Cartoons We Love

For the first time since 1961, a cartoon has been nominated for a Best Comedy Series Emmy. And the nomination goes to…. drum roll please…Family Guy! Who doesn’t love embarrassing father Peter Griffin, hard-drinking canine Brian and world domination-plotting baby Stewie? We more than second that nomination, but we also want to give shout outs to great animated highlights that should have been nominated over the years:

Best Supporting Actress—Smurfette from The Smurfs. Talk about supporting a cast! As the only woman in Smurf Village, Smurfette is the ultimate supporting woman. With her starlet blond locks and signature classic white dress, she'd be a natural on the red carpet. The only question is: which of her Smurf admirers would she take as her date? The tabloids will have a field day…especially if she shows up with Gargamel on her arm.

Best Ensemble Cast—Looney Tunes. From a cat that chases a little bird around, to a coyote that gets an anvil thrown on his head, the Looney Tunes cast is comedy perfection. And best of all, there’s something for everyone: Rom-com lovers have Pepe LePew, comedy intellectuals have Bugs Bunny, and physical comedy lovers have the Road Runner, whose only dialogue has ever been “Beep Beep!” . The Academy needs to recognize this stellar cast soon, before it’s too late: rumors have it that Daffy wants a spinoff and Porky Pig has been in talks with the producers of The Office to play a Dunder Mifflin executive.

Best Writing—Scooby Doo. Scooby and the gang don’t waste time with conventional scripts, and their dialogue is literary genius. Even though he's actually saying “Garble Garble, Woof, Shaggy!” we'd like to think Scoob is really warning Shaggy that the abominable snowman is behind him. Most importantly, the writing is so seamless that we don’t really question why four teenagers ride around in a van with a big dog all day instead of going to school. That’s what good writing does, people.

Beast Actor—SpongeBob SquarePants. Steve Carell is good. Ricky Gervais is a favorite. But come on, Sparklers--SpongeBob is a sponge in a necktie that lives in a pineapple. There aren’t many actors who could pull that off. We’d like to see Alec Baldwin selling a character who lives in Bikini Bottom and works at Krusty Krab. SpongeBob really makes you feel the relationship between him and Gary, and you laugh and cry with him as he pursues his dream of being a fry cook. That’s acting at its best.

Best Comedy Series—The Simpsons. Yes, The Simpsons has won the best animated series award year after year, but Homer deserves the chance to hold his own against the best of the live-action contenders. The show has been around for 20 years, the writing has created lines as timeless as "eat my shorts," and how can a show’s acting not be flawless when you draw all your actors? Sounds like a winner to us! The team from Two and a Half Men should be shaking in its shoes.

Sparklers, tell us which of your fave cartoons deserve recognition.