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“Where nostalgia competes for the top spot.” 🏆
From the VHS aisles to the Saturday-morning toy shelves, The Sleepover Retro Countdown Show rewinds the analog past one list at a time. Hosts Rob and Guido—the retro archivists behind Sleepover Trading Co.—dig through decades of movies, music, toys, comics, commercials, and more to build definitive Top 10 countdowns celebrating the weird, wonderful, and occasionally warped corners of pop culture. Each week, they each bring five picks, debate their merits, and rank the results into one final “Sleepover Top Ten," and every episode is a time-traveling mixtape for VHS kids, mall rats, and midnight movie fans alike.
📼 Presented by Sleepover Trading Co. — be kind, rewind your childhood.
🔗 Follow: sleepovertrading.com | @SleepoverTrading
Welcome to the Sleepover Retro Countdown
show, where nostalgia competes for the top spot.
Brought to you by
Sleepover Trading Company.
Be kind, Rewind your childhood.
Each episode your hosts Rob and Guido
each bring 5 pics from deep in the analog
archives, Movies, comics, toys, songs,
commercials, whatever,
and battle it out to build the ultimate top 10.
Grab your Walkman and those little wire
headphones with a little fuzzy things on
them, rewind that tape and join us for
another round of the Sleepover Retro
Countdown show.
On this episode, top 10 cartoon theme songs.
That's broad.
It is.
And also every time
at first it's so funny because at first
I was saying to you how this is going to be
so hard.
I can't even remember the theme songs.
I came up with my list of five.
And then there was like,
oh, I didn't put this one on.
Oh, I could put this one on.
So like we have to like go back to this
topic at some point because.
Do another top 10.
List
this is not really like necessarily my
favorite of all time top five because
and then I thought, oh, I'm not going to
put that on my list because Geeta will put
that on you on his list and then I looked
at your list and you didn't have some of
the big ones that.
I was, that's why I was like, I don't know
what you're thinking because I've got it
clear and solidified and I knew you weren't
going to pick mine. So
let's get on with it because today's rules
are quite simple.
Our only rule for today? Rule one.
It has to be a theme song from an animated
television series.
That is it.
Keep it simple.
Nice and broad.
Who's starting tonight?
You struggled, so I think you should start.
OK, I'll kick things off
with my number five choice.
So this is our will be our number 10 and 9,
but my number 5 is Muppet Baby.
From 1985.
I can hear, I can hear.
And who sings it? Well,
we'll start with who wrote it.
OK, it's written by Hank Saroyan and Rob Walsh.
That second name is going to reoccur later
on as well.
I have some.
Recurring ones too.
Look at that.
Well, yeah, I mean.
I guess it was a small world of of anime
cartoon composer play.
I think as soon as you said the title
though.
Anyone any of our ages your age? My age a
little older, me a little younger than you
probably could hear that
that like, yeah, I don't know, Doo wop sort.
Of well, that's that's the thing and that's
what that's why I chose it cuz I'm a big
fan of music from this era that do up that
early rock'n'roll.
It's almost like a Shah Nah Nah kind of
sound, that kind.
Of thing, that's the right comparison.
And I really like that sound in general.
And it hadn't
until I was doing research and trying to
pull songs.
And then it was like,
how, yeah, that really does sound like that
era, which it's fun because it's not really
the Muppet TV show.
They were kind of more old timey.
They were more
musical theater vaudeville.
They weren't really.
They weren't really Doo wop, right?
Well, no.
And in the 1980s, they certainly weren't
either. So.
No, but
there was that kind of revival, I think
then, right? Wasn't there a lot of like
that American graffiti kind of coming back?
And that's the 70s.
And 70s.
That's the Muppet Show era, though.
The Muppet Show doesn't draw upon any of
those references, so it's almost like The
Muppets are like a decade off in the
generational recycle that happens normally.
So
yeah,
I think this is
a great
pick to start us off.
What's your favorite aspect of this song?
Oh, it just just
the the as soon as you read like what you
said, as soon as you read the title, the
song you.
