Monday, August 25, 2014

Tooniversary: Street Sharks (1994)

Street Sharks started with a 3-part miniseries in 1994, which was good enough to merit a full season run the following fall. That "full" season, billed as season 2, lasted 10 episodes, while the third and final season had a whopping 27 for a final total of 40, which would be the standard number for DIC's future projects.

An aquatic copycat, if you will, of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, which was slowly nearing the end of its 1st TV run at the time, the Sharks are 4 brothers searching for their missing father, who, like them, was mutated after being double-crossed by his corrupt partner, Dr. Paradigm, later renamed Dr. Piranoid, since his DNA was crossed with a piranha. While dear old dad was never seen again, the Sharks would gain some allies in the course of the series. Near the end of the run, a 2nd team was introduced in the Dino Vengers, who were spun off into their own series, under the title, Extreme Dinosaurs, which lasted 1 season.

Syndicated by Bohbot for DIC, Street Sharks didn't air on Saturdays, but rather, was placed on Friday mornings in some cities. The series also netted the predictable comics tie-in, in this case from Archie Comics, which was running a series based on the Turtles cartoons at the time. Two three issue series were published, and have not been collected in trade paperback form since.

From season 3, here's the episode, "To Shark or Not to Shark":



As we've previously documented, DIC produced a pair of live-action series that were ripoffs of the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, so it shouldn't surprise anyone they'd try something like this, too. A toy line was issued near the end of the run in 1997, but didn't go very far.

Rating: C.

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