American Televised Animation 1978-1984
As distasteful as the language may be considering the context, Mobile Suit Gundam was truly the equivalent of dropping an atomic bomb on the world of television animation. While the medium had potential in its humble beginnings, by the late 70s it had fallen hard as just Kiddy TV that the big studios put to keep the kids glued to the sets in the mornings, and then just not give a damn beyond doing the bare minimum. Nevermind how creatively stiffling cartoons were as either comic adaptations or just kids solve mysteries with mascot. Of this, Hanna-Barbera was unfortunately a culprit, though there was little else they could do when they weren't given such respect and Scooby-Doo was their only money printer.
In came Gundam which changed everything. Peak animation and true living art instead of limited and stilted motion. A mature and gripping epic of a storyline that captured an audience of all ages instead of just being for kids. A rich and iconic setting that became a giant of fiction. And a toy empire that was a peer to Star Wars. For the first time, animation could not only be mainstream, but dominate everything else and be incredibly popular. While 0079 wasn't quite the powerhouse that Zeta or ZZ were, it started a revolution that marked the beginning of the Silver Age of Animation.
However, as much as you would like to dream that the animation world was just you and Disney, success does not lie in a vacuum. Even if you had the best of animation, its an industry with intelligent people, artists with ambition and vision who want to match and succeed you. Overtime people would learn and grow, and by now it was becoming apparent that animation was no longer a Disney-Dreamworks Duopoly.
1978
When Mobile Suit Gundam was on the air, the animation world got obliterated. Many cartoon fans turned away from existing shows as Gundam presented a new standard and they were no longer content with just mediocrity and playing it safe. Ironically, Hanna-Barbera suffered the worst of all with dramatic drops in their viewership of more than half and the studios kept on complaining of why they couldn't be more like Gundam. In the end, this all worked out as it got Hanna-Barbera so weak that Taft considered them deadweight and were happy to sell them to you. Thankfully, neither William nor Joseph held a grudge, instead embracing change and looking forward to joining the Lucasfilms Empire in the new decade, where its wealth gave them a safety net to explore whatever they wanted and go as far as they could in animation.
1979
1979 according to William and Joseph, was a year of hell for the world of animation television. Dreamworks had flipped the table and set it on fire with Gundam, Miraculous and Classical Tale and the rest of the studios were struggling to find some way to get into this new game. However, any efforts to improve floundered thanks to shrinking viewership meaning less funding meaning less opportunities for improvement.
The route they choose to compensate and compete was with superhero shows. No one was comfortable to try and attempt a Star Wars or Gundam type show as much as they wanted to. No one knew how to replicate Tomino's storytelling or just what kind of universe they could build. Thus, it was easier to build off the next best trend thanks to Superman's success and how it became the second billion dollar movie, along with Miraculous dominating Saturday Morning. There were 10 superhero shows to air in the Fall of 1979 and heavy investment from DC and Marvel with Plastic Man, Super Best Friends, The Thing, Spider-Woman. However, more than half of them were merely a sketch of a greater comedy show. Unlike Miraculous which told serialized stories that challenged their young audience and kept them engaged with a character-driven narrative, they were just silly adventures. Mary personally loved the World's Greatest SuperFriends, but that was only thanks to Superman and Batman and if they weren't on there then she would switch to something else.
However, in the midst of this mediocrity, one studio rose above the rest and met the new standard set by Dreamworks and Sunrise, Filmation. In many respects, they and Hanna-Barbera were two sides of the same coin. Both pioneers of television animation that had perfected mass production to a T. However, Filmation had its own differences in philosophy from Hanna-Barbera. They loved to experiment and while they previously never achieved a similar level of quality to Dreamworks, they took any opportunity they could in a show to introduce a new form of animation, though at the cost of severe repetition of stock footage that a quarter of their episodes were recycled animation. They were also incredibly reliant on adapting animated versions of existing properties like Archie, the Brady Bunch, DC Comics and most famously Star Trek.
