Full G1 episodes being officially released via Hasbro Pulse YouTube channel

[Steamed Hams]

And now US G1 is complete.
The characters introduced in Rebirth could have carried a season, they were great and it's a shame they didn't. I just didn't like Takara Headmasters for destroying the individuality of the teams like the triple changers and combiners.

 

[Anonymous X]

I did watch some episodes out of curiosity, because being from the UK, only the first season was ever shown here on television in the 1980s. So I’ve not watched much of the cartoon. I’m… Not a fan, honestly. Saw one episode that had a funny line about “dinosaur electrons” and Trypticon stealing famous buildings, but then had some amazingly stereotypical xenophobic about Middle Eastern countries. Which I honestly couldn’t tell was played for deliberate laughs or not. Animation was pretty sloppy, and I could barely hear the dialogue over the booming, repetitive background music. Fair play to the voice actors and director for giving each character fairly distinctive voices, though. I don’t think there’s much here if you don’t already have a nostalgic attachment to the cartoon.

 

[mx-01 archon]

I did watch some episodes out of curiosity, because being from the UK, only the first season was ever shown here on television in the 1980s. So I’ve not watched much of the cartoon. I’m… Not a fan, honestly. Saw one episode that had a funny line about “dinosaur electrons” and Trypticon stealing famous buildings, but then had some amazingly stereotypical xenophobic about Middle Eastern countries. Which I honestly couldn’t tell was played for deliberate laughs or not. Animation was pretty sloppy, and I could barely hear the dialogue over the booming, repetitive background music. Fair play to the voice actors and director for giving each character fairly distinctive voices, though. I don’t think there’s much here if you don’t already have a nostalgic attachment to the cartoon.

It was certainly a different time. 80s cartoons were blunt as a sack of rocks, hokey as all hell, and filled with questionable stereotypes. And they're so full of straight-faced nonsense that they're still a lot of fun, but only if you can keep yourself from taking them too seriously.

 

[PrimalxConvoy]

I did watch some episodes out of curiosity, because being from the UK, only the first season was ever shown here on television in the 1980s. So I’ve not watched much of the cartoon. I’m… Not a fan, honestly. Saw one episode that had a funny line about “dinosaur electrons” and Trypticon stealing famous buildings, but then had some amazingly stereotypical xenophobic about Middle Eastern countries. Which I honestly couldn’t tell was played for deliberate laughs or not. Animation was pretty sloppy, and I could barely hear the dialogue over the booming, repetitive background music. Fair play to the voice actors and director for giving each character fairly distinctive voices, though. I don’t think there’s much here if you don’t already have a nostalgic attachment to the cartoon.

The whole "Carbomiya" tangent was due to the Libiyan (and perhaps IRA) terrorist attacks. However, they were so offensive that Casey Casen left the show in protest, as he was a practising Muslim at the time.

 

[Kalidor]

The whole "Carbomiya" tangent was due to the Libiyan (and perhaps IRA) terrorist attacks. However, they were so offensive that Casey Casen left the show in protest, as he was a practising Muslim at the time.

That's an urban legend I think. I seem to recall Dan Gilvezan or someone else being asked about that and said as far as they knew that never happened nor was it why he left.

 

[Sabrblade]

Per Kasem's TFWiki article:

Mr. Kasem left the original Transformers cartoon during production of the third season episode "Thief in the Night" because of its depiction of the highly stereotypical Abdul Fakkadi as dictator of made-up Arab state Carbombya.[1] Kasem's family is Lebanese Druze. Kasem had elaborated that it wasn't that he minded Arabs being portrayed as villains per se; it's just when the villains are the only Arab characters in a story and there are no positive counter-examples that he felt offended. He supposedly didn't have a problem with "Aerial Assault" due to both sides being portrayed.

Source citation: This article written by Kasem.

 

[PrimalxConvoy]

That's an urban legend I think. I seem to recall Dan Gilvezan or someone else being asked about that and said as far as they knew that never happened nor was it why he left.

"The portrayal of Abdul Fakkadi as the stereotypical "evil Arab" prompted voice actor Casey Kasem, who himself was of Lebanese descent, to quit the Transformers series."

Sources:

- www.tfwiki.net/wiki/Abdul_Fakkadi_(G1)

- http://www.ameu.org/The-Link/Archives/Arab-Defamation-in-the-Media.aspx

"Mr. Kasem left the original Transformers cartoon during production of the third season episode "Thief in the Night" because of its depiction of the highly stereotypical Abdul Fakkadi as dictator of made-up Arab state Carbombya.

