The Mount Rushmore of 80s Cartoons

This week on The Top Guys Podcast, we tackle one of the most dangerous questions in pop culture:

What are the four greatest 80s cartoons of all time?

With a few all-time classics already locked in, the guys debate who deserves the final spot on the mountain — and the answers go in wildly different directions.

Expect:

•  Cartoon nostalgia 
•  Toy aisle flashbacks 
•  ThunderCats debates 
•  TMNT passion 
•  Smurf discourse 
•  Emotional childhood connections 
•  And at least one take that may start a small war online 

Also:

•  Somebody is STILL mad about Panthro 
•  Chris reveals way too much about pizza 
•  Devon defends an iconic blue civilization 
•  and Omar somehow connects ThunderCats to Conan the Barbarian 

It’s heartfelt, ridiculous, and exactly the kind of conversation you’d have with your friends at 1 AM while quoting cartoons nobody remembers correctly anymore.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Want me to kick this one off or you got it?

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Please, please, please. All right. Kick it off.

SPEAKER_01 0:04

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another episode in the world. To another episode of what was formerly known as the top men.

SPEAKER_02 0:16

I haven't said that in a while, but has become We Are the Top Guys. This should be entertaining.

SPEAKER_01 1:00

I can't do it as well as Devon. It's so good. Chris, I took that Devon's and Top Guys last time and I turned it into a soundbite to kick things off.

SPEAKER_00 1:09

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 1:10

Yeah, it's fantastic. I absolutely love it. He did it so well. I'm like, that needs to be part of the intro. Um my name is Omar Mills. I am joined by a man who the only man I trust with his three names. Chris James Scott. Three first names. Yeah, that's the only man I trust with three first names.

SPEAKER_00 1:32

That's me. And I'm drinking a mysterious liquid out of a red cup. Don't ask me.

SPEAKER_01 1:36

Yes, he is. I will not ask him. I will not ask. I respect and appreciate it. And also joined by my main man. My brother. The man I went to high school with, my man who puts up with me and did not like put bullets at me for all the texts I sent him, all the memes I continue to send him all the time, and all the videos on Instagram. Like, look at this. This is great. He continues just to like like you know somebody loves you when they don't like hurt you. You know, so you know, and you know you deserve it. Um that's a that's a good man.

SPEAKER_00 2:11

Hey, Devon Texas, let me know you're alive, bro.

SPEAKER_01 2:15

Yeah, that's it. Yeah. Like you, and when you at your low, that's when you find out. When you're at your low point.

unknown 2:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:23

When they come and they like, hey man, you good?

unknown 2:26

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 2:26

That that's that's family. That's who that man is. But what's his name? Devon Vincent Sanders.

SPEAKER_00 2:33

Oh, Vincent? Damn. Vincent. Yes! Wow. You didn't know that.

unknown 2:45

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 2:46

You didn't know that. What do you mean, you middle name? You sound almost defended.

SPEAKER_02 2:58

Oh no.

SPEAKER_00 3:04

Hey! That's what it's been late. He's the John Travolta character.

SPEAKER_01 3:13

That's fair. You know what I mean? Like that's a that's a nice connect. I didn't even think of that. Today, ladies and gentlemen, we are going to be talking about the top, the mountain rushmore, let me say it that way, of 80s cartoons. Now, a few guardrails for us as we get started. You know, the there are three that are locks, and we all agree that Masters of the Universe, Transformers, and G.I. Joe, these are goaded. They it cannot be argued. They are the three of the four. And what we're going to be discussing is what is the fourth? I imagine that there's probably going to be some overlap. If there is, I will go last because I think if I go first, I'll probably take one from one of my brothers. And I don't want to do that because I I imagine that we are probably all going to have the same one. But in the event that we do, I will come back and say, I was going to say that. But I'm trying to think now of what else I could come up with so that I don't say the one that I know we're all going to say. But who would like to begin with their their fourth?

SPEAKER_00 4:27

I think I'm going to blow some minds with mine. So I would like to stay. Okay. Please. Wait, you're you're taking it or I'm going? No, you go. You go.

SPEAKER_01 4:35

Oh, I'm going to go. Oh, okay. Okay. Go ahead, Chris.

