Great topic and great list overall. You made a perfect choice for #1. But you way underrated "Code of Hero." That episode still sticks with me today. Everything on this list is shocking but "Code of Hero" is shocking, somewhat expected and just an all around amazing episode that fits well into the grander scheme of Beast Wars. Someone contemplating suicide and then intentionally putting their life at risk to save others is more disturbingly adult than Gambit's lame innuendo.

I been watching Wing Commander Academy on Youtube cause I never knew it existed. Boy is it dark subject matter! Between deaths, psychosematic paralysis due to war, love destroying a man to death and many many deaths PLUS a character realising that each ship destroyed is killing a life (albeit an enemy one) this CARTOON seems like the template for BSG.

Awesome. Typically only ran a short while.

ooh...god, Code of Hero I definitely see as number one. I cry still, every single time Dinobot dies. Though I do agree Mrs. Bighead seducing Rocko is creepy. Almost as creepy as that time Heifer called the sex line by accident and got her on the other end of the line.

I think it's good to expose kids to some adult situations and not always talk down to them or present them with a sugarcoated world. Look at the classic fairytales -- all have sometimes scary adult themes, but they serve a higher purpose and try to teach them something.

I would have gone with the episode of Gargoyles in which circumstances are somewhat reversed by a spell Demona casts which causes humans to turn to stone at sunset, just as the Gargoyles do at sunrise. There are scenes of her walking along city streets gleefully smashing the human-turned-statues with a mace.

@Rabiesbunny - Not to be a pedant, but what had happened was that Rocko got fired and one of the jobs he took was sex phone operator (of course, they didn't actually call it that). I remember that like I first saw it yesterday:

Rocko: "Oh baby, oh baby, oh baby."
Mrs. Bighead: "Rocko?"
Rocko: "Mrs. Bighead?!"

Then they slam down the receivers. That show was some kind of crazy.

Good list.

Great list, although I can't help thinking that the whole thing could've been populated with moments from Gargoyles if necessary.

I second City of Stone, incidentally. That shit got so edited on TV it was ridiculous.

Rocko's Modern life was full of adult-oriented scenarios. Remember when Rocko walked in on his friends surrounding a board game of which the goal was to spank the monkey (rather literally)? Or the one where Rocko's dog(Spunky) fell in love with his mop and there was always suspicious squeaking noises coming from the closet (followed by an even more suspicious wet spot)?

God, I miss that show.

"Weapon X, Lies, and Videotape"

That title is solid gold. And that's a pretty nice list.

I remember watching a japanese tv show called "flashman", about 5 young people who, like power rangers, fought gigantic monsters and rode skyscraper-smashing robots for a living. There was this evil monster that got lost as a baby and was adopted by one of the heroes - Lu, the pink flashman - and she cuddled him and nurtured him and showed him the path to righteousness. One day a bunch of assholes got the baby monster back, put him on steroids and hypnotized him or something and he got back to kill the flashman.

You may have seen the "good guy turned bad guy remembers friendship and fights mind control and everything gets fine in the end" routine, but not here. There was indeed some existencial conflict, but in the end the unfortunate monster got killed the same way every other monster in the show, in a spectacle of lasers, sparkles and cardboard, despite Lu's desperate cries for mercy. The flashmen were pros and the monster got on the way, goddamnit.

The episode ended with flashbacks of Lu and the baby monster doing all those lovely things, hopping through the woods, twirling amidst daisies and sharing some ice cream. That was a fucking super sentai show about bullshit and robots, and I never saw that coming. It hit me like an 18-wheeler.

Also, total asshole:

http://www.supersentai.com/database/1986_flashman/images/flash-vi-lardeus.jpg

I like that list...and in retrospect, I am highly surprised that Captain Planet and the Planeteers features at least two highly controversial episodes, the one which was awarded the 1st place, and the infamous episode "A Formula For Hate" (in which Skumm is again the villain, spreading rumors about people being infected with AIDS through skin contact, leading to the isolation of a young man infected with HIV).