Kasem's family is Lebanese Druze. Kasem had elaborated that it wasn't that he minded Arabs being portrayed as villains per se; it's just when the villains are the only Arab characters in a story and there are no positive counter-examples that he felt offended. He supposedly didn't have a problem with "Aerial Assault" due to both sides being portrayed. Kasem's departure led to all of his characters being retired as opposed to recast..."

Source:

- www.tfwiki.net/wiki/Casey_Kasem

"...Kasem dedicated himself to improving Arab-Jewish relations, and wrote a brochure for the Arab-American Institute called “Arab-Americans: Making a Difference.” Because of this, there was one cartoon role he declined: that of the evil Abdul, King of Carbombya in a "Transformers" cartoon.

“I asked the director, ‘Are there any good Arabs in this script for balance?’” Kasem, the son of Lebanese immigrants, wrote in 1990. “We looked. There was one other — but he was no different than Abdul. So, I told the show’s director that, in good conscience, I couldn't be a part of that show.” Kasem left during the third season of "Transformers".

Source:

- http://america.aljazeera.com/articl...-rememberingthatdistinctiveamericanvoice.html

 

[Kalidor]

I see. Thanks for the clarification

 

[PrimalxConvoy]

No

I see. Thanks for the clarification

No problem.

Interestingly, I think they mentioned in (the TF?) episode of "The Toys that Made Us" that cartoons at the time had to follow strict rules about ethnics. For example, religions icons couldn't be used, so that graves in graveyards couldn't show crosses, etc and that's why they used angels, etc instead.

Seems odd that such an obviously political or "racist" (at the time?) term/issue was included in a kids' show aimed at seeking toys. I could understand something that might have a positive slant (like the episode where TFs were thought of as gods) but branding Islamic/middle-eastern people as terrorists?

 

[Steamed Hams]

'Carbombya Capital City
4000 people
10000 camels'
Cheeky but this is a cartoon aimed at children, it may fly over their heads or they may take it at face value.
Aerial assault featured a Arab prince ousted by a gang of criminals, he was reasonably shown to be kind and helpful and very useful but the gang was an awful caricature.

 

[PrimalxConvoy]

I did watch some episodes out of curiosity, because being from the UK, only the first season was ever shown here on television in the 1980s. So I’ve not watched much of the cartoon. I’m… Not a fan, honestly. Saw one episode that had a funny line about “dinosaur electrons” and Trypticon stealing famous buildings, but then had some amazingly stereotypical xenophobic about Middle Eastern countries. Which I honestly couldn’t tell was played for deliberate laughs or not. Animation was pretty sloppy, and I could barely hear the dialogue over the booming, repetitive background music. Fair play to the voice actors and director for giving each character fairly distinctive voices, though. I don’t think there’s much here if you don’t already have a nostalgic attachment to the cartoon.

I remember that they only had part of series 1 and possibly part of series 2? They showed it on Wide Awake Club and Wakaday.

Here's the release info for the UK (although it's not clear which episodes/seasons were available in the UK, I would guess that Sky had all of the eps by the time they showed them, but as we didn't have Sky, I wouldn't know).

(Source: - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Transformers_(TV_series)

However, I bought the Rhino boxed set in the UK. It was an easy way to catch up on all of the original episodes.

 

[Darth_Prime]

LOVE rebirth. Somebody else has a video like this on YouTube already, but I wish Hasbro would put all 3 episodes together as 1 mini movie. Same for Five Faces of Darkness.

 

[Darth_Prime]

'Carbombya Capital City
4000 people
10000 camels'
Cheeky but this is a cartoon aimed at children, it may fly over their heads or they may take it at face value.
Aerial assault featured a Arab prince ousted by a gang of criminals, he was reasonably shown to be kind and helpful and very useful but the gang was an awful caricature.

Carbombya is why Casey Kasem stopped lending his talents to the show. He is 1/2 middle eastern and didn’t like the shot being taken at his people.

 

[PrimalxConvoy]

Carbombya is why Casey Kasem stopped lending his talents to the show. He is 1/2 middle eastern and didn’t like the shot being taken at his people.

Well-said. I think, by today's standards, this wouldn't fly in a children's cartoon. The excuse of "going over kids' heads" isn't really an excuse at all. If it was, all manner of overt, adult/NSFW content could be included, as children could be thought to be unable to "get it". Content aimed at children has to be "suitable for all", which includes adults, and "Carbomya" ("Car-bomb-ya") can easily be seen as potentially offensive to various groups of adults who might be watching (such as parents with children, adult fans of the show, or adult members of the show's cast).