When Filmation witnessed Star Wars, they were filled with a spark of inspiration like Tomino. Here came a newly explosively popular genre which they could explore and use to make animation mainstream and push for a return to their glory days. However, instead of making something original like Gundam, Filmation opted to recreate what gave birth to Star Wars, Flash Gordon. So, going into heavy debt, Filmation focused everything from '77 and '78 into making the Flash Gordon cartoon their comeback story. Perhaps in another world it would have been merely decent, but Gundam's success had unknowingly provided Filmation salvation. Paramount, eager for another prime time animation and having worked well with Filmation before for Star Trek, became their new patrons and thus The New Adventures of Flash Gordon followed Gundam as PTVS' prime time cartoon.
And damnit, it was actually pretty great. The series was a completely faithful homage to the original comic strip and film serials and if it wasn't for the Flash Gordon film that you and George backed, it would probably be the best work of material to date. Filmation had gone out and completely dropped their usual standards of cheapness. It wasn't the Dreamworks Cinematic touch, but if Gundam hadn't existed it would have been the best looking on TV with lots of unique designs, fast paced action and constant usage of rotoscope and other innovative techniques for animation. Not to mention excellent writing that kept the core spirit and fun of the originals while providing a modern brush of storytelling and strong serialization. The series had been strong enough on its own, but thanks to both Star Wars and the Flash Gordon movie, it catapulted in popularity.
The New Adventures of Flash Gordon became one of PTVS' most popular series and frequently breached the Top 30 of the Nielsen charts, though for better or worse never managing to break into the Top 15. It wasn't quite Gundam levels of popularity and cultural power, but it had a large and dedicated fanbase and played a part in creating a Flash Gordon rennasaince with the franchise having a new surge in multia-media presence with Bantam novels, new comic strips, an RPG created by Fantasy Games Unlimited and a regular presence in toy aisles.
New Adventures of Flash Gordon would start its sixth and final season this year and following such was stated to have an feature film in production by Filmation that would release in either '85 or '86. You honestly love that Flash is getting the recognition and support he deserves, though in the process it saw Filmation stabilize and reach new forms of success, cementing themselves as Hanna-Barbera's rival in the world of television. Moreover, Filmation has become a second party of sorts to PTVS who with Gundam and Miraculous' defection to LucasTV, have relied on the studio to help keep the channel competitive against the Big Three. The only good news here is that Filmation is still independent largely due to not wanting to being "Lucas'd" (as if its a bad thing) but also wanting to keep its independence for future animated forms of other popular properties.
1980
You didn't mean to kill the Animation Guild. Contrary to what much of America thought of you as a diehard Reaganist, you knew Unions were necessary to prevent corporate abuse as no industry was perfect, and even if you made sure first and foremost that Lucasfilms' workers were treated like Kings that didn't mean the rest of Hollywood was along for the ride. Unfortunately, the Animation Guild had forced your hand when they targeted Lucasfilms prejudicially for its success and were almost outright bigoted with their aim to remove Sunrise from television, not to mention wanting to kill Pixar in the cradle.
While you were grateful to win the battle, it had its consequences as the Animation Guild disbanded, only having recently been reformed last year ironically due to Dreamworks' activism to protect the industry, being reformed as The Animation Guild proper and independent of the IATSE. However, the immediate fallout was immense with many struggling independent studios going out of business and lots of old timers jumping what they saw as a sinking ship due to many reasons and retiring.
As such, the planned content for the year was cut in half and almost all of it was just packaged skit shows. This put the final nail in the coffin for Hanna-Barbera and pushed them to be purchased by you. Until LucasTV aired, they remained committed to closing off the rest of their concurrent shows to start on a fresh slate, leading to some higher than usual quality animation, but no standouts for the likes of Scrappy-Doo, Richie Rich and The Fonz and the Happy Days Gang.
