Post by Jonathan on Jul 11, 2016 15:52:26 GMT -5
The animated series He-Man and the Masters of the Universe was created by Filmation and made its television debut on September 5, 1983 with the episode 'The Diamond Ray of Disappearance', through 2 seasons, totaling 130 episodes until 'The Cold Zone', airing on November 21, 1985.[23] The series was produced by Lou Scheimer (who also provided the voice for Orko, King Randor, Stratos, Trap Jaw, Tri-Klops and many others), Gwen Wetzler and Hal Sutherland; and featured the voice talents of John Erwin (He-Man/Adam, Beast Man, Ram Man, Whiplash and others), Alan Oppenheimer (Skeletor, Man-At-Arms, Battle Cat/Cringer, Mer-Man and others) and Linda Gary (Teela, The Sorceress, Evil-Lyn, Queen Marlena and others).
The series is set in Eternia, which is ruled by King Randor and Queen Marlena (the latter was born Marlena Glenn, an astronaut from Earth who married Randor after she was marooned on Eternia by the crash of her spaceship). Their son is Prince Adam, who pretends he is lazy, clumsy, careless, irresponsible and almost as cowardly as his pet tiger Cringer (who transforms into Battle Cat). However, Prince Adam possesses a magic sword, and when he holds it aloft and says the magic words, "By the power of Grayskull...I have the Power!!!" Prince Adam is transformed into He-Man, "The Most Powerful Man In The Universe".[2] Prince Adam's secret identity of He-Man is known only by the Sorceress of Castle Grayskull (magical bird-like guardian of Castle Grayskull who often takes the form of Zoar the falcon), Man-At-Arms (veteran soldier, scientist, inventor and most trusted ally; also known as Duncan) and Orko (a floating childlike Trollan magician, often used for comic relief). Rounding out the main cast of heroes is Teela, the Captain of the Royal Guard (who is the adopted daughter of Man-At-Arms and secret child of the Sorceress), who serves as a teasing and semi-antagonistic love interest of Adam and He-Man throughout the series. Stratos (the flying leader of the birdpeople of Avion) and Ram-Man (a dim-witted bouncing warrior) also feature in the series with semi-regularity. Appearing with less frequency in the series are He-Man's recurring allies Mossman, Fisto, Man-E-Faces, Mekaneck, Sy-Klone, Zodac, Lizard-Man, Melaktha, Dree-Elle, Montork, Squinch and the Widgets and Granamyr the Dragon.
He-Man's nemesis, the powerful skull-faced evil wizard Skeletor wished to rule Eternia and conquer Castle Grayskull; often seeking ancient and mysterious artifacts to try and stop He-man and his allies. Skeletor usually hosts his rogues gallery in his bone-filled throne room inside Snake Mountain. Skeletor's most dangerous counterpart is the cunning sorcerer Evil-Lyn, and most his frequent sidekicks are the often bumbling, master of beasts, Beast Man and the equally bumbling weapon-armed Trap Jaw. His original henchmen in the cartoon also included Tri-Klops, Mer-Man and his purple pet feline Panthor. Other rogues would make a few appearances later in the series such as Webstor, Kobra Khan, Clawful, Spikor, Two-Bad, Modulok and Whiplash (appearing the most out of the later henchmen). Several memorable heroes and villains would appear only once or twice in the Filmation cartoon, such as Faker, Jitsu (called 'Chopper'), Count Marzo, Evilseed, Batros, General Tataran, Shokoti, Negator, Icer, Fang-Man, Strong-Arm, Plundor, Delora, Hawk, Roboto and Adam's grandfather King Miro to name a few.
Despite the limited animation techniques that were used to produce the series, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe was notable for breaking the boundaries of censorship that had severely restricted the narrative scope of children's TV programming in the 1970s. For the first time in years, a cartoon series could feature a muscular superhero who was actually allowed to hit people (although most of the time wrestling-style moves were utilized instead of direct violence), though he still couldn't use his sword often. The cartoon was controversial in that it was produced in connection with marketing a line of toys; advertising to children was itself controversial during this period. In Britain, advertising regulations forbade commercials for He-Man toys to accompany the program itself (either before or after the episode, as there were no in-show commercials). Similar to other shows at the time (notably G.I. Joe), an attempt to mitigate the negative publicity generated by this controversy was made by including a "life lesson" or "moral of the story" at the end of each episode. This moral was usually tied to the action or central theme of the episode. In the United Kingdom, where the episodes were usually edited for timing reasons, these closing "morals" were nearly always edited out of their original broadcasts.[24][25][26]
The cartoon series was also remarkable because it was one of the first animated series produced directly for syndication, as opposed to most other syndicated cartoons of the time which were re-runs of old Saturday morning cartoons. The most notable production fact of the series was that it was the very first animated series where a bulk quantity of 65 episodes were produced so that the series could be stripped across 13 weeks.[23] Writers on the show included Larry DiTillio, David Wise, Ron Schultz, Sam Schultz, Marc Scott Zicree, Robby London, Michael Reaves, J. Brynne Stephens, Robert White, Don Heckman, Douglas Booth, Rowby Goren, Tom Tataranowicz, Robert Lamb, Antoni Zalewski, Jeffry O'Hare, and many others. The series is also noted for featuring early script-writing work from Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski, and Paul Dini of Batman: The Animated Series fame[27] One episode, "Battle Cat," was written by Star Trek's D.C. Fontana.