Hear it in that voice, that.
You hear it in that voice and that's
whatever.
What is that called? Not a falsetto.
Like a falsetto.
Yeah, it is kind of like that, yeah. And
I think that's so powerful.
It's like, because even you're, you're just
scrolling through your streamer or whatever
and you see Muppet Babies and it's like,
it's like, oh, maybe I want to watch it now.
All right, well,
I'm coming at you with a very similar pic,
honestly, and this is
Disney's Adventures of the Gummy Bears
dashing.
And
daring,
courageous and faithful
and
friendly
with
stories to share.
From 1985,
written by Michael and Patty Silvershore,
credited as silver sure.
And silver sure.
And this is
this is.
I had friends who live down the block and
we used to play this song on repeat.
I remember once we were trying to like
tease other people in their backyard by
playing this song on loop, like thinking it
was funny that we are.
I don't know what we were doing honestly,
but this song Gummy bears
Hi Adventure, let's be on compare.
People have to listen to me saying I never
thought that I'd be publicly saying
you shame me.
At all.
Plus people, people don't know this about you.
You know that like
you have no concept of what any instrument
is like you would you'll hear a clarinet
noise and you'll go like is that a trumpet?
Like is that you have? No, I know.
What a cello,
Because I like a cello, that's all I know.
But I don't think there's any cellos in the
Adventures of the Gummy.
Bear, I don't.
Think I think it's all synthesizers, but
it's a really, really fun, catchy,
memorable song, a little on par with Muppet
Babies.
I'm going to say these are
not too dissimilar from each other.
So do you, Did you watch this show?
I did, but I don't remember it very well.
I don't think it was super high.
In my rotation with the with the one guy he
had like a Cape and a big hat.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
They took place in my beautiful times.
And so he was doing kind of that era.
And
but.
It did cycle out.
Remember how the Disney afternoon like they
used to move a show up in the time slot and
then they cycle it out.
OK, so this one I remember pretty early got
to like the 330 slot, then the 3:00 slot
and then it got pushed out of the Disney.
Plus this is 85, so it's actually before I
was born so I wasn't
watching it
dead, but it must have come.
All of my pics are from before you were born.
That's true, actually.
Yeah, so.
I am willing to say that Gummy Bears can
round out our number 10 and Muppet Babies
can be our number 9 slot.
Since I don't even really remember the
gummy bears,
Yeah,
I have to say you're correct.
Sounds good to me,
all right.
Well, next Next up, I have
a
weird pick, a pick that you were not even
familiar with
existing until very recently.
And when I went back and listened to the song,
I was like,
not only do I love the show and this song
from nostalgia,
but whoa, this could have been a Top 40 hit.
This song could have been a Top 40 hit.
This is Jace and the Wheeled Warriors.
From 1985.
This song is by my, I guess, favorite
composers in the world based on this work,
Dookie, Levy and Haines the Bond.
And so this song is just an all around like 1985.
I don't know, Journey, sort of up
tempo,
just
banger.
It really could have been on the radio,
should have been on the radio.
It could be on the radio now.
It's so good.
So
I don't know what else to say about it
other than
it's so good.
Yeah, this, this one I I feel like again
I'll have to go back and
revisit again, But what is it about that 85
sound? Is it that you're you're so because
a lot of your choices are from As.
You said, well, you could talk about that
at the end.
I all of my choices, there's one exception
are 1985 and and
three of them are Suki Levia name's the
button.
So I clearly have got a zone.
I don't know why.
And Jason the wheeled warriors is a great
example.
If you're not familiar, go listen to it and
you'll be like wow, why isn't this
streaming online as a
hit single right now?
Because
it's
great.
It has like a voice over
intro at the start but then it's so many of this.
Had those voice over intros including
including I think some other ones on hard
lists today.
But this one then the wheeled warriors like
you could hear it in some.
That is a very.
Movie or I don't know a very.
Journey.
Very foreigner.
All those kind of vans, yeah.
