Sonic the Hedgehog (TV series)

Sonic the Hedgehog is an animated television series that aired from 1993 to 1994 based on Sega's Sonic the Hedgehog video game franchise. It was produced by DIC Productions, Sega of America, and the Italian studio Reteitalia in association with Telecinco, and is the second of DIC's Sonic cartoons, following Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog. To distinguish it from other Sonic media, fans commonly refer to the series as "Sonic SatAM", in reference to its Saturday morning timeslot.
The show features a darker and more dramatic story than the lighter Adventures, depicting Sonic and a band of freedom fighters battling to overthrow Dr. Robotnik, now a despotic dictator who conquered their home planet Mobius years ago, and rules it as a polluted industrial dystopia.
The program aired for two seasons with a total of 26 episodes on ABC from September 18, 1993, to December 3, 1994, and continued in reruns until 1995.
Despite its cancellation, a fan following has elevated the series to become a cult hit. Some original characters of the series later appeared in the 1993 video game Sonic Spinball. The show also inspired the long-running Sonic the Hedgehog comic book series by Archie Comics.
Mad scientist Dr. Julian Robotnik rules as dictator over the planet Mobius, having overthrown the city of Mobotropolis with his fleet of military robots, and converted it into a polluted industrial cityscape (Robotropolis), transforming nearly all of its animal citizens into robotic slaves using his Roboticizer machine.
From the hidden woodland village of Knothole, Sonic the Hedgehog and Princess Sally Acorn lead a team of Freedom Fighters in a rebellion against Robotnik's regime. Other group members include Sonic's best friend Tails, scientist Rotor the Walrus, Antoine Depardieu the Coyote, and half-roboticized Bunnie Rabbot.
During the series, the heroes fight against Swat-Bots commanded by Robotnik and his resentful nephew Snively. Sonic collects Power Rings that temporarily boost his power, and uses them to restore free will to his roboticized Uncle Chuck, inventor of both the rings and the Roboticizer. Chuck acts as a spy among Robotnik's ranks. They find Sally's father King Acorn, who is imprisoned within the Void, alongside the evil sorcerer Ixis Naugus. They gain new allies including Dulcy the Dragon, Ari the Ram, and Lupe, leader of the elusive Wolf Pack.
In the series finale, Robotnik builds a Doomsday Machine to annihilate all organic life on Mobius. The Freedom Fighters launch a full-scale counterattack, and Sonic and Sally use the Deep Power Stones to destroy his machine. Robotnik disappears amid the wreckage. The Freedom Fighters declare victory, with Sonic and Sally kissing. In a final scene, Snively survives and is accompanied by an unseen ally with red eyes, stated by writer Ben Hurst to be the evil sorceror Naugus, who would have become the main antagonist if a third season were produced.
Sonic the Hedgehog was created by DiC Animation City in association with Sega of America, which produced a total of 26 episodes for its two-season run, and the Italian studio Reteitalia S.p.A., part of Fininvest company in association with Telecinco. The show's animation was outsourced to the Korean studio Sae Rom Production and Spanish studio Milimetros. Pre-production stages of the show's first season (as well as the weekday syndicated show Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog) were handled by Canadian Studio B (later known as DHX Media Vancouver).
Before production began, Sega of America CEO Tom Kalinske and its newly appointed consumer products director Michealene Risley approached DiC Entertainment's CEO Andy Heyward and the ABC network to produce a television show featuring Sonic. After being shown the character, Heyward agreed to make the show and was granted the license. According to Robby London, DiC originally made a deal to produce only the Saturday morning Sonic series for the ABC network, which was originally planned to air in the Fall of 1992. The cartoon was to be more light-hearted compared to the final product, as reflected by the episode "Heads or Tails", early promotional material found in Fleetway's Sonic the Comic and the early issues of Sonic the Hedgehog comics by Archie, which were based on the Saturday morning Sonic cartoon. However, DiC also wanted to expand the show and produce additional episodes for weekday syndication as well, similar to what DiC had previously done with The Real Ghostbusters, but Mark Pedowitz, the then-senior vice president of business affairs and contracts at ABC, who expected the Sonic cartoon to air exclusively on ABC, rejected the idea, telling London "If you guys want to do syndication, be our guest, go with God, but you won’t be on our network."