I did not see those two episodes on TV, though I saw one BraveStarr-episode which kinda disturbed me and had pretty similar content as "Mind Pollution". In it (episode is named "The Price" according to Wikipedia), a young boy gets addicted to a newly created drug and dies of an overdose. I was pretty shocked when they buried him and showed his tombstone afterwards...whew. So well..I would have added this one, but nice list anyways ;).

How was #1 not "The Entirety of Ren and Stimpy?"

I miss Exosquad. What I wouldn't give to see that as a live action TV show or movie (but pray for better costumes and hair styles). If there was one thing Exosquad wasn't, it was shy about killing off its cast. There were even such lovely topics as racial prejudice, interracial relationships, the ethics of replacing a dead loved one with a clone, and politics and unfairness between different branches of the military, on top of all that wholesome killing and death. Great series. Definately needs a reboot.

@Hugo

You've only scratched the surface, man. 70s and 80s sentai and toku in general is full of these moments. While it has been somewhat toned down in the modern era children in Japan have always been allowed to see more mature themes.

Look at Bioman. About ten episodes into the show the Yellow Ranger flat out died. The bad guys had a massive laser and she took multiple direct shots from it even after being told that another one would kill her. She sacrificed herself to save the team. Then after she died and they had her funeral she was never referenced again. Talk about cold. Sure, it happened because the character's actress was union and they couldn't afford to pay her anymore thus necessitated her being written out and replaced but still... ice cold.

I wondered if there would be any Gargoyles clip. There's several more that could've fit on here, the show is full of hard life lessons and such.

The most shocking thing on this list is people actually watched Captain Planet.

Great post, great stories. If the kiddies cant take it they should also be sure to wear a helmet when they go out side. Wusssy Wuss Wussington the Third!
If it wasnt for the murder of Bruce Waynes parenst we would not have the Batman.

I remember an episode of Rocko where Heffer and Rock went to a ranch and Hefer was forced to sleep in the barn with the other cows. A cow hand then thinking Hefer was a female attached a milking machine to him and Hefer really really seemed to enjoy that.

MattK remembers how X-Men always had Gambit refer to himself in the third person. That would annoy MattK quite a bit.

City of Stone also had MacBeth tossing an orb given to him by the Weird Sisters at King Duncan, which gave us young kids a quick flash of disintegrating face that has always freaked us out since the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark and Last Crusade.

I almost hate that Captain Planet is on this list, as the whole idea of "making addicts to take over the world" plot almost counteracts any strength the story was trying to convey. But at least it's better than the "Don't Do Drugs" episode of COPS, where the otherwise evil "Big Boss" forbids his gang from getting into the drug business because it's "bad news" and later teams up when his nephew is accidently infected with the designer drug.

I can't believe they got Rogue calling someone "peckerwood" past the censors. Funny shit.

I can't believe they got Rogue calling someone "peckerwood" past the censors. Funny shit.

Gargoyles in general was a pretty dark show for its time

Code of Hero was terrifying when I was a kid. It's still an outstanding bit of TV even today.

I bought the Exosquad season 1 DVDs when they came out. I forgot how dark that whole show is, as the entire show is an analogy of WWI, the inter-war years and World War II. The episode where the starving Venus resistance fighters want to turn the Exosquad in for food is disturbing, as it blurs the usual "good vs. evil" dynamic.

#5: Alice Noretti's death might be worth the list because she was one of the first to go, but there were a lot of other deaths in there, both on and off screen. But I gotta say the death of one of the main characters near the end of the series was far more traumatic for me, not just because he was a favorite, but because it was not at all quick. Might as well learn about slow painful lingering while we're getting our latest lesson on death, kiddies.

There's a later episodes of Batman: TAS (or New Adventures of Batman And Robin or whatever) where Joker's obsessing about his plans to capture Batman, and Harley Quinn is trying to distract him.