So they were doing a great job at that
point pumping them out. That
song gets me pumped,
makes me ready to race on a car made of
vegetables and plants against some weird
mystical things.
I love the show and don't even understand
it, but that's OK
because it's lots of fun.
So that's what I am
battling up against.
What are you bringing?
OK by #4 by most obscure pick of the night.
So I loved Space Ghost Coast to Coast.
Great
theme song, very 90s theme song.
I could have picked that but I went with
the original.
So this is the theme
song to the original Space Ghost from 1966
Space Ghost.
So you got a song before either?
Of us
that's true that's true
the reason why I like this one so Ted
Nichols I saw he also worked on scooby-doo.
He did the Scooby-doo theme song.
He did Birdman as well, worked on Josie and
the Pussycats.
But the reason why I like this one, and you
know this, you know, I'm a big
fan collector of what they call like space
age pop,
exotica, all that kind of like lounge music
from the 1960s.
And this theme song is exactly that.
It's got that Forbidden Planet kind of
thing where there's some early synthesizers or.
Thurman, something like that.
But also this kind of loungey feel to it
that was very much like we're in outer space.
So it's it's not one that you're gonna walk
away humming at all.
But of all the theme songs
that are on my list, like this is the only
one I think.
Like I would actually put on
in the background while.
I'm doing actual music like.
Having on as actual music and there's no
words to it, it's just all instrumental.
It's also
probably our only instrumental song on the
whole list.
It is,
and it's funny for for both of us
in this slot, we're choosing between the
songs that we would listen to could have
been like hits outside of the context of
the TV shows that they occupy.
So
I don't know, I'm, I'm
I'm torn here.
What do you think?
Well, I think you were very passionate
about Jason the Wheel Warriors.
So I think that.
Has to come.
Out on top.
All right, Space Ghost is our number 8, and
Jace and the Wheeled warriors #7
so tell me what you have here in our middle slot.
OK, so my #3 here's another one that I
think as soon as you see the title
or say it out loud, you
just the song starts coming to you
and that is Animaniacs from 1993 by Richard Stone.
And I love this one because I'm also a big
musical theater fan and there's something
old timey.
It's all just what I was saying about The
Muppets.
Like this song is got like that
fast patter.
Like you wouldn't be out of the.
Word play too.
Word play word.
Play is so clever in this song, like the
rhymes and the.
You're right that it's very musical
theater, but it's like
Sondheim musical theater.
Like it's.
Yes, yeah, so good.
Yeah.
And I don't think I can ever
even,
well, not all the time, but yeah, here like
Bill Clinton's name without thinking
Bill Clinton place of sex,
which is also one of the most 90s
references that you can possibly have on a very
ultimately pretty 90s reference heavy show. But.
Yeah, and this show has such good music
throughout.
Like they have that really famous state
capitol song that people will often rehost
or refer to as helping them learn the
capitals. So
it's a
yeah, I got a
lot of clever
musical
lyrics going on in this
show, so
I.
Think, yeah, this this guy,
this guy Richard Stone who wrote it.
He also worked on picking the brain and all
the other like related shows worked on the
Pumpkinhead movie.
I love that
deep cut there and then.
Fortunately he passed away at only 47 years old,
so it back in 2001. So I I
too bad like we didn't get more amazing
ditties out of him.
Well, I'm this is where I'm bringing the
big guns starting from here on out,
because
I am
going up against this with Jem and the
Holograms.
Another song
show known for its music, but
a whole lot more than the Animaniacs,
that's for sure.
And
there are two versions of the gem and the
holograms theme.
There's the early seasons
Gem and the holograms,
and then
the
truly Outrageous, also known as And then
later they turned it into Gem Girls
and me and my.
Father, I don't even think I know that one.
Oh, you I.
Heard it was turned it on, but it's much less
interesting than the gem.
Gem is excitement.
Oh gem.
So I think this is by Ford Kinder and Anne
Bryant, also from 1985.