SPEAKER_00 4:38

Okay. So my colleagues, Devon and Omar, gave me this prompt a couple days ago before we record this episode. So we can, you know, so we come in this having some ideas marinating. You know, we don't we don't we don't fly off the cuff here, the top guys. We're professional. Real professional. It's not true at all. Flying by the seat of our pants all the time. I was thinking real hard. And it was like, what what would I really pick as the food? Mind palace, you know, really, you know, got like the Sherlock words flying around my head. It's like, oh man, spiral zone. Yes. And then my better half, she popped in and was like, dude, come on. It's it's teenage mute ninja turtles. Like it it is.

SPEAKER_01 5:36

I did not expect that answer.

SPEAKER_00 5:38

It's it's the teenage mutant ninja turtles. It makes a lot of sense. It makes a lot of sense. Like as soon as she said it, all other possibilities left my consciousness. They left the space of my brain. In fact, I would dare say that the only reason, the only reason that I love pizza as much as I do into my 40s is because of my and the the Teenage Minion Turtles. Like it was it was huge. It was huge. I was right in the epicenter of all of that. I got the live shows where at the at the DC Armory, you know, you go and you see them like playing guitar. It was awesome. It was awesome. You said the DC Armory.

SPEAKER_01 6:23

I haven't thought about that in ages. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:25

Man had the tapes, the cassettes, movies, cartoons, toys. So many toys. So many. And like it truly there, I I can't I I would I would dare suggest that there is not another property outside of the three that we've already locked in that would feel appropriate being used to deface indigenous mountain space with a Mount Rushmore. I think it's important that we point out that we don't we here at the Top Guys podcast, we do not support Mount Rushmore as a thing. We're using it only as the topic for discussion, six grandfathers forever. So yeah, my choice, Teenage Minutes. All right. I can I can think of no others. I I absolutely hear what you're saying, and I don't disagree. I just tend to think of, and you're absolutely right, it is an 80s property. I feel like it is more of a 90s thing. Where it's like it took off in the 90s in the 90s and everything, like you said, the stage shows, the movies. But yeah, I would not have been on Mount Rushmore. All right. Oh man. Alright, so should I go?

SPEAKER_02 8:12

Yeah, man.

SPEAKER_01 8:13

I was gonna say you said you were gonna blow the mind. Did you did you want to go? I was gonna go last, but do you want to go rock with it? Okay.

SPEAKER_00 8:18

Oh no, I'm good. I'm good.

unknown 8:20

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 8:22

The thing that I've chosen, it was not actually created in the 80s, but it became a thing in the 80s. If I'm correct, I believe it has 70 years of history behind it.

SPEAKER_01 8:36

Um, I think I know what you're gonna say. And damn, damn it. I can't defend this of the earth. God, I already know what it is, and it's just I wish I had thought of it. Go ahead, man. Say it. Say it to make me sad.

SPEAKER_00 8:52

It is, and I I actually have visual, that's why I went out of the camera.

SPEAKER_01 8:59

The Smurfs. Oh, it's not this. No, it's not that. Oh, but you know what? But that's goaded too. Wow, I can't the Smurfs. I can't mess with that one either.

SPEAKER_00 9:08

It is books, it is comics, it is multiple reboots. They just had one last year that was not good with Rihanna. It is not weird to walk down the street and actually see someone in a Smurf t-shirt, because I'm actually one of those people who will walk down the street in a Smurf t-shirt. The late great Keith Giffen threatened not to sign a comic book of mine when I was at a con because I was wearing a Smurfs t-shirt as a true story. That seems as as also like I said maybe a bit much. They are also violence. Music, storybooks, cartoons. That's how we got them. And the Smurfs had a good, I believe, almost 10-year run. And this is something that still, if you show people a picture of Smurfs, generations will almost go, oh I don't think that you would necessarily get that with an inspector gadget. So that's my answer. I would put a big old Smurf as the fourth face on the face of on the on Mount Rushmore. Papa Smurf. Okay, Papa Smurf. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:28

All right. Not Smurf Fett. Smurf at Smurf Fett feels feels right. That was the next thing I was gonna ask y'all on.

SPEAKER_00 10:34

Smurf that feels right the properties in the I hate Chris so much.

