Sixty-Five-Episode Cartoon

Many Western cartoon series have had original runs lasting 65 episodes, because 65 episodes equals 13 weeks (or three months) of material to syndicate at one episode per weekday. This is because of an FCC rule that requires syndicated shows to run for at least 13 weeks, but also because these cartoon series are often not renewed for a second season. (Those which are renewed may have 65 additional episodes, or fewer if they are mixed in with repeats from earlier seasons.)

This was typical with cartoons produced for first-run Syndication, and adopted as policy by the Disney Channel (which has a similar 65-episode cutoff for its live-action Kid Coms) and Kids WB, although some syndicated shows did air weekly originally. It is now increasingly difficult for shows to achieve this goal, since most have gone with a smaller episode number due to the economy.

It should also be noted that this trope really only applies to cartoons aimed towards children, rather than Adult cartoons.

See also Twelve-Episode Anime and British Brevity, both of which should remind fans of any of the shows listed here of how lucky actually they are. For some shows that went well past 65, see Milestone Celebration.

Retired at 65:

 * One Hundred and One Dalmatians: The Series: 65 episodes with one short first season (the One Saturday Morning episodes), and one long second season (The Disney Afternoon episodes)
 * Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog: 65 episodes over one season, excluding one Christmas Episode produced years later.
 * The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin: 65 episodes over one season.
 * Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers: 65 episodes over one season.
 * Adventures of the Gummi Bears
 * The Batman: 65 episodes over five seasons.
 * Batman: The Brave And The Bold: 65 episodes over three seasons.
 * Beverly Hills Teens: 65 episodes over one season.
 * Biker Mice From Mars: 65 episodes over one season.
 * Bionic Six: 65 episodes over two seasons.
 * Bonkers
 * Bravestarr
 * The Busy World of Richard Scarry
 * Captain Harlock and the Queen of a Thousand Years
 * Cat Dog
 * Centurions: 65 episodes over two seasons.
 * Challenge of the Go Bots: 65 episodes over two seasons.
 * Chilly Beach: 65 episodes over three seasons.
 * Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers: 65 episodes over three seasons.
 * Clifford the Big Red Dog (2000s series)
 * The Comic Strip: 65 episodes over one season.
 * Conan the Adventurer: 65 episodes over two seasons.
 * C.O.P.S.
 * Count Duckula: 65 episodes over four seasons.
 * Daria: 65 episodes over five seasons, not counting 2 Made For TV Movies.
 * Defenders of the Earth: 65 episodes over one season.
 * Dinosaucers: 65 episodes over one season.
 * Disney's Doug: 65 episodes over three seasons (excluding the 52 episodes of its Nickelodeon predecessor).
 * Eagle Riders (though only Australia saw all 65 episodes)
 * Filmations Ghostbusters: 65 episodes over one season.
 * Hercules The Series
 * James Bond Jr
 * Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors
 * Jem
 * The Legend of Prince Valiant
 * Lilo and Stitch: The Series
 * The Marvel Superheroes
 * Mona the Vampire
 * My Little Pony 'n Friends
 * The New Adventures of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe
 * PB and J Otter: 65 episodes over three seasons.
 * Pepper Ann
 * Police Academy: The Animated Series: 65 episodes over two seasons.
 * Rambo The Force Of Freedom
 * Rupert: 65 episodes over five seasons.
 * Silverhawks
 * Spider-Man: The Animated Series
 * Spiral Zone
 * Tale Spin
 * Taz-Mania
 * Teen Titans: 65 episodes over five seasons.
 * Tom and Jerry Kids
 * The Wacky World of Tex Avery
 * Widget the World Watcher
 * Yin Yang Yo

Renewed after the original 65 episodes:

 * The first 65 episodes of Animaniacs ran on Fox Kids, as did four more episodes cobbled together out of unused segments. Then came the Channel Hop.
 * The Babar cartoon is counted as being Un Cancelled despite the sixth season being produced nine years after the fifth season brought it to 65 episodes.
 * The original Batman: The Animated Series season was 65 episodes long. It was continued by 20 episode second season (under the title The Adventures of Batman & Robin) and two seasons of The New Batman Adventures.
 * Buzz Lightyear of Star Command
 * Dennis the Menace US
 * DuckTales
 * Darkwing Duck and Aladdin both had episodes that ran independent of their The Disney Afternoon syndication.
 * The first two seasons of Gargoyles had 65 episodes in all. The third season, retitled Gargoyles: The Goliath Chronicles, suffered from Seasonal Rot and wound up in Canon Discontinuity.
 * G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero
 * Goof Troop
 * Heathcliff and The Catillac Cats did 65 episodes in its first season and 21 in its second.
 * He-Man and the Masters of the Universe originally had 65 episodes, but was successful enough to merit another 65 for a total of 130.
 * He-Man and the Masters of the Universe's Spin-Off, She-Ra: Princess of Power, was also renewed after 65 episodes, but its total only came to 93.
 * Inspector Gadget
 * Kim Possible, though it had to be Uncanceled to get a fourth season after reaching 65 episodes.
 * M.A.S.K. had 65 episodes in its first series, which was followed by the short and very different racing series.
 * Pinky and The Brain had 65 episodes, not counting a few compilations of their Animaniacs segments. However, it was continued as Pinky Elmyra and The Brain, though many fans would like to forget that.
 * Recess was a subversion. The series ended with 65 episodes (due to Disney's rule), but had four unaired episodes. They were released to DVD two years after the show ended.
 * The original 1991-93 run of Rugrats lasted 65 episodes. It was Uncanceled and resumed in 1996.
 * Sabrina the Animated Series lasted one season of 65 episodes from 1999 to 2000 (like a number of Saturday morning cartoons as well), but got a spin-off, Sabrina's Secret Life in 2003, with twenty-something episodes. Fans... like to forget that series, though.
 * The original North American dub of Sailor Moon stalled for two years in the middle of Sailor Moon R, after 65 episodes had been dubbed by DiC Entertainment.
 * Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (original) Channel Hopped to CBS after producing 65 episodes for syndication.
 * The Tenchi franchise:
 * Tenchi Muyo Ryo-Ohki! (first two OVA series) - 13 episodes
 * Tenchi Muyo (Tenchi Universe) - 26 episodes
 * Shin Tenchi Muyo (Tenchi in Tokyo) - 26 episodes
 * Total: 65 episodes; then came Tenchi Muyo! GXP, followed by the (long awaited) 3rd OVA series.
 * Thundercats
 * Tiny Toon Adventures followed its first syndicated season of 65 episodes with 13 more episodes in syndication and 20 episodes on Fox Kids.
 * The Transformers (original)