Original Starters, and in general Pokemon were the best.

Gen II didn't have many Pokemon...until you beat the game, remember you could get 16 badges in this game :-O (Right, or is that just HeartGold? It's been a while).

and since then Pokemon have been getting uglier and uglier. I mean if you ask me Dialga and Palkia look like angry dogs, and wasn't the gen IV grass starter a leaf? At least Gen III tried something new with dual types.

Honestly Nintendo should open up a competition where people submit their own Pokemon and some info for a good name (origin, purpose, special attack, etc). They could get a lot better ideas for some legendaries.

I mean wtf is Arceus? A white dog with a giant necklace? Mewtwo was cool, Groudon and Kyogre were cool, Victini is actually really cool, but shit, so little good inbetween.

No father, single mom who doesn't give a f*** about her 10 year old kid, dropping out of school to go on a 1 year adventure to hunt basically animals alone.

Yep, I wonder what she is doing while your gone... Hey Prof Oak was a pretty good looking prof, hm....

Best Starters via Usefulness (competatively):

Venasuar (Over Used)

Feraligator (Under Used)

Blazkien (Ubers)

Infernape (Over Used)

For 5th gen all are in the Never Used tier

Blaziken is one of the worst looking pokemon ever. It looks like it escaped from a disco.

Because we all get bored at one point. Boredom clouds judgment and dampens inhibitions.
Deep down inside, we all hoped Ash and Misty would eventually get together, and look forward to Brock finally get with one of the Jenny's or Joy's. I remember I liked a girl once in school who just so happens to play Pokémon. She's midly attractive and but seeing her playing Pokémon is certain sexually appealing.
All in all, in addition to the show's remarkable run on television (shockingly, it still is, I know!), social media, & its multiplayer allure, not to mention the Pokémon's charm in itself, we just want to cath them all

No there not, each gen has the best Pokemon

Infernape is the best fire type

Blastoise is the best water type

Snivy/Serperior is the best Grass type

Hoenn is a miss though

It's all subjective =P I prefer Charizard/Blastoise/Venusaur

That is true, but battle wise these are the best starters

As I mentioned earlier I'm purely talking about design =P

Blastoise being a better water type than Feraligatr? Feraligatr could eat Blastoise for dinner and still ask for seconds. Have you ever tried a Feraligatr with Life Orb and Sheer Force ability? A single Superpower from it will destroy a Blastoise no matter how much you EV train it. 
Feraligatr is widely regarded as being the most powerful water starter and one of the most powerful water type pokemon available. 

And Infernape is not the best Fire type combat wise as well, that "title" falls to Blaziken, given that he's an Uber an all that.