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Animation · 1980s

The 1980s account for 41 of the 463 animation shows here, and 44 opening sequences.

Syndication carries the most, with 13.

Two of them rebuilt their titles mid-run, Robotech most of all with three sequences.

41 shows44 sequences

Still from the opening titles of The Simpsons2 sequences

The Simpsons

1989–FoxAnimation

The only main title in television built to be different every week: the chalkboard, the saxophone solo and the couch gag all change, so the sequence is a format rather than a film.

  • Seasons 1–20
  • Season 21
Still from the opening titles of Pingu1 sequence

Pingu

1986–2006SF DRSAnimation

A Swiss claymation penguin speaking an invented language, so it needed no dubbing to sell anywhere.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of DuckTales1 sequence

DuckTales

1987–1990SyndicationAnimation

One of the most durable theme songs ever written for television, over a minute of ducks solving problems with money.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Postman Pat1 sequence

Postman Pat

1981–2017BBC OneAnimation

A rural postman and his black and white cat, stop-motion, with a theme everyone in Britain can finish.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Inspector Gadget1 sequence

Inspector Gadget

1983–1986SyndicationAnimation

A Peter Sellers impression with helicopter arms, and a theme that is In the Hall of the Mountain King with the serial numbers filed off.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Fireman Sam1 sequence

Fireman Sam

1987–BBC OneAnimation

A Welsh fire station in stop-motion, made in Welsh first and dubbed into English second.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of The Real Ghostbusters1 sequence

The Real Ghostbusters

1986–1991ABCAnimation

The film continued as a cartoon, keeping the theme and adding Real to the title because another studio already had the name.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Dungeons & Dragons1 sequence

Dungeons & Dragons

1983–1985CBSAnimation

Six children pulled off a fairground ride into the game, with the ride itself doing the work of the title sequence.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of ThunderCats1 sequence

ThunderCats

1985–1989SyndicationAnimation

A sword extending, a cat's eye opening, and a shout — eighties syndication at its most confident.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Danger Mouse1 sequence

Danger Mouse

1981–1992ITV (Cosgrove Hall)Animation

A one-eyed secret-agent mouse under a Mayfair pillar box, and the most exported British cartoon of its decade.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Muppet Babies1 sequence

Muppet Babies

1984–1991CBSAnimation

The Muppets as toddlers in a nursery, spun out of a dream sequence in The Muppets Take Manhattan.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of My Little Pony 'n Friends1 sequence

My Little Pony 'n Friends

1986–1987SyndicationAnimation

The Hasbro line's first series, thirty years before the franchise found an audience it had not been aimed at.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero1 sequence

G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero

1985–1986SyndicationAnimation

A toy line turned into a war cartoon where nobody is ever hit, and a theme that spells the acronym out.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Thundarr the Barbarian1 sequence

Thundarr the Barbarian

1980–1982ABCAnimation

A post-apocalyptic Earth designed by Jack Kirby, with a narrated prologue doing all the world-building in twenty seconds.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Count Duckula1 sequence

Count Duckula

1988–1993ITV (Cosgrove Hall)Animation

The Danger Mouse villain spun off into his own castle, a vegetarian vampire duck.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Beetlejuice1 sequence

Beetlejuice

1989–1991ABC / Fox KidsAnimation

The Burton film animated with Danny Elfman's theme intact, and Lydia and the ghost as friends rather than adversaries.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of SilverHawks1 sequence

SilverHawks

1986SyndicationAnimation

ThunderCats moved into space by the same studio, with the same narrator shouting the same way.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Robotech3 sequences

Robotech

1985SyndicationAnimation

Three unrelated Japanese series cut together into one American saga, and the opening is where the seam shows: the same theme and the same establishing pan every week, then a different logo card and a different war.