Filmation received a second mega hit that year with an old IP, The New Fat Albert Show. A continuation of Fat Albert, The new show saw Fat Albert and the gang go on more adventures, often more ambitious in storytelling and featuring recurring character storylines for the cast and supporting characters as Fat Albert and friends faced new challenges of growing up and being in a changing world. Once again, Filmation saw new success because of you, more specifically John Henry. John Henry's blockbuster run had lead to a spike in interest in black-dominated shows, and the kids who loved John Henry switched to the next best thing of sorts in Fat Albert, thus having millions of kids who missed out on the original run grow up with the chubby hero. Until LucasTV launched, The New Fat Albert Show had been the number one Saturday morning cartoon for three years in a row and had more than 100 episodes, ready for a triumphant finish in '85 so Bill could be free to focus on the Cosby Show.
Fat Albert overtime has become an icon of animation on a similar level to Scooby-Doo, the Flintstones, Yogi Bear, Looney Tunes and Mickey Mouse, even being part of the Macy's Parade last Thanksgiving and comedically being the largest balloon. Having watched the show with the kids on occasion, you can easily say the success is deserved and you really like Albert as a character and role model. Bill Cosby though...you don't know why but that man just gives you the worst vibes and a strong sense of alarm whenever you see him.
Another studio that saw success was Ruby-Spears Productions. A studio created by the creators of Scooby-Doo, Joe Ruby and Ken Spears, they had left Hanna-Barbera due to disagreements of leadership, and unfortunately all your attempts at having them come back were rejected no matter the offered price tag as they strongly valued their independence. Just barely hanging on after the Strike due to their industry reputation, Ruby-Spears managed to produce a single show, Thundarr the Barbarian. A strange fusion of Star Wars and Conan, Thundarr took place in a post-apocalyptic Earth in the year 3994 where technology and magic mixed and Thundarr and his companions traveled throughout the lands of what was once America to fight injustice and aid anyone who needed it. A decent show, but animation was not close to Dreamworks and Sunrise quality, though it made up for it with fun characters and a unique setting. Not one of the greatest shows ever, especially with the lack of serialization, but it found an audience and lasted four seasons until its recent conclusion, finding a healthy life outside the show with a strong Kenner line and a ongoing series of Charlton Comics.
From what you saw, Thundarr was a decent adventure story and Mary loved how it combined her two favorite genres. Although admittedly the main character was basically you but with Blonde hair and brown eyes in appearance. However, while it was a fun addition to animation, it unfortunately pushed the world of tv animation to continue trend chasing instead of constantly innovating. Gone were the days of children solving mysteries with mascots, now science fiction, superhero and adventure shows were the norm.
1981
If there was one thing you loved about Reagan being President, its that his Reaganomics had cut an ocean of red tape for the FCC and allowed not only for more bold, daring and mature stories to be told on the air within reason, but also eliminated most regulations pertaining to television commercialization. It's not like you wanted to make shows just to sell toys, but you barely got away with airing Gundam and Miraculous as the toys came after the show and not before, and it paved the way for adaptations like GI Joe. However, it did admittedly prompt a new wave of commercialization as Sunset Toys' competitors now saw a golden opportunity to repeat Gundam's toy success by directly adapting their own products. Joy.
Of all the new shows, they were pretty much superheroes as the more ambitious space series were still in planning development, everyone wanting to get things just right and get the next Gundam or Star Wars instead of just a seasonal piece. Filmation was hard at work producing an impressive six new animated shows to take advantage of Hanna-Barbera's rebuild as much as possible. Alongside Flash Gordon, they produced a second primetime animated show for PTVS, The Case Files of Dick Tracy. A straight adaptation of the classic comic, it was like Flash Gordon very faithful and high quality with fun spoofs on modern police procedurals with a comedic if not adult Noir twist. It never quite reached Flash Gordon's dominance, but it was a reliable spot in the Nielsen Top 30-50.
As for the rest of the Filmation lineup, they were all decidedly meh to above average, most likely a consequence of stretched resources. Nowhere was this more apparent than Blackstar, another Conan-Star Wars cash-in, though unlike Thundarr it only lasted two seasons as it was really generic fantasy and Science Fiction with Thundarr doing everything literally just better. The one exception to this was Hero High, a show about superheroes in training at a titular hero high school who had to balance traditional school stuff with saving the day. It was an admittedly fun and original take on the genre and felt like a neat fusion of Happy Days and the Justice League. With good comedy and great characters, Hero High would last four seasons and while limited in legacy, would go down as one of the quintessential 80s cartoons.
