Remember that one day when you could wake up without an alarm? When you would get your favorite bowl of cereal and sit between the hours of 8 and 12? This is a blog dedicated to the greatest time of our childhood: Saturday mornings. The television programs you watched, the memories attached to them, and maybe introducing you to something you didn't realize existed. Updated every weekend.
Notable Roles: Comic book artist, comic book writer, comic
book publisher, storyboard artist, character designer
Born Jacob
Kurtzberg, Kirby was a comic book artist, writer and editor regarded as one of
the medium’s major innovators, the most prolific, and the most influential;
which is why he was affectionately dubbed “The King”. He began in the 1930s,
drawing under various pen names before settling on Kirby. He frequently
partnered with writer-editor Joe Simon, which led
to the creation of Captain America for Timely Comics (later Marvel) in 1941. After serving in WWII, Kirby worked for National Comics (later DC), Harvey Comics, Hillman Periodicals, Crestwood Publications (where he and Simon created the first romance
comic, Young Romance) and started his own short-lived publishing
company, Mainline Publications, with Simon. He returned to Timely, now
known as Atlas Comics, and in the 1960s, with writer-editor Stan Lee, created the
bulk of the company’s major characters: the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, Thor, Hulk, Iron Man, the Avengers and more. As Marvel began licensing out their characters for adaptation,
Kirby provided storyboards for the first Fantastic Fourcartoon by Hanna-Barbera. In the 1970s, Kirby felt he wasn’t being
treated fairly by Marvel; he felt publisher Martin Goodman made him numerous unfulfilled promises, had
a lack of creative control, received no recognition for his story or character
contributions, and was resentful over Lee’s prominence in the media. After
getting an unfavorable contract, he left the company to return to DC where he
created his Fourth World saga, OMAC, Kamandi, Etrigan and Kobra. Because DC kept putting him on books he
didn’t want to work on, he returned to Marvel where he created The Eternals, Machine Man and Devil Dinosaur. Once again dissatisfied with his working
conditions, Kirby left Marvel to work for Hanna-Barbera; designing characters
for Turbo Teen, The New Shmoo, Thundarr and others. He also worked on the second Fantastic Fourcartoon for DePatie-Freleng Enterprises. Kirby also branched out to storyboarding
and designing for films; part of which led to his drawings being utilized in
the CIA’s “Canadian Caper.” Kirby spent the 80s and 90s working for a
variety of smaller publishers like Pacific Comics, Eclipse Comics and Topps Comics, doing a
lot of creator-owned work. DC executives Jenette Kahn and Paul
Levitz had him re-design the
Fourth World characters for the Super Powers toyline in order to get him some royalties for his creations, and he helped
create The Centurions for Ruby-Spears Productions.
Kirby also spent a great deal of time in a legal battle with Marvel over the
return of his tens of thousands of original pages, which resulted in his only
getting a fraction of his total output for the company back (many of them had
been lost, stolen, or given away as gifts). The last comic Kirby worked on was Phantom Forcefor Image Comics before he died in 1994 from heart failure.
An episode of Superman: The Animated Series, which made extensive use of his Fourth World and modeled the character of
Dan Turpin after him, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles(2003), which adapted an original Mirage
Studios story inspired by
Kirby, were dedicated to his memory.
This weekend, we continue our 2 year anniversary celebration.
As we celebrate, we figured we'd also take the opportunity to celebrate the various other programs enjoying anniversaries this year (at least at an interval of 5). Some we've covered, some we'll get to covering sooner or later, but all of them represent Saturday morning. For this installment, we recognize those shows turning 30. Yeah, let that sink in--you first saw these programs 30 years ago.
Take a walk down memory lane with us, and feel free to share your memories in the comments, or over on our Facebook group or Facebook page. We'd love to hear from you!
Now, without further ado, join us in celebrating...
You've read the entries, now we recap what we've done with Toy Month with the commercials for the actual toys. Maybe you've seen some of them on Saturday mornings. Enjoy!
After the fall of Atari in 1983, a
couple of its employees—particularly Don Kingsborough and Mark Robert
Goldberg—went off to create their own toy company: Worlds of
Wonder (or WoW). Their first big hit came in 1985 when they licensed the
rights to produce and sell Teddy
Ruxpin. In 1986, they had their next big hit with Lazer Tag, created by then-Vice
President of Marketing and Product Development Paul Rago.
In 1977, George Carter III
was inspired by the original Star Warsto create
an arena-based scored game where players would use “lasers” to tag each other.
In 1982, Carter began the process of designing what would become his Photon
arenas. The first opened in 1984 in Dallas, Texas and quickly began to
expand around the country.
As the laser tag craze grew, WoW developed their own version of the game with
Lazer Tag, which allowed people to play anywhere and not just in specified
arenas. It featured a futuristic-looking gun known as the “StarLyte
pistol” and a chest
harness that held a “StarSensor”
affixed with Velcro. Players would shoot their guns at each other, hoping the
laser from the gun would connect to the sensor on the harness, indicating that
their opponent was tagged. Gradually, new
accessories were introduced into the line: a StarCap
that allowed a player to take headshots; a StarVest
which was a fancier version of the harness; an upgrade of the Cap called the StarHelmet;
a StarBase
to serve multiple functions during a game; StarTalk
walkie talkies; and a StarLyte
Pro rifle. Several months prior, Photon released their own home version of laser
tag.
With a new craze on the rise, it was only natural for the concept to be
somehow brought to television. While DiC Entertainment
produced a live-action show based on Carter’s business called Photon that aired in syndication, WoW
partnered with Ruby-Spears Productions
to bring Lazer Tag Academy to
Saturday mornings.