So this is clearly the year that everything
settled into my brain,
all music glocked in place, and I have not
moved on since, which is true if you think
about like Madonna.
And there's a whole lot going on in 1985 that
I just all converged for me.
So
I love this theme.
You were not too familiar with this theme
or this show, so you only heard this
theme probably in the last few years.
And now I make you listen to the soundtrack
incessantly and the 3 releases
so.
Yeah, but they're truly good songs.
And the other good thing about the songs,
and I guess all our theme songs in general,
but this is true of all gem songs,
is they're short.
Like they don't now stay.
They're too short.
Because.
Yeah,
in some cases they
needed like an extended version that would become
the
the
the single release the radio play 1.
You know, I could totally see that.
Well, where this one works too is
often if I just see
like Jeb mentioned or read her name, I'll go Jeb.
She's truly outrageous.
Truly, truly, truly outrageous.
But then you even got the little the little
interlude with the misfits.
We are the misfits.
Oh yes, I forgot that part.
Yeah, yeah.
I mean, so it's there's a lot going on, a
lot of explaining the show, but all
lyrically.
No, no voice over a narration in this show.
It's all thumbs through.
So
I love gem in the holograms and I'm sorry,
Animaniacs
gem has to be.
Yeah,
I, I, I think I will give it to gem in the
holograms as well all.
Right.
Well, you're gonna find yourself.
But two songs, 2 shows,
shows with really solid soundtracks
throughout
are probably our only ones that have like
super heavy
on on.
Yeah, that are known for songs being in the
show Muppet Babies to a certain extent, but
yeah,
I agree. Gem and
the Animaniacs.
So Animaniacs number six.
Gem in the holograms #5 we're moving into
the top half and this is where it's over.
Shuki Levy and Haim Saban
have
owned my childhood,
and here we are with my #2 He Man
and the Masters of the Universe.
And the Masters of the Universe
from 1983
theme by
Shiki Levi, Haim Saban.
So
I don't know what to say about this.
It's an interesting one because like my
number one pick these songs,
they
don't have
singing.
They have like that he man, he man, right?
Like they have a little bit of voice,
but otherwise it's music
mixed with voiceover.
So these ones are voiceover by the main
character.
So of course he man narrating who he is and
who knows his secret and what he fights for.
All of that is a part of the formal theme song,
but
I just think the
supercharged energy and the synthesizers
that this show uses across its whole
soundtrack.
But the theme song,
I mean, obviously they've
they live in my heart and soul. So
I can't I can't let go of them.
I don't even know you were
a new adventures of he man person.
I don't even know that theme song 'cause I
don't even know that show.
Well, but
I don't think I know that theme song
either.
Yeah,
it's so funny that I guess was
were they not trusting of the kids to
remember the plot every time?
Why do you think they?
Did that, yeah, I think
probably that, but also so that you could
enter any episode
like you didn't you didn't.
It's part of why there's very few
2 parters and he man, there's none and
Shiro, there's a handful.
And so that's so that you can, a kid could
sit down and watch it at any point in time,
could play them in any order.
We know of course, order got all that
totally these kinds of shows.
So I think that's probably why makes it
nice and easy.
So
I think you're bringing your big guns,
quite literally to this battle.
Yes, well, mine has a lot of singing in it.
And this is GI Joe, real American hero.
But I'm specifically going for you were
just saying like an extended cut version.
So I'm going actually for the
extended.
There's a whole nother like 2 verses of it
from the movie GI Joe the movie from 1987.
And this is by John Douglas and Rob Walsh.
Rob Walsh who also Co wrote the Muppet
Babies theme as well.
So this is the same theme as the animated
show, but a longer version.
That's the deal.
Yes, yeah. So
I think the best part of the entire GI Joe
movie, because
I love the GI Joe movie as a kid.
I think, you know, it's hit or miss
now,
but one of the best parts of the entire
movie, it might not ever get better than
this, is the opening credits, which are
Cobra attacking the Statue of Liberty and
GI Joe protecting them.
And
you then get into the traditional song at
the end.