Ruby-Spears' sole contribution for the year would be Goldie Gold and Action Jack. It was a quirky adventure/romantic comedy of sorts where heiress Goldie Gold finds herself in ownership of the "Gold Street Journal" left by her parents. Goldie, wanting to prove herself and honor her parents becomes a reporter and goes on adventurous with Pulitzer prize winner "Action" Jack Travis and her cocker Spaniel nugget. It was a weird cross between Scooby-Doo, Superman and Miraculous. The latter two because of Jack being like a male Lois Lane and leading Goldie on journalistic adventures, and Miraculous because the relationship between the two deuteragonists was what basically sold the show. Taking notes from Miraculous, Ruby and Spears made sure to have Goldie and Jack have a sort of Ladybug and Cat Noir type chemistry and for most viewers, it was enough to pull them in and have them fall in love with the pairing, helped by the Season 1 finale seeing them become a couple with them remaining one throughout the rest of the show, something Miraculous fans were happy to point out in letters venting why Adrien and Marinette haven't gotten together. The show would last three seasons, and while it's not the most commercially dominant like Scooby-Doo, it had a very dedicated fanbase, thus marking potential for a franchise.
Lastly, another studio would bite the dust with the closure of DePatie-Freleng. The animation strike had hit them hard and their last show had been a hard flop, forcing the studio to shut down. David Depatie would leave to join Hanna-Barbera as a producer while Fritz Freleng oversaw the sell of the studio to Disney, where he rejoined his old Looney Tunes coworkers and helped to make some shorts and Duck Dodgers. DePatie-Freleng did create The New Fantastic Four and Spider-Woman, though thankfully Disney sold all rights to you for a return of $3 million. This did mean unfortunately that the Pink Panther was now a Disney property.
1982
With the creation of both LucasTV and the Disney Channel for the 82-83 season, the independent animation studios did everything they could to survive in a post Lucas-Disney landscape on television with high quality hits for both prime time and Saturday Morning. This turned out in a very mixed way, but in the end a few would remain and television animation would remain a very diverse industry. All the while, Lucas and Disney's massive success had spurred a panic to fund whatever animated shows they could to remain competitive among the Big Three.
Filmation was a weird division of half bad, half good. In what you feel is like the swan song for sitcom adaptations, they posted Gilligan's Planet (Gilligan's Island but IN SPACE!) and the Mork & Minday/Laverne & Shirley/Fonz power hour which was a cartoon version of their Happy Days verse. Both were very safe and cheesy, reliant on tropes of the 70s and were quickly cancelled after one season, their only redeeming quality being Robin's voice acting. On the other hand, they did release two decent superhero shows. Green Lantern Corps, a Prime time adventure serial and also a buddy cop show with Guy Gardner and John Stewart fighting evil across the galaxy, occasionally with the help of Hal Jordan. While it was pretty good, it didn't quite surpass Spiderman mainly because it felt less like a superhero show, and more like a copy show in space starring superheroes, though plenty of fans loved it. There was also a Justice Society of America show, starring the classic characters and essentially being a higher quality verison of Super Friends. Apparently, Sid wanted for Hanna-Barbera to do JSA, but DC strongly opposed such in deference to giving the competition more glory and Stan was also against the idea, at least until the MAU was firmly established
Ruby-Spears was better generally with its two shows. It would make its first prime time animated series with Roxie's Raiders on ABC, essentially being an Indiana Jones spoof named Roxie Robinson who had a colorful cast of adventurers from around the world that aided her in uncovering lost civilizations and battling crime syndicates. Like other Indy spoofs, it was a ratings darling though it had personally yet to reach a cultural hold. Ruby-Spears also made a more traditional Saturday morning show with Gargoids, about a team of scientists who gain super powers and become superheroes. It did its best but it was more of a poor man's Fantastic Four and was set to be cancelled later this year after two seasons.
