Thundarr the Barbarian

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Cover to Thundarr the Barbarian home video From left to right Ookla, Ariel and Thundarr
Cover to Thundarr the Barbarian home video
From left to right Ookla, Ariel and Thundarr

Thundarr the Barbarian was a Saturday morning animated television series, produced by Ruby-Spears Productions. It was broadcast during the early 1980s. Action figures of the three main characters were released by Toynami in 2004.

Contents

[edit] Concept and characters

Twenty-one half-hour episodes were produced by Ruby-Spears Productions -- an independent animation house formed by Joe Ruby and Ken Spears, the uncredited co-creators of Scooby-Doo -- from October 1980 to September 1982, when the show went off the air. The show ran on the ABC network. Reruns of the program appeared on NBC's Saturday morning lineup in 1983.

Loosely inspired by R.E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian, Thundarr the Barbarian was set in a future (at the time of production) post-apocalyptic wasteland divided into kingdoms or territories--the majority of which are ruled by wizards--and whose ruins typically featured recognizable geographical features from the United States, such as Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Mount Rushmore, New York City, or Washington, DC. Other episodes with recognizable settings are located in Central America, while one is in London. Another notable feature of this future Earth is that the Moon is now in two pieces, though both pieces still orbit in proximity to one another, and seem to orbit at roughly the same height as the intact Moon once did. The shattered moon and the ruins of the former human civilization were supposedly caused by the passage of a runaway planet between the Earth and the Moon, which, from scenes shown in the opening sequence, caused radical changes in the Earth's climate, geography, and tidal effects, the latter presumably because of the damage to the Moon. However, by the time period in which the series is set (2000 years later circa 3994 A.D.), the Earth and Moon seem to have settled into a new balance.

In this setting, Thundarr, a muscular warrior, and his companions Princess Ariel (who was a formidable sorceress) and the Wookiee-like Ookla the Mok battled evil wizards who combined magical spells with technologies from the pre-catastrophe world. Further Star Wars influences can be seen in Thundarr's weapon of choice, the "Sun Sword", which projects a blade-like beam of energy when activated, and can be deactivated so that it is only a hilt. The Sun Sword is magically linked to Thundarr and as such, only he can use it.

Bob Ridgely was Thundarr's voice actor, frequently uttering such pronouncements as "Demon dogs!" and "Lords of Light!" Princess Ariel was played by Nellie Bellflower. Henry Corden was Ookla.

Comic book writer-artist Jack Kirby worked on the production design for the show. While many people believe that Kirby was the primary designer of the show (mainly due to his similarly themed Kamandi: The Last Boy On Earth), the main characters were in fact designed by fellow comic book writer-artist Alex Toth, who also designed the popular character Space Ghost for Saturday morning television. Toth, however, was unavailable to continue working on the show, so most of the wizards and other villains and secondary characters that appear on the show were designed by Kirby. He was brought onto the show at the recommendation of comic writer Steve Gerber and comics and animation veteran Mark Evanier, who realized that the same imagination that produced Kamandi could contribute significantly to the series. Indeed, the evil wizard Gemini, the only repeating villain on the show, resembles Darkseid, an infamous Kirby villain.

The show itself was actually the creation of Steve Gerber, creator of Marvel Comics' Howard the Duck. The name Ookla actually comes from UCLA. Gerber and friend Martin Pasko were having dinner in the Westwood area one night during the time Gerber was writing the bible for the series. Gerber commented to Pasko that he hadn't yet decided upon a name for the Wookiee-like character the network insisted be added to the series, over Gerber's objections. As the two walked past the gate to the UCLA campus, Pasko quipped, "Why don't you call him 'Ucla'?" Pasko later became one of several screenwriters also known for their work in comics, such as Roy Thomas and Gerry Conway, to contribute to the show. After writing several scripts, singly and in collaboration with Gerber, Pasko became a story editor on the second season. Other writers included Buzz Dixon and Mark Jones.

