Hasbro's My Little Pony toy line marks its 30th anniversary next year. Modern-day "Bronies" (male fans of the current Friendship is Magic series) might not know that the first Pony cartoon also came out in 1984, as a made-for-TV movie.
In fact, there were two such movies that set up the launch of My Little Pony & Friends, which Marvel Productions & Sunbow introduced in syndication in 1986. The series lasted two seasons, but Pony was brought back in 1992, meaning that Friendship is Magic is the 3rd series incarnation of the franchise.
As the title of the 1986 series implies, this was an anthology series, with Pony as the lead feature, along with three rotating backups, all based on other Hasbro properties: Glo Friends, Moondreamers, & Potato Head Kids, the latter of course spun from the Mr. Potato Head toy franchise.
In sharp contrast to the current series, the Ponies had help from some humans in the original series. I have to believe Hasbro decided against following that same tack with the present series. The humans, obviously, were meant to represent the viewers themselves, a time honored practice that has since ended.
My Little Pony Informer (naturally) uploaded the 2-part season 2 episode, "Flight to Cloud Castle", from 1987:
I didn't see enough of this series to warrant a rating.
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