Lastly were the weird ass independent outliers of Pandamonium and Meatballs and Spaghetti. The former was made by MGM animation in their first television show in years, and by the Lord do you wish Kirk would just sell the damn studio to you because it was awful seeing the most generic and cheesy adventure cartoon on the air which represented the worst cliches of Hanna-Barbera. As for Meatballs and Spaghetti, a Sonny and Cher clone that had shit music, enough said.
1983
1983 would see the true dawn of a new age of programming, Commercial Shows. Shows adapting the story of a toy or product with its storyline and structure primarily designed around selling said toy to children of the masses. Admittedly, you may have started this whole affair with Gundam and GI Joe, but for the latter storytelling always came first and Hanna-Barbera firmly prioritized character and plot over commercial opportunism. Though in the end, you can't exactly blame either the toy companies or the studios. The companies needed some boost to stay competitive in a post-Star Wars world and what better way to do so then to turn their existing products into fun shows? As for the studios who even with their recent successes had nowhere near as much capitol as you or Disney, every dollar mattered and when their independence could be guarnateed by a corporate check, why not cash-in?
Ruby-Spears seemed to be the biggest culprit of this. They would create three new shows based on existing properties. Mr. T, Alvin and the Chipmunks, and Rubik the Amaz-what? Rubik....the Rubik Cube. Ruby-Spears made a cartoon based off of the Rubik's cube.
Live Bruce Reaction:
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGtY1aPrOMQ
Yeah, that was not your proudest deposit into the Swear Jar and Carrie had been quite cross when you cussed like that in front of the kids, but COME ON! A Rubik's Cube cartoon?! Thank the Lord that piece of shit got cancelled in one season, what the hell were they thinking? The most mindless baby show ever. Thankfully it was uphill from there. Mr. T was often said to be a domestic GI Joe and you can see the similarities. Nowhere near as good, but Mr. T's personality and character made it at least some silly fun. Ruby-Spears did have a genuine hit with Alvin and the Chipmunks. It was an overall cute show of talking chipmunks in a band which drew in kids from Alvin's antics and the personality of him and his brothers and had them stay for the hip music. Though the Goslings didn't seem too interested. After all, why listen to squeaky chipmunks when they had the greatest Rockergal as their mom?
Filmation continued to lead the pack with He-Man and Star Trek: Polaris. He-Man was probably the pulpiest show on the air besides Flash Gordon and Dick Tracy, and it embraced it to the fullest and was a fun action packed sci-fi fantasy adventure with lots of iconic charaters. Frustratingly, this did mean that it carved out its own niche in the busy holiday season and will likely be a strong competitor the rest of the decade. On the other end of the sci-fi spectrum is Star Trek: Polaris, a wholly original Star Trek show covering the USS Polaris with Decker, Rand and Chapel serving as senior officers along with a new and colorful expanded cast. Polaris seemed to embody the best of the original animated series in spirit, but had even better animation and the new characters seemed to break the mold in diverging from the old Enterprise tropes and explore new storylines. The show really took advantage of it being an animated show with lots of exotic and beautiful new worlds and strange species which would be hard to pull in live action, in fact some Trekkies seemed to prefer it when Trek was animated as it gave no limits on creativity. Polaris was just as accepted into the Trekkie fandom as Phase II and would comfortably bring in around 10 million viewers, with more expected for the next year thanks to Gundam's conclusion and the return to the moon.
A newcomer in the world of animation was DIC Animation. It was a French studio who sought to have France be known in animation for more than Miraculous, a Japanese anime and leave their own mark in America. They would debut in the states with two shows. The first was The Littles, a show of tiny people living in the home of a normal family and navigating the human world. The second was Inspector Gadget, a bionic detective who fought crime with his niece and the help of his many built-in gadgets. Both shows were fine, but were simple though entertaining children's shows that didn't innovate or push the medium, and thus they got lost in the competition. Both faced moderate success in syndication, Inspector Gadget more so where it had a modestly profitable toy line, but they were just overwhelmed with the competition and likely wouldn't last more than another season.
