Newsgroups: rec.arts.animation
Date: Tue, 10 Nov 1992 14:55:51 -0500 
From: "Kevin J. Chen" <kc2w+@andrew.cmu.edu>
Subject: Re: Saturday morning (Was :Galaxy Trio/BirdMan)
	<BxFJwK.K7D@undergrad.math.waterloo.edu>

Michael Denney writes:

>A Ruby-Spears Production.  This is the one with the cool (and somewhat morbid)
>beggining where the moon cracks down the middle and Earth is practically 
>destroyed right? (I've been trying to think of this.)

Yeh -- that's the one.  "In the year 2000, a runaway meteor passes
between the Earth and Moon, wreaking havoc..."  The entire Earth
is devastated, and the new beings and societies that arise are magical
in nature.  Boy.  I really want to see some old episodes of this
again, now.  "Ariel, Ookla!  This way!"  Snicker.

>Ah memories!  Does anybody remember "The Kid Super Power Hour with Shazam"?
>It was by Filmation and had Shazam (a.k.a. Captain Marvel) and Captain
>Marvel Jr. but the real attention grabber of the show was "Hero High".
>Kind of like Acme Looniversity students went here to become super heros.
>The animation looked kink of Archie-ish and the kid/superheros had names like
>Captain California, Rex Ruthless, Weatherman, Punk Rock, Misty Magic, Dirty
>Trixie, and Glorious Gal.  The funniest part was seeing the actual people
>they got to dress up as these characters in order to introduce each cartoon. :)

Sigh.  I remember this one, too.  I mostly skipped over the teenage
superhero parts, but the Marvel family (complete with Uncle) stuff was
way entertaining.

Speaking of live stuff, does anyone remember the token live shows that
would pop up from time to time?  The two that I recall offhand were
Isis and Jason of Star Command (although I don't really remember much
of this one, aside from the villain with the cool robotic eye).

Tim Webb writes:

>   What about the Fantastic Four? There's a terrific show.

Depends which one you're referring to.  There was an old one which
actually featured all of the members of the Fantastic Four, as well as
one which substituted Herbie the Robot for the Human Torch (why they
did this, I'll never know).  My roommate last year actually managed to
acquire a tape of the older series, and we watched them all.  They
were pretty bad.  Wish I could see 'em again.  ("Look at my viewscreen
on yonder wall, Mr. Fantastic...")

I also recall a series of cartoons featuring other Marvel Superheroes,
done in the same animation style as the original Spiderman cartoon
("Spiderman, Spiderman, does whatever a spider can...").  The only
characters that I recall were Iron Man, the Sub-Mariner, and the Hulk,
although a nagging suspicion hints that they might have done Thor as
well.

Much, much later, someone also did a solo Thing show, although it
wasn't Ben Grimm.  It was some doofy kid with a magic ring that turned
him into The Thing by attracting all the rocks in the immediate
vicinity.  Doof-o-rama.

Other Saturday morning-ness:

Hanna-Barbera's Laff-O-lympics:  Yeah, cheesy, but it was fun to see
all of my favorite characters stuffed into a single cartoon.  Of
course, this was the predecessor to the later Yogi's Space Race.

Mister T:  The big dude himself and a troop of ethnically assorted
gymnasts.  Yeah, it was dumb, but I watched it.

Blackstarr: another cool show, IMOWBT (In My Opinion Way Back Then).
Astronaut gets sucked into a parallel universe and has to defend it
against the forces of evil.  Anyone remember any of the other characters?
(the only character that I recall besides Blackstarr himself was a
companion who could shapechange into a large cat).

Superfriends: Global Guardians:  The final incarnation of the show,
this time adding Cyborg.  It had the best animation of any of the
other Superfriends series, and had some pretty decent plotlines to
boot (I especially enjoyed the episode with The Royal Flush Gang).  As
I recall, though, it didn't last long; in fact, I can only remember
about two or three episodes.  Are there copies of this anywhere in
existence?  I wouldn't mind seeing these again.

Spiderman and His Amazing Friends / The Incredible Hulk:  I miss these
a lot; most of them were done really well (I'm especially fond of
episodes where other superheroes appear, such as either of the two
X-Men episodes, or the episode where The Chameleon traps Spiderman and
six other superheroes on an island and picks them off one by one).
I couldn't stand Ms. Lion, though.

Something with the Happy Days characters and a time machine.  Don't
ask me how I remember this one.

Can anyone date these shows (by year and/or network?)

Kevin.