ABC would not agree to the deal until London came with a proposition that DiC would produce a separate, vastly different Sonic show for syndication instead, the result of which became Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog. Afterwards, ABC was at first willing to air only a single half-hour episode as a prime-time special scheduled to air in March 1993 (which would become the episode "Heads or Tails") before ultimately delaying it and including it as part of the show which ABC picked up again for a full season, this time airing in the Fall of 1993, alongside Adventures airing in syndication at the same time. During that time, the Saturday morning Sonic cartoon received a makeover and was made darker and more serious in order to distinguish itself from the syndicated Sonic cartoon. The show bible for the Saturday morning Sonic cartoon was written in February 1992 with the final revision made on March 10, 1993.
The Saturday morning series differs from Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, which premiered two weeks earlier and aired on weekdays in syndication. While Adventures is lighthearted and comical, Sonic the Hedgehog featured a comparatively complex plot and dramatic atmosphere. It explored unusual story concepts for animation, including losing loved ones to war and relationships focusing on young couples.
While featuring a darker tone in comparison to Adventures, the Saturday morning show's first season had an episodic structure and aired out of order, however the second season featured a story arc (which would've continued in the later seasons, had the show not been cancelled). At ABC's request, the second season included episodes devoted to humor, while darker and dramatic elements were reduced. Other changes in season two include Princess Sally donning a jacket, Dulcy the Dragon being added to the cast and Rotor receiving a new design. ABC also ended up, in some weeks, airing back-to-back episodes of this show during the 1st season, while in Season 2, each time slot for the show was for a single episode only.
While the second season ended on a cliffhanger, a third season was planned, but before the production on it could start, the show was cancelled for a number of reasons. According to the show's second season head writer, Ben Hurst in an interview found in the 2007 complete series DVD set, as well as archived conversations with fans online from the late 1990s, the show was cancelled due to being pre-empted for sport events, competing in the same time slot as FOX's popular Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and most notably due to ABC (who at the time entered a limited partnership with DiC Entertainment before becoming its owner) being bought by Disney and new people in charge coming in who weren't interested in renewing the show.
At the same time Hurst also denied the rumored reason for the show's cancellation being DiC selling the show's animation cels during the show's run without telling Sega of America. This turned out to be not only true, but also the main reason for the show's cancellation. According to the agreements between DiC and Sega from 1991 and 1992, Sega of America was the sole owner of both the Saturday morning and the weekday syndicated shows, as well as their original characters, props, backgrounds, design sheets, storyboards, scripts, cels, music, animation footage, etc. DiC, by selling the show's animation cels, had breached their agreement, which led to Sega seeking legal action in 1995 and filing a prohibitory injunction on DiC, which would prevent them from continuing production on the show, thus ultimately ending the show's run.
After the program's initial run, it appeared on the USA Network's Action Extreme Team block from June 1997 to January 1998. ABC did not replicate this, replacing Sonic with reruns of Free Willy. Sonic the Hedgehog aired in Canada on the CTV Network, with a bonus summer run between June 10 and September 2, 1995. It has not been rerun on broadcast or cable television in Canada since its cancellation on CTV, but was present on the Shomi video-on-demand platform until its November 30, 2016, closure. In 2004, it started airing on Spacetoon TV in the MENA region until May 2015. All scenes with depicted romance have been censored due to federal laws in Saudi Arabia.
From 1994 to 1996, it had a complete run on the UK television on ITV and Channel 4, In December 1994, the first season was broadcast in the Republic of Ireland on RTÉ2. On September 2, 2016, reruns of the series began airing on Starz.
In September 2003, DIC revealed a new international package consisting of Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic the Hedgehog and the Sonic Christmas Blast special, titled "Totally Sonic!". The package would also feature digitally re-mastered, color-enhanced versions of the shows with new contemporary music, as well as bonus director's cut "Secret Sonic" episodes.
As of 2020, the show can be found on demand on Pluto TV on Paramount+, as well as YouTube. On March 15, 2021, it began airing in Malaysia on TA-DAA!.
Archie's Sonic the Hedgehog comic book was initially based on the Saturday morning cartoon. From its earliest issues, the book shared the characters and story premise established within it. However, the comic differed in that it featured humorous plots modeled after the weekday show. After writer Ken Penders had the opportunity to view the Saturday morning program, the comic gradually became adventure-driven.
