Again, there is no better cartoon than Tex Avery cartoons.
this is an absolute thruth. I used to watch these as a kidster (I'm not that old, but Cartoon Network's Tex Avery Show opened my eyes) and I still laugh like an idiot when I see them (I downloaded them all). The Ventriloquist Cat and "Magical Maestro" are absolutely incredible. He indeed was a genius.
That said, I was born in 1982 and also watched many of the shows other contemporary members have mentioned, along with Mazinger Z (They aired it when I was young, even tough it was way old back then already) and all those others. Mazinger was my entire ealry childhood.
Then, in came Macross/Robotech, whch I'm surprised not many people have mentioned. It was revolutionary, it made Mazinger look like an old boiler. It was amazing.
Then came Darkwing Duck via Cable, long before Latin america was considered a serious market and disney Channel gave a damn about even adding subtitles. It was weird because I watched it in english entirely and more or less understood. That and Tiny Toons. Damn I loved that and no one has mentioned them.
Well into the 90s, I more or less stopped watching cartoons with the exception of the above mentione Tex Avery stuff. Then, like a slap in the face, came what over here in Mexico is known as the anime invasion. Suddenly there was anime everywhere, and it was the most awesome thign ever. From this era I remember Saint Seiya was huge, but the one that really put it's mark on ME (and many other people) was Magic Knight Rayearth. That was the show that really introduced me to anime as something more than "cartoons" and made me get heavily into it... and I'm hard into it still.
Later on, Cartoon Network released their Cartoon Cartoons stuff and I fell right into it. Powerpuff, Dexter, all those, along with most of the anime airing here, and of course Dragon Ball in all it's possible variations. And so it has been.
Today, The Fairly Oddparents are amazingly funny, I dont remember laughing so hard at a cartoon since the Tex Avery days. They are really genius. And of course, Cowboy Bebop. Yeah, it's 12 years old and it hasn't been topped.