Dungeons & Dragons

Original Air Date: 1983-1985

Network: CBS

This was one of the best cartoons ever made. Yes, it still stings one's psyche to know that none of the poor kids ever wound up making it home, but it was sure a lot of fun while it lasted. The final episode of this show was written, but never produced. It's out there. The show where they all make it back to their loving families. But we'll never see it. Taking its cues from the Dungeons and Dragons role-playing game franchise and borrowing a little of the plot from Land of the Lost, Dungeons revolved around six friends who hop on the Dungeons and Dragons ride at their local carnival and get transported to, and stuck in, the realm of D&D. Each of them is given a "class" and from there on in it was like watching The Breakfast Club fend for their lives in what the National Coalition on Television Violence claimed was the most violent show on network television. In one episode we saw Hank the Ranger's face melt off. We saw people get whipped. We saw people die. The show had jealousy and betrayal. The decisions that the kids made held certain consequences. The villains were malicious and cruel. It dealt with the notion of being stranded in a different space-time continuum; 20-plus years before Lost, mind you. It was truly a mature soap opera with swords and monsters.