The comic series shifted focus again after ABC cancelled Sonic the Hedgehog, developing into a relationship-based superhero story, and following a reboot, Archie's Sonic was primarily inspired by the video game series. Nevertheless, the characters and locales from the Saturday morning cartoon remained prominent until the comic's cancellation in July 2017.
Several video games were intended to use elements from the TV series, although only one was completed. This was Sonic Spinball, released in 1993 for the Sega Genesis. It contained characters from the show, including Princess Sally, Bunnie Rabbot, Rotor and Muttski. Spinball was commissioned due to Sonic the Hedgehog 3 being pushed back from its intended 1993 release in the holiday shopping season to February 1994, with the game being developed in under a year. An 8-bit port of the game was also released for the Master System and Game Gear due to the poor reception of Sonic Drift in Japan.
Another video game tentatively titled Sonic-16 was intended to be set in the same universe, with a prototype being created by Sega Technical Institute in November 1993. However, Yuji Naka and Sega management disliked the project, allgedly due to its slow-paced nature, and it was soon cancelled without any further development. Directly afterwards, the same team worked on Sonic Mars; this would have featured Princess Sally and Bunnie Rabbot as playable characters. This project eventually evolved into Sonic X-treme, which was cancelled in 1996 due to development difficulties. Hackers also found within the data of the arcade game SegaSonic the Hedgehog (1993) a near-complete sprite sheet for the Robotnik design used in the cartoon, with it being speculated it was to be used in a scrapped English localization.
In the North American Sonic CD manual, Amy Rose is identified as Princess Sally.
The co-story editor of the show's second season, Ben Hurst, spent many years trying to revive the series through various media. He would go on to write for Sonic Underground, but due to the plot of the series already being set in stone by the time he, and his co-writer Pat Allee, came on board the series, they were unable to do so. Hurst would later state that, had he been brought on to the series first, he would've made it the third season of Sonic SatAM. He would also state that, if forced to include songs in the series, he would've either simply had it play over footage, or had Bunnie and Antoine (or Tails, according to his friend Allison Scharlemann), sing the songs.
Hurst would later attend San Diego Comic-Con in August 1999, meeting the head writer of the Archie Sonic comics, Ken Penders. Ben expressed interest in wrapping up the SatAM story in a comic, with him eventually being offered a Sonic Super Special. However, Ben eventually decided to pass on this. Ken said the reasoning was that he passed because Archie's pay rates were much lower than that of animation writing. Although Ben would additionally state a while after this that it simply wouldn't have been possible to conclude the series in a single comic, and would need at least 17 to 20 issues to properly conclude the story. Ken's retellings of the story would also feature some contradictions, as in an earlier telling of these events, he stated Art Mawhinney, a storyboard artist for SatAM, would’ve been assigned to do the art for this Super Special. However, he would later on state that Patrick "Spaz" Spazinate was actually assigned to the pencils, with Ken likely having done the inking.
After this, Hurst looked into other avenues for continuing the SatAM story, with him considering the idea of either reviving the series for a third and fourth season, before considering the idea of instead concluding the story in a film. He'd eventually have a meeting with DiC executive Robby London on February 29, 2000. Hurst learned quite a bit about the animation industry, and realized that reviving the series for more televised seasons simply did not seem viable. While he said direct to video was more likely, he felt the best bet was to attempt to conclude the SatAM story as a feature film. Robby London gave Hurst the number of a Sega executive. "My marketing strategy is simple: a great film could create an awakened interest in Sonic, breathe new life into the existing produced series and increase the marketing and merchandising possibilities for the little blue guy."
Hurst would eventually call said the Sega executive, explaining his idea for a Sonic feature film to her, to which they had a very pleasant conversation, and she said she'd like to talk again. The next day, Archie Sonic writer Ken Penders gave him a call, alerted by his contact in their office that he was interested in getting a Sonic movie going. "I generously offered to include him in the effort and told him my strategy. Get SEGA to become invested in the idea by hiring us to interview their creative game designers, execs, etc and see if we could develop a story line that would fulfill the third season - and simultaneously give them creative ideas to develop new games. A win-win, situation." However, once he called Sega back, his contact's demeanor had completely changed; they angrily stated that Sega is paid to develop Sonic projects, rather than paying others to do so. Hurst theorized that Penders had told them about their strategy in a "less-than-flattering way".