It's a new vocalist.
It's not like he doesn't have as deep a
voice as he does on the TV show,
but there's a whole Cobra
verse as well, and it's just really good.
And this is another whole.
Song is a different voice or those verses
are different.
No, the whole song is a different.
So it was re recorded.
Interesting, yes, a bit more of like a high
higher pitched singer, a little bit more
rock because you know, the original 1 is
like Gee,
Joe Lemare Rican.
He's got like this very bass
voice and this one is a bit more in the
journey foreigner
level of of singing.
Interesting. And
was it released as a single, do you know?
Oh, I don't know if it was released as a
single.
That's a good question because it is about
like 3 1/2 minutes long all together with
this, this extended version.
So it could have very easily been
released as a single, but I don't, I don't know.
That's a good question.
One day I don't think you've seen.
When was the last time you saw the GI Joe
movie? Never.
If I saw it, it was when I was
6-7 years old, so
I think.
You'd love
like
Pythona, the
female villain they introduced.
We saw her action figure in New York Comic Con.
It looked pretty cool, so yeah.
She does.
She's very cool.
And then her introduction is like the
second best part of the movie.
Unfortunately all of that was is within
like the 1st 15 minutes and then it
takes a little bit of a drop down
so.
I'm hard pressed to let anything lose to E man so.
Oh, I don't know.
I think knowing what your top one is, I
don't know.
Oil, I don't know.
I bought a big one for my top one too so.
I'm not sure.
I'm going to say GI Joe should take the
cake because there's more lyric, there's an.
Extended song, yeah, I think I'll give it
to you, not because it's better, but
because it's an extended song, whereas he
Man, as we just discussed, doesn't have a
whole lot of lyrics, so
that makes sense.
All right, we're up to our top slots.
Tell me,
what
are you thinking is fighting for #1.
OK,
I mean a lot of these
songs that we brought today are ear worms.
I'm going to wager that on my entire list,
this is the number one earworm where
we've recently been re watching this show. And
before we go to bed and then I'm laying in
bed and going
that damn song. He's
stuck
in my head.
This is Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles from 1987.
You can hear that I can't even make the noise.
Obviously it's a synthesizer, but that
noise at the start.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Written by Dennis C Brown and in one of the
great weird pieces of trivia of all time,
Chuck Lorre, who went on to create 2 1/2
Men and The Big Bang Theory and All Those.
You wrote a lot of things for
animated shows, including songs.
And also, I saw that then
Dennis Brown did the music for a lot of
those shows.
So Dennis also
worked out really well that Dennis stayed
friends with Chuck
all those years later.
Yeah, this is a really great song.
I agree with you.
I would have put it in my top five if I
didn't have these other five that I needed
to put in my top five.
But
it
it it
it gets the feel of the show really well
because it doesn't tell the story,
but it just gives you the, you know,
cowabunga.
You get the you get the catch phrases.
You get that like, fun funkiness and then,
yeah, the synthesizer.
Electronic music is
peak 1987.
I'm going to say
maybe you'll you'll take umbrage with this, but
I think it does what the he man theme by
explaining who the characters are, But it
does it not with spoken word, but actually
in the song, because if you let's do the song,
you know
that
Donatello does machines, for example.
So it's there to remind you every single
episode who these basic characters are, but
it's a little bit more seamlessly done.
And I think the other thing that
kids probably really like is there's lots of
levels to it as well.
Like it's not just like one person just
singing at the same tone, but it's like
key turtle power.
Like there's like those weird little things
that are
in the song as well.
It's not just it's like the main vocals.
Yeah,
yeah, All right.
It's a good pick,
but
I have to bring Shira, Shira, Shira.
I am
Adora, he
man's twin
sister so.
Now I was torn.
Here there are two songs I want to bring,
but I'll choose one.
There is of course the theme from The
Secret of the Sword, which is the Eye of
the Power song
for He Man and Shira
and I love
that song.
It's a duet. It's
again peak 80s electronic music.
I love duets.
I used to sing this all the time.
