Computers

The computer is one of man's greatest inventions.

Abacuses and slide rules are regarded as the earliest known computers. However, modern computers came into prominence in the latter half of the 20th century. At first, they were only used by scientists and the military for research purposes. Today, people use personal computers and laptops in their homes and workplaces for everything from buying goods to processing important documents. Computers have even played major roles in such movies as 2001: A Space Odyssey and WarGames.

Hanna-Barbera cartoons had many computers that were used for either good or evil purposes, depending on the plotline.

The New Adventures of Captain Planet

• MAL is Dr. Blight's computer. It served her faithfully, but then became good by the end of the series.
• MAL is the only animated computer to appear in a series produced by two different studios.

The Flintstones

• Hollyrock-a-Bye Baby had Pebbles Flintstone using a computer.

The Jetsons

• R.U.D.I. was the computer used at Spacely Space Sprockets. It was in several episodes of both the 1960s and 1980s versions, as well as all three movies.
• S.A.R.A. was a female computer at Cogswell Cogs. It appeared only in The Jetsons Meet the Flintstones, and got R.U.D.I. to leak secrets to Cogswell. George Jetson found out about this, but was unable to tell Mr. Spacely about it.

Jonny Quest

• "The Mystery of the Lizard Men": Dr. Quest uses UNIC, a newly developed computer, to tell him the reason for the mysterious disappearances of ships in the Sargasso Sea. It reveals that the ships had been destroyed by a laser weapon.
• "The Scourge of Skyborg": Race Bannon's rival, Judd Harmon, who now calls himself Skyborg, steals CAP, a small computer programmed to act as an automatic pilot.

Josie and the Pussycats

• "Melody Memory Mix-Up": After the Hawk captures Melody Valentine, he hooks her up to his computer to get the force field formula, but the computer malfunctions. The rest of the group "fixes" it.

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kids

• The team gets their assignments from Mr. Socrates, a sentient mainframe computer that's allergic to dogs, and sneezes whenever Elvis sneaks into the chamber.

Super Friends

• "Professor Goodfellow's G.E.E.C.": Professor Goodfellow introduces the Super Friends to the G.E.E.C, an acronym for Goodfellow's Effort-Eliminating Computer. He explains that he built and programmed it to perform all the tasks normally performed by humans, including teaching. But when a mouse gets inside it, and damages the inner workings, all the Super Friends, including Plastic Man, take action immediately.

Clue Club

• Dotty uses a microcomputer to run background checks on the suspects, and even to play games like gin rummy.

Jabberjaw

• "The Sourpuss Octopus": Jabberjaw, Shelly, and Clamhead insert a copy of a stolen disc into a computer to find out the location of the treasure of Panaqua. Then they sabotage it just before the Octopus inserts the stolen disc, so all he gets is something nonsensical.
• "No Helpin' The Sculpin": Jabberjaw reluctantly disguises himself as a computer in order to rescue Clamhead, and sabotage the Sculpin's time machine.

The All-New Superfriends Hour

• The Superfriends use the Justice League computer, voiced by Casey Kasem, to obtain data about the vilains they're dealing with.
• "The Mind Maidens." Medulla stores every man on Earth except for Superman on computer tape. Superman discovers Medulla's computer is too complex for him, so he asks a man at the Pentagon to link it up with the Pentagon's computer, and is able to free the other male Superfriends.

Challenge of the Superfriends

• "History of Doom": The computer is used by an alien trio to determine what happened to the Hall Of Justice and the Superfriends. It reveals the origins of Lex Luthor and Giganta, the Legion of Doom as a whole, and the terrible fate of the Superfriends and Earth.

Space Stars

• "Space Cube of Doom": Space Ghost deals with Ultima, a computer that has drained Jan and Jace of their emotions. He tricks it into brainwashing its own brain.
• "The Cosmic Mousetrap": The Space Ghost team and the Teen Force contend with Megamind, a mainframe computer whose creators died years before. It lures people down to its planet with false distress signals, and then captures them. The heroes outwit it when Space Ghost turns everyone invisible, and tricks it into thinking it destroyed them. Then they deactivate it for good.

The Little Rascals

• "Trash Can Treasures": Buckwheat acquires a microcomputer, and Spanky asks him to find a place to invest some newly found money. Buckwheat ends up drawing a maze on the computer screen, and suggests that Spanky look for a place to hide his money.

Pac-Man

• "Computer Packy": Soon after Pac-Man buys a new home computer, Pac-Baby gets sucked inside. Pac-Man and P.J. have to rescue him, while Ms. Pac-Man stays at the keyboard.

The New Scooby-Doo Mysteries

• "Sherlock Doo, Parts One and Two": In Part Two, Fred Jones uses a crime computer to print out data about the stolen blueprints.

Paw Paws

• Dark Paw has his own computer.

Yogi's Treasure Hunt

• Quick Draw McGraw operates the computer aboard the Jelly Roger.

A Pup Named Scooby-Doo

• Velma Dinkley uses a computer to help solve the mysteries.
• "The Computer Walks Among Us": Velma's computer becomes a monster. Can the gang find the reason for this unexpected glitch?