The 80's revival of Alvin and the Chipmunks. Alvin and the Chipmunks started out as a series of novelty records in 1958, which become so popular The Alvin Show was launched in 1961. But The Alvin Show only lasted one season with 26 episodes. The reruns proved to be popular though and a whole new series titled Alvin and the Chipmunks was launched to try out the competiton of Saturday morning line ups. By re-adopting The Chipmunks characters to the 80's with 80's style cartoon writing and a cover of a hit 80's song for each episode - Alvin and the Chipmunks wound up being very successful and are now considered as 80's as Ninja Turtles.