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So;
I've been converting stuff to DVD, and there are a lot of noticable spaces on my shelves now. I have SCHLOADS of weird, old cartoons on tape. I'd buy them from rental places going under, and I have lots of tapes off of tv with one or two episodes of different shows. Some I'd keep 'cos I liked 'em. Some for dissection and study. Some just 'cos they're pretty much unexplainable. I have a lot of old Japanese cartoons that were released in the late 70's and early 80's on tape too. ("Crash Corrigan" anyone? Anyone....?)
But this week it was old American stuff. I found some notables too:
-Poochie. Not the Simpsons character; but this surreal cartoon about a pink poodly-looking dog (which bears an odd resemblance to Lisa Hayes...) who runs a company and travels the world helping people in need. With C-3P0. In a human disguise. Really.
The show was based on a stuffed toy Mattel released in the early 80's. I kept it 'cos it's soo weird. AND it'll probably never be seen again anywhere. Not that this is a BAD thing; but when I'm old and senile I'd like an example to show people so that they don't think I'm hallucinating. "Really! The dog TALKED; and solved mysteries!!!"
...hey. Wait....
-Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors. There were a LOT of toy based cartoons in the 80's, weren't there? Jayce was like a lot of the early ones; it added a ton of elements not found in the toy, in order to flesh out the story. The original Wheeled Warrior toys came with little generic lookin' crewmen; not a mangakid, little girl plant, wizard guy, cutesey robot, and Han Solo. Not that it really HELPED. The show was damned generic, and the dialogue was notably stiff... but the bad guys were neat. Evil intergalactic plant/car monsters. Of course, after watching one episode you've pretty much seen every shot of them you're ever gonna.
This one was on a studio tape I bought from Jumbo Video just after they went under. And it was tape protected. WHO would go through the time and expense of TAPE PROTECTING "Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors?!?!" Was it THAT much of a cash cow for DIC and Mattel? Seriously.
-Kidd Video. I had a couple episodes of this one on tape; but only had one worth converting. For a number of reasons. This one always puzzled me. It's a really weird idea for a show. (Alternate world based on music, which features current music videos and songs in the episode.) And the first season was done on the FREAKISHLY cheap. We're talking "Josie and the Pussycats in Space" cheap. "Jabberjaw" cheap. "ANYTHING made in the early 60's" cheap. But it was popular enough to warrant a second season, and the second season had a HUGE leap in quality. (Well; as much of a leap as DIC ever did.) THAT always seemed odd to me. They even redesigned everything with more complex designs. Same company; so I could never figger out the redo.
The episode I kept was a second season one; taped during it's first run. So it still had all the old music in it. I had a couple from the first season taped off of TBS in the early 90's; and they had the original music scenes removed. (Probably for copyright problems.) Which left HUGE gaps in the continuity. They usually just threw in a real video for no logical reason, but thay'd also play another current song during a scene of the show. So removing those took 3 minutes out of the episode. Often a pivotal 3 minutes. I can see wanting to tie your show in with current trends; even though this dates your show really bad, most cartoons only run for a year or so. But doing that with MUSIC? The turnover rate is so fast most of your episodes are probably old hat before being finished. (I seem to recall a couple of shows that did this in the early 80's. And they all died painful; but thankfully quick deaths.) And I bet nobody thought about syndication. (Same probalem WKRP has been having with it's DVD release I hear...)
-Centurions. NOW we're talking! Another toy tie in; but one with a surprising amount of detail. Plus it has a dude who WEARS a tank! On the cool scale wearing a tank gets l you like, a million points. Decent writing, decent animation, and a DUDE WEARING A TANK! I liked this one when I was a kid, and I still like it now. Unlike a lot of toons from the day they weren't real self-concious about the action scenes. I can remember a second season where they added new team-mates; even thoguh there weren't toys of them. The designs REALLY looked like toys, so I bet they were planned but the line went under before they came out.
They spent a lot of time on the secondary; NON-toy characters too. Something that went away when the Marvel/Hasbro/Sunbow formula was perfected.
Don C.
