Five best (and five worst) shows on Fox Kids
Hey there! While we are taking a break from Anime of the Childhood, I’m going to give you the five best (and worst) shows that used to air on Fox Kids. This list is all opinion, so don’t go complaining. First, here are the five best shows on Fox Kids:
5. Bobby’s World
Bobby’s World aired from September 8, 1990, to February 23, 1998, created by Howie Mandel (who went on to be the host of Deal or No Deal). The show follows the daily life of a four- (five- in seasons 2 through 6, six- in seasons 7 and 8) year-old main protagonist Bobby Generic (pronounced “JEN-uh-rik”), with his very overactive imagination and how he sees the world. Bobby has spiky black hair and wears a white shirt with red short sleeves (which also reveals his stomach exposed), red shorts, and blue Chuck Taylor-inspired sneakers.
After it was canceled in 1998, reruns began airing on Fox Family until 2001. The series was available in its entirety on Netflix instant streaming (later removed) and Kabillion as well. It was available on Amazon Prime Instant Video. Episodes can occasionally be seen in syndication, on a variety of websites, on Netflix (not available), or on Comcast’s OnDemand service. The show’s official site can be found here (Waybacked).
4. Eek! Stravaganza (aka Eek! The Cat)
Eek! Stravaganza (aka Eek! The Cat), created by Savage Steve Holland and Bill Kopp, was aired between 1992 and 1997. The show featured a guitar riff intro, slapstick humor, and pop culture references. Shows vary from standard cartoon fare to film spoofs (such as Apocalypse Now and A Clockwork Orange) and musical episodes; the first Christmas episode was written almost entirely in rhyme. Other segments include The Terrible Thunderlizards, which was introduced in the middle of the second season. Dee Snider from the (now-defunct) band Twisted Sister composed the show’s theme song. The Klutter segment came in the fourth season of Eek! Stravaganza in 1995. It followed Ryan and Wade Heap and their pet Klutter who they created from a static reaction to a pile of junk that their mother Andrea wanted them to pick up because the constant allergies of their father John, a news reporter, made it impossible for them to have a real dog.
3. Mystic Knights of Tir Na Nog
This fantasy-adventure television series is set in a fantasy version of ancient Ireland, created by Saban Entertainment. It was loosely based on actual Irish mythology. The name is derived from Tír na nÓg, one of the Otherworlds of Irish mythology. It was Saban’s first fantasy series to involve knights, dragons, and wizards. It aired on the Fox Kids Network from September 12, 1998 to May 7, 1999. The resulting series was an attempt in doing an original non-Japanese special-effects series rather than adapting from actual Japanese tokusatsu.
2. Power Rangers Zeo
Power Rangers Zeo is a television series and the fourth season of the Power Rangers franchise. It is the continuation of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, which aired in 1996. It used to be on Netflix which I was going to watch but it got removed back in early 2021. The show features Adam Park (portrayed by Johnny Yong Bosch, who later went on to voice anime protagonists such as Bleach’s own Ichigo Kurosaki) and Tommy Oliver (portrayed by the late Jason David Frank).
1. Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers
We finish the best five shows with Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers, which most of us grew up watching the show when it premiered on August 28, 1993, on the Fox Kids programming block. I have yet to watch Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Once & Always on Netflix, but when I have the time for it.
Update 2023/06/19: I watched the whole thing on Netflix.
Here are the five worst shows aired on Fox Kids, from crap to “make you wanna puke”:
5. Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot
Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot ran for 26 episodes and featured the voice of Pamela Adlon (credited as Pamela Segall) as the voice of Rusty, Jonathan David Cook as Big Guy, and the voices of Gabrielle Carteris, Stephen Root, Kathy Kinney, Kevin Michael Richardson, M. Emmet Walsh, and the late R. Lee Ermey. Rusty is a somewhat blatant rip-off of Atom (Japan)/Astro Boy (overseas), and unlike Astro Boy, Rusty is far too inexperienced to face the threats that the Big Guy normally handles, so he is relegated to being Big Guy’s sidekick and trainee. The show premiered on September 18, 1999, but the channel canceled the show after two months. This left twenty episodes unaired for more than a year. Starting in January 2001, Fox Kids added the show to its weekday-afternoon block and aired all twenty-six existing episodes. The show’s official site, formerly located at http://www.spe.sony.com/tv/kids/bigguy, is no longer available and can only be accessed through the Wayback Machine (which may not work).
4. Donkey Kong Country
The computer-animated television series is based on the video game Donkey Kong Country from Nintendo and Rare (before Microsoft bought Rare in 2002). It aired from August 15, 1997 to July 7, 2000. None of the characters in the games normally speak except for monkey, gorilla, chimpanzee, and ape noises, but giving them voices in the CGI animated cartoon? Candy Kong having a Grace Jones-inspired hairstyle and in a different outfit (as she wears turquoise/green sandals in the show but doesn’t wear shoes normally in the games except for DK64)? WTF?! They also made Dixie Kong wear a green top, in contrast to her original pink (but they kept her pink beret). The show would later move to Fox Family, in the end, it should be called Donkey Kong Goof-Up.
3. Big Bad Beetleborgs (aka Beetleborgs Metallix)
This show is a literal rip-off of Power Rangers and this is the show I never really liked anyway — or watched it a bit, as two seasons aired on Fox Kids from September 7, 1996 to March 2, 1998. Big Bad Beetleborgs (later Beetleborgs Metallix for Season 2) stars three “typical average kids” — Andrew “Drew” McCormick (Wesley Barker) and his sister Josephine “Jo” McCormick (Shannon Chandler, later Brittany Konarzewski), and their best friend Roland Williams (Herbie Baez, credited as Herbie Baez Jr. in some episodes) — enter the supposedly haunted Hillhurst Mansion after accepting a dare from rich snobs Van and Trip.
Thankfully the show didn’t last long and it used to be available to stream on Netflix, but not anymore. Here’s this cheesy theme song on YouTube. The theme song goes like this: 🎶 Three typical average kids inside a haunted mansion, just by a chance freed a ghost, who made them Beetleborgs! (Beetleborgs!) Biiiiig Baaaaad Beetleborgs, Biiiiig Baaaaad Beetleborgs! 🎶 Yeah, you know what, pfft!
2. Medabots
Known in Japan as Medarot (メダロット, Medarotto), this anime adaption rip-offs both Pokémon and the Gundam franchise. I’m not going all controversial for this, but I did watch it a few times when it came out, but an anime adaption about a boy with a stubborn robot sidekick who calls him “a piece of junk”? No! More like Medacrap! No! Medabots ugly!
1. Angela Anaconda
WHAT IS THIS CRAP? The show’s animation is nightmare-inducing, and makes me wanna puke! Angela Anaconda features cutout animation (which we all refused to use), in which characters are created using black-and-white photographs. The show’s creators? Joanna Ferrone and Sue Rose, both of whom are the creators of Fido Dido (Rose is also the creator of Disney’s Pepper Ann). The show’s title character is also voiced by Rose herself (Rica “The original Satoshi/Ash Ketchum” Matsumoto in the Japanese dub). The show first aired on Fox Kids but later moved to Fox Family Channel, Nickelodeon, and Starz Kids & Family. It aired in Canada on Teletoon (English)/Télétoon (French).
That’s the best five (and worst five) shows that used to air on Fox Kids. What’s your favorite show? What’s your least favorite show? In the end, that’s it for this post. See you later!