She does so by prancing around in her negligee, and saying: "C'mon, Puddin', don't you wanna rev up your Harley?"

pretty much anything involving wolverine and sabretooth together - the flashback where we see sabretooth 'kill' silverfox, which has him hinting that he raped her if i recall (licking a cake seductively and saying she was sweet)

I'll agree "Code of Hero" was a great episode, but it's not "automatically wins the top spot in any list it's eligible for" good.

This list was about "disturbingly adult scenarios." "Code of Hero" was about an old soldier coming to terms with himself and going out in a blaze of glory. Drug addition, child abuse and thinly veiled "hey, wanna fuck?" scenes are way more disturbing when animated.

One of the great things about that Gargoyles is that Elisa's shooting didn't go away after one episode. For the next several episodes you see Elisa on crutches, or with bandages. I seem to remember it deeply affecting her brother and that becoming a plot point later on as well.

"One of the great things about that Gargoyles is that Elisa's shooting didn't go away after one episode."

Yeah, I've just been watching them. She also has her gun locked in a little case too.

TBH, first time I watched that I got all panicky when the "code blue!" bit happened. I honestly thought they might kill her off.

Good list.
Definitely should have included the Superman: TAS episode "Apokolips Now!" There's so much shit in that one that's disturbing to a small child, it ain't funny. Even watching it now, I can't believe some of the stuff in that episode got on the air. The biggest shock is when Darkseid vaporizes a major supporting character on his way off, just because he's an asshole.

good list shows cartoons one removed from certain restraints decided to become more grown up though surprised to not see the bravestar episode the price on here and code of hero should have been in the top five as for gargoyles its darkness is proably one reason disney pulled the plug on the series. still the gun episode is the most diesturbing episode of the series

The Mayor of Awesometown

Sometimes I kid with a friend of mine that the thick of my moral values were infused in me by those tv shows.

The New Batman Adventures had a few episodes that would have worked out great for this list.

One being Barbara Gordon being knocked off a skyscraper, found by her father right as she died, then Commissioner Gordon hunting down Bruce and his two adopted boys relentlessly.

Also, Tim making friends with this little girl who keeps running and has no idea why. Unfortunately, we find out she is a part of Clayface and he wants her back... so he SUCKS HER BACK INTO HIS BODY. Her mind and 'existence' gone forever. How's that for trauma, Tim?

The most traumatizing Saturday morning event for myself was a particular episode of Extreme Ghostbusters, it's like the writers saw "In the Mouth of Madness" and just got off a Clive Barker binge before they wrote this episode. It involves a Stephen King-esque authors' work coming to life. Which happens to be a group of grotesque, deformed group of monsters, (the leader looks exactly like the chubby cineobite from Hellraiser) who abduct people(including children!) and take then to a nightmarish, dank,operating room where they strap the victims onto the table and CUT OUT PARTS OF THEIR BODIES AND ORGANS AND REPLACE THEM WITH BIZARRE HOUSEHOLD APPLIANCES/MACHINERY, ALL WHILE THE VITIM IS AWAKE. They never showed the opperation but they showed the victim on the table, the ghouls above him, old/dull surgical equipment lying beside the table as well. Then they show the scalpel coming down and....the screaming, oh the screaming...then later we see the grotesque creatures they have become. Scared the living shit out of me.

@ Capsulen'Coffee

I remember Extreme Ghostbusters being full of really messed up stuff like that. Anyone remember that one episode that opens with a demonic zombie Peter Piper (complete with a torn-out stomach and bugged-out eyes) leading a group of hypnotized children to their doom?

Good overall list. Personally, I would have included...

* "The Main Man", Parts One and Two - the Superman: TAS episodes where Superman teamed-up with Lobo. To put it in perspective, the DVD commentary on the episodes features quite a lot of Bruce Timm saying "I can't believe we got away with this." "This", including Lobo threatening to kick "your big red S" and a stray comment about being hog-tied with barbed wire being an entertaining way to spend an evening.
* "Mudslide" - the Batman: TAS episode centering upon the even more messed up return of Clayface story, which features Matt Hagen slowly melting away into nothing and eventually trying to kill Batman by suffocating him...
* "House and Garden" - in which Poison Ivy, in a scenario more appropriate to H.R. Giger than Saturday Mornings, is growing plant-based clones of her new husband. They "sprout" in giant pods, as green-skinned babies immediately calling for mommy....

