Our Famous First episode for May is the series premiere of Static Shock, which, over the course of four years, was shuffled in and out of Kids' WB!'s lineup due to the network being committed to anime imports such as Pokemon and having next to no space for "domestic" cartoons to air on a consistent basis. Such was the ratings war between WB & Fox in those days for the kiddo's.
Virgil Hawkins, aka Static (Phil LaMarr, MadTV), is cocky and talkative, just like Spider-Man when he started out nearly 40 years earlier. You think maybe the web-head was an inspiration to the late Dwayne McDuffie, Static's creator? Check out "Shock to The System":
Edit, 6/12/2020: Unfortunately, Dailymotion deleted the episode. In its place is an excerpt picked up from YouTube:
Too bad Chumptoon Network & Boomerang can't be bothered to even schedule this show once in a while.
Rating: A.
3 comments:
Apparently, The WB network ended Static Shock after 4 seasons because the show couldn't secure a toy line. The belief is (or was at the time) that black action figures don't sell very well.
There were some things that I liked about Static Shock and some things that I didn't. I didn't love the show, but I didn't hate it either.
In addition to the merch thing listed above, I tend to think that the aeon flux of celebrity guest stars and crossovers with other popular DC superheroes in the later seasons may also been a contributing factor to Static Shock's demise. They made it look like the show couldn't stand on its' own merits.
Guys:
The mindset at WB was that Static needed guest stars to draw extra eyeballs to the show, because luring in the audience that read the books a few years earlier wasn't enough to sustain the show.
Would it have continued had it been a 1st run on Cartoon Network? I don't know.
Post a Comment