman TAS, or it's spinoff or show sequel or whatever it was Batman & Robin.

It was a very serious cartoon so at the age or four and five I really didn't understand the plot. But I loved it because it had Batman in it. Of course I could understand the characters since they were always simple to understand. Unlike Batman who was always investigating the latest weapon the villan was using, or kissing Catwoman with his very large square chin. One villan that stuck out was the Joker. I thought to myself why are his teeth so big and yellow, and why is he wearing lipstick.


And I move onto the next memorable show on Fox Kids which is the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.

What kid that grew up in the 90's didn't like this show? Everybody had those Power Ranger light up when you take a step sneakers from Payless (except me). Everybody played Power Rangers at recess, despite the teachers telling us not to playfight. What bought me to like this show was its overwhelming popularity and the Green Ranger. He was the Ranger that stuck out to me. He used to be a lone evil ranger and he had a robot that rose out of the sea that he controlled by a dagger/flute. I guess the Dragonzord (his robot) is what won me over to this show. Also resulting in my favorite color being green to this day.

But when the Green Ranger was kicked off and was replaced by the White Ranger I was heartbroken. His robot (zord) wasn't as cool as the Dragonzord, you would see more of him than the other rangers, and I was tired of hearing his grunts while fighting the villans. I don't know why but as soon as the White Ranger came out everybody loved him, and had forgotten about the Green Ranger.

The most pleasant show to watch out of my day was Bobby's World.

I don't know what it is but all my memories of watching the show always had flashbacks of a sunny day and a good day at school. I guess it was because the show was so colorful. From Uncle Ted's 'socks in a can', to Bobby's Mom's annoying voice, and to Bobby's ugly brother Derek this show had a variety of colorful characters. The cartoon never had any dark in it like the Batman cartoon. Everything was bright and colorful. Also the episodes were easy to understand since the show had the point of view of a kid that was my age.

Now here's a show that made me a lifelong fan of Marvel Comics, X-men.

The X-Men was so deep, by being taught about racism in school I understood the plot of the show. Which was basically mutants being discriminated against by regular people. There were some things in the show that I never understood though. Like why would they have some sweaty bald headed man, who wears a McDonald's shaped M helmet on his head (Cerebro), who always is hurt or something as their leader. But the show gained me some maturity, understanding racism for one, and it made me look at the places that girls have that usually teenagers look at. I mean Rogue had curves man! Sorry I couldn't find a decent pic of her on the cartoon but here's how she looked to those who don't know about her.

This show was the first and only show where I had multiple favorite characters. Gambit had the coolest voice and attitude ever. Wolverine was a loner (like myself sometimes), and was a raw tough guy. And Magneto was just plain 'gangsta', he seemed so powerful on the show, and seemed like the complete opposite of Professor X.

One of the shows that had the biggest impact on my childhood was the Amazing Spider-man.

This show was as in-depth as the X-Men. The story of Uncle Ben being murdered, Peter's cheesy on and off relationship with Mary Jane and Felicia Hardy, and Spider-man turning into a big hairy spider. I didn't understand the cartoon as well as the X-Men, but what won me over to this show was two things. All the guest appearences on the show, from the X-Men, to Ironman, to Captain America made the show more enjoyable to watch. The other reason that this show won me over was Venom. I always loved a cartoon that had a evil rival that looked almost like the main character. Even though he didn't show up in many episodes I always used to look out for him waving his tongue in the intro. Venom was so cool to look at.


Another show that made me smile while sitting on my bed on a Thursday afternoon was Life with Louie.

Like Bobby's World I totally understood this show. The show didn't relate to me but I understood it because my brain had grown a lot since 1994. I always thought of Louie as grown up stuck in a pig's, erm um kids body. His voice was very deep and seemed very mature for a kid. I can't remember much about this show, but I can remember some things. Louie's father who seemed like a complete weirdo. His head was a rectangle, he cooked fondue while in his boxers, he was always talking about the Greenbay Packers, and he had the most annoying voice. Another thing I could remember was Louie's gap teeth. I used to think that he had very stinky breath and was the ugliest man on Earth.

And onto the final cartoon, my most favorite cartoon of all the cartoons I've ever seen in my life... The Animaniacs!

The Animaniacs was so random, you'd see Bill Clinton eating a hotdog, and some celebrity I didn't know acting stupid. I loved all Yakko, Wakko and Dot all equally. But I perferred Yakko because he had his pants very high. This show had everything in it, the show didn't just involve three kids running around bothering some German guy. You had different cartoons in one show. Some of my favorite was Pinky & the Brain,

the Goodfeathers,

Buttons and Mindy,

and Slappy the Squirrel.

The cartoons always had some silly plot, to go along with the silly skits on the show. Like Good Idea, Bad Idea, and the Wheel of Morality. What made this cartoon different that all the others was that it had a variety of cartoons on it. Resulitng in the Animaniacs being my favorite cartoon of all time.

So as the 90's winded down Fox Kids started to suck. Spider-man ended, and it was replaced by some crappy animated cartoon, Spider-man Unlimited. The X-Men ended and was replaced by the very good Silver Surfer, but was canceled. The Power Rangers kept changing their series from Zeo, to Turbo, to In Space. After In Space I gave up on Power Rangers. And the Animaniacs went over to Kids WB which made me switch channels instead of watching Fox Kids all afternoon. Kids WB had the better cartoons. I also had cable and now I could watch Two Stupid Dogs on Cartoon Network. And after that I got into wrestling and the whole Austin 3:16 mania. I guess everything has to die sometimes, but I'm sad that it had to be something that involved my daily life.

R.I.P. Fox Kids