5 Tough Guys That Had Cartoon Shows [VIDEOS]

The 80s were the golden age of Saturday morning programming. Originality was at its peak, and animation studios were eager to produce the latest and greatest cartoon series to entertain the young masses (and promote the accompanying toy line). Some studios turned to Hollywood’s brawny heavy hitters for that extra touch of awesome! Which action icons loaned their larger than life personalities to the world of animation? Find out in COED’s list of 5 tough guys that had cartoon shows!

1) Chuck Norris – “Karate Kommandos”

Nearly every animation studio in the 80s, when creating an action series, followed this timeless adage: “When in doubt, do what G.I. Joe did.” With the white-hot success of Hasbro’s G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero toy line, comic and television series, studios were quick to use the paint-by-numbers premise of a group of eclectic heroes going up against a an evil organization using non-regulation military ordinance that looked like toys. From there it was simply a matter of creating the characters and the theme. Chuck Norris Karate Kommandos is one of these G.I. Joe clones, but with ninjas and martial artists in the place of army men.

Karate Kommandos hit all the right marks: a cast of cultural stereotypes, ninjas and spelling “commandos” with a “k” (yay, intentional typos). Surprisingly, this show didn’t even last a season with only five episodes having been produced. Then again, Chuck Norris was the titular hero of the series, and we all know it would only take five episodes to single-handedly bring a massive evil organization to its knees.

2) Mr. T – “Mister T”

What happens when you take Mr. T, Johnny Quest and that Harlem Globetrotters cartoon and run it through a meat grinder? You get the Mr. T animated series! With a team consisting of Mr. T and a group of teenage gymnasts, the world’s criminal element better beware, especially since a bullet is almost useless against a perfectly executed backflip into the air – with a landing to match! Plus, everyone had a hearty bowl of Mr. T cereal in the morning, so the bad guys might as well drop their weapons now and surrender willingly. Resistance is futile!

3) Hulk Hogan – “Hulk Hogan’s Rock ‘N Wrestling”

Brother, you couldn’t go anywhere in the 80s without catching a serious case of Hulkamania, thanks in part to Hulk Hogan’s overworked marketing team! And with children everywhere incessantly demanding some more Hulk in their lives, creating a cartoon series based on their golden-haired idol was a no-brainer. Hulk Hogan’s Rock ‘N Wrestling was a show that blended action with slapstick humor that delighted kids, but made adults roll their eyes. The Transformers had the Autobots butting heads with Decepticons, and G.I. Joe took on the forces of Cobra. In the case of Rock N’ Wrestling, it was the faces versus the heels. So who was Hulk’s villainous foil? One Rowdy Roddy Piper raising hell in his car shaped like bag pipes, as well as the Iron Sheik and the like. Yes, it was campy and clearly a cash grab, but try telling that to the orphans flocking to the Hulkster in the intro!

4) Sylvester Stallone – “Rambo: Forces Of Freedom”

This isn’t a joke, they really did make an animated series to tie into the Rambo film franchise. Making a cartoon based on a mentally unstable Vietnam veteran prone to violent outbursts wouldn’t fly with network censors today, but you have to remember that this was the 80s and nearly anything under the sun had the potential to become a cartoon. But, hey, guess what, this is a totally different Rambo. A sane Rambo. A Rambo that has nothing to do with his movie counterpart, and – in fact – he brought some friends along for the ride! Like Chuck Norris Karate Kommandos, Rambo: Forces of Freedom was another cartoon desperate to ride G.I. Joe’s coattails all the way to the bank. They must have done something right since the show had well over 60 episodes; of course, they didn’t have Chuck Norris either.

5) Jackie Chan – “Jackie Chan Adventures”

Okay, Jackie Chan Adventures isn’t an 80s cartoon – I’ll give you that – but it really did follow the same formula as its predecessors, if not avoiding the campy pitfalls as well. Back then, it was a bit of a downer when the actor the show was based on didn’t provide the voice. But in the case of Jackie Chan Adventures, this was a blessing – as awesome as he is, Jackie Chan has a terrible grasp of the English language. Still, that didn’t stop him from answering a kid’s question of the day at the end of each show, even if he never truly made his answer clear.

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