That He-Man interview reminds me of the painful commentary track on the old 80s Flash Gordon DVD. The interviewer kept asking a Lou Scheimer a whole bunch of intricate questions about Flash Gordon, and the guy's answers were all:

"I don't remember."
"We didn't really think about it that much."
"Who knows at this point?"

I think the interviewer was getting a bit frustrated by the end.

Another humorous moment from a commentary track for the D&D cartoon DVD -- they had two artists and some NBC PR flack. The flack kept talking about their "branding" and their products and yadah yadah, and one of the artists says "yeah, the network was extremely dictatorial," and the PR lady sort of sputters and goes quiet for the next twenty minutes.

Quote from: Patrick Y.;450984What's so weird about that image is she's wearing a belt, and there' the outline of what appears to be a high cut leotard seam on both hips... but unless she's wearing a sheer outfit that covers 100% of her body, including her face, then she's not wearing any clothes at all.

:rotfl:

I remeber this scene from the feature-length pilot (or was it a prequel?). This confused the hell out of me, too, and I must have been 8 at the time.

Well, not to put down crapping on much loved geek institutions, got my own dead horse to flog, but let's look at some of the concepts from beyond the results.

Masters of the Universe - Cosmic level sword and blaster show drawing on Jack Kirby's fifth world and Moorcock with Eternia being a central realm much like Amber.  Also hot girls in skimpy outfits.

GI Joe - Elite American military force fights a war with a previously invisible enemy.  One day things are normal and the next day a well armed and organized hostile terrorist force materializes from within the borders of the United States.  On the whole the enemy is better armed and higher tech bringing expendible robot troops on line fairly early in the conflict.

Transformers - Alien robots, stranded on earth re-fight an ancient war to obtain enough resources to return home to claim victory.  Due to limited numbers and resources they are unable to directly confront Earth's armed forces so they resort to diguising themselves as common vehicles.

Thundercats - Hot cat girl molests young boy.  Okay, I've got nothing, never did like Thundercats.  Sorry

Anyhow, I guess what I'm saying is there are some entertaining concepts in there with very poor execution.

Quote from: David Johansen;451043Well, not to put down crapping on much loved geek institutions, got my own dead horse to flog, but let's look at some of the concepts from beyond the results.

Masters of the Universe - Cosmic level sword and blaster show drawing on Jack Kirby's fifth world and Moorcock with Eternia being a central realm much like Amber.  Also hot girls in skimpy outfits.

GI Joe - Elite American military force fights a war with a previously invisible enemy.  One day things are normal and the next day a well armed and organized hostile terrorist force materializes from within the borders of the United States.  On the whole the enemy is better armed and higher tech bringing expendible robot troops on line fairly early in the conflict.

Transformers - Alien robots, stranded on earth re-fight an ancient war to obtain enough resources to return home to claim victory.  Due to limited numbers and resources they are unable to directly confront Earth's armed forces so they resort to diguising themselves as common vehicles.

Too true! :hatsoff:

Quote from: David Johansen;451043Thundercats - Hot cat girl molests young boy.  Okay, I've got nothing, never did like Thundercats.  Sorry

More like "sympathetic high-tech catfolk flee dying world to resettle in backwater shithole planet, patronizing the local population of robotic teddy bears, steampunk walrus-men and other rejects, and waging a war of attrition with ugly non-catfolk mutants and creepy super-mummy dude."

And in my defense, I was 8 or 9 at the time.

Quote from: David Johansen;451043Anyhow, I guess what I'm saying is there are some entertaining concepts in there with very poor execution.

Absolutely. I don't know what is it that kids are watching Saturday mornings these days, but I'm sure it's just as bad.

Quote from: The Butcher;451075Absolutely. I don't know what is it that kids are watching Saturday mornings these days, but I'm sure it's just as bad.

I'm pretty sure Saturday morning cartoons died in the late 90s.

I might razz Filmation a little, but it's out of love -- they were a tiny American animation studio that didn't outsource, and turned out material on tiny budgets and limited resources. The stuff they made was not all gold, to be sure, but I have a lot of fondness and respect for them.

