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Thursday, April 09, 2015

The Lookback: Children's TV from Hasbro

The Flashback Children's TV

      In the era before the 1990's ,  there were 3 networks ,(or 4 after 1986) , but in many markets there were more than 3 Channels.    These other  channels were most likely unaffiliated  (or independent) of a network.  They may have been known for airing  movies in primetime and  you favorite classics.  (This is before everything got ruined) One thing they would air is Children's tv programs and the syndication market allowed programs that may have not been able to make to the NBC , CBS, or ABC line ups  but before there were Children's channel or before anyone cared about them.
  Our  look is at 3 programs from Hasbro (yes, the toy company) from the 1980's.
   Something about , Hasbro  wanted to make TV shows based off their  toys (you know to sell toys?)  so they hired  animation studio Sunbow  Entertainment   to make them cartoon like.  Hasbro would also distribute their own shows through their company, Claster  , who also created the 1950's series "Romper Room" (way before Hasbro Brought them) .

   The first series of our 3 series from Hasbro is "Jem" or "Jem and the Holagrams"   Jem was a production of Hasbro ,Marvel ,and  Sunbow.    Created by Christy Marx ,the program premiered in 1985 .  The show was   based on  a line of dolls , Hasbro made . Jem was  a mixture of hip music videos (cough MTV cough) , soap opera (love triangle , random drama),  action and adventure (including bad guys) ;  and Science Fiction.
   
   Even Sunday TV was fun ... now it's just infomercials
   
 One of things about this show was probably an influence of the MTV popularity at the time, so each episode had animated music videos  that related to stories by the time the show ended there was almost 200 music videos  and over 100 unique songs.
     There were about 3 produced songs per episodes  , all this was unique for a TV series especially an animated one.



   We are going to get  a song stuck in your head rather you want it to be or not

  The TV series itself was about  a woman named Jerrica Benton who inherits her Father's music company , though there was an evil man named  Eric Raymond (not everybody loves Raymond) who wanted to run the company (you know , he likes money).  Jerrica finds out that her Father also had bulit a system called synergy  that produces holograms ,and Jerria creates a persona called  Jem. She and her friends start  a music group that  competes against another called the Misfits ran by a rich girl  named Pizazz and later a group called the stingers.  Jerrica  a boy friend named Rio , who also may have a crush on  Jem ( checks , to make sure we aren't writing about soaps again)
   It was the most watched Children's program in Syndication in 1985  it ran the standard 65 episodes and ended in 1988.


Now stay tuned for G.I Joe : A real American Hero.
   Everyone knows, G.I Joe was a toy and a comic book (you know to read with your toy)  it was technically mini-series glomped together (why is that not word ,selfie is and that's an awful word) : "G.I Joe : A Real American Hero" ; "G.I Joe : The Revenge of the Cobra (that sounds like a Syfy original movie) , "G.I Joe: The Pyramid of Darkness ", and "G.I Joe Arise , Sepentor, Arise!" (sounds like the 3rd movie of a Cobra series of Syfy original movies).  The series started in  1983 in syndication and ran until 1986.



  yep that's it

Please stay tuned  after the jump

    So , you may have a big guess of what's coming up next don't you?  Well if you were thinking Transformers , you were correct.
     Yep Transformers, this is the first animated series about the robots that also can disuse themselves as cars. The series was based off of  Hasbro's toy line  which was based of a Japanese toy line,  In 1984 the U.S Government  had removed the restrictions on promotional content in a children's show. Again like the other two series they worked with Marvel to create the TV series.  The Transformers began in 1984. Between seasons 2 and 3  their was a movie released called "Transformers: The Movie"(they spent millions on that name)  the story line  of the movie took place in some far off year called 2005 (it was very accurate about the year 2005)  Since the movie wasn't on TV they could kill their characters (yay?) and they did.
    Season 3 began where the movie left off (with all the deaths cleaned up off course) the series went more sci-fi (more sci-fi? what robots weren't enough?)   Season 3 was less liked by fans   because Optimums prime was dead.  So the  people at the studio brought him back to life as demanded. (The money is always right)   Season 4, was were Hasbro , who had tons of money from the series and toys to roll around in , they didn't really feel like focusing on the series (while rolling on their money) so they didn't give the show more funds that it may need. Then the show ended in 1987.



   That is our look at 3 Hasbro syndicated 1980's  cartoons mostly based of toys  , well we hope you enjoyed  , watch out for Hasbro's new series "Executives rolling on money"

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