Here's a YouTube video which (somewhat) touches upon this issue, at around the 8:07 mark:

-

Here's another topical video, which although doesn't bank up my points above per sec, again touches upon the issues of restrictions (or lack thereof) of 80's cartoons:

-

I wish I could remember the exact video/article I saw/read that went into more detail (and used religious icons on graveyards as an example), but I can't remember what it was.

 

[mx-01 archon]

Well-said. I think, by today's standards, this wouldn't fly in a children's cartoon. The excuse of "going over kids' heads" isn't really an excuse at all. If it was, all manner of overt, adult/NSFW content could be included, as children could be thought to be unable to "get it". Content aimed at children has to be "suitable for all", which includes adults, and "Carbomya" ("Car-bomb-ya") can easily be seen as potentially offensive to various groups of adults who might be watching (such as parents with children, adult fans of the show, or adult members of the show's cast).

???

There's a long history of slipping adult-oriented jokes into children's cartoons. The DCAU practically made an artform of it.

Sure, there's overt rules against some of that stuff, but showrunners tend to be pretty canny at skirting the rules.

 

[PrimalxConvoy]

???

There's a long history of slipping adult-oriented jokes into children's cartoons. The DCAU practically made an artform of it.

Sure, there's overt rules against some of that stuff, but showrunners tend to be pretty canny at skirting the rules.

Adult jokes, yes, but the point here is that the "adult joke" was considered offensive, by an adult. Personally, as an adult, I found the reference to be rather overt, at the least, regardless of how offensive it was, or was not.

I think, in a more broader look at the issue, it could be said that even amongst adult jokes/Easter eggs in children's media, there could be arguably certain lines that are not crossed. With Casey Kasem, it was "Carbomya", to which I agree with. However, I'm not sure, at the time, if there was a broader issue. It doesn't officially seem to be now with this reference, right? I assume the reference is still there in the recent upload?

By contrast, the link below is also interesting, as it touches upon some issues (some) people had with the "Masters of the Universe" toyline (and arguably, by extension, with the cartoons), but this time from a more western/"Christian" context (rather than a middle-eastern/Muslim one) :

-

I've posted this here, not to necessarily cement my opinions or position, but simply to add to the discussion about "morality in 80's cartoons". I suppose another issue could be if whether more debate was generated, at the time, concerning "WASP" issues like the video above, or how xenophobic/ethnocentric depictions of middle-easterners was?

 

[Darth_Prime]

There is adult joke like putting in some innuendos and then there is insulting a race. It would be like today coming out as anti-gay. You get destroyed in reviews. Back in the 80’s the internet wasn’t around to let people voice their opinions though like now or I bet they would have gotten more heat for it.

 

[mx-01 archon]

There is adult joke like putting in some innuendos and then there is insulting a race. It would be like today coming out as anti-gay. You get destroyed in reviews. Back in the 80’s the internet wasn’t around to let people voice their opinions though like now or I bet they would have gotten more heat for it.

For sure. Again, the 80s were a different time. The writing style of kids' cartoons was hyper-sensitive when it came to violence and general "bully"-type learnable behaviour, but there still tended to be a lot of insensitivity along racial or gender or minority lines, with lots of questionable sterotypes all around.

The writing only reflects the general attitudes of the times.

 

[Darth_Prime]

Which is why I love a show like All In The Family. TO ME, funny as hell. Closest I can think of a recent show along those lines was William Shatners S@#It My Dad Says. And it lasted one season. What worked the. Doesn’t work now.

Hell. I’m a big Entourage fan. I listen to their podcast Victory, and even the creators have said no way could they write the show now 10 ish years later the way they wrote it then. Even S1 was written differently than S8.

Even the beloved FRIENDS had its moments and a couple of lines that I don’t think they could do today by accusing each other of being gay or cringing when they thought somebody else was and hitting on them. Made for funny moments then.

be fun to wait another 10 years and see what’s popular now becomes offensive in the future.

 

[Anonymous X]

I remember that they only had part of series 1 and possibly part of series 2? They showed it on Wide Awake Club and Wakaday.

Here's the release info for the UK (although it's not clear which episodes/seasons were available in the UK, I would guess that Sky had all of the eps by the time they showed them, but as we didn't have Sky, I wouldn't know).

View attachment 649
(Source: - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Transformers_(TV_series)

However, I bought the Rhino boxed set in the UK. It was an easy way to catch up on all of the original episodes.

Ah, that’s actually incorrect information on Wikipedia, as one of the other channels on the Sky service at the time broadcast Transformers rather than Sky One. But that’s Wikipedia, unfortunately.