If there was any singular reason why Space Stars was cancelled after 1 season, it would be the square peg in the round hole that was Astro & the Space Mutts.
Spun off from The Jetsons, Astro (Don Messick) was rebooted as a comic sidekick to Space Ace (Michael Bell), and with some new canine pals, to boot. For serious superhero fans, this was the kitchen break part of the show, if you will, a campy comedy relief segment amidst the exploits of Space Ghost, The Herculoids, & The Teen Force.
Now, scope out the opener, "Night of the Crab":
Clearly, Astro just didn't fit in, and would return when The Jetsons was revived in 1985. If Hanna-Barbera really wanted this to work, Astro would've been a stand-alone series instead.
Rating: D.
2 comments:
If ever there was a "Which of these does NOT belong" segment in Space Stars it was definitely the Space Mutts!!
If they had been cut maybe the other segments could have been a bit longer and given the writers the opportunity to better develop their stories.
If you notice, too, in the title card, the copyright date is 1980. Space Stars was delayed a year because of a writer's strike in Hollywood, and that would also prove costly. Looking back, maybe they were better off spinning Astro into a singular half-hour series away from Space Stars.
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