SPEAKER_01 11:00

Round to you, sir. Round to you. Well done. Well played. I have nothing. I have nothing but the L phrasing. Oh my gosh. Well played. It's well played. Well done.

SPEAKER_00 11:18

That is a bit too bright.

SPEAKER_01 11:21

I can see all of the figures.

SPEAKER_00 11:23

Damn. For those playing the home game, it was dark because it's after eight here on the East Coast, so I turned on my desk lamp, and it was like the bat signal was right in my head. Damn. Chris, we really need you. Now, now get up. So Mike Keaton stands up and just bangs his head into it.

SPEAKER_01 11:48

I was gonna say, yeah, you got the like I was thinking the thing I immediately thought of was Michael Keaton kind of sitting and then looking up.

SPEAKER_00 11:56

That to me, that's the that's the greatest one that exists where the back signal goes up where he's just because it like reflects off the thing in the middle of the the house and stuff. It's like my guy, everyone knows now.

SPEAKER_01 12:13

Yes, I love that, man.

SPEAKER_00 12:16

So the Smurfs, really Yes, Smurfs. Damn. I think that you could make a solid argument. Smurfs could be on the Mount Rushmore. Because I can't be mad at it. Yeah, as much as people would go, well, this and that, you know, I watched this. I think that if you put a bunch of like people who were either elder millennials up to Gen X, I think a good amount of them would actually mention the Smurfs as opposed to Yeah, I watched Pac-Man, I watched uh I forgot Pac-Man was a show. Yeah, wow, it was a yeah, wow. Yeah, I think people would because Smurfs was universal. It was a show that boys and girls both could watch with zero problems.

SPEAKER_02 13:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:07

That is fair. You're not bringing me around past the turtles, but like I I see I see the argument, I see the evidence. Okay. I personally I hate the Smurfs, like I abhor them, but like I see the argument and the reasoning, and I I I honor your process. Okay, thank you.

SPEAKER_01 13:30

Neither of you said what I thought you were gonna say. I just was sure, like, okay, there's one answer for this, and we're all gonna say it. And then neither of you said it. I'm not at all surprised, Devon, that you said the Smurfs because I'm thinking now, I'm connecting dots. Like the last time we recorded, you were like when me and Chris were being children and you were like an angry father, and you stared off, and you said that you were looking at Smurf figurine. I should have connected it there, you know. Rather, like he literally just kind of zones out, yeah, and it's like I'm not dealing with either one of them right now. As me and Chris are just tackling, you know, and he's like, Yeah, I'm just gonna look at this. It's either Sade that you wanted to talk to you, or the Smurf figurine. I thought was fantastic. Chris, I'm not surprised with the with the turtles. No, yeah, that that that that tracks that makes I can't even be mad with it.

SPEAKER_00 14:22

70 as hard for the turtles as he would for the Transformers.

SPEAKER_01 14:29

Oh, that yeah, if Transformers was on the table, like again, there's no there's no arguing with it. Right. It's just yes, the answer is yes.

SPEAKER_00 14:37

Like the these were both principal bricks in the foundation of of Chris. So, like, obviously, like we're gonna we're gonna do a uh anecdotal tangent, viewers at home. Transformers was big to me personally, just because my grandpa was very, very near and dear to my heart. He's very he took a very hands-on approach in raising me. He was a mechanic for Safeway, so like some of my earliest memories are being on top of the hood of a partially deconstructed big rig in a garage. So like Transformers was like, it's like Oppus Prime. He sounds like John Wayne, my grandpa sounds like John Wayne dipped in tea. Like, it's just the connection was there, yeah. So, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:32

I love it.

SPEAKER_00 15:33

But then I could also pick up a phone and order a giant pepperoni pizza. So my turtles is right there, too. You know?

SPEAKER_01 15:41

What I love about what you're saying, man, is that there's these things are obviously going to have the connection to the heartstrings, but you can't argue with the great, like it's it's shared greatness. Like the the beauty of it is like you can't really make the argument that it's just well, oh, you just love it because you love it. That would be the visionaries, like that's not going on the the thing, but that had a personal connection to me. Whereas these are Teflon. Everybody, like you say it and it meant something, you go, I can't really, I can't, I can't be mad at that. Same with the Smurfs. Like, oh man, you know, and I can't I can't be mad at that. I can I gotta say though, floored that neither of you came up with the Thundercats.

