The Rise and Fall of the Garbage Pail Kids

In 1987, five sets of cards were produced and a live action movie was released to movie theaters in the late summer. The movie is widely regarded as one of the worst ever made. Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a 0% rating and IMDB users give it a 2.7 out of 10 stars. It was also a financial failure, making just $1.5 million at the box office on a $30 million budget. A GPK cartoon was also produced in 1987 by CBS television network, but was removed from the fall scheduled. The 13 episodes never aired in the US and it wasn't until 2006 that Paramount Home Entertainment released Garbage Pail Kids - The Complete Series
Looking back, I remember collecting a few GPK cards along with my sports card collection. I don't remember my parents banning them or getting upset over them, but I never really collected enough for it to become an issue. As a parent now, it's very hard to imagine a time when kids collected cards of baby-type figures smoking cigarettes, drinking beer, and bludgeoning themselves. I don't think anyone ever died because they tried to imitate the figures on the cards, but it was probably a good thing that their widespread popularity spanned only 3 years before they could get to the demonic ritual series. But we, the children of the 80s, will still remember them as part of our childhood. Here is Cracked.Com's take on the remembering the franchise: