Animation · 1980s
41 shows44 sequences
2 sequencesThe 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
1 sequencePingu
1986–2006SF DRSAnimation
A Swiss claymation penguin speaking an invented language, so it needed no dubbing to sell anywhere.
- Season 1
1 sequenceDuckTales
1987–1990SyndicationAnimation
One of the most durable theme songs ever written for television, over a minute of ducks solving problems with money.
- Season 1
1 sequencePostman 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
1 sequenceInspector 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
1 sequenceFireman Sam
1987–BBC OneAnimation
A Welsh fire station in stop-motion, made in Welsh first and dubbed into English second.
- Season 1
1 sequenceThe 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
1 sequenceDungeons & 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
1 sequenceThunderCats
1985–1989SyndicationAnimation
A sword extending, a cat's eye opening, and a shout — eighties syndication at its most confident.
- Season 1
1 sequenceDanger 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
1 sequenceMuppet Babies
1984–1991CBSAnimation
The Muppets as toddlers in a nursery, spun out of a dream sequence in The Muppets Take Manhattan.
- Season 1
1 sequenceMy 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
1 sequenceG.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
1 sequenceThundarr 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
1 sequenceCount Duckula
1988–1993ITV (Cosgrove Hall)Animation
The Danger Mouse villain spun off into his own castle, a vegetarian vampire duck.
- Season 1
1 sequenceBeetlejuice
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
1 sequenceSilverHawks
1986SyndicationAnimation
ThunderCats moved into space by the same studio, with the same narrator shouting the same way.
- Season 1
3 sequencesRobotech
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
1 sequenceBraveStarr
1987–1988SyndicationAnimation
Filmation's science-fiction western, and the last series the studio finished before it closed.
- Season 1
1 sequenceThe 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
1 sequenceSuperTed
1983–1986S4C / BBCAnimation
A discarded teddy bear given powers by a spotty alien, made in Wales and sold to Disney.
- Season 1
1 sequenceRainbow Brite
1984–1986SyndicationAnimation
A Hallmark character licensed into a cartoon, in the era when the toy came first and the series followed.
- Season 1
1 sequenceThe Littles
1983–1985ABCAnimation
Six-inch people with tails living inside the walls, from the John Peterson books.
- Season 1
1 sequenceThe Care Bears Family
1986–1988ABCAnimation
The greetings-card bears given a series, with a stare that resolves every plot.
- Season 1
1 sequenceWillo the Wisp
1981BBC OneAnimation
Kenneth Williams voicing every character, in five-minute films made to fill the gap before the news.
- Season 1
1 sequenceBananaman
1983–1986BBC OneAnimation
The Beano strip animated with the Goodies doing the voices, and a narrator who explains the transformation every week.
- Season 1
1 sequenceButton 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
1 sequencePigeon Street
1981BBC OneAnimation
A street of neighbours introduced one at a time, including a long-distance lorry driver called Long Distance Clara.
- Season 1
1 sequenceAnpanman
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
1 sequenceBabar
1989–1991HBOAnimation
De Brunhof's elephant king animated in Canada, and told mostly in flashback to his own children.
- Season 1
1 sequenceBeast King GoLion
1981–1982TV TokyoAnimation
Five lions that combine into one robot, later recut in America as Voltron.
- Season 1
1 sequenceDragon Ball
1986–1989Fuji TVAnimation
Toriyama's Journey to the West, from before the series turned into the one everyone remembers.
- Season 1
1 sequenceHe-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
1 sequenceJem 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
1 sequenceThe 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
1 sequenceStar Wars: Droids
1985–1986ABCAnimation
The two droids between the trilogies, in the first Star Wars television made for children.
- Season 1
1 sequenceSuperbook
1981–1983CBNAnimation
A Japanese-animated series in which a book sends two children into Bible stories, made for an American religious broadcaster.
- Season 1
1 sequenceThomas & 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
1 sequenceThomas the Tank Engine & Friends
1984–2021ITVAnimation
Model railway engines shot at eye level and narrated by Ringo Starr, from the Awdry books.
- Season 1
1 sequenceTUGS
1989ITVAnimation
Model tugboats in a 1920s harbour, made by the Thomas the Tank Engine team and considerably darker.
- Season 1
1 sequenceVoltron: 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