I've been converting stuff to DVD, and there are a lot of noticable spaces on my shelves now. I have SCHLOADS of weird, old cartoons on tape. I'd buy them from rental places going under, and I have lots of tapes off of tv with one or two episodes of different shows. Some I'd keep 'cos I liked 'em. Some for dissection and study. Some just 'cos they're pretty much unexplainable. I have a lot of old Japanese cartoons that were released in the late 70's and early 80's on tape too. ("Crash Corrigan" anyone? Anyone....?)
But this week it was old American stuff. I found some notables too:
-Poochie. Not the Simpsons character; but this surreal cartoon about a pink poodly-looking dog (which bears an odd resemblance to Lisa Hayes...) who runs a company and travels the world helping people in need. With C-3P0. In a human disguise. Really.
The show was based on a stuffed toy Mattel released in the early 80's. I kept it 'cos it's soo weird. AND it'll probably never be seen again anywhere. Not that this is a BAD thing; but when I'm old and senile I'd like an example to show people so that they don't think I'm hallucinating. "Really! The dog TALKED; and solved mysteries!!!"
...hey. Wait....
-Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors. There were a LOT of toy based cartoons in the 80's, weren't there? Jayce was like a lot of the early ones; it added a ton of elements not found in the toy, in order to flesh out the story. The original Wheeled Warrior toys came with little generic lookin' crewmen; not a mangakid, little girl plant, wizard guy, cutesey robot, and Han Solo. Not that it really HELPED. The show was damned generic, and the dialogue was notably stiff... but the bad guys were neat. Evil intergalactic plant/car monsters. Of course, after watching one episode you've pretty much seen every shot of them you're ever gonna.
This one was on a studio tape I bought from Jumbo Video just after they went under. And it was tape protected. WHO would go through the time and expense of TAPE PROTECTING "Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors?!?!" Was it THAT much of a cash cow for DIC and Mattel? Seriously.
-Kidd Video. I had a couple episodes of this one on tape; but only had one worth converting. For a number of reasons. This one always puzzled me. It's a really weird idea for a show. (Alternate world based on music, which features current music videos and songs in the episode.) And the first season was done on the FREAKISHLY cheap. We're talking "Josie and the Pussycats in Space" cheap. "Jabberjaw" cheap. "ANYTHING made in the early 60's" cheap. But it was popular enough to warrant a second season, and the second season had a HUGE leap in quality. (Well; as much of a leap as DIC ever did.) THAT always seemed odd to me. They even redesigned everything with more complex designs. Same company; so I could never figger out the redo.
The episode I kept was a second season one; taped during it's first run. So it still had all the old music in it. I had a couple from the first season taped off of TBS in the early 90's; and they had the original music scenes removed. (Probably for copyright problems.) Which left HUGE gaps in the continuity. They usually just threw in a real video for no logical reason, but thay'd also play another current song during a scene of the show. So removing those took 3 minutes out of the episode. Often a pivotal 3 minutes. I can see wanting to tie your show in with current trends; even though this dates your show really bad, most cartoons only run for a year or so. But doing that with MUSIC? The turnover rate is so fast most of your episodes are probably old hat before being finished. (I seem to recall a couple of shows that did this in the early 80's. And they all died painful; but thankfully quick deaths.) And I bet nobody thought about syndication. (Same probalem WKRP has been having with it's DVD release I hear...)
-Centurions. NOW we're talking! Another toy tie in; but one with a surprising amount of detail. Plus it has a dude who WEARS a tank! On the cool scale wearing a tank gets l you like, a million points. Decent writing, decent animation, and a DUDE WEARING A TANK! I liked this one when I was a kid, and I still like it now. Unlike a lot of toons from the day they weren't real self-concious about the action scenes. I can remember a second season where they added new team-mates; even thoguh there weren't toys of them. The designs REALLY looked like toys, so I bet they were planned but the line went under before they came out.
They spent a lot of time on the secondary; NON-toy characters too. Something that went away when the Marvel/Hasbro/Sunbow formula was perfected.
Don C.
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