Gather round my children... you like long posts that tell tales of Nostalgia, especially from the late 80s or early 90s!  Let's talk about the Mario Cartoons.... but first, how I got into Mario in the first place!!!

Was born in 84, became self aware around the age of 4 in 88.  Yeah, I don't remember anything before that lol.  I DO remember playing Nintendo for the first time. My older sis was at her friend's house and they were playing on the NES. I was wow'd!!! I played for just a few seconds, literally!  Then shoved out the front door because we were just there to pick her up.  OMG I couldn't stop thinking about it.  It drove me nuts!

We were surprised with our very own NES some months later. Mario 1 and Duck Hunt bundle! We got a lot of Mario accessories too: Bed sheets, TV Trays, that awesome NES cabinet with wheels (the large one with the door).  Ahh....  and then the cartoons began to air!

Yes, onto the cartoons! These were my livelihood!!!  My sis taught me how to work the VCR so I could record them. I did just that. Even my mom enjoyed these cartoons. Doesn't matter that these were DiC animations, they were MARIO on TV!!!  They were fun to watch.  Game music and sfx, everything was there on these cartoons... and there were a LOT of episodes!!!

Some of my favorites include the Hawaii Land, North Pole with Santa, Koopa's Wedding, Princess gets a StarMan, Romeo and Juliet (romano and joliet?), 2000 leagues, and the one where Koopa auctions the princess lol.  They're ALL good!!!

I'd have to say that my favorite thing ABOUT the cartoons is that.. (and I'm not using tunnel vision or nostalgia glasses when I say this).. these cartoons did NOT kill brain cells!  They were fun, creative, and made ya happy!  It was a throwback to when kids gathered around their black and white TVs to watch their favorite program. I don't see my nephews and nieces do this for shows like SpongeBob or The Loud House or Steven Universe.. They sometimes play these cartoons in the background while they gab away at their phones... literally no attention on what's playing. Maybe 2 reasons... these shows are boring or the phone is just more interesting to them.

Honorable Mention, Zelda cartoons. I also had Zelda on the NES and to have cartoons really made it that more epic of a childhood.  To experience these things in parallel was a golden age of fun!!!!  Gold NES Cartridge even!!

Special shout out to Club Mario, which replaced the Lou Albano portion of the SMBSS.. As a kid, it didn't strike me weird that they'd suddenly replaced Lou with these two teens, Tommy and Co M.C.  I got quite a kick out of Evil Eric and Tammy Treehugger lol. The important thing is, it was still fun to watch.  Spaced Out Theater lol!

Now there was a time when we lost cable.  We eventually got it back, but to my shock and surprise... they stopped airing the SMBSS/ClubMario!!! :O  Instead, I was presented with the last few minutes of a Super Mario 3 cartoon! OMG Mario 3??? Since When???

It was the tail end of the episode where Prince Hugo is turned into a poodle.  Then began the most torturous moments of my childhood... Hunting Down This Show!!!  I swear, TV Guides LIED!!!  This show came on WHENEVER IT WANTED!  I caught it by random after a Maxie's World episode... another weekend would be after Killer Tomatoes.  It was never on when it was supposed to be, and sometimes didn't air at all!  I eventually only saw a handful of the episodes... Prince Hugo, Kootie Pie's Birthday, Trash episode, and When Koopa gets power ups.  Mario 3 stopped airing altogether... very sad for me...

Then the most epic thing happened! Newspaper read: Super Mario World Cartoons!!! This time I at least got to see ALL the episodes of this new show, including Captain N.

There weren't very many episodes, but it was still a lot of fun for me. I had always hoped that there would have been more, but sadly there weren't.  Playing Mario World on the SNES was an epic experience.  Dat Bass in some of the music and SFX gave me a really good feeling.  Just like the previous Mario Cartoons, they had music from the game in the show, SFX too.  Good'ol Mario never let me down.

Special Shout Out to Captain N.  Like I said, anything Nintendo on TV was a WIN WIN situation for us back then.  The caricatures of Simon Belmont, Pit and Megaman were hilarious, but I never put much thought into it as a kid.  They were in the show, they seemed like valid ports since there was nothing else to compare them to. They got a 5/5 star pass in my book.  I wached the shows and they satisfied me!

There's nothing more awesome than growing up in that day and age. Early 90s were definitely the best. I'll have to do another story telling about some of the 80s cartoons I grew up with, such as MLP, Glo Friends, Rainbow Brite, Dumbo Circus etc... Noozles!!! Wuzzles!! OMG I saw EVERYTHING on TV!  Next time then..

Just wanted to share my experience with these cartoons and that they definitely deserve a lot more attention than oh say... Spingbill or Logan Lood of the Frown Haus... or Deebin Oonivers.  lol...