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Remembering Really Bad Cartoons from My Childhood

Larrylambert
4 min readJan 3, 2025

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Do you remember them?

Photo by Benjamin DeYoung on Unsplash

Like many of us, I watched cartoons when I was a kid. As I’ve mentioned before, I didn’t care that much about kids’ shows that were educational such as Captain Kangaroo. Even then I was careful not to let any education slip into my entertainment. I watched lots of cartoons, some good, some not so good. At this time, I’ll reflect on some really bad cartoons I watched as a kid.

I grew up outside Chicago so some of the cartoons I’ve seen were regional. The kids’ afterschool show, Garfield Goose showcased some of those bad cartoon shows.

Any list of bad cartoons should have Clutch Cargo near the top.

Clutch Cargo was described as an “adventurer. When he was on an adventure, he took his “ward,” Spinner, and dachshund, Paddlefoot. Let’s stop right there for a second.

What an interesting occupation. Adventurer. I wonder if Clutch was able to get a mortgage by listing that as his occupation?

And how did Spinner come to be his ward? And honestly, isn’t ward a strange term? It seems like the only characters I know who have wards are superheroes and congressmen. And that’s a pretty diverse group.

While the writing was actually considered…

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Larrylambert
Larrylambert

Written by Larrylambert

You probably don't know my name, but have likely seen my work. I've written for numerous syndicated cartoon strips and my gags have appeared in national pubs.

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