The Final Episode #74: Silverhawks (1986)

 

I know I said I was going to stay in the 1960s and discuss a few shows from that era, but just as I was about to watch the Final Episode of Green Acres (and a few others because I've never seen much of that show) it turned out that I did not have access to it like I thought. It took the wind out of my sails. I was going to talk about another cartoon and another live action show. To show that the 1960s had some good programming for all. Just because I like you guys I will not leave you shrouded in mystery. The other two shows I would have talked about would have been Underdog, a show I loved as a child and The Dick Van Dyke Show because I like ottomans. They will get their day being discussed but it won't be now because I'm pissed at myself for not making sure I had the show I wanted to talk about. I also couldn't just download it because I now have no room on my computer OR external drives. I'm glad you all sat here and listened to that boring explanation.

I went back to what I know which is 80s and 90s cartoons. They are like comfort food to me you know. Always feel good after watching some goofy nonsense. I decided to go with Rankin/Bass' second 1980s cartoon after ThunderCats which would be SilverHawks. I did that because I had never to the best of my knowledge ever seen this show before. So you know what that means. It means an extra paragraph or two where I poorly discuss a few other episodes I watched because why not? That's the way it works around here. You get extra content for those shows because why not. It's not like it's hard to get me to babble on about something unimportant like SilverHawks. 

So this show was about a group of heroes named Silverhawks led by Commander Stargazer who is my favorite trope of all time. You know the ANGRY police boss who's always like "AHH I'M 4 DAYS TILL RETIREMENT DAMNIT" and "GIVE ME YOUR BADGE THOMPSON!!" but secretly cares about his officers. Yeah, that's the kinda guy he is. Toned down a bit for a children's cartoon but I still love that silly trope no matter how many times I see it, and since I watch quite a number of action movies I end up seeing it alot. Their's a good amount of Silverhawks too. An A-Team and A B-team. Some of the ones I saw in the episodes today were Condor and Hotwings. I like the both of them quite a bit. Hotwings was a cool ass magician dude. Oh and the Silverhawks are half human and half cyborg hawks because that's fucking cool. They also have some half robot half hawks to accompy them because hawks are cool dude!

They fight Mon*Star (because he's a monster and they fight in the stars! See! it works!)  and his Mob of villains. Mon*Star has a transformation sequence AND was voiced by the same guy who voiced Mumm-Ra the Ever-Living. He already has a quintillion dollars but he wants to steal more because he's an asshole. I still like him better than living billionaires like Jeff Bezos though. He also has a giant ship that has squid tentacles on the front. That's pretty fucking badass actually. Anyway I like Mon*Star and the several bad guys I got to see in the several episodes I watched. I'm now going to change directions a little bit and talk about the voice cast. We get several people from Thundercats like Larry Kenny, Peter Newman, Earl Hammond and Maggie Wheeler who apparently appeared on Friends and Seinfeld and a ton of other 90s shows. Weird. We also get Adolph Caeser who did trailers for such films as Dawn of the Dead and Blacula. I would have mentioned him anyway because that is a great name he has and should be discussed forever more. Sadly he passed away in 1986 and his character was replaced by Doug Pries. Doug is great because I get to mention the TV show Doug which annoys portnoyd so very much! He voiced several charcters on that show!

Anyway let's get into discussing the first three episodes I watched. The first one involved Mon*Star Mob trying to steal an entire Prison Planet called Penal Planet. It was fine. Not my favorite of the three but still had enough entertainment value that I wasn't running to check what some dumb jerk on twitter had said about something even more unimportant than this blog. I think they are all getting ready to be angry at the new Ghostbusters movie. I don't know why I talk about them here at all. I don't even know why I get on twitter anymore. I think it's just to annoy portnoyd at this point. The second episode involved a new villain called The Rattler a giant space snake guy. It was pretty great. I liked how they made the Yes-Man character, the sniveling toady to Mon*Star the Rattler's nephew and how he stood up for his uncle. It was neat. I mean I'm sure Mon*Star fucking beat the shit out of Yes-Man after everyone left but it's good stick up for family. The Third episode was my favorite where the reoccuring comedy relief character Zeek the Beak gets the magical powers of Hotwings and causes a big ruckus. It was fun and I love the design of Zeek the Beak. He's an green alien duck with the hair of Larry from the Three Stooges. I also have that hair when I let mine grow out. It's pretty great.

The Final Episode was called Airshow and appeared on our beautiful television screens for the first time on December 5th, 1986. I am so glad it didn't end up being a Christmas Special and all that like several other shows did. I'm going to have to find all the shows that ended on a Christmas special before Christmas. Anyway The Final Episode starts off with the Silverhawks practicing the Airshow they plan to pull off for Bedlama's Independence Day that only happens every 50 years. So it's gotta be a good one! They do some pretty nifty stunts and then go back to Hawk Haven, where they live. We then go to Mon*STAR who apparently does not like Bedlama. So he decides to get Mo-Lec-U-Lar and Hardware to get rid of the Silverhawk's ship and have Mo-Lec-U-Lar change into it because he's got shapeshifting powers and a great design. 

So we then see Hardware use some of the gizmos and gadgets he has to get into Hawk Haven without being detected and Mo-Lec-U-Lar and him just shove the other ship right out the door. Into space. Wild. Anyway, Mo-Lec-U-Lar changes into the the Silverhawks ship and no one knows anything! The Silverhawks, all of them, even Commander Stargazer show up just to shown up by Mon*STAR and pretty much every member of his gang. I think my favorite is the robot guy with the Poker themed outfit named Pokerface, but they are all pretty much great. Anyway Mo-Lec-U-Lar takes all of the Silverhawks in the ship and just flies off with them giggling to themselves. They wonder what's happening but I do think they should have been able to hear those giggles. Yes, I expect everyone even the people who have passed away since 1986 to come back and fix this very minor error. Anyway the Silverhawks that are remaining except for Commander Stargazer who is a damn badass even though he doesn't have any kind of Silverhawk armor get pretty much wrecked by Mon*STAR's mob. 

However all is not lost, Mo-Lec-U-Lar strands the Silverhawks in space but that doesn't stop them from saving themselves or giving up. They find those rascals Zeek and Seymour. Seymour has a Space Taxi and I wonder if he ever runs into Space Cabbie from the DC Universe. I hope he does because I like weird crossovers like that. Zeek and Seymour were going to go space fishing instead of the Independence Day despite the fact that Zeek wanted to stay and make money. Anyway they Save the Silverhawks who go back and do what they are best at, which is beat some sweet Mon*STAR Mob ass!

Commander Stargazer gets Mon*STAR to shoot up his own gang members while