I had the soundtrack.
This one came on a soundtrack.
I love that song
but
I'll stick with the original
and just say the Shira Princess of Power
1985 Goodyear theme
by Shuki Levy and Haim Saban
sung by Erica Shimer who is Lou Shimer's
daughter who did a lot of the voices on the show.
And so like the he man song it doesn't have any
vocals outside of Shira Shira
and then it has her narration.
However,
the reason it
eeks out over he man
is that Doo Doo.
Doo Doo Doo
Doo Doo Doo.
Whatever that,
I don't know, percussion synthesizer is
that feels very,
I don't know, print.
Yeah, yes, it's like a drum kit like
synthesizer.
It has such good momentum and then they
reuse it all the time in the episodes.
There is a constant like
every time the action is getting started.
It's just the.
Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo
Doo Doo Doo Doo.
And I love that and it's so fun and
propels you forward and is
a great song that I could listen to
forever.
I think,
well, obviously you agree because you put
in your number one.
I'm going to say I think it's vastly
superior to the Masters of the Universe
theme song.
It's like Masters of the Universe walked so
that the Shira
theme song could run because.
That's true and some similarly that's true
and even like the quality of the T show the
the the
everything.
Yes, it is very true that she's.
I don't.
Yeah, not second.
Yeah, I don't find the man
he man 1 getting stuck in my head.
But again, going back to what we've been
saying for a lot of these other ones, if I
read the she
just Shira's name in my head, I'm going
Shira, Shira, and
I don't find I do that with he man the same way.
Maybe because he man is not nearly as easy
of a like phrase to say like Shira, just
roll off the tongue.
He man is a little,
you know, your mouth has to move a lot more
to get those words out.
All right. Well,
as much as I love he Man and Shira, I think
the Turtles has to win,
I do think.
It's.
Hard to think because you're right, it's
all together.
It's all there.
It's all one package.
It does it all.
So.
And I'll also say
I think
even though we've talked about specific
times, there's something
almost a little bit more timeless a little
bit about the Shira one like, but when you
hear the turtles one, there's something
that is it's is 1987, it is like 1990.
It just brings you
exactly
to that era, which is kind of actually what
I want in some ways.
I want to be like transported right there.
And it has a bit of an adventure and a
story and it, yeah, I agree.
What a lineup, this great top ten that
we've got.
Give us a recap.
OK,
this is
number 10 Gummy bears, or actually Disney's
Adventures of the Gummy Bears.
Official title
#9 Muppet babies #8 Space Goes.
The original
#7 Jase and the Wheeled Warriors.
Number six
animaniacs #5
Jim and the holograms
#4 He, Man and the Masters of the universe
#3 GI Joe, Real American Hero, the movie
version
#2 she run the Princess of Power
and #1 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
That is the perfect Saturday morning
mixtape.
Yes, it is.
All right.
And there was a few, I mean, the one I have
to say, like, I didn't put X-Men down
because it was like, well, Guido's gotta
put the X-Men theme down,
I guess.
I was thinking 80s, so we're gonna need a
90s edition.
Are any of your picks from the 90s? I guess
Animaniacs is.
Yeah. I'm
gonna say we can have a follow up.
At 80s
that's.
True.
Well, I think.
We just have the follow.
Another top ten
because there are plenty.
Batman the Animated Series, I mean, there
were so many,
I just have to put that.
Well, that wraps another round of the
Sleepover Retro Countdown show brought to
you by Sleepover Trading Company.
We now have a physical shop open inside the
historic community Theater in Catskill, NY
Follow us online at Sleepover Trading and
Sleepover trading.com.
Yeah, come visit the shop, flip through the
Video Visions rental shelves and relive the
days when
you were getting up on Saturday morning and
putting on your favorite cartoon with a big
bowl of cereal.
That is true.
That is true when you looked forward to
going to sleep on Friday nights that you
could wake up on Saturday morning.
Yes,
Friday nights were for Saturday morning,
so
be.
Kind
rewind your childhood.