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Mr Magic
Back to the Future cartoon.


The only thing I remember from the cartoon is the Happy Meal DeLorean.

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"Magic can happen to you."

eddstarr
I'm glad you remember the "Back to the Future" cartoon series cuz it brings up something I once heard on "Sneak Previews" with Gene Cisco and Roger Ebert.

Roger said, "animation is expensive enough that when you green light an animated series you better have a good reason to do it".

For, "Back to the Future", the reason is clear. Animation makes special effects more numerous and spectacular without the hassles incurred in a live action project. So why did the Back to the Future cartoon spend so much time at home with the family?

I didn't want a cartoon about family life, I wanted Time Travel and lots of it. I wasn't the only one, I don't remember the cartoon series doing well only lasting one or two seasons. And it was only picked up later as reruns because of the famous movie by the same name.




TV cartoons based on movies always change the storyline, I guess they have to. A movie is a coherent story whereas television shows are episodic. Another reason may be the goal of having a TV show "stand on its own" without using the movie as a crutch to lean on.

I never found any fans of "Highlander: The Animated Series" from 1995. In the Seattle area, Highlander aired Saturday mornings at 7am. I think the sweet spot for SatAM cartoons is  9am to 10am. The first cartoon of the day usually pulls weak ratings with only a fraction of the audience tuned in.

I liked this cartoon very much. Too bad it didn't last beyond one or two seasons.



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Vaporman87
I have to agree Edd. Without time travel the series seems pointless.
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You love this signature.
eddstarr
Vaporman87 wrote :

I have to agree Edd. Without time travel the series seems pointless.
-end quote


Here's another example, "Stargate Infinity" shares nothing with "Stargate - Everything else", and it has to be on purpose. The cartoon's storyline was turned into teaching life skills to kids. 

Very noble but I was expecting some cross-over from the live action series. 

The result was predictable. The kids stayed away and older Stargate fans were disappointed.
Here's a clip from episode one. Lots of pretty colors to look at!




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Mr Magic
You might have seen the movies, but what about the series?

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"Magic can happen to you."

eddstarr
thecrow174 wrote :

You might have seen the movies, but what about the series?

-end quote
Now you're talking, that animated series looks like fun. I'll see if I can order it from Amazon.


I've been wanting to post cartoons from when I was in kindergarten but the ones I remember were not online until recently.

Have you ever seen Hector Heathcote? He's a character from Paul Terry's "Terrytoons Studios", from the guys that made Mighty Mouse. But unlike Mighty Mouse, Hector Heathcote was Terrytoons early attempt to create a new character for television. None of the Terrytoon favorites had ever been released for TV broadcast and all of the former movie studio animation houses were desperate to find  a place on the new medium of television.

I was only 4 years old when I last saw Hector heathcote but I remember he was a very likeable character. Can you believe that one of the first cartoons I remember from my childhood was about the Revolutionary War?


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Mr Magic
His drum had some use after all.
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"Magic can happen to you."

eddstarr
thecrow174 wrote :

His drum had some use after all.
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Ya know what's weird crow? Just a few years ago not one episode of Hector was on YouTube. Now several episodes are there, minus the intro with the opening theme music. I was so little that the only part I remember from the original broadcast intro was the part where Hector gets caught in the Liberty Bell and causes the crack along the side. I think that was 1961.

Saturday mornings seemed sorta low key until the Superhero Revolution of 1965. Filmation re-introducing Superman back to network Saturdays with, "the NEW Adventures of Superman", turned up the volume for a whole generation.

And by proving that the right content can make money on SatAM, Filmation may have saved Saturday cartoons through the rest of the 20th century. But that's just my opinion.




So what really killed SatAM? Maybe it was anime-everything, who can be sure? I love Pokemon and all the other copycat cartoons. But I lost interest with shows like "Ultimate Muscle" and this gem:

Remember "Spider Riders"?


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pikachulover
I loved Spider Riders! I used to watch it when Thistv repeated it.
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eddstarr
pikachulover wrote :

I loved Spider Riders! I used to watch it when Thistv repeated it.
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And that's what confuses me. These cartoons were just as popular as the old cartoons I liked, maybe more popular. A mixed age audience gave cartoons like Spider Riders and Mucha Lucha a wide following.While I wasn't a fan of Ultimate Muscle, kids around the world took to it, just like the comic books.


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