Daytime Heroes: Spiral Zone (1987)

In the mid-to-late 80's, it was assumed that kids would gravitate to every toy-centric cartoon being produced.

However, as the 1-season failures at Ruby-Spears of Rambo and Centurions proved, that wasn't always the case.

Spiral Zone, imported from Japan in a sense in that the original concept came from one of the country's top toy producers, Bandai, was meant to be a counter-point to another 1st year adventure cartoon set in the future, Filmation's final series, Bravestarr. While Bravestarr had a more of a Western or Steampunk theme mixed into the future, Spiral Zone represented the dreary, dark, dystopian future, not quite unlike 1980's Thundarr The Barbarian, which was set much further into the future.

The villain was a brilliant but demented scientist who already had near total control of the world by enslaving mankind. Tonka, which had licensed Challenge of The Go-Bots and the comedy series, Pound Puppies, to Hanna-Barbera, chose to work with an independent studio this time. Bad move. Spiral Zone, and, for that matter, Bravestarr, were both cancelled after 1 season, sending a message that the future wasn't something to be speculated upon or trifled with for impressionable young minds.

The voice cast had some of the usual suspects of the period. Frank Welker (Smurfs, Real Ghostbusters) reunited with an old friend in Dan Gilveazan (ex-Spider-Man & His Amazing Friends), while the cast also featured familiar voices in Neil Ross (ex-Rambo) & Michael Bell (Smurfs and a bazillion commercials).

Locally, cable viewers had up to three chances to watch the show, as it aired on the local Fox affiliate, as well as WPIX & WSBK.

Here's the intro:



Now, I get that the upbeat music's supposed to offer encouragement for viewers. I think part of the reason the show bombed was because in some cities, it aired opposite something like DuckTales or other components of the Disney Afternoon (not the case in Albany, Boston, & NYC), or soap operas like General Hospital. Game over.

Rating: B.