Saturday Supercast 22 - He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, Pt 2
August 31st, 2009Hello everyone, I’m really excited to be announcing episode 22 of the Saturday Supercast this week! In this episode Jerzy, Kevin and Shawn finish off our exploration of the first season of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe.
Again, for those not familiar, in the series He-Man and his friends, the Sorceress, Man-At-Arms, Teela, Ram Man, Orko, and Stratos wage an endless battle defending Castle Greyskull and the planet Eternia against Skeletor and his evil warriors, Beastman, Evil-Lyn, Trap Jaw, Merman, and Triklops, who want to conquer and rule the world.
The series, produced by Filmation Studios in 1983, was a landmark cartoon mixing fantasy and science-fiction, reinvigorating children’s television with a sense of action and adventure, as well as helping to instill a solid sense of morality for an entire generation of kids. Masters of the Universe was also one of the first series to break through the governmental ban on interweaving existing toy lines and cartoons, not to mention paving the way for first-run syndicated animation, defining the distribution format for shows through the 80s and 90s.
Join us as we deconstruct the series, diving into another four of our favorite episodes:
One of the most highly regarded in the series, Evilseed…
…as well as The Dragon’s Gift…
Quest for the Sword…
…and Prince Adam No More.
In this episode we touch on a lot of the talent that made He-Man possible including series producers Lou Schiemer (who also voiced half of the cast of characters including Orko and Stratos), voice actors John Erwin (He-Man and Beastman) and Alan Openheimer (Skeletor and Man-At-Arms), as well as some of the writers and artists such as Larry DiTillio, Tom Sito, and Michael Reaves.
We also dig into the immediately identifiable synthesizer music of He-Man (as well as its Wagnerian themes, lush quality, and a debate on whether or not it helps to bind the sci-fi and fantasy genres of the series or if just dates it), the series’ budgetary constraints as both boon and bane, 65 episode syndicated seasons vs. the more traditional (at the time) 13 episode Saturday morning seasons, jump-scares, Evilseed’s secret under his robes revealed, Billie Holiday’s haunting rendition of the tragic song “Strange Fruit”, Star Trek the Animated Series, solving problems with book smarts and the RIF (Reading is Fundamental) program, Ray Harryhausen, the Rankin/Bass Hobbit cartoon, horrible Irish stereotypes, the Trash Heap from Fraggle Rock, Ents, the Visionaries, He-Man inspiring public office, Andy Mangels and his awesome work on the BCI Ink & Paint editions of He-Man on DVD, Bustatoon’s He-Man & She-Ra Blog, Matty Collector’s amazing new line of Masters of the Universe action figures, and the insanity of the Bollywood He-Man stage show!
If you’re curious about watching this great series you can purchase a copy of season 1-part 1, or season 1-part 2 at Amazon, or head on over to Hulu where you can watch 13 of the 1st season episodes for free.
As for us, well you can find more of Jerzy’s work at:
Make Like a Tree Comics
jdrozd.blogspot.com
Art & Story Podcast
Kevin is freelance illustrator, comic creator, and podcaster whose work can be found at:
Kevin Cross.net
Big Illustration Party Time Podcast
…and Shawn is a blogger and irregular podcaster whose stuff you can find at:
Branded in the 80s.com
If you have any questions, comments, or heck, even complaints, you can drop us a line at Saturday Supercast!
The Sugary Serials theme song was preformed by Umberto.
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August 31st, 2009 at 2:40 pm
Can I just say that I LOVE Saturday Supercast? Jerzy, Shawn and Kevin add awesome insights to these cartoons that I never would have thought of. Episode 2 of He-Man was great just like the rest. I haven’t seen these cartoons since I was a kid and now I’ve yearning (is that too powerful of a word) to see these cartoons again. Been too long. Anyways, keep up the great podcast. Hope to hear more and more insightful commentary on the shows I grew up on.
August 31st, 2009 at 7:46 pm
In the recent reboot, the first episode after the three-part pilot is similar to “Prince Adam No More”. In “The Courage of Adam”, he hopes that if he steps up, He-Man might not be needed as much and he can gain respect from Teela and Randor. It has a similar resolution, too. However, he does still step up as Adam later on, and goes on missions to help bring the kingdoms together against Skeletor’s forces. (One of which is one of my favorite scenes in the series, where Adam gets to tweak Teela for a change.
)
“The Problem With Power” is still available at Joost, which also carries the old shows, if you want to check it out.
http://www.joost.com/0078ltz/t/He-Man-The-Problem-With-Power
I saw part of that Bollywood clip before, and that’s just weird.
Also checked out the Matty MOTUs. They look awesome even at $20.00. I didn’t see Battle Cat, no mini-comics listed, both of which is disappointing, but I really want Orko in this style. I really didn’t like the remake Orko figure.
September 1st, 2009 at 2:23 am
Mark - You can shout it from the hilltops Mr. Harmon. Seriously though, thanks, it’s really cool to hear that people are getting something out of the show and I’m always stoked to hear that I could help someone reconnect with cartoons from the 80s.
ShadowWing - Battle Cat is one of the Matty Collector figures that’s coming down the pike this year. They announced the entire 2009 - 1st half of 2010 line-up at comic con. Haven’t heard a peep about Orko yet, but I’m sure he’s coming. If nothing else, he might be included as a to scale accessory with a future figure, sort of how Matty included Slimer with their Egon Ghostbusters figure.
September 6th, 2009 at 9:26 am
Since this is moderated, I feel comfortable posting this knowing that if it shouldn’t go here, they can just reject it (and hopefully not put me on a spam list.) Inspired by the MOTU reviews, I decided to do this week’s “Showcase” review on the Price of Power episode (which I hadn’t seen in years), and it is as good as you all said.
http://bwmedia.wordpress.com/2009/09/05/saturday-night-showcase-he-man-the-problem-with-power/
I did see where Zoar is coming with Teela. I would think they’d wait for the Sorceress figure. I remember being disappointed that toon Zoar was nothing like the Zoar in the pack-in mini-comics. (I love pack-in/promo mini-comics.)
September 8th, 2009 at 3:13 am
Hey Shadow, no worries about pointing to the He-Man episode review you did. If you’d like, our Facebook page is another fun place to share this stuff:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/pages/Saturday-Supercast/115662849869?ref=ts
We’re sort of treating that page as our forums, so if you want to help get the conversation started over there, it’s just as good a place as any.
You had some great points about the Problem with Power episode, in particular the motivation for Adam to pick up the sword again being a little off. I also loved the connection to a Swatcats episode. That’s a cartoon I missed out on when it was originally on TV.
Also, my hope is that in the Matty Collector line we get a scale size version of Orko with the re-release of He-Man in November, or at least another figure down the line. That would be awesome.
September 8th, 2009 at 2:01 pm
I barely use my MySpace and now everyone who insisted I needed MySpace now thinks I should be on Facebook (although some of the cast has changed). You’re all out to drive me insane, aren’t you? Shows what you know, I’m half way there already.
September 14th, 2009 at 10:33 pm
Another great episode, thanks! Once again, I agree with your favorite quotes:
“A sword or any other symbol doesn’t make a person a good leader. What does is intelligence, respect for others, and an unselfish desire to do good.”
- - -
He-Man: “Give me my sword and live in peace.”
Man-at-Arms: “You’re going to have to fight him for it.”
He-Man: “I won’t. These people don’t know what fighting is. I won’t be the one who teaches them.”
- - -
Skeletor: “Don’t you ever feel like doing something evil?”
He-Man: “Don’t *you* ever feel like doing something good?”
Perfection!