The 21 Weirdest 1980’s Cartoons

From Mr. T to Pac-Man to Teen Wolf, ’80s kids hung out with some odd characters on Saturday mornings

7. Shirt Tales

Shirt Tales 80s cartoon
Characters from Shirt Tales | Photo: YouTube/Warner Bros.

Aired: 1982-1983

Network: NBC

Number of episodes: 23

Shirt Tales was based on a line of Hallmark greeting cards featuring cute, cuddly animals wearing T-shirts emblazoned with different messages. While that might seem like an unusual origin, greeting cards were actually fairly common source material for kids’ entertainment in the ’80s — toy/cartoon franchises like Care Bears, Rainbow Brite and Strawberry Shortcake all had greeting card roots. For the Saturday morning cartoon, Shirt Tales characters like Tyg Tiger, Digger Mole and Bogey Orangutan (who talked like Humphrey Bogart) wore shirts that expressed their moods and, oh yeah, they fought crime in Mid City. In season 2, the show added a new character, Kip Kangaroo, who was voiced by Nancy Cartwright. Just a few years later, Cartwright would begin her decades-long run as the voice of Bart Simpson. 

Written by Totally Rad Staff