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TOXIC
CRUSADERS
(Syndicated, March 1-May 20, 1991)
Murakami-Wolf-Swenson, Troma Entertainment
MAIN CAST:
Rodger Bumpass – Toxie/Melvin
Junko, Dr. Killemoff
Paul Eiding – No-Zone
Ed Gilbert – Major Disaster
Hal Rayle – Headbanger/Dr.
Bender, Bonehead
John Mariano – Headbanger/Fender
Gregg Berger – Junkyard
Patric Zimmerman – Czar Zosta
Kath Soucie – Yvonne
Michael J. Pollard – Psycho
Chuck McCann – Mayor Max Grody
Susan Silo – Mrs. Junko
Troma
Entertainment had built itself up on a reputation for crass, crude, gory,
and gratuitous low-brow entertainment. So, of course what better place to find
fodder for Saturday morning television?
Troma's logo. |
While working as the pre-production
supervisor for Rocky, Troma
Entertainment co-founder Lloyd Kaufman
got the idea to create a horror film set at a health club. However, it would be
a few years before he got to see those plans to fruition. Kaufman had initially
formed a production company with Oliver
Stone, but it fell apart shortly after Stone went his own way and his 1973
film, Schwartz: The Brave Detective, bombed
horribly. Kaufman then partnered with Michael Herz to form Troma and
produced a softball-themed sex comedy in 1979 called Squeeze Play.
Lloyd Kaufman amongst memorabilia from his empire. |
When the movie became an unexpected hit,
Troma was brought on to produce the all-star film The Final
Countdown in 1980. While it
performed well and was also a success, the stresses of working on a massive
film led Troma to decide they would rather keep to the joy of simple low-budget
fare and produced two more teen sex comedies. As the 80s rolled on, the teen
sex comedy genre began to become crowded, leaving Troma to find a new niche to
exploit. After reading an article that said horror films were no longer
popular, Kaufman decided to resurrect his old idea and make his own horror
film.
Toxie in all his hideous glory. |
Rather than straight-up horror, Troma
decided to make it a horror comedy that was partially a satire on superheroes
and contained all the signatures Troma’s films had become known for. The
resulting film was The Toxic Avenger, which was set
in Tromaville, New Jersey: the toxic waste dumping capitol of the world (and
subsequent setting for all of Troma’s future films). Melvin Junko (sometimes
Ferd, played by Mark Torgl)
was the mop boy at the local health club where some of the regulars decided to
torture him. Their ultimate prank ends up with Melvin in a tutu kissing a
sheep, and in his humiliation he ran out a window and fell into a vat of toxic
waste. That waste turned him into the monstrous and nigh-indestructible Toxic
Avenger, aka Toxie (Mitch Cohen),
who set out to get his bloody revenge and unleash justice on those that would
prey on the weak.
The
Toxic Avenger was released in 1984 and was completely
ignored. It wasn’t until it was a long-running midnight movie at the Bleecker
Street Theater in New York City in 1985 that it developed a solid cult
following, and soon found regular broadcasts on cable. It became the film that
introduced the world to Troma and established everything the studio would be
about. Troma revisited Toxie in 1989 for a sequel that, after running extremely
long, was chopped up into two sequels:
The Toxic Avenger, Part II
and Part III: The Last
Temptation of Toxie.
In 1990, Kaufman sought to expand
Troma’s audience base into the juveniles by bringing Toxie to the mainstream;
namely, Saturday morning network television. Troma partnered with Murakami-Wolf-Swenson, who had brought
another adult-oriented mutant-hero franchise to animation with their adaptation
of Teenage
Mutant Ninja Turtles (the original comics, while not as brutal as the Avenger films, were decidedly more
violent than the eventual cartoon version).
Of course, the series would have to be almost entirely scrubbed of Troma’s signatures
in order to be appropriate for young audiences. Also, to fulfill FCC requirements for children’s programming, the
show took on a pro-ecological message.
The Crusaders: Dr. Bender, Fender, Toxie, No-Zone and Major Disaster. |
Toxie (Rodger Bumpass) had a similar
origin as he did in the films, except he didn’t go on a murderous vengeance
spree on those who wronged him and future foes. The mop that he used to clean
the health club where he worked was also changed by the toxic waste to be a
super-powered, semi-sentient being (aptly named Mop). Further differences
included Toxie was given a team of similarly mutated freaks. Amongst them was
No-Zone (Paul Eiding), a test pilot that crashed into a silo of radioactive
pepper giving him powerful sneezing powers; Major Disaster (Ed Gilber), a
soldier that fell into a radioactive swamp and gained the power to control
plants; Junkyard (Gregg Berger), a homeless man merged with a junkyard dog
after he took shelter in a toxic waste-covered dog kennel that was struck by
lightning; and Headbanger, a fusion of mad scientist Dr. Bender (Hal Rayle) an
surfer-like singing telegram boy Fender (John Mariano) that became fused when
Fender accidentally knocked them into Dr. Bender’s invention. Together, they
became the Toxic Crusaders, often aided by Toxie’s tone-deaf girlfriend, Yvonne
(Kath Soucie), and his mother (Susan Silo). Toxie was also given a pet in the
form of Blobbie; a little blob of goo that came to the toxic waste dump that
served as the primary base for the Crusaders.