The opening narration to the show is as follows:

The year: 1994. From out of space comes a runaway planet, hurtling between the Earth and the Moon, unleashing cosmic destruction! Man's civilization is cast in ruin!
Two thousand years later, Earth is reborn...
A strange new world rises from the old: a world of savagery, super science, and sorcery. But one man bursts his bonds to fight for justice! With his companions Ookla the Mok and Princess Ariel, he pits his strength, his courage, and his fabulous Sunsword against the forces of evil.
He is Thundarr, the Barbarian!

[edit] Episodes and locations

[edit] Season 1 (1980-1981)

[edit] Season 2 (1981-1982)

[edit] Voices

[edit] Credits

  • Executive Producers: Joe Ruby, Ken Spears, Peter Zeamus
  • Produced by: Jerry Eisenberg
  • Directed by: Charles A. Nichols, John Kimball, Rudy Larriva
  • Story Direction: Kurt Connor, Gordon Kent, Dick Sebast, Hank Tucker, Doug Wildey
  • Supervising Story Director: John Dorman
  • Location Director: Bill Reed
  • Voice Director: Alan Dinehart
  • Art & Stories Design: Alex Toth, Jack Kirby, Mike Ploog, Doug Wildey, Gil Kane
  • Character Design: Jerry Eisenberg, Jack Kirby, Alex Toth
  • Models: Alan Huck, Michael Mitchell, Edgar R. Saller
  • Model Supervisor: Ric Gonzales
  • Layout Production Unit Supervisor: John Ahern
  • Layout: Hal La Ferre, Margaret Harrison, Debra Pugh, Greg Garcia, Karl Hepworth, Richard Graham, Guy Smith, Marcia Bales, Charles Hards, Stuart Heimdal, Dave Sharp, Doug Vandergrift, Ray Smith, Lyle Bends, Keith Sargeant, Boyd Kirkland, Elaine K. Hultgren
  • Layout Supervisor: Larry Huber
  • Background Layout Supervisor: David High
  • Background Layout: Kathleen Vaslett, John F. Guerin, Bruce Zick
  • Titles: John Dorman
  • Lettering: Robert Schaefer
  • Graphics: Iraj Paran, Tom Wogatzke
  • Studio Manager: Jeff Cooke
  • Music by: Dean Elliott
  • Supervising Film Editor: Chip Yaras
  • Laboratory: C.F.I.
  • Recording: Heider Scoring Services
  • Dubbing: T.V. Recorders

[edit] References in popular culture

  • A Cartoon Network promotional bumper features Thundarr, Fred Flintstone, and Chicken (of Cow and Chicken fame) trying to find a parking spot in Fred's foot-powered car.
  • Thundarr appears as a henchman in the Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law episode "The Dabba Don".
  • The NEN parody show Meltdown devoted an entire half-hour episode to an animated parody of Thundarr, which itself contained countless parodies and ribs at '80s cartoons. The episode is most likely from 1995 since the outdated 1994 year cited in the opening narration is used as a constant running gag ("Last year, from out of space..."). The parody's premise had Thundarr wandering a post-apocalyptic Earth searching for root beer; during the course of the show, Thundarr battles and beheads an obvious He-Man knock-off character who insults his haircut, explores the ruins of a train similar to the USA Cartoon Express, and fights a wizard who wants to turn Thundarr, Ariel, and Ookla's horses into food in a Soylent Green type plot. Any mentions of a "lost episode" of Thundarr are probably actually references to this Meltdown version. The parody episode's intro was later re-used as one of the rotating segments before Meltdown commercial bumpers, but the episode seemed to be absent from post-'90s airings of the show, ostensibly due to copyright issues.
  • Ookla the Mok is the name of a filk/rock band.
  • An episode of Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends shows "Ookla, Ariel, we ride!" on a list of catch-phrases.
  • In the episode "Good Duck Hunting" of Duck Dodgers, Duck Dodgers proudly displays a Thundarr the Barbarian poster featuring Thundarr, Ookla and Ariel in his ship.

[edit] External links

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