Great list and I like to point out how STAS had a bunch of sexual innuendos
Here are some examples
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbcGvEMBoEQ&feature=PlayList&p=0DB1D35DFFBF32F1&index=35
4:50 mark and onwards

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xq-VlYxRKzY&feature=PlayList&p=0DB1D35DFFBF32F1&index=22
8:56 and onwards

Captain Planet was always a bit preachy. It seems that the Link scenario fits with the show.

Code of Hero is probably the best thing the Transformers franchise has ever produced, imo.

Did anyone watch the newer Johnny Quest cartoons in the 90s? There was one where he found. a. dead. body. in. a. staircase. I was like..8? I still think about that episode from time to time and I'm in college now. Heavy stuff!

Wow, that is truly amazing!

RT
www.anon-web-tools.us.tc

NIce article, kids from the 90s were not sheltler like kids are now a days....this is a great example of how POlitical Correctness has killed off all the funnest parts of cartoons and how its became a crime to have something controverisal and diffrent in not only cartoons and kids shows but almost any show. If you shelter kids and try to hide the truth from them it only gives negative conintations to these things and make it worse when they do discover this stuff

Surprised there's no Ren and Stimpy references

NO mention of Robotech? The thing where the SDF1's Shields over heat and exploded and the shockwave basically engulfed his jet and he literally disintegrated while screaming? Or what about when they killed off Roy Folker? Dude got home from a mission and dies on a date with his girlfriend. Characters died in droves in every series of Macross. That is the original cartoon that taught about death.

Transformers the Movie (the original animated one) where Megatron destroys half of the original Autobots on that spaceship? Especially the shot of killing Iron hide with the shot to the face. OR Galvatron Icing Starsrceam, that was a downright brutal disintegration, then the closeup of his foot crushing his crown and dragging it.

NVM these are from the 80s...

I think also worth mentioning is Doug. In the last episode, Doug's father Phil, after spending the entire season trying to give Doug The Talk, finally works up the courage to tell him, only for Doug to cut him off and say he already knows about sex, and proceeds to explain it to his Dad. It cuts immediately to after the conversation with his dad walking away saying "Thanks son, I think I learned something" in a completely dazed voice. Either his dad did not understand something (despite having three kids), or Doug is into some creepy stuff.

But yeah, he does flat out say "sex" in the cartoon.

This is why I love 90s cartoons

"Legacy" from Superman: TAS should be on this list along with Apokolips Now. That epsisode had Darkseid brainwashing Superman into evil and using Superman to attack the Earth. The US government captures him and sentences him to death.

The last show of the series, the very last epsisode had the Earth's population not trusting Superman and no longer wanting him around. It's just an absolutely haunting way to end a series.

Looking at the list of great suggestions for Superman and Batman, you could easily make a top ten list for them.

Considering that the series are all inter-connected, it just serves as a reminder that the Batman, Superman, Batman Beyond, Justice League, and the Justice League Unlimited series are the greatest series of American made animation ever.

Anyone remember all the classy life lessons we were exposed to during the toonami era?

I clearly remember the thinly veiled lustful nature of a particular Master Roshi (anybody recall the episode he sat on the couch and watched a tv aerobics program a little too enthusiastically?)

Not to mention the cans of "cola" and their peculiar effect on the cast.

Dragon Ball Z was hardly alone. How's about Robotec's Mei Ling's depression/drinking problems that developed from her fame. Voltron's Sven, anyone?

You forgot Clayface absorbing little girl and killing her, Darkseid Dan Turpin as one giant "Fuck You" to Superman, and basically all of Helga Pataki's home life in Hey Arnold.

Worst thing about the aforementioned "Mudslide" (without spoiling it) is that Batman comes off as a total ass in the end.

Speaking of "Batman TAS", I would have bet on "Mad Love" being number one. That episode's got to be seen to be believed.

