Here's the important take-away: you have stuff from your childhood that you still like. For those of us who grew up with GI Joe and Gobots? Not so much. I think there is a window to get into the above. I probably would have enjoyed the shit out of AoT as an angsty 14-year-old. Unfortunately Reagan was president when I was an angsty 14-year-old so I missed my window. Really, you guys win this one. Animation was shit back in the '80s.
I can't say I disagree. AoT was more recent for me. I had put it off for a long time, not very interested in it, but soooo many people claimed it was brilliant... While I don't think it was brilliant, it was over the top and dramatic, it had cool fight scenes and an at least interesting premise.. But, that's a common thing in anime. Over the top, overstated, idiotic characters. It is so difficult to find an anime that doesn't cost you IQ points, that it puts me off from watching it for months at a time. Too me now, all those shows are terrible. I've grown up and gained awareness of what I like and don't like. DBZ was like a cult for those of us who watched it as a kid. Now, I will only watch it out of nostalgia. I miss those summer nights when I was 11 where I stayed up passed my bedtime to watch it. Do I think the show is good? Hell no... The show is 90% filler. So, it makes me sad to hear you don't have those nostalgic shows to remind you of a more simple time.
Well, they were different shows. 11 and staying up too late was pretty much entirely Dr. Who, because the PBS affiliate would run an entire short series from 11pm until 2am. Star Trek was also on Saturdays at 4:30, which meant an afternoon of working on cars, followed by Star Trek, followed by working on cars. But the after-school stuff? Yeah, it was all shit. You'll notice nobody is nostalgic for it. Ducktales on the outside, but even that was because everything else sucked so hard.
So just the animated tv was crap? I don't know much about 80's tv, but I do know Dr. Who and Star Trek are iconic. Sounds like you guys had better live-action than we do know. Not much in terms of sci-fi series.