-take note that most of the accounts below are that from a perspective of a 12 year old boy from 1985. 25 years have past and much as been learned. Yet, this is what I thought back then. Stay with me and I'll show you how it changed my life...
March 4, 1985
That was the premiere of the regular run of Robotech on KCOP out of Los Angeles. Three days earlier, I had watch the pilot, Codename: Robotech, in awe and fascination. I feel honored that I can truly say I was there from the beginning and didn't discover this show via reruns or DVD. Years later, and with many, many hours of research (mostly done in the last decade), I found that Robotech only premiered in a few large markets back in March 1985. The two big areas was New York and Los Angeles. Many other stations wouldn't get the show until much later in 1985. I guess I can call myself lucky that I happened to live in a small New Mexico town that transmitted several Los Angeles affiliates on its local cable provider. I still remember the four channels we'd get from L.A. There was KCOP, KTTV, KTLA and KHJ. I recall that I mainly watched KCOP and KTTV. These two channels boasted a large afternoon lineup of cartoons and other after-school shows. KTLA and KHJ mostly played movies and old re-runs of sitcoms from the 1970s.
I made a point to be on our gold couch every afternoon at 4:30 (I think it was 4:30, I have dug in my memories the best I can so forgive me if that is wrong. I know the show would be on at 4:30 on another network years later). UPDATE: After endless hours of research on the interwebs and finding some old newspaper TV listings. Robotech on KCOP was on at 4:30 pm Pacific, thus it was 5:30 pm Mountain. Roswell was in the Mountain Time Zone. So, deep down in my memories I remembered the announcer and commercials stating it was on at 4:30 – which was right yet it just aired one hour later in our area. Now that I know this, it brings back even more memories of when and where(s) of me watching Robotech. After every episode, I would eagerly anticipate the next one. I couldn't get enough of Robotech.
After watching nearly 36 episodes of what fans would call the 1st generation of Robotech, I had grown quite fond of it. Each day I wondered if Rick would be able to be with Minmei or if he would choose Lisa Hayes instead. I daydreamed about Veritechs. I would doodle large battles between Zentraedi Battlepods and Destroids. Nearly a month and half later, a sad day happened. April 22, 1985. This was the final episode of what would be called the Macross Saga. When the episode ended. I had no idea that it was really the last episode with Rick, Lisa, Minmei and Max. Like the conclusion of Force of Arms, I figured they would leap a few years into the future and we'd see the new SDF-3 going off into the stars. Perhaps this journey through space, like the Vehicle Team Voltron, was some of the mecha and characters I recalled from the opening credits. See after watching those opening credits 36 times, I was starting to analyze every component. There were motorcycles and a lovely blond girl in really cool battle armor pointing a rifle at the audience. I had no clue how these images or characters would fit into the overall story of Robotech.
I was wrong. On April 23, 1985, the first episode of (what we would dub the 2nd Generation) of Robotech began. It was titled, Dana's Story. At first I didn't mind it too much. They had spear headed it with lots of scenes from the previous episode. An unknown speaker spoke of the first Robotech War and how a new generation was ready to defend the Earth. It was Robotech so I watched. By the second and third episodes, I found myself not liking it. I think I was too attached to the original characters of Rick, Lisa and Minmei. Yet, the mecha was cool. I really liked the new samurai looking battle armor. So I stuck with it. (I'm glad I did, because in the long run the Masters Saga would end up being my favorite of all three generations of Robotech. Mostly because of the armor and mecha designs. The show also felt more militaristic vs the Macross counterpart.)
Yet, like all good things, even this version of Robotech would come to an end. The final episode of the 2nd Generation was on May 24, 1985. I remember school was nearly over. Sixth grade was coming to a close. In a few short months, I'd be at a new junior high and in the seventh grade. Yet first I had to prepare myself once again that my show was ending. Except this time, I wasn't so shocked that it had. The end of Robotech Masters had given us the fear and anticipation of an invading Invid army. I was really interested in watching this unfold. Again, at only 12 years old and knowing nothing of the production of Robotech, I thought we'd see Dana and a new band of Robotech fighters go off into space to divert the invasion. Or at least see, the Armies of the Southern Cross defend the earth from the Invid Horde.
I was wrong again. Instead we got a whole New Generation of Robotech defenders. As I said before, I wasn't so shocked that the show had taken another turn and jumped ahead. I embraced it with open arms. Watching Scott Bernard and the 21st Mars Division attack the Earth in a D-Day like invasion to free the Earth from crazy Invids hooked my attention and imagination. Unlike my unwillingness of the first few episodes of Masters, I was ready for this New Generation. Watching a motorcycle transform into a miniature battloid and fighting the crab-like Invid was incredibly cool. I couldn't wait for more episodes.
Then some bad news happened. My mother told me that school was out and I was scheduled to spend a few weeks at my Grandmother's house in Alamogordo. This wouldn't have been the bad news as I took it if my grandmother had cable. Since she didn't have cable, I knew that I would miss over two weeks of this new generation of Robotech. But wait, my mother had mentioned she had scheduled cable installation at my grandmothers. (see the reason my grandmother didn't have cable was she didn't want to pay the $15 a month for it. My mother was offering to have it installed and pay it each month so my grandmother would have something to do and watch.) Now, I was possibly only going to miss a couple of episodes in the time it would take to get there and have the cable man install the channels.
Well, as plans go, they never go as planned. The cable installation was delayed nearly 2 weeks. By the time my grandmother would get cable, the New Generation would be over. Yet, I tuned into Robotech like a hungry dog. I was shocked and dismayed to see they were showing episode 4, The Long Wait. I was now confused. Yet, my 12 year old mind raced to find an answer. The show must have gone back into re-runs because the season was over. I wasn't sure how everything ended but I hopefully would be able to catch up in the next few months. And by then, a new season of Robotech would be on the air for more awesome interstellar combat and transforming veritechs.
Well, not exactly how it would go...
-Stay tuned as I tell you how my life with Robotech would hit its first road block and how I would cope...
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