Dr. Killemofff and Mayor Max Grody. |
Their primary foes were the Smogulans;
aliens from the planet Smogula who wanted to pollute the Earth in order to make
it habitable for their people and conquer it. The primary ruler of the planet
was Czar Zosta (Patric Zimmerman), whose forces on Earth were led by Dr.
Killemoff (Bumpass). Psycho (Michael J. Pollard) was an obese bio-mechanical
being that worked for Killemoff and had the uncanny ability to predict the
future—usually the failure of Killemoff’s plans, that often went unheeded. Hazmat-suited
minions known as Radiation Rangers served as Killemoff’s foot soldiers and
cannon fodder. Bonehead (Hal Rayle) was the lead health club bully (replacing
Bozo from the first movie) that led to Toxie’s creation who himself was changed
into a monster when Toxie threw him into a barrel of acid rain. Bonehead joined
forces with Killemoff, but wasn’t much of an asset as he was brainless and
incompetent. Also working with the Smogulans was the corrupt mayor of
Tromaville, Max Grody (based on the mayor from the first movie, voiced by Chuck
McCann).
Dr. Killemoff, Bonhead and Psycho. |
The
Toxic Crusaders (so named because Avengers was deemed too violent sounding) premiered in syndication
on March 1st, 1991. Even though they couldn’t go to the lengths of
brutal, dark, gross-out humor that the films it was based on did, the series
had its fair share of adult-oriented jokes, toilet humor, and often broke the
fourth wall by being self-referential. The series was written by a combination
of MWS and Troma alum, including Jack
Mendelsohn, Carole Bruce
Mendelsohn, D.J. MacHale, Ned Candle. Walt Kubiak, Jeffrey W. Sass and Andrew Wolk, along with Chuck Lorre and Herz. Lorre, who had written
the Turtles theme, co-wrote this
series’ theme with Dennis C.
Brown. Brown and Larry Brown
handled the rest of the series’ music.
Although the Avenger films were popular enough to inspire enough networks to put
decent orders for the series, they weren’t sufficient enough to guarantee a
second season. The show ended after its 13-episode run. During the show’s run, Marvel Comics released an 8-issue
comic series that ended up cancelled along with their other TV-based
projects. In the UK, Fleetway Publications
published their
own series that run two issues longer. Playmates, who produced the toys for Ninja Turtles, made a line
of figures in a similar style. Bandai
and Sega released side-scrolling platform
beat ‘em up video games in for the Nintendo Entertainment
System, Game Boy
and Sega Genesis
developed by TOSE,
Realtime Associates
and Infogrames,
respectively. A SNES
version was planned but never released. Other merchandise included
trading cards
by Topps, coloring/activity
books and puzzles
published by Golden Books,
junior
novels by Boxtree,
a card
and board
game by International
Games, a Colorforms
playset, lunchboxes
by Thermos, costumes
by Collegeville
and costume
patterns by McCall’s
Patterns.
Add for the Toxic Avenger collection. |
In late 1991, Golden Book Video
released several episodes to
VHS.
In 2004, Troma released Toxic Crusaders: The Movie, which
edited the first three episodes together into a single film. In 2005, the first
four episodes were presented in their original format in Toxic Crusaders: The Television
Series Volume 1.
In
2008, the complete series was included as part of The Complete Toxic Avenger set, which
contained all four Avenger movies.
The complete series was also made available as part of Amazon
Video’s streaming service.
EPISODE GUIDE:
“The
Making of Toxie” (3/1/91) – Melvin Junko becomes Toxie and fights the forces of
Dr. Killemoff with the aid of No-Zone and Major Disaster.
“This
Spud’s for You” (3/8/91) – Killemoff plans to put his chemicals in the food of
a local restaurant while Dr. Bender and Fender end up mutated and merged into
Headbanger.
“Club
Fred” (3/15/91) – Killemoff and his Radiation Rangers clear out a retirement
community to make room for an alien arrival.
“Tree
Trouble” (3/22/91) – Killemoff plans to push “Smog on a Can” while Major
Disaster falls in love and begins having trouble with his powers.
“Pollution
Solution” (3/29/91) – Killemoff sends the Radiation Rangers to invade the Toxic
Dump to prepare for a Smogulan invasion.
“A
Sight for Sore Eyes” (4/6/91) – Mayor Grody moves the Crusaders to his
penthouse in order to clear the dump for Czar Zosta.
“Mr.
Earth: Superhero” (4/13/91) – A new superhero joins the Crusaders against
Killemoff, but ends up causing more harm than good.
“Toxie
Ties the Knot” (4/20/91) – Zosta’s daughter arrives in Tromaville and falls in
love with Toxie.
“Invasion
of the Biddy Snatchers” (4/27/91) – Zosta replaces Killemoff with General GarBage,
who plans to replace senior citizens with evil clones.
“The
Snail Must Go Through” (5/6/91) – New superhero Snail Man helps the Crusaders
fend off the latest pollution attack while also preparing for Yvonne’s concert.
“Nab
That Toxie Cab” (5/6/91) – The Crusaders start their own cab company and Yvonne
grows jealous when Toxie falls in love with his cab.
“Still
Crazy After All These Shears” (5/13/91) – Mayor Grody’s tree-planting campaign
actually involved alien seeds that grow into a Weed Monster.
“That’s
No Villain, That’s My Mom!” (5/20/91) – Toxie’s mom ends up switching minds
with Killemoff while the Crusaders deal with his convention for hideous
creatures.
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