While this event caused Hurst to briefly give up on trying to revive the SatAM series, he would eventually start working on it again once more. During 2003, Hurst would start writing a story document for the conclusion film, and, according to him, he had dozens of notes with story ideas on them.
In 2005, Hurst's best friend (and husband to his sister) was diagnosed with cancer, and was given only months to live. After a long talk with him about their long friendship, the topic of Sonic came up once again. "As we were discussing it, he reminded me that none of us know how long we will be allowed to stay here on earth. Then, he put his hand on my shoulder and informed me, ‘Ya gotta follow your dreams,’ and with a grin, he added, ‘Juice and jam time for both of us.’" With this discussion, Ben decided to try and revive the film project one more time. His last plan to get the SatAM movie out was to get a completely separate movie out, and then use his name on that movie to pitch the SatAM movie. Len Janson helped write the script, a film entitled "The Gift", loosely based on the story of "Le Pétomane". However, this attempt also failed, with him saying "I don't think it will ever sell. It would be a monster hit, but Hollywood Execs are scared to death of it."
Hurst still never gave up hope, and apparently planned to try one more time, by gathering a group of fans together to make a presentation for Sega. However, this would not come to pass.
Hurst would later die in August 2011, and his good friend, Allison Scharlemann, would release what she had of Ben Hurst's notes for the SatAM film. Allison would later share more details she remembered from her conversations with Ben on forums, the Ben Hurst memorial, and for "Ben’s Vision - The Lost Sonic SatAM Third Season/Film", a documentary which told the story of Ben Hurst's many revival attempts, and what was known of Ben Hurst's plans for the unmade film/season.
From 2019 onwards, a group of fans calling themselves 'Team Sea3on' spun out from the online "FUS" community ("Fans United for SatAM,") and began work on bringing a third season of the series to life, basing the plot lines on both Ben Hurst's original notes as well as the group's active webcomic. The group are presently working within 'proper legal channels' to advance the project with Sega's awareness. The effort gained attention from the likes of IGN. In April 2022, a full teaser trailer was uploaded to the group's YouTube channel, with a cover of the SatAM theme song "Fastest Thing Alive" by Johnny Gioeli of Crush 40.
Sonic the Hedgehog ranked No. 9 for all of Saturday Morning with a 5.2 rating, an estimated 4.8 million viewers during its first season.
Ian Flynn thinks that Sonic the Hedgehog's story has too much attention on Princess Sally, giving Sonic the role of deus ex machina to deal with every episodes' conflict. Also, he noted the show's "90's eco-awareness".
The first season received an approval rating of 40% on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, based on five reviews. Patrick Lee of The A.V. Club gave it a positive review, saying that "the show pushed its cartoon animal characters to the most dramatic places they could go without venturing into self-parody. Over the course of the series, the characters dealt with loss, romance, and death [...] The entire series successfully pulled off that sort of balancing act, and even 20 years later, it’s still a solid Saturday morning cartoon". Mark Bozon of IGN criticized the show as dated, considering it "so bad, it's good." Writing for DVD Talk, Todd Douglass Jr. remarked that Sonic didn't stand the test of time. Overall, he considered it to be of low quality, although he found the stories "Ultra Sonic" and "Blast to the Past" to be "the crème of the crop."
Luke Owen of Flickering Myth felt Sonic aged better than is often supposed, praising its well-executed characterizations and treatment of war, although he considered Antoine to be "one of the worst characters committed to a cartoon series." GamesRadar listed the show as one of "the worst things to happen to Sonic." It criticized its plot and characters as "unwanted". The Escapist journalist Bob Chipman credited the series with providing a viably menacing take on Doctor Robotnik, and an engaging narrative. Bob Mackey of USgamer wrote that the cartoon's writing didn't live up to its intriguing premise. In particular, he argued that the Antoine character perpetrated negative French stereotypes.
Sonic co-creator Naoto Ohshima later stated that he is a fan of the series and its characters, and that he owns a promotional cel given to him by DiC Entertainment during the show's production.
Quotations related to Sonic the Hedgehog (TV series) at Wikiquote