SPEAKER_00 16:30

See, I was about to joke and say tiger sharks, but there you go, Thundercats, let's talk about it.

SPEAKER_01 16:36

I wish I had said that. I wish I had said the tiger sharks, just to get the reaction. I didn't think of it.

SPEAKER_00 16:42

No Thundercats? No Mumro? But you know what? Thundercats, I thought was just too obvious. Like, I think that that would be on almost Mount Rushmore. I was thinking I Thundercats has a lot of appeal, but it really only has the appeal of the cartoon and maybe the occasional comic. And because I was thinking, as far as Smurfs go, it goes it's just such a broad property.

SPEAKER_01 17:16

I got you.

SPEAKER_00 17:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:18

So the generational, because to your point, made in the 80s for the Turtles goes well be like films, but sadly we've never gotten a Thundercats movie. We should you know we should absolutely have it.

SPEAKER_00 17:32

If if you wanted to be like a if I wanted to be a pedantic jackass about it, which I do, I revel in it. A lot of the things that you get with Thundercats, you arguably get in He-Man.

SPEAKER_01 17:48

That's a fair point.

SPEAKER_00 17:50

In stronger quotients, I would argue.

SPEAKER_01 17:54

Yeah, no, you're not wrong.

SPEAKER_00 17:57

Like Mumra, he rules.

SPEAKER_01 18:01

I love Mumra.

SPEAKER_00 18:02

But there are no real other villains in that franchise that can like stand up to Mumra, like in terms of iconography or memorabilia. Uh memorability. Is that the word memor memorability?

SPEAKER_01 18:18

Yeah, you're not you're not going out, you're not gonna stand a line for the monkey and toy. No, yeah, yeah, you're not, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:26

But if you show me a one, Jack O Man, you're not, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:28

But if you give me Mumra, I'll get I want the the non-transformed and mumra. Like, I want mummy and mumra. I need both. BOF. Both. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:41

But continue talking about Thundercats, man. Why'd you pick it?

SPEAKER_01 18:45

So Thundercats, for me, this is okay. So this this is Devon, you'll appreciate this deep. What appealed to me with the Thundercats had nothing to do with, and then forgive me, y'all indulge me for a second. I'm gonna go on a tangent. Devon has heard this, but Chris, maybe you have, I don't believe you have is it about I get it. I can't remember what I said about Smart That. Damn it. I would have brought that. But no. Power through, power through, power through, focus over, focus. All right, so before I tell you this connection, and just Devon, remind me because I'm old, I'm gonna forget. Remind me like what was I saying? Mumra and a connection to a movie I saw as a child. All right, so this is my beef with the Thundercats, right? And it's this has bothered me since I saw it, it bothers me to this day. But not enough for me to keep it off of the Mount Rushmore. But it's a the fact that I'm this upset about it maybe makes an argument for why it's there, because if it can get this kind of a reaction out of you, maybe that's why. I've always had beef with the fact that Lionel beat Panthro in his trials to become Lord of the Thundercats. It has bothered me since I saw it. It bothers me to this day. I also have issue with the fact that this dude can go out on that bull and get in trouble and shine a light, and we gotta come save you again. Like I'm tired of you going out here just doing whatever Lionel, and there's no comeuppance, and then you're gonna beat Panther. We all know Panther was the black Thundercat. I'm mad about this, I'm upset about it. It bothers me to this day. Y'all are looking sad. Y'all looking like y'all don't understand what I'm saying.

SPEAKER_00 20:53

No, I'm just wondering, does this stop you from putting it on the Mount Rush bore?

SPEAKER_01 20:59

It kind of fuels it. Because again, it's the if you can feel like I'm not angry at Inspector Gadget about anything like this. You know, he doesn't get that reaction. The best thing about Inspector, to me, Inspector Gadget is the cartoon variant of the greatest American hero, which you remember as the theme song. More than you do the show. You know, and to be if I'm really gonna take it a bridge further, you remember what Slick Rick and Dougie Fresh did with it.