Making his debut into a formal series was Charlie Brown with The Charlie Brown and Snoopy Show. Unlike the specials, these were more half hour skit shows that both adapted the comics and did original story ideas as a way to show the Peanuts in different situations and just show more of the characters. Since Charlie Brown came out, you loved the Peanuts and all the Goslings, even Little George had fallen in love with it so it was a must watch for Saturday mornings and reruns. Thankfully, that same quality from the Specials translated well and each episode was hillarious with witty dialogue and the characters being themselves. In a cartoon landscape filled with very high concept shows along with anime pushing for more serious stories, having Charlie Brown and the gang just be themselves was a welcome respite for older audiences and kids, and thus it had fairly strong ratings in its first season. You just really hope that one day Charles Schultz would be open to working together with Lucasfilms, if not a movie then perhaps some Genesis games. Sarah and Joseph would most definitely love such a development.
Lastly was HBO's first attempt at a cartoon, Braingames. A show that strived to be quality edutainment, it was an interesting skit show where each episode had two skits, either in traditional animation or stop motion that presented a question to young viewers and prompted them to think about how to solve it with answers being provided over the course of the episode, leading to the true answer in the solution. It was essentially an interactive riddle, not too difficult yet not an easy baby's game, it was fun if you were into brain teasers and Mary having stumbled upon it in December fell in love with the premise, though Joseph and Sarah thought it was rather boring. Unfortunately, it only lasted a single season since HBO wasn't really a family channel and those who did have premium channels watched Lucas or Disney. However, it may not be dead yet as word was Disney was in talks to transfer it to their channel as a replacement for that failed gameshow.
1984
Heading into 1984, it was now clear that television animation was divided into two types of shows, commercial shows that sell toys and high quality artistic programs...that sell toys really well. LucasTV is still leading the pack between its trans-Pacific duo of Hanna-Barbera and Sunrise, especially with no one coming close to its prime time success. But Disney was a really strong and close second with its lineup, and it's undeniable that for every stinker from the rest there was genuine gold to be found. You needn't look no further than your own household where the Goslings while loving LucasTV first, didn't mind channel surfing and seeing what the other channels had to offer.
Still, as successful as the Commercial Shows have been, there is a rising movement turning against it, proclaiming that television is not providing their children with the educational content they need to become upstanding people and its rotting their brains in a thirst for consumerism. Various Democratic primary candidates have said that once they are in the White House they'll reempower the FCC to be a stricter watch dog. Although perhaps it's not as popular as they may believe as Reubin Askew made an infamous gaffe in a townhall where he said, "We're gonna restore class to television. We'll cancel the toy garbage like GI Joe, He-Man, Rubik and all those superhero shows". Cue a flood of concerned kids across the nation who were panicking that someone wanted to be President and kill all the cartoons, leading to protests from parents, Askew in total freefall in the polls and the DNC telling their candidates to shut up about cartoons.
Both Filmation and Ruby Spears are hoping to increase production of prime time cartoons to achieve a similar level of success as Zeta Gundam, though they'll still produce saturday morning stuff. A newcomer is walking onto the scene with Sunbow Entertainment, a creation of Hasbro who while happy with GI Joe, wants to advertise as much of their products as possible independently to get the most profits. They've been really doing their best to recruit Carrie for some show called Jem. A train show called Thomas and Friends was dominating in the UK and the channels were having a bidding war for the show. Mattel is also trying to start its own bidding war by offering a carrot to all the studios in the form of the rights to adapt Barbie, even Hanna-Barbera as they want a guaranteed hit. Nintendo is also beginning its own networking around Hollywood, wanting to see if anyone would be interested in adapting their properties to boost NES sales in North America.
Dreamworks may be the biggest fish on television and the creme de la creme of cartoons and anime, but it's becoming an ever crowded pond and the rest of the 80s are sure to be a legendary content war for the ages.
At the same time, you would be wise to keep an eye on Japan. Just what the hell was Voltron and Fist of the North Star and why was Sunrise warning you about them?