The series, although still popular, would not be renewed for a third season. Instead Filmation opted to create the She-Ra: Princess of Power Series, and deliberately crossover the existing He-Man and the Masters of the Universe characters and continuity into the new series. The original He-Man series would end and She-Ra begin with animated movie The Secret of the Sword, released theatrically in the spring of 1985, featuring most of the main characters from both cartoons. The two animated series, would however, join up one last time for He-Man & She-Ra: A Christmas Special in December 1985; in which two children from Earth end up accidentally on Eternia and are protected by Skeletor, who in a rare act of kindness, is overtaken by the Christmas Spirit. The very last appearance of Filmation's He-Man and Skeletor was in one of the final She-Ra episodes, entitled 'Assault on the Hive', airing December 13, 1986.
The series is set in Eternia, which is ruled by King Randor and Queen Marlena (the latter was born Marlena Glenn, an astronaut from Earth who married Randor after she was marooned on Eternia by the crash of her spaceship). Their son is Prince Adam, who pretends he is lazy, clumsy, careless, irresponsible and almost as cowardly as his pet tiger Cringer (who transforms into Battle Cat). However, Prince Adam possesses a magic sword, and when he holds it aloft and says the magic words, "By the power of Grayskull...I have the Power!!!" Prince Adam is transformed into He-Man, "The Most Powerful Man In The Universe".[2] Prince Adam's secret identity of He-Man is known only by the Sorceress of Castle Grayskull (magical bird-like guardian of Castle Grayskull who often takes the form of Zoar the falcon), Man-At-Arms (veteran soldier, scientist, inventor and most trusted ally; also known as Duncan) and Orko (a floating childlike Trollan magician, often used for comic relief). Rounding out the main cast of heroes is Teela, the Captain of the Royal Guard (who is the adopted daughter of Man-At-Arms and secret child of the Sorceress), who serves as a teasing and semi-antagonistic love interest of Adam and He-Man throughout the series. Stratos (the flying leader of the birdpeople of Avion) and Ram-Man (a dim-witted bouncing warrior) also feature in the series with semi-regularity. Appearing with less frequency in the series are He-Man's recurring allies Mossman, Fisto, Man-E-Faces, Mekaneck, Sy-Klone, Zodac, Lizard-Man, Melaktha, Dree-Elle, Montork, Squinch and the Widgets and Granamyr the Dragon.
He-Man's nemesis, the powerful skull-faced evil wizard Skeletor wished to rule Eternia and conquer Castle Grayskull; often seeking ancient and mysterious artifacts to try and stop He-man and his allies. Skeletor usually hosts his rogues gallery in his bone-filled throne room inside Snake Mountain. Skeletor's most dangerous counterpart is the cunning sorcerer Evil-Lyn, and most his frequent sidekicks are the often bumbling, master of beasts, Beast Man and the equally bumbling weapon-armed Trap Jaw. His original henchmen in the cartoon also included Tri-Klops, Mer-Man and his purple pet feline Panthor. Other rogues would make a few appearances later in the series such as Webstor, Kobra Khan, Clawful, Spikor, Two-Bad, Modulok and Whiplash (appearing the most out of the later henchmen). Several memorable heroes and villains would appear only once or twice in the Filmation cartoon, such as Faker, Jitsu (called 'Chopper'), Count Marzo, Evilseed, Batros, General Tataran, Shokoti, Negator, Icer, Fang-Man, Strong-Arm, Plundor, Delora, Hawk, Roboto and Adam's grandfather King Miro to name a few.
Despite the limited animation techniques that were used to produce the series, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe was notable for breaking the boundaries of censorship that had severely restricted the narrative scope of children's TV programming in the 1970s. For the first time in years, a cartoon series could feature a muscular superhero who was actually allowed to hit people (although most of the time wrestling-style moves were utilized instead of direct violence), though he still couldn't use his sword often. The cartoon was controversial in that it was produced in connection with marketing a line of toys; advertising to children was itself controversial during this period. In Britain, advertising regulations forbade commercials for He-Man toys to accompany the program itself (either before or after the episode, as there were no in-show commercials). Similar to other shows at the time (notably G.I. Joe), an attempt to mitigate the negative publicity generated by this controversy was made by including a "life lesson" or "moral of the story" at the end of each episode. This moral was usually tied to the action or central theme of the episode. In the United Kingdom, where the episodes were usually edited for timing reasons, these closing "morals" were nearly always edited out of their original broadcasts.[24][25][26]
The cartoon series was also remarkable because it was one of the first animated series produced directly for syndication, as opposed to most other syndicated cartoons of the time which were re-runs of old Saturday morning cartoons. The most notable production fact of the series was that it was the very first animated series where a bulk quantity of 65 episodes were produced so that the series could be stripped across 13 weeks.[23] Writers on the show included Larry DiTillio, David Wise, Ron Schultz, Sam Schultz, Marc Scott Zicree, Robby London, Michael Reaves, J. Brynne Stephens, Robert White, Don Heckman, Douglas Booth, Rowby Goren, Tom Tataranowicz, Robert Lamb, Antoni Zalewski, Jeffry O'Hare, and many others. The series is also noted for featuring early script-writing work from Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski, and Paul Dini of Batman: The Animated Series fame[27] One episode, "Battle Cat," was written by Star Trek's D.C. Fontana.
The series, although still popular, would not be renewed for a third season. Instead Filmation opted to create the She-Ra: Princess of Power Series, and deliberately crossover the existing He-Man and the Masters of the Universe characters and continuity into the new series. The original He-Man series would end and She-Ra begin with animated movie The Secret of the Sword, released theatrically in the spring of 1985, featuring most of the main characters from both cartoons. The two animated series, would however, join up one last time for He-Man & She-Ra: A Christmas Special in December 1985; in which two children from Earth end up accidentally on Eternia and are protected by Skeletor, who in a rare act of kindness, is overtaken by the Christmas Spirit. The very last appearance of Filmation's He-Man and Skeletor was in one of the final She-Ra episodes, entitled 'Assault on the Hive', airing December 13, 1986.