1980's favorites- Can I get a decent ending?

[O.Supreme]

Greetings All. I don’t know exactly what compels me to write this editorial, but I guess it was the fact that I recently purchased the 10th and final season of the original TMNT, which I have basically never seen. Although the plots were kind of silly (Lord Dregg seemed to have a solution for everything), I kind of enjoyed the more *serious* tone of the final season, even if the plots were overtly simple. But I mean killing potentially tens of thousands to millions of people off-screen by bringing pieces of the sun to earth and setting them in the most populated areas was enough even to make Krang say “You’re insane!”…or some such thing. Then after a multiple story arch, Shredder and Krang just ambiguously disappear from the story completely. Now I know Shredder and Krang were the big bads on most of TMNT’s 10 season run, which had changed to more aliens and sci-fi type villains by season 8. But…I mean…where was the big showdown? Sure we got decent ones at the end of Seasons 1,2,3 & 4..but this is the END of the whole series as we know it!…Aren’t we going to get some closure?...Nope

What a letdown. 193 episodes, and it ends with a trip to Dimension X using Krang’s old body to defeat Dregg. It almost feels like there was a missing episode where Krang and Shredder were finally killed, but they were just never bold enough to fully develop it. Granted, starting in 1990 we moved to a new house, and Saturday mornings my dad was making me do chores instead of watch cartoons. So if I had invested 10 years of my life watching this, instead of not being able to see anything beyond season 4, I would have been REALLY upset…But then I started thinking… How many of the great 80’s cartoons had real closure? Not Many… I initially wanted a list of 10, but I only have 8. The reason being…These are THE BIG 8. The ones that lasted the longest, had the most fans, and without question sold the most toys. After these 8, you get to several series that all had equal runs of 65 episodes, and were moderately successful, and sold a fair amount of toys. But to pick just 2 from that second tier of about 5 or 6 just didn’t seem fair, so I decided to go with just 8. Here they are in Chronological order:

1. He-Man & The Masters of the Universe/She-Ra Princess of Power (Shared Universe 1983-1986) 223 Combined Episodes. Looking at this series as an Adult, and understanding Lou Scheimer and Filmation’s whole premise of traditionally non-violent Television. It is surprising the amount of Action/Sci-Fi series they attempted. But of course, you know that He-Man/She-Ra are never going to actually hurt any villain, so the struggle will be “never ending”. Everything is reset to the status quo by the end, and nothing ever changes. The infamous Christmas special which sees Skeletor become *the Grinch* and turn good at the end, even does little to change things. Hordak and Horde Prime suffer setbacks but are certainly not destroyed. Even if you were to add the spiritual successor “New Adventures” (1990) 65 episodes to that mix, though they attempted a “final’ episode, it still ends with Skeletor alive & well floating in a powerless space pod (satisfactory ending rating 0/10)

2. G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero -Marvel Sunbow/DIC(Shared Universe 1983-1987 & 1989-1992) 139 Combined Episodes. This series along with Transformers was immensely successful, and for a “30 minute commercial” actually had some pretty compelling episodes. The change of leadership from Cobra Commander to Serpentor in the 2nd season was especially well done. Also the 1987 film would have been a fairly satisfying ending to the series with all the Cobra-La baddies convincingly killed off, and *perhaps* a chance at Serpentor’s survival, but judging by the distance he was thrown, he easily could have perished as well. If you stand by this series, and don’t acknowledge DIC’s addendum, then I’d say the (satisfactory ending rating 8/10). However…DIC decided to pick up the reigns, and with “Operation Dragonfire” it appeared to be a legitimate continuation, even with some of the same voice cast returning (Chris Latta, Sgt Slaughter etc…) Then from there…things went all bad. After the initial mini-series. DIC descended the show into utter silliness, so that now we were getting the bad guys doing PSA’s as well as the Joes. And the last episode to have any significance was Joe & Cobra combining forces (really??) against a Drug Lord? –Yeah I can really see GWB and Osama getting all buddy-buddy to take down the druggies in our world…(*sigh*)then to add insult to injury, it all ends with 2 totally campy recap episodes RECAP EPISODES!?! Really? (satisfactory ending rating 0/10)

3. The Transformers (1984-1987) 98 episodes. Now of course this show I admit I have total nostalgia bias towards. Intellectually, yes it is a 23 minute toy commercial, but I will defend this shows greatness until the end of time. That being said however…let’s look at the ending. After an amazing theatrical film in 1986 (Transformers: The Movie) budget cuts resulted in a less than stellar season 3. And a very half-hearted attempt at a final resolution in “The Rebirth”. Literally the entire 1987 toy line (about 40 characters give or take) had to be featured in a 3 part story arc which would serve as the series finale. The stakes were raised, as the whole galaxy was threatened if Cybertrons core blows up…something or other…the sun goes Nova. Everybody dies. Oh and there’s Headmasters by the way…Anyway…in the end, the Galaxy is saved, and Galvatron swears revenge with his new ally/annoyance Lord Zarek…can’t wait to see more of season four. Oh wait…there is no more. Wow…what a letdown to arguably one of my favorite shows of all time (satisfactory ending rating 2/10) however… there was hope. In Japan, the series lived on. Toei decided to forget about “The Rebirth”, and develop a fully fleshed out 35 episode season named “The Headmasters”. This is what we should have had. –Several characters die, including Galvatron FINALLY! A show willing to kill off its main villain, only in Japan…but we’ll get more into that later. Then they created two more additional seasons (Masterforce & Victory), and while these series strayed further and further from the characters I was familiar with, it provided solid story arcs and a decent conclusion If you chose as I do to include the Japanese series as part of the original Transformers series (satisfactory ending rating 8/10). Points deducted because the series transferred mediums from animation to manga in 1990 for an additional two years. Details online regarding these are sparse at best

