Where Can I Find A List Of Obscure Old Cartoon Names?

Here’s a quicker, more techy route I use when I’m short on time but itching to ID an unknown cartoon. First, Google is your friend if you use the right operators: try site:imdb.com plus a quoted phrase from an episode description, or use filetype:pdf to find scanned TV guides. On IMDb you can filter by keyword and production year, which helps if you remember a rough decade. YouTube playlists and channel descriptions are surprisingly thorough — small uploaders often collect local TV packages and obscure children's programming blocks.

Then combine that with community sleuthing: post a still image or audio clip to subreddits like r/ObscureMedia or retro-TV groups (these communities thrive on solving this exact kind of puzzle). Behind the Voice Actors and animation credit lists help if you can pick out a performer or a composer; tracing a name often leads straight to other titles from the same studio. For non-U.S. imports, search in the language of the broadcast country — sometimes the show is known under a completely different name overseas.

Finally, use archive resources: the Library of Congress, university special collections, and the Internet Archive for old broadcast reels. If a title turns up in an auction listing or VHS lot, save the listing URL — sellers sometimes include episode titles in the description. I mix manual digging with targeted community posts, and more often than not a useful lead pops up from someone who’s just as stubborn about lost cartoons as I am. It’s part detective work, part treasure hunt, and I always enjoy the ride.

If you love hunting down weird, forgotten shows as much as I do, start with the big fan-run databases. The Big Cartoon DataBase and sites like Toonopedia collect credits, production years, studios and often have entries for half-forgotten short series. I also lean heavily on the Lost Media Wiki when a title is truly obscure — people there track down commercials, pilots, and local broadcast-only cartoons that never made it to home video. For deeper, old-school research I pull books off the shelf like 'Of Mice and Magic' and 'The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons' because those bibliographies and studio histories point to tiny studios and one-off specials you won't find in modern streaming catalogs.

Beyond those sources, don't sleep on archives: the Internet Archive hosts old TV reels, foreign TV imports, and user-uploaded VHS captures. Local library microfilm or a Newspapers.com subscription can be gold — TV listings, ad blurbs and program schedules often name cartoons by episode descriptions or weird, out-of-print titles. eBay and auction listings for VHS tapes can also reveal names; sellers sometimes label tapes with whatever the local station printed. If a show’s voice actor or a production company is known, follow those credits to uncover other obscure titles.

I get a kick out of the chase: posting a fuzzy screenshot in a forum, following a lead from a 1970s TV guide, or finally finding a soundtrack snippet that names the program. The communities you find along the way — collectors on Discord, Reddit threads, Facebook groups or retro animation forums — will happily trade leads, scans, and sometimes even rip an old tape for you. It’s a rabbit hole, but the tiny euphoria when a mystery title clicks into place is unbeatable.

Low-effort, high-reward places I check first: Lost Media Wiki, Big Cartoon DataBase, Internet Archive, RetroJunk, and YouTube channels that upload old TV reels. I also flip through library microfilm for TV listings and use Newspapers.com when I need a broadcast date or a local station’s program names. If I can grab a frame, reverse image search sometimes pulls up forum posts or fan pages that mention the title.

For books, I keep 'Of Mice and Magic' and 'The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons' bookmarked — their studio histories and filmographies are surprisingly useful for tracing one-off shorts or local syndication packages. Don’t underestimate auction sites and VHS collectors: sellers occasionally list episode titles or air dates in their descriptions. When I’m stuck, a quick post to a retro-cartoon community usually turns up someone who remembers Saturday morning blocks and obscure characters. It’s always fun to finally pin down a name and share the find with others who geek out over the same oddball shows.