Quote from: Insufficient Metal;451081I'm pretty sure Saturday morning cartoons died in the late 90s.

Hrmmm? No sorry... cartoons haven't died, They have evolved! What you are witnessing is not the decline of cartoons, but the decline of the influence of the big three broadcasting companies et.al. ABC, NBC, and CBS.

First programming is no longer just limited to Saturdays, it runs around the clock 24/7 on several cable channels, with limited programming (mostly afterschool, but also afterschool and on the weekends on dozens of additional cable channels and also 24/7 online on the Internet...

nick.com
cartoonnetwork.com
disney.com
sony.com
animenewsnetwork.com
pbskids.org
nationalgeographic.com
kidswb.com

Anime Networks Listing of cartoon related companies...
Companies

Google's listing of cartoon networks related to cartoonnetwork.com
Related Networks

I'd wager that cartoon programming and networks have a much larger share of the broadcast market as a whole, than they used to. More cartoons are shown at more times by more companies than ever before... There is more crossover as well, cartoons are heavily embedded in many movie and game franchises too.

Yeah, I was really talking about "Saturday morning cartoons" within the context of the thread, i.e. the 1980s, not cartoons in general.  I should have been a bit more clear.

The Butcher posted "I don't know what is it that kids are watching Saturday mornings these days," and my first thought was that if anything, they're probably out somewhere watching Superjail on their smartphone.

Pretty much all the cartoons I've seen lately... Spongebob, Ben 10, Power Puff Girls, Flapjack... are vastly better than the ones I watched as a kid... in art and writing and concept. Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network make some great stuff.

CN's stuff is pretty good.  I always found the cartoons produced by Spielberg to be some of the better stuff, though, in terms of comedy shows.

I'm jealous of today's kids, though.  Wish I could've grown up with something like The Last Airbender on TV.  TMNT didn't really cut it as a martial arts/action cartoon (for me, anyway).

Quote from: Peregrin;451132I'm jealous of today's kids, though.  Wish I could've grown up with something like The Last Airbender on TV.  TMNT didn't really cut it as a martial arts/action cartoon (for me, anyway).

Yup.  I wish we'd had stuff like the later Justice League cartoons, Young Justice, or even the Teen Titans back in my day; instead of "superfriends".

RPGPundit

Quote from: RPGPundit;451341Yup.  I wish we'd had stuff like the later Justice League cartoons, Young Justice, or even the Teen Titans back in my day; instead of "superfriends".

RPGPundit

Honestly, DC has just had some mindblowingly good cartoons since they put Dini and Timm on it with Batman oh so many years ago.

I still watch those, every damn one.  They're just fantastic, which blows me away every time I think about it.

It's a shame they've been kind of pissing that record down the drain with all these terrible direct-to-DVD releases.

Well, direct-to-DVD is always the refuge of the damned, for the most part.  The series are what matters, and Young Justice (their newest one) is spectacular.

Fucking shame that of all their recent shows the only one that utterly sucked ass had to be the LSH.

RPGPundit

Quote from: The ButcherI don't know what is it that kids are watching Saturday mornings these days, but I'm sure it's just as bad.

Well, really little kids today have Dora the Explorer, which for them probably ranks up there with classics Mister Rogers' Neighborhood and Sesame Street (probably the most effective innovation in education of the 20th century).

Of course, many of them can enjoy the classics as well. It usually takes a few years to get the acculturation to see things as 'dated'.

Quote from: J ArcaneHonestly, DC has just had some mindblowingly good cartoons since they put Dini and Timm on it with Batman oh so many years ago.

What I have seen of the DC shows has been excellent, quite stylish and rather intelligently entertaining.

Not that this has much to do with Reagan-era D&D, but what the hey.

Quote from: Peregrin;450460But at least he makes music worth listening to.

He makes music?

Quote from: Elfdart;451658He makes music?

Well, made.  The stuff he's doing now?  No clue.