4. Voltron (1984-1986) 124 episodes. This is the first of two series on this list which are compilations and loose adaptations of unrelated separate Anime series that are brought together through an odd series of edits & rewrites, which nevertheless make compelling storytelling. Of all the dozens of Super Robot series WEP had to choose from (all of which could have interchangeably been named Voltron) it is odd that the one, based on Beast King Golion would become so wildly popular. And they got it purely by accident! What was nice is that they had an ending, a convincing one where all the villains met there end, and good triumphed over evil. But instead, they decided to heavily edit that…in order to make more episodes?!?...Looking back, perhaps they should have kept what was the equivalent of Golions final story arc intact, and just hold it off until the end after any additionally commissioned episodes were made. Instead we have as basically a pseudo finally, the “Fleet of Doom” –It gets major awesome points for bringing BOTH Voltron’s together in the same story, but of course none of the villains are vanquished at the end. (satisfactory ending rating 4/10) However if you are able to watch the original Beast King Golion & Armored Fleet Dairugger XV, these provide the satisfactory ending we should have had with Voltron . (satisfactory ending rating 10/10)

5. Thundercats (1985-1989) 130 episodes. What can I say? This show was truly unique and amazing for its time. Though I was totally vested in the Masters of the Universe toy line, looking back I can clearly and confidently say Thundercats was a vastly superior animated series as I had zero interest in the toys, but I loved to watch the show. The last episodes I recall in the original broadcast was the 5 part “Thundercats Ho!” which introduced new characters, but basically was a “movie” that included nearly every character in the show to date, and had a very convincing finale between Lion-O & Mumm-Ra. Of course, Mumm-Ra had pretty convincing defeats twice in the first season, only to come back later. Imagine my surprise when years later, (mid-90’s) Thundercats reappeared on Cartoon Network, and I discovered 60 additional episodes! It was one of the best gifts I had recieved in a long time…but as with so many additions to TV series…how would it end? Well episode 130 “The Book of Omens” actually provides a decent ending. Mumm-Ra is soundly defeated (though he apparently can never be killed forever because..evil…blah blah blah…) But if I had seen this in its initial run, I would have been very satisfied, especially for an American series, I think, beginning to end, I have to hand it to Thundercats to be one of the most well written, well planned series of the 1980’s (satisfactory ending rating 8/10)

6. Robotech (1985) 85 episodes. This is the second series on this list, of which 3 unrelated Japanese Anime series (Super Dimension Fortress Macross/Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross/Genesis Climber MOSPEADA) were used and reedited to make the composite Robotech series. All things considered, Harmony Gold did an amazing job. They attempted to keep some of the original characters names as well as did not shy away from showing the death and consequences of characters actions. If only they had just left the series as is, it would have been nearly perfect. However because of greed, they wanted to do more, several false starts, and failed attempts over the thirty plus years since Robotech aired have sullied the reputation of Harmony Gold. Thankfully I won’t let any of that additional material (some good, some downright dreadful) influence my final rating of the ending to the original series itself. (satisfactory ending rating 9/10)

7. The Real Ghostbusters (1986-1991) 140 Episodes. Another great series. Again I had no interest in the toys at all, in fact I may be wrong, but I don’t ever remember the toy line for this series being that strong, but the series was great. Uniquely however, there was no main adversary, it was a different supernatural foe every episode, which made it kind of cool. Since it was based on the movie, there was no need for an origin story, it had already been told, but since it supposedly took place in between the first and 2nd films, and later episodes after the 2nd film, there *could* have been an ending. But I guess the series gets a partial pass for having no beginning and no ending, and never intending to make one. Still, some closure would have been nice (satisfactory ending rating 2/10) *of note the later series Extreme Ghostbusters is in some ways a spiritual successor featuring some of the same VA’s, and a finale with the return of the original team, all having long since retired.

8. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987-1996) 193 episodes. Basically you can see my opening rant on this one. Sure there is a *last* episode, but it is just another foil of Dregg. Not the ultimate showdown with Shredder and Krang we deserved (satisfactory ending rating 5/10)

So what do you think? Do you think some of these shows ending had more or less of a satisfactory ending? Would you like to comment on other series? Just of one small note. One series that immensely impressed me early on was Mighty Orbots. Though it lasted only one season (13 episodes) it is one of very few animated series, especially for Saturday morning that had a solid beginning, and a definitive satisfying end. Yet…sadly…this series is still unavailable on any modern home media format.

[mbozzo]

We got Turtles Forever as well as a few of the episodes of the third series as sequels to the first series.

[mr.negativity]

THR:

The cast looks back at the series that changed the toy business forever and left a complicated political legacy: "I'm a liberal and always have been," says creator Ron Friedman. "I felt that the Joes would be liberal and the Cobra people should not be."