ProStars
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ProStars was a Saturday morning cartoon show produced by DiC on NBC in 1991.
Originally intended to air on ESPN, the show centers on Michael Jordan, Bo Jackson and Wayne Gretzky fighting crime and helping children, often protecting the environment as well. These three were chosen to represent the pinnacle of all four major American professional sports in the early 1990s. While Jordan and Gretzky are are broadly associated with their respective sports, Jackson was included since he could represent both football and baseball and was a high-profile celebrity off the field as well. A reference to his "Bo Knows" Nike ad-campaign was worked into almost every episode.
The stars appear in live action sequences before the show, and often answer questions from kids at the conclusion. Normally this is done solely by Gretzky and Jackson—often in separate sound stages and edited to appear as if talking to each other. Jordan's filmed bits are almost always one line or two, and not part of the skits before the episode. However, none of the celebrities provided their own voices for the animated segments of ProStars.
The ProStars franchise also included a licensed breakfast cereal.
When the show first came out, the original theme song, "We are ProStars", was an homage to the song "We Will Rock You", by the rock group, Queen (see links below).
[edit] Characters
Each character on ProStars has one overarching character trait. This is especially noticeable in the ProStars themselves.
- Wayne Gretzky (voiced by Townsend Coleman) nearly always plays the role of comic relief. Inexplicably, his mind is always on food.
- Bo Jackson (voiced by Dave Fennoy) provides the proverbial muscle for the heroes. He is immensely strong and has a bit of a mean streak. His strength often approaches superhuman levels, such as in the series opening where he uses a gigantic tree trunk like a club against a logging robot.
- Michael Jordan (voiced by Dorian Harewood) is the leader of the troupe. He is exceptionally smart and talented with complicated contraptions.
- Mom (voiced by Susan Silo), a quasi-Yiddish and Jewish mother stereotype, is the Q to the ProStars' James Bond. She constantly invents wacky gadgets loosely based on sports equipment for the heroes to use. The ProStars spend all their free time in "Mom's Gym," and possibly live there too.
- Denise (voiced by Diana Barrows) is an attractive young apprentice to Mom. She wants to help the ProStars, yet rarely makes an impact.