SPEAKER_00 21:28

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:28

You know, that goaded it.

SPEAKER_00 21:32

Dear listeners, Chris does not remember what Dougie Fresh and Slick Rick did with the expected gadget.

SPEAKER_01 21:43

He pretends to be conveniently young when it insults me and Devon for being old. But he knows stuff. Don't let Chris fool you. He be knowing. He be knowing, you be knowing, Chris Scott.

unknown 21:55

Damn.

SPEAKER_01 21:56

I do okay, so. But here's why I here's my affinity, here's my large pizza relative to the Thundercats. My favorite movie of all time is Conan the Barbarian, as you both know. You cannot love Conan the Barbarian and not love James Earl Jones as Thulsa Doom. Then Tulsa Doom had a standard where two snakes were coming up and meeting each other, and Mumra's chest symbol is basically Tulsa Doom's logo. And so in my mind, Tulsa Doom didn't die. He became Mumra.

SPEAKER_00 22:39

Damn.

SPEAKER_01 22:40

And fought Lionel. That's where I go with it in my mind. And that is just a shit.

SPEAKER_00 22:44

You should write this fanfiction. I would say.

SPEAKER_01 22:46

Listen, if somebody hasn't, I I certainly like will. And then if I write it, Lionel is gonna get his come up and panthrough. Can't be doing that. Nah. I'm mad about it. I'm upset to this day. But I can't argue with either one of you all's takes. Smurfs. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I can't really be mad at either one of those. And I I I see the argument that you all can make. Like I can't. I even as I'm thinking about the Thundercats, it's more of a like they they property only went as far as the cartoon. Like the fact that like we can revisit it if there's a film at some point or if it has a resurgence.

SPEAKER_00 23:31

They got it.

SPEAKER_01 23:33

Yeah, they it had to slap.

SPEAKER_00 23:34

You know, yeah. I don't think you can put people in the cat makeup and make it pop. I don't know. Unless they do it like cats, not the unless it's on Broadway.

SPEAKER_01 23:47

That's about it. Yeah. Unless it's bad.

SPEAKER_00 23:52

Not the one with uh Taylor Swift. No. New release the butthole cut.

SPEAKER_01 24:07

Oh man.

SPEAKER_00 24:12

To remind folks that we have an Instagram page, Top Guys Pod. And uh yeah, so look for us on Instagram or at TopGuysPod and let us know what you think about our choices.

SPEAKER_01 24:26

Mm-hmm. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 24:30

Omar will be diligently reading through every fan response. I will be ignoring them.

SPEAKER_01 24:35

Actually, no, it's reading. We all we've established.

SPEAKER_00 24:40

I'll be reading.

SPEAKER_01 24:45

I will here's what I will do. I will tell you I'm going to read your responses.

SPEAKER_00 24:51

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 24:52

And then I won't read.

SPEAKER_00 24:53

I will text you. I'm doing most of the joking. I will read your responses.

SPEAKER_01 25:01

Chris actually will read those.

SPEAKER_00 25:02

I will read them. And then I will comment.

SPEAKER_01 25:05

Yeah, like you don't want that.

SPEAKER_00 25:07

I will tag them. Don't say no dumb stuff. Don't do it. We ain't big enough to not pull people's cards. Don't act too. There are no brand deals we're worrying about losing here. That's a fact.

SPEAKER_01 25:25

Yeah. But we'd like those.

SPEAKER_00 25:28

Particularly for coconut water that Devon enjoys. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:31

I would love to be sponsored by Trader Tones. Yeah, that'd be great. Yeah. That man. Manifesto. I gotta pay for my foundation work.

SPEAKER_01 25:43

I like it. Alright, so Chris, you're gonna you gonna you gonna pray us out?

SPEAKER_00 25:48

I think I will. I think I will. Uh you, dear listener, bow your head as we honor the special short episode of the Top Guys Pod that we've just had. There was there was merriment. There was a christening or two. And we all came away learning beautiful emotional truths about one another. From our home to yours, we wish you a very best rest of your day. Or night, if you know you listening to us at night with some cognac and some candles lit. Uh, God bless you. Um but uh yeah, let us know what you think on all our socials. Uh take care. Bye.