Battle of the Planets, Speed Buggy, Laffalympics, Pinky and the Brain, The Jetsons!

"Any other meta-cartoons (cartoons within cartoons) out there? "

Terrance and Philip

Terence and Phillip aren't cartoon characters in the South Park universe. They are actors from Canada.

*Terrance and Phillip - correcting my misspelling of Terrance's name

Although the episode where the boys are playing WoW could qualify as WoW is more or less an unscripted cartoon...

Ok.....are we talking BEST cartoons of all time or most INFLUENTIAL cartoons of all time? Either way, here's my list of them both.

Bugs Bunny and the entire Looney Tunes group (absolute genius, nothing in the past has ever surpassed this cartoon and I doubt anything in the future ever will either).

The Flinstones (simply a great cartoon despite the fact that the backdrop never changed).

Tom & Jerry (I have no idea how they did it but they were able to make the plot of a cat trying to catch a mouse never get old and make you laugh everytime....without voices!

The Jetson's was pretty good, sort o along the same line as The Flinstones except that it was in the future instead of the past.

The Simpson's is great, really hilarious.

Spongebob is fairly good, kind of created it's own genre of cartoon by being stupid but having semi-creative plots.

And then the final, and one that I absolutely love, is the Original Transformers. Those were some of the best cartoons EVER. They actually had a legit storyline like which left questions about Cybertron and other stuff unanswered all the time so you always came back for more. As far as serious cartoons go, this one definitely takes the cake.

Other then that (and maybe family guy and south park) I don't think that there are many other cartoons that are really that great that i've seen. Fairly Odd Parents is just a disgrace to television, and Cartoon Network has basically stopped making anything good.

Surely we cannot forget about moose and squirrel?...
The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show (somewhat dated now - but still great)

The defining cartoons of each age:
40's and 50's: Loony Tunes and Tom & Jerry
60's: The Flintstones and The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show
70's: Scooby-Doo
80's: ? (someone help me here... He-Man and She-Ra perhaps?)... Did anything survive from the 80's? I guess Transformers. I hated 80's cartoons.
90's: The Simpsons and Ren and Stimpy (perhaps) and South Park
00's: Futurama and Spongebob

80s had Star Blazers and Speed Racer...

Well, late 70s and early 80s I guess...

Speed Racer was in the sixties - though I guess it syndicated. Star Blazers sounds interesting.

For the 00s, I think you need to remove Futurama and put in Family Guy. Futurama doesn't have much of a legacy.
For the 60s, I think you need to add Popeye.
And you need to go back another decade and add Betty Boop.
And if you want to talk about a game-changing cartoons, you need to add 'Rugrats' to the 90s.

'Furry Freak Brothers' and 'Fat Freddy's Cat'.

As a parent of younger kids watching a ton of tv today - I can tell you that Phineas and Ferb is very well written too. Kim Possible wasn't bad either.

Without pics, this is the usual blah blah blah.

I think that Timur just likes spoiling peoples fun.

@DingleberryJones, good edits.

@DingleberryJones - I would say that Futurama has a pretty decent following, they made those movies because DVD sales were so dang high. That being said, Family Guy was more popular and also hilarious.

Also it just hit me, basically the best Simpsons episodes are when Conan was writing them.

I don't think 'ratings' and 'defining cartoons of the age' really mean the same thing. I'm not sure what Futurama changed in cartoon world. Funny it may be, but its like saying 'Friends' changed sitcoms. Friends - popular? Yes. Funny, possibly. Altering the genre like All in the Family or The Office? I think not.

Okay fair enough.

Does RoboChicken count