Beth and Jamie Jaren.
In the near-utopian future of 3010, Lazer Tag had become a national
pastime with frequent competitions between the students at the academy. Jamie
Jaren (Noelle Harling) was the Lazer Tag Champion, able to make her weapon, the
StarLyte, do whatever she wanted it to with her mind due to a special power
possessed by those in her bloodline. It could be a blaster, levitate objects,
almost anything.
Drear and the Skuggs.
Trouble came when her teacher, Professor Olanga (Sid McCoy), and his team
uncovered a sunken vessel that contained Draxon Drear (Booker Bradshaw) and a
group of defective genetically engineered humanoid servants called Skuggs (Pat
Fraley and Frank Welker) in suspended animation. Olanga revived Drear and the Skuggs
and discovered that Drear was a distant relative of Jamie’s. What he didn’t
know was that Drear was also a criminal from the year 2061, and upon learning how
to control the StarLyte, he sent himself and the Skuggs back in time after the
creator of the StarLyte technology: Jamie’s ancestor, Beth Jaren (Christina
MacGregor).
Jamie with Beth and Nicky in the 20th Century.
Jamie followed Drear back to the late 20th Century and
befriended Beth, along with her brothers Tom (Billy Jayne) and Nicky (R.J.
Williams), and their dog Ralphie (Welker). Jamie posed as a foreign exchange
student in order to live with her relatives, leaving the elder Jarens, Andrew
(Welker) and Jenna (Tress MacNeille), fairly oblivious to their activities. Together,
they followed Drear through time to prevent his plans of world domination from
succeeding. When an emergency arose or some occasional guidance was needed,
Jamie and Olanga could contact each other through various devices temporarily
turned into holographic communicators.
Things soon took
a dark turn for Lazer Tag and WoW. In April of 1987, someone had seen a
group of college kids playing a night game of Lazer Tag around Central
Elementary School in San
Bernardino County, California. They called the police reporting suspicious
activity and a deputy came to investigate. One of the players, Leonard Falcon,
mistook the deputy for one of his opponents and “fired” upon him. The deputy,
not knowing it was a toy, responded in kind—with real ammunition.
Drear mastering the StarLyte pistol.
The negative press surrounding Falcon’s death, coupled with lower than
expected sales and the stock
market crash of 1987 led to WoW to file for Chapter
11 bankruptcy protection; a contributing factor in the cartoon’s
cancellation after its single season since WoW was funding its production. The
company’s assets were being liquidated the following year and by 1990 WoW was
no more. The year prior, Photon also shut down as the fad has passed. Shortly
after their dissolution, Shoot The Moon
Products purchased the Lazer Tag name and licensed it to Tiger Electronics,
who began producing their own line from 1996-98. Hasbro soon acquired the license in 2004
and began producing Lazer
Tag under their Nerf
banner, as well as developed apps to make smart devices compatible with the
game. Similarly, there had been a resurgence of laser tag arenas and even competitions,
clubs and events around the world featuring the game.
Tiger Electronics' version of Lazer Tag.
Saban acquired the rights to the series through his company, Saban Entertainment,
and sold it into syndicated reruns. It aired in 1993 on the Sci-Fi Channel under the new name Lazer
Patrol since they didn’t also own the rights to the name. It was also given
a new opening sequence.Celebrity
Home Entertainment released three VHS tapes containing several episodes of
the series. Lazer Tag Academy: The Moviewas released in 1989 and featured an
abridged version of the first episode combined with “Sir Tom of Jaren,”
“Redbeard’s Treasure,” “The Olanga Story” and “Jamie and the Spitfires.” Also
released in 1989 was Lazer Tag Academy: Champion’s Biggest
Challengewhich featured the
complete first episode and “Skugg Duggery.” Unlike the prior release, both
episodes were presented in their original formats instead of being made into a
single story. The final VHS in 1991 was named for the single episode it
contained, The Battle Hymn of the Jarens. Curtains and sheets featuring
the characters were produced, as was a View-Master set (although
the Academy name was less prominent
in favor of the brand’s name).
EPISODE GUIDE:
“The Beginning” (9/13/86) – Unknowingly reviving criminal Draxon
Drear, Jamie Jaren follows him back in time to protect her ancestors from him.
“Skuggg Duggery” (9/20/86) – Drear creates a device that he intends to
use to turn the Jarens into Skuggs.
“Yamoto’s Curse” (9/27/86) – NO SYNOPSIS AVAILABLE
“Pay Dirt” (10/4/86) – NO SYNOPSIS AVAILABLE
“Charles’ Science Prioject” (10/11/86) – NO SYNOPSIS AVAILABLE
“The Witch Switch” (10/18/86) – NO SYNOPSIS AVAILABLE
“The Olanga Story” (10/25/86) – Drear goes back in time to kidnap
Olanga’s ancestor and ensure he’ll never be born.
“The Battle Hymn of Jaren’s” (11/1/86) – NO SYNOPSIS AVAILABLE
“Sir Tom of Jaren” (11/8/86) – Rejected for a date, Tom heads to the 6th
Century and ends up getting himself in trouble with King Arthur’s court.
“Redbeard’s Treasure” (11/15/86) – Jamie decides to help an old sea
captain find an ancient treasure by traveling back to the year his map was
made.
“Drear’s Doll” (11/22/86) – NO SYNOPSIS AVAILABLE
“StarLyte on the Orient Express” (11/29/86) – NO SYNOPSIS AVAILABLE
“Jamie and the Spitfires” (12/6/86) – Drear returns to the future and
takes over a gang of rogue academy students in order to help him infiltrate and
conquer the school.