I remember the Captain Planet episode. Even at the time, my bullshit detector went off, seeing as she didn't know she was taking drugs at the time. Yep, 'Bliss' was hidden in her food, so presumably all she would have developed a craving for was burritos or whatever it was.

Great list and a very interesting topic.

I might have added the part where Heifer (Rocko's very male best friend) gets hooked up to a milk machine and...enjoys himself. But then again Rocko's Modern Life is it's own entire list of these things.

Completely agree with your choice for #1.

Ohmigod, the Clayface episode. My baby sister didn't stop having nightmares for weeks and my mom banned all cartoons in the house for a month or two. We were....kinda surprised by some of the stuff that showed up in that cartoon.

"NO mention of Robotech?"

Um... what part of "90s" didn't you quite get?

Code of Hero is obviously way the hell up there, but the season finale, featuring Megatron deciding "fuck predestiny" and blowing G1 Optimus' head clean off is still my favourite shock from that season.

Other DCAU shocks: the deaths of the Graysons, with the famous "trapeeze hanging from one rope" scene, the various Hawkgirl things in JLU (acknowledging she's sleeping with GL, implying she's into S&M, etc.), and of course Batman vs Cuthulu.

Beast Wars: Code of Hero is awesome!

As for Gargoyles, while Eliza being shot was a tremendous episode to show children the dangers of using guns, for me the most disturbing episodes were the City of Stone four parter when Demona cast a spell which turned all the people of Manhattan into stone. Then she proceeded to shatter and destroy the "statues" of the these people. In-other-words, she murders many innocent people before the Gargoyles can stop her. I mean sure they are stone statues being broken, but you know they were people. It's as bad as when the humans destroyed the Gargoyles. Any kid watching the show knew that Demona just murdered people. This is further emphasized when the Gargoyles must protect Eliza's statue and when even Xanatos protects Owen's statue. When the spell is broken there is a slight mention of the missing people and that everyone has lost track of time. Extremely brutal episodes.

Linka being a crack whore was pretty bad, but not as bad as Lt. Falcon defeater of Cobra-La and the hero of G.I. Joe the Movie reduced to nothing but a crackhead in the D.I.C. G.I. Joe cartoons. This is literally a WTF moment for any G.I. Joe fan.

Demona murders humans:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=haVZIRaCjBs

This should be #1 on your list.

"The biggest shock is when Darkseid vaporizes a major supporting character on his way off, just because he's an asshole." That's what I was thinking would be #1 Drunken Monkey
I remember that episode- the guy had just rallied everyone to stand against Darkseid while superman was helplessly fuelling the invasion. He was just a normal dude (maybe a cop if memory serves) who helped turn the tide. After everything calms down and its obvious Darkseid has lost, he fires off an energy bolt that intentionally avoids superman so it can waste the guy who had focused the people's hope.
With no repercussions

that's all Exosquad got? Exosquad had acts of genocide (the Neo's send POWs, ie humans not being use as force labor into the sun, burn Venus' farms so the humans on it starve to death) yes it's call genocide on screen.

Darkseid vaporizing Turpin made my jaw drop. I honestly didn't see that coming at all and was expecting Supes to dodge the Omega Beams or soemthing else, but when they bent around him and the screen lights up and they show the smoke rising from where Dan was standing, I just sat there dumbfounded.

Also, wasn't it implied on Darkwing Duck that Taurus Bulba died in that big ass explosion from the first few episodes of the series?

I have a 6 year-old cousin who watched that episode of Gargoyles with me once and she asked me what would happen to the humans Demona smashed when the sun came back up. I don't think I've ever stuttered and stammered so much in my lifetime.

gambit talks in third person

gambit likes the sound of his voice

A recent cartoon which made me think 'How did this get past the censors' was Ben 10 Alien Force; Birds of a Feather, where Ben, as 'Spider Monkey' shoots gloopy webs from his tail into alien's faces and remarks "Leave it on, It's supposed to be good for the complexion!"

That the cop who was vaporised, Dan Turpin, is deliberately designed to suggest Jack Kirby, who had not long previously passed away, adds a whole other level of jaw-drop to it.

