-a recent debate on a geek forum has inspired me to spend sometime on one of my favorite franchises and universes, I will recount the history, the analysis and the story of how it shaped my life-
March 1st 1985.
My sixth grade year was within a few months of ending and the summer before middle school was about to begin. I have vivid memories of that time. I give some credit to this as it was the start of a life changing event. Not only the date itself but the time period I was about to embark - a new school and new friends. I also believe that in my 12 year old’s mind – although excited – I was innately frightened by the big world of a junior high school.
The date was a Friday. I remember the day precisely. Everyday, I would ride my bike home and flick the TV on and watch the afternoon cartoon lineup on KCOP. That line-up varied but consisted of The Jetsons, Flintsones, He-man and Masters of the Universe or Voltron. While watching an episode of the Flintstones in the days prior, an ad played during the commercial breaks. The TV spot was for a special broadcast of a new show. At the time I didn’t think it would be a series but perhaps the “pilot” of a future show. Something similar to the original G.I.Joe and Transformers broadcasts. The G.I.Joe: A Real American Hero TV mini-series and its sequel, The Revenge of Cobra had happened in 1983 and the year before and now there was a new show starting in the fall. Like it, Transformers originally was broadcast as a mini-series and now had a regular series. So, I wasn’t thinking – even at 12 years old – if the show got good ratings perhaps this afternoon special would become a regular series. The ads played for the entire week. I took note of the time. It would air that Friday Mar 1st 4:00pm to 5:30pm (if memory serves- but have a vague thinking it was 4:30 to 6:00).
I couldn’t wait for the week to end. I thought it would be the perfect ending to the week-along with the excitement of the weekend (mainly because I loved watching cartoons on Saturday morning- Spider-man and his Amazing Friends and Super Friends and Smurfs.) I’ve made no denials, I was a TV geek and a sci-fi nerd. I’d rather watch Voltron than play football with the neighborhood kids. I was the kid that got up at 6 am on Saturday to watch cartoons. Yes, 6am!
The show was called Codename: Robotech. If I had a VCR, I would have set it. Yet, the TV was on. Snack and soda was on the table. I was ready to watch.
As the TV spot had run during the week, I thought the show was exactly like G.I. Joe and He-man – cartoon advertising a toy line. The name Robotech was not new to me. Although, the world lacked the internet back in 1985, I was a kid that liked going to Kmart, Alco or TG&Y. I was always on the look out for cool sci-fi toys or comics. In the plastic model kit section of the toy isles was a model kit line called Robotech—model kits of giant robots. My first impression of these kits was they were incredibly detailed and cool. Nothing like Transformers. So, with hearing the show called Codename: Robotech and seeing planes transform into giant robots, I was like “they are giving a story to those robots”. Although, I wasn’t a massive model builder, I had built a few kits like an Airwolf and Japanese Zero. Thus, I figured this show would now mandate I redirect some of my allowance dollars to those model kits. It was nothing new. I had already redirected monies to G.I. Joe comics because of the TV mini-series and shows like Go Bots and Transformers got me into buying Cop-tur and Bumble-bee.
I remember the show starting and I recall watching the iconic film frames crawl up the screen. I was hooked. 90 minutes later the show was over. Yet, I will be totally honest, I didn’t understand it. This awesome show had flickered on my TV for nearly two hours yet I thought there was too much story for the time allowed. I had trouble following it. It wasn’t until later that I figured out that it was an extended version of Episode 14 Gloval’s Report-an episode recounting the SDF-1’s journey up to that point in the show. And it wasn’t until years later—when the DVDs were originally released—that I got to see this “pilot” again. I do know that when I turned the TV off, I thought it was the coolest cartoon I had ever seen. I didn’t care if I hadn’t understood it. It was already rivaling Battle of the Planets, Voltron and G.I. Joe.
-what’s next? Hear the accounts of the TV show’s regular run. My original thoughts and feelings along with the road bumps I would encounter with enjoying this show-
