He-Man and the Masters of the Universe

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He-Man and the Masters of the Universe
He-Man and the Masters of the Universe
Genre Action, Adventure, Animation
Creator(s) Mattel, Filmation
Starring John Erwin
Linda Gary
Alan Oppenheimer
Lou Scheimer
Erika Scheimer
Country of origin Flag of United States United States
No. of episodes 130 (List of episodes)
Production
Running time 22 min.
Broadcast
Original channel Syndication
Original run September 30, 1983 – December 8, 1985
Chronology
Related shows
Links
IMDb profile
TV.com summary

He-Man and the Masters of the Universe is an American animated television series produced by Filmation based on Mattel's successful toy line Masters of the Universe. It made its television debut in 1983 and ran until 1985, consisting of two seasons of 65 episodes each. Reruns continued to air in syndication until 1988, then moved to USA Network, where it aired from September 1989 to September 1990. The show, often referred to as simply He-Man, was one of the most popular animated children's shows of the 1980s and has retained a heavy following to this day.

Contents

[edit] Show profile

The show takes place on the fictitious planet of Eternia, a land of magic, myth and fantasy. The show's lead character is Prince Adam, the young son of Eternia's rulers (King Randor and Queen Marlena). Prince Adam is a seemingly cowardly, blond muscleman dressed in a Cote d'Azur chemise. However, Prince Adam possesses a magic sword, and when he holds it aloft and says the magic words "By the Power of Grayskull! I have the Power!" he is transformed into He-Man, the most powerful man in the universe. He-Man is a brave, blond muscleman in a baldric and loincloth. Together with his close allies, Battle Cat, Teela, Man-At-Arms and Orko, He-Man uses his powers to defend Eternia from the evil forces of Skeletor, a tyrannical warlord with a skull for a face. Skeletor's main goal is to conquer the mysterious fortress of Castle Grayskull, from which He-Man draws his powers. Were he to succeed, Skeletor would be able to conquer not only Eternia, but the whole universe.

Despite the limited animation techniques that were used to produce the series, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe was notable for breaking the boundaries of censorship that had severely restricted the narrative scope of children's TV programming in the 1970s. For the first time in years, a cartoon series could feature a muscular superhero who was actually allowed to hit people, though he still couldn't use his sword often (more often than not He-Man opted to pick up his opponents and toss them away rather than hit them). The cartoon was controversial in that it was produced in connection with marketing a line of toys; advertising to children was itself controversial during this period. In Britain, advertising regulations forbade commercials for He-Man toys to accompany the program itself. In similar fashion to other shows at the time (notably G.I. Joe), an attempt to mitigate the negative publicity generated by this controversy was made by including a "life lesson" or "moral of the story" at the end of each episode. This moral was usually directly tied to the action or central theme of that episode.

The cartoon series was also particularly remarkable because it was the very first animated series produced directly for syndication, as opposed to all other syndicated cartoons of the time which were re-runs of old Saturday morning cartoons.

The show was so successful that it spawned a spin-off series, She-Ra: Princess of Power following the adventures of He-Man's sister. Mattel's subsequent attempts to relaunch the He-Man toy line have also led to the short-lived 'sequel' series The New Adventures of He-Man in the early 1990s, and an update of the series for a contemporary audience in 2002.

It is also noted for featuring early script-writing work from later Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski, and Paul Dini of the 90s Batman-fame.

[edit] Cast list

[edit] Episodes

Main article: List of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe Episodes

[edit] DVD releases

He-Man and the Masters of the Universe has been released on DVD by BCI Eclipse LLC.

Cover Art DVD Name Ep # Region 1 Release Date
He-Man and the Masters of the Universe: Season One Vol 1 33 Oct 18, 2005
He-Man and the Masters of the Universe: Season One Vol 2 32 February 14, 2006
He-Man and the Masters of the Universe: Season Two Vol 1 33 June 6, 2006
He-Man and the Masters of the Universe: Season Two Vol 2 32 September 19, 2006
He-Man and She-Ra: A Christmas Special 1 December 6, 2005

The following Best-of collections were also released prior to the release of the season sets:

  • The Best of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe: 10 Episode Collector's Edition - released July 12, 2005
  • The Best of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe: Top 5 Episodes Season 1 - released August 23, 2005 (UMD)
  • The Best of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe: Top 5 Episodes Season 2 - released August 23, 2005 (UMD)

[edit] Trivia

  • The episode "Diamond Ray of Disappearance" (MU004) is the nearest thing to a debut episode. It was written as the first episode for the cartoon and has an extended sequence at the start which carefully introduces all the villains. Curiously, little effort is made to introduce the heroes.
  • The order is further confused by successive VHS and DVD releases which have often followed the production code order with little regard for the chronological sequence of the episodes. As a result of this, the first episode shown is often The Cosmic Comet (MU001).
  • From mid-1999 through until the beginning of the war in Iraq in 2003, an American special forces compound located in war-torn Kosovo was called "Castle Grayskull", because its heavily guarded fortifications provided an ominous look reminding personnel of the castle in the cartoon.[citation needed]
  • Lou Scheimer credited some of his voices to his pseudonym, Erik Gunden.
  • Filmation had previously produced Star Trek: The Animated Series (1973–74).
    • Occasionally, modified background character and set designs can be seen in MOTU. The series also used many of the stock sound effects used by both Star Trek: The Original Series and Star Trek: The Animated Series.
    • Several MOTU stories are notably similar to Star Trek ones. Most notable is the second season episode "The Arena", in which a godlike entity forces He-Man and Skeletor to do battle; very similar to Star Trek: The Original Series’s first season episode "Arena", in which powerful entities force Captain Kirk to battle a lizard-like monster on a desolate planet.
  • He-Man and the Masters of the Universe has often been compared to ThunderCats, resulting in more than a few fan fiction crossovers and fan polls as to which team of heroes would win in a brawl: He-Man and his Masters of the Universe, or Lion-O and his ThunderCats.[1]
  • There is an enduring urban legend about the so-called "Conan toy line". The story is that the Mattel Toy Company started to make some Conan action figures, but after viewing the film, the executives realized that they couldn't afford to be associated with a film with such graphic sex and violence. They gave their doll blonde hair, called him "He-man", and thus created "He-Man and the Masters of the Universe" (1983). The legend is most likely false though since the first He-man action figures were published in 1981.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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