Sonic the Hedgehog (TV series)

Sonic the Hedgehog (TV series)

## **More Information**

***Sonic the Hedgehog***, often nicknamed as ***Sonic SatAM*** due to it's Saturday morning timeslot, is a 1993 American animated television series loosely based upon the original *Sonic the Hedgehog* franchise.

It was story edited by Len Janson and produced by DIC Productions, L.P., Sega of America, Inc., and the Italian studio Reteitalia S.p.A. in association with Telecinco. Airing 26 episodes within it's two season run, sadly being cancelled by ABC before it's 13-episode third season. It also unfortunately faced the cancellation of two video games based on this series, *Sonic Mars* and *Sonic-16*. The show also inspired a video game, *Sonic Spinball*, and a long-running comic book series of the same name.

It features a more dramatic and dark story than the lighter *Adventures* series also made by DiC, depicting Sonic as a member of a band of Freedom Fighters battling to overthrow Doctor Robotnik, now a despotic dictator who conquered their home planet Mobius years prior, ruling it as a polluted industrial dystopia.

## Overview

### Season 1 and Season 2

In a post-apocalyptic and dystopian future, all life has been challenged by oppression and tyranny, as the evil Dr. Robotnik is on the wake of controlling Mobius.

## Cast

* Jaleel White as Sonic the Hedgehog
	+ Tahj Mowry as Young Sonic the Hedgehog
* Charlie Adler as Snively
* Mark Ballou as Rotor (Season 1)
	+ Cam Brainard as Rotor (Season 2)
* Christine Cavanaugh as Bunnie Rabbot
* Jim Cummings as Dr. Robotnik/Julian, Swat-Bots, Male Nasty Hyenas, additional voices
* Rob Paulsen as Antoine Depardieu
* Bradley Pierce as Miles "Tails" Prower
* Kath Soucie as Princess Sally, Nicole
	+ Dana Hill as Young Princess Sally
* Cree Summer-Francks as Dulcy
* Frank Welker as Cluck, Swat-Bots, Muttski, Kraken, Terapods, additional voices
* William Windom as Charles Hedgehog "Uncle Chuck", Cat
* Shari Belafonte as Lupe
* Michael Bell as Naugus
* Crystal Cooke
* Tim Curry as The King, Keeper of the Time Stones
* David Doyle
* Dave Fennoy
* Alaina Reed Hall as Female Nasty Hyena
* Dorian Harewood as Ari, additional voices
* Gaille Heidemann
* John Kassir
* Katie Leigh
* Nancy Linari
* Victor Love
* Danny Mann
* Hal Rayle
* Lindsey Ridgeway
* Charlie Schlatter as Griff
* April Winchell as Rosie, Ro-Becca, additional voices

## Episodes

Originally, the series was broadcasted on Saturdays on ABC from 18 September 1993 to 3 December 1994, with a total of twenty-six episodes airing over the course of two seasons, each featuring thirteen episodes. The third season was also slated to contain thirteen episodes.

## Production

*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 Spanish network Telecinco. The show's animation was outsourced to the Korean studio Sae Rom Production, with the exception of the opening sequence which was animated by the Spanish studio Milimetros.

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. The cartoon was originally planned to be more light-hearted compared to the final product, as reflected by its pilot episode, 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 go further and produce additional episodes for weekday syndication as well, similar to what DiC has 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 end result of which became *Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog*. As a result, the Saturday morning Sonic cartoon 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.

## Trivia

* The show's first produced episode, "Heads or Tails", was aired as the 13th episode and final episode of season one. This episode features a number of inconsistencies with the rest of the show, such as slightly different designs (most noticeably Rotor and Sally, the latter of which using an older design), characters behaving differently, more colorful animation and the reuse of several audio tracks from *Adventures of Sonic The Hedgehog*.
* Before this show first premiered in England, *Sonic the Comic* (#12, 30 October 1993) showed pictures advertising a new Sonic cartoon and telling readers to watch out for it coming soon. Instead of the Freedom Fighters, the group was named the Freedom Team and comprised all the animals rescued by Sonic in Sonic the Hedgehog (1991). The members were: Sonic, Johnny Lightfoot (rabbit), Tux (penguin), Princess Acorn, Joe Sushi (walrus), Chirps (chicken), Porker Lewis (pig), and Flicky (bird). These characters were later used in all the Sonic novels released in the UK, and Johnny and Porker became part of Sonic's supporting cast in the "Sonic the Comic" stories. After radical changes to the show (basically making enormous alterations to pretty much everything in order to make it entirely different), it became this show.
* This television series has aired less episodes than any other *Sonic*-related television series.
* Two episodes were adapted for the Sonic the Hedgehog comic book series published by Archie Comics. Specifically, "Ghost Busted" was adapted in Sonic Super Special #8, and "Cry of the Wolf" was adapted in *Sonic the Hedgehog* #113.
* "Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog" was originally going to air on ABC, but ABC executives did not like that show and told DiC they had to make a different cartoon starring Sonic the Hedgehog. DiC quickly came up with this show, which premiered on ABC in fall of 1993.
* The thirteen episodes from the first season of this show ran on Saturday mornings at the same time as the sixty-five episodes (not including Christmas special) of *Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog* were being shown during the weekdays.
* Rotor is the only character to be played by two voice actors: Mark Ballou in season one and Cam Brainard in season two.
	+ Mark Ballou left the series by choice. He was asked to reprise the role for season two, but opted out at the last minute due to personal reasons. Cam Brainard took his place for the second season. Years after the series was cancelled, Mark stated on an Internet interview that he regretted making that choice.
* Snively is the only character in the series to retain 'pupil-less' eyes throughout both season one and two. Meanwhile, Sally and Bunnie, who had 'pupil-less' eyes in season one, both acquired pupils in season two.
* Throughout the series, Snively went through very few changes in appearance. His gold belt buckle from Season 1 was gone in Season 2. His personality became much more pronounced in Season 2; while in Season 1, he was often merely in the background, obediently obeying Robotnik.
* Rotor was originally going to be named "Boomer" in the series, according to the SatAM Sonic Bible. In "Heads or Tails", his fur was purple, and he had a slightly more "goofier" attitude. In Season 1, Rotor has grayish blue fur and more rounder than his "Heads or Tails" appearance. During Season 2, Rotor became a secondary character, had slightly different clothing, his fur was dark blue, and he was involved in less action/screen time. As a result, Rotor is one of the few characters to undergo many changes in both appearance and role.
* Robotnik's roboticized pet bird, Cluck, only appeared in 9 episodes of Season 1. He was absent and never mentioned in Season 2.
* Sonic and Sally are the only characters that have appeared in every episode of the series.
* For some reason, season two never aired in Spain.
* Some believe that this series was based off of the long lasting Archie Sonic the Hedgehog comics. However, it's the other way around. The comic got ideas from this series when it was still in production. It takes longer to make an animated cartoon than it does to make a comic.
* This is the first *Sonic the Hedgehog* television series to have a theme song with lyrics.

## References

1. ↑ Sonic News Network articles: *Sonic Mars*, *Sonic-16*
2. ↑ *Sonic the Hedgehog* (TV series) on Wikipedia
3. ↑ *Sonic the Hedgehog* (TV series 1993 -1994) on IMDB

 ***Series***

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