THEN just about everyone Kirby designed, including Tony Stark, Nick Fury and even "Funky Flashman" turns up at the funeral of said " detective" to pay homage. Difficult for this old-timer to keep a dry eye at that

Seriously, Ren and Stimpy should be number one. Anyone that watched the show will remember the scene I'm talking about with one simple phrase :

"THESE HANDS....."

*shivver*

I was a big fan of Batman TAS, and I remember watching #4 with my mom. She was pretty taken aback by that scene. But she never forbid me from watching the show, which makes me think that in the end, she didn't want to prevent me from being exposed to anything dark, and I'm glad she didn't try to keep me in a bubble. I think that does a real disservice to kids, because life isn't fair or always nice, and keeping that concept from them probably means they won't be prepared to handle the hard stuff very well.

It's interesting that so many of these clips are labeled with the Toon Disney logo. Sure, the scenes may be traumatic, but they're fine to show a toony kids channel. ;)

@ BadNflu3nce

And the hilarious part of the Doug thing, I think, is that it was in the Disney version that happened. XD

For Justice League, to me, it was Hawkgirl putting down Solomon Grundy once and for all. It was an episode that ran the way that it had to, given all that had gone on before, but I still got misty.

I swear there was this episode of Captain Planet that went into the future and showed the planeteers in their late 30s or something. That really freaked me out. Anyone remember that?

To Hikari: that "future" scene in captain planet is only a dream/nightmare by Wheeler

Who CARES! Really we would see things like this on the News, when we went out, movies while randomly channel surfing, ect. Why are we always going back and finding things to blame on or say its messed up, if those are disturbing to anyone right now or anyone who grew up in the late 80's/early 90's you really need to take your rose tinted glasses off and open you freakin' eyes people.

I loved Rocko's Modern Life because it was incredibly fucked up. Come on. Mrs. Bighead was always hungry for some man meat.

I must say:

Dinobot's death always stuck with me.

I always related with Gambit because we both like Rogue too much. "Not Rogue!" indeed.

The Matt Hagen episode was ark, but it can't be darker that the death of Batgirl. Sure, it was all a dream. "But I was all: "Did Batgirl just fall to her death?" She graphically fell on top of a car, that was being driven by her father, and died right in front of him. Batgirl!

@ Geoff:

You're sort of contradicting yourself there. You mention to spare201 about not getting the fact that this is about the 90's when Robotech was the 80's but then you go on to mention other DCAU shocks mentioning Justice League which was the 00's.

I'm also surprised Superman wasn't there. The Darkseid episodes in particular were quite bold as was a lot of the New Batman Adventures/Gotham Knights episodes.

I love this list so much and I especially love all the X-Men on it!
That was why X-Men was awesome, there was really no subject too taboo for a children's show.

Loved the Batman animated series as a kid but there were moments where it gave me nightmares, and that feet of clay moment was one of em.

The author notes "If there's any scene darker in Saturday morning cartoon history than this display of an unstoppable, enormous force of evil unabashedly murdering the cast of heroes with ease, I haven't seen it." in regards to the death of the X-Men on Saturday morning TV. Now lets flashback about 20 years when on a Saturday morning episode of The Superfriends, a crystal was created with the weaknesses of all of the Superfriends, like Kryptonite for Superman. One by one children watch each of there beloved Superfriends, Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Green Lantern, etc. killed off by the use of this crystal. Fans and children alike get to witness funerals for some of the characters, like seeing a casket draped with Superman's cape. After all of the Superfriends are finally dead the Legion of Doom simply tosses the crystal down a sewer drain, where a unknown person wearing a radiation suit retrieves it. After I'm sure many fans were shocked and many children probably went crying to their mommies, it is finally revealed that none of them had died after all that it was just robot copies of the Superfriends that were built for such a circumstance. So sorry to the author, but Saturday morning cartoons were shocking kids with these types of images long before the deaths of the X-Men in the 90's, since Superfriends aired in the 70's.