11 Classic 80s Movies With Awesome Animated TV Shows You Forgot Existed

Police Academy: The Animated Series was produced by Warner Bros and Ruby-Spears Enterprises, the company set up by Scooby Doo creators Joe Ruby and Ken Spears. It was a big deal too; Kenner produced a line of toys for it, while rap trio the Fat Boys wrote and performed the theme tune “They Wear the Blue”.

The show also shared a unique link to Marvel thanks to the inclusion of a crime boss called Kingpin who bore more than a passing resemblance to the Spider-Man supervillain of the same name. In fact, the character is likely based on the comic book bad guy given that Marvel produced a six-issue comic book series around the Police Academy cartoon.

Set between the fourth and fifth films in the Police Academy franchise, the show retained the original movie’s eclectic characters including Carey Mahoney, Hightower, sound effects whiz Larvell Jones, the soft-voiced Laverne and firearms enthusiast Eugene Tackleberry.

However, none of the original cast returned to voice the roles, while the bawdy comedy of the films was replaced with a more family friendly tone. In one Scooby Doo inspired twist, a group of talking police dogs dubbed the Canine Corps was included in the series too.

Despite numbering some 65 episodes and proving popular in Europe and the Middle East, the financial failure of the fourth Police Academy film coupled with the cartoon's poor ratings in the US saw it cancelled after just two seasons, with work on a SNES/Sega Mega Drive game spin-off scrapped in the process.