Turbo Teen
Turbo Teencapitalized on the success of the then-popular 80s showKnight Riderwith its take on a talking car that sometimes solves crimes. The twist? The car is also a teenager.
In what is basically a body horror movie in kid-friendly animated form, the show centers on teen Brett Matthews after he crashes his red sports car into (naturally) a government laboratory. There, he and his car are exposed to a beam that fuses the two together.
If Brett gets too hot, he morphs into the car. Too cold? He turns back to a human. Turbo Teen’s nemesis is the monster truck Dark Rider. Yup, this show happened.
Fish Police
With the success of FOX’sThe Simpsonssending the Big Three networks looking for their own prime-time animated series success, CBS threw their hat into the ring withFish Police. This six-episode, one-season wonder proved to be the opposite of a hit – but it earned its place as one of the craziest animated series ever greenlit.
Featuring top voice talent likeJohn RitterandTim Curry,Fish Policefollowed Inspector Gill (Ritter) – a fish detective – with a very old-school, film noir-y sense of justice as he solves Mafia-related crimes in an underwater city. The Hanna-Barbara series was more adult-oriented than their other shows, with episodes featuring lots of innuendos and some profanity.
Rick & Morty
Adult Swim’s hit show is one of their best – and weirdest. It’s an R-rated,Back to the Future-esque sci-fi comedy adventure about a drunk scientist, Rick, and his idiot grandson, Morty, exploring the galaxy, multiple worlds and alternate realities while dealing with everyday dysfunctional family troubles.
Rick’s level-five narcissism is only surpassed by his genius, which frequently results in dragging his family into very disgusting and debaucherous adventures. Despite the show’s graphic content and subversive themes,Rick & Mortyalso packs a surprising and considerable amount of heart in between its rapid-fire LOLs and exceptional sci-fi ideas.
Animaniacs
Warner Bros. animation in the ‘90s had our childhoods on lockdown with this zany, dialed-up-to-11 hit from executive producerSteven Spielberg. A variety show created for kids,Animaniacsseemed largely aimed at adults, thanks to its endless supply of subversive humor and wit.
The Warner Brothers Yakko, Wakko, and their sister, Dot, live in the water tower on the Warner Bros. lot, unleashing their rapid-fire slapstick on audiences fond of pop-culture references and colorful adventures. The series won several Daytime Emmys for skewering everything fromGoodfellastoThe Lion King.Fans can’t wait for its reboot coming to Hulu in 2020.
The Ren & Stimpy Show
Nickelodeon’s answer toThe Simpsonsand MTV’sBeavis and Butt-head,Ren & Stimpywas a gross-out, loud AF series with a strong aversion to subtlety. Its titular characters – a surly chihuahua and a dim-witted cat – bumbled and argued through increasingly crazy and messy adventures.
With its slapstick violence and graphic depiction of certain bodily functions,Ren & Stimpyearned much scorn from parental watch groups for its subject matter being significantly more edgy than Nick’s usual kid-friendly fare. Despite the controversy, the crazy plotlines and deep bench of even crazier ensemble characters (like Powdered Toast Man) proved to be a hit with audiences.
Dinosaucers
This obscure ‘80s series took a page fromTransformers’ playbook, only instead of anthropomorphic Autobots and Decepticons duking it out on Earth, we have alien talking dinosaurs from the planet Reptilion.
The heroic Dinosaucers battle their enemies, the villainous Tyrannos, with four humans – known as the Secret Scouts – caught in the middle. The series ran for 65 episodes, but was cancelled after one season when the show failed to hit with viewers. That also killed plans for a toyline, which would have been just as out there as the show.
FLCL, AKA Fooly Cooly
For anime and early Adult Swim fans,FLCLis a deep-cut. This six-episode series, and its accompanying manga, follows 12-year-old boy Naota as his suburban life is turned upside-down when an alien woman, Haruko Haruhara, runs him over with her Vespa.
She revives him with CPR, but then bonks him on the head with a vintage electric bass guitar. The resulting head wound eventually becomes a portal that giant robots can travel through. And that’s the least crazy this show gets.
JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure
“Bizarre” barely covers the storylines of this serialized, eight-part anime. The family Joestar are destined to take down a variety of supernatural foes using their unique powersets, and each of the eight family members gets their own episode to do their thing. And of course, each member’s name can be abbreviated to be “JoJo.”
Starting in 1880s England and spanning across alternate timelines and fictional Japanese towns,JoJo’s Bizarre Adventureoffers an eclectic take on garden-variety supernatural threats – like vampires and evil spirits – and weaves them through the twisty, convoluted adventure plots anime fans love. You’ve never seen a show like this before, and probably never will again.
InHumanoids
To ‘80s kids,InHumanoidswas a slightly scarier version of the usual animated series fare designed to sell toys. The super dark series centered on a team of human subterranean scientists, known as Earth Corps, who discover there are monsters invading our world. The humans must join forces with other entities to fight off these creatures.
This simple premise is complicated by some truly horrific character designs, especially the trio of evil Inhumanoids. The Earth Corps’ allies, the Mutores, are also at least three types of terrifying. The episodes are your standard “good guys must foil the bad guys” stories, but they’re delivered in some truly odd and visually disturbing ways.
Skeleton Warriors
If He-Man and Skeletor formed a band with every airbrushed van mural ever made, that band would beSkeleton Warriors. A Meatloaf album cover come to life, this short-lived series pits the forces of good – and their demonic, flying motorcycles – against evil metal band rejects that wear their bones on the outside.
Skeleton Warriorsmust be seen to be believed, especially the series’ opening credits and accompanying theme song. Scored to angry electric guitar riffs, a truly frightening early ‘90s CG skull introduces you to the show before its title song pummels you into submission by repeatedly shouting “Skeleton Warriors” at you.