  • Season 1
  • Season 2
  • Season 3
Still from the opening titles of BraveStarr1 sequence

BraveStarr

1987–1988SyndicationAnimation

Filmation's science-fiction western, and the last series the studio finished before it closed.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of The Trap Door1 sequence

The Trap Door

1984–1986ITVAnimation

Plasticine creatures in a castle basement, with a theme built from a voice going "don't you open that trap door".

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of SuperTed1 sequence

SuperTed

1983–1986S4C / BBCAnimation

A discarded teddy bear given powers by a spotty alien, made in Wales and sold to Disney.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Rainbow Brite1 sequence

Rainbow Brite

1984–1986SyndicationAnimation

A Hallmark character licensed into a cartoon, in the era when the toy came first and the series followed.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of The Littles1 sequence

The Littles

1983–1985ABCAnimation

Six-inch people with tails living inside the walls, from the John Peterson books.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of The Care Bears Family1 sequence

The Care Bears Family

1986–1988ABCAnimation

The greetings-card bears given a series, with a stare that resolves every plot.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Willo the Wisp1 sequence

Willo the Wisp

1981BBC OneAnimation

Kenneth Williams voicing every character, in five-minute films made to fill the gap before the news.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Bananaman1 sequence

Bananaman

1983–1986BBC OneAnimation

The Beano strip animated with the Goodies doing the voices, and a narrator who explains the transformation every week.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Button Moon1 sequence

Button Moon

1980–1988ITVAnimation

Puppets made of kitchen utensils flying to a moon made of a button, with a theme sung by Peter Davison's wife and later covered by him.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Pigeon Street1 sequence

Pigeon Street

1981BBC OneAnimation

A street of neighbours introduced one at a time, including a long-distance lorry driver called Long Distance Clara.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Anpanman1 sequence

Anpanman

1988–NTVAnimation

A superhero whose head is made of bread and who tears pieces off it to feed the hungry, running now for more than a thousand episodes.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Babar1 sequence

Babar

1989–1991HBOAnimation

De Brunhof's elephant king animated in Canada, and told mostly in flashback to his own children.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Beast King GoLion1 sequence

Beast King GoLion

1981–1982TV TokyoAnimation

Five lions that combine into one robot, later recut in America as Voltron.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Dragon Ball1 sequence

Dragon Ball

1986–1989Fuji TVAnimation

Toriyama's Journey to the West, from before the series turned into the one everyone remembers.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe1 sequence

He-Man and the Masters of the Universe

1983–1985SyndicationAnimation

A man holding a sword above his head announcing that he has the power, at a volume that defined an entire decade of toy advertising.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Jem and the Holograms1 sequence

Jem and the Holograms

1985–1988SyndicationAnimation

A record executive with a holographic alter ego, and a series that stopped for a music video every episode.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of The New Adventures of He-Man1 sequence

The New Adventures of He-Man

1989–1990SyndicationAnimation

He-Man moved off Eternia into space, with a redesigned cast and almost none of the original's iconography.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Star Wars: Droids1 sequence

Star Wars: Droids

1985–1986ABCAnimation

The two droids between the trilogies, in the first Star Wars television made for children.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Superbook1 sequence

Superbook

1981–1983CBNAnimation

A Japanese-animated series in which a book sends two children into Bible stories, made for an American religious broadcaster.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Thomas & Friends1 sequence

Thomas & Friends

1984–2021ITVAnimation

Model locomotives shot a frame at a time on a table in Britain, narrated for the first two series by Ringo Starr.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends1 sequence

Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends

1984–2021ITVAnimation

Model railway engines shot at eye level and narrated by Ringo Starr, from the Awdry books.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of TUGS1 sequence

TUGS

1989ITVAnimation

Model tugboats in a 1920s harbour, made by the Thomas the Tank Engine team and considerably darker.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Voltron: Defender of the Universe1 sequence

Voltron: Defender of the Universe

1984–1985SyndicationAnimation

Five lions forming a robot, explained by narration because the animation alone could not carry it — and the sequence is better for the commitment.

  • Season 1