Let's learn something: The skeletons of your childhood can be found on YouTube

Background image by Shawn Campbell

I woke up the other morning with a song stuck in my head. That's not unusual for me. But it was a song from my childhood that my brother and I used to sing all the time. I'd repeat the lyrics here, but at this point in the story, they wouldn't make sense.

So, naturally, I texted my brother the lyrics (so they could get stuck in his head, too) and he told me that they came from a cartoon.

At this news I was floored. I had no idea that song was from a cartoon (I seriously thought it was something we had made up or was the hallucinatory product of roller skating in the basement and breathing in too many mold spores). But, no, it was from a cartoon. And my brother, being the industrious chap that he is, found it on YouTube.

Now, before I reveal the cartoon, let me be clear: My brother and I watched a ton of bad cartoons when we were little - everything from the Snorks and Thundercats to the Herculoids and Space Ghost. What I'm trying to say is that we watched a lot of crap. But this cartoon...it is just epic.

It's called Spartakus and the Sun Beneath the Sea and you should totally watch the opening here.

Did you catch that amazing exposition? "Ever since the time of the Great Cataclysm, the Arkadians have lived deep in the center of the Earth. They believed they were the only survivors of this great devastation. Their civilization thrived under the power of their sun, the Tehra...until it began to fail. In desperation, the children of Arkadia broke the law and entered the forbidden Archives, searching for a solution. What they discovered gave them hope. Anxiously, they used their special powers and created a messenger to the people above. They named her Arkana..."

All that for a children's cartoon? How did this not win an Emmy? This cartoon is awesome! My five minutes of web research shows that there are characters called The Inquisitors of the Living Crystal and a pirate called Sleazeappeal who has a song. There are also characters called Bic and Bac and it is their song that was stuck in my head (albeit, we didn't remember all the lyrics correctly). 

So what's the point of all this?

1. First of all, I watched way too much television when I was little, which explains why I am so strict with my son's screen time today.
2. Also, my husband and I often have discussions about what treasured media from our childhood we would want to share with our son when he is old enough. My husband has thought long and hard about what order to show our son the Star Wars movies (and I think he agrees with the Machete order). As for me, Spartakus and the Sun Beneath the Sea won't make the list (but only because I can't find it on DVD).
3. And finally, way to go YouTube! Thank you for bringing back some very strange memories for my brother and I to share over texts and for allowing me to cross "Figure out origins of weird Arkadia song" off my bucket list.

What treasured childhood show do you want to share with your child and what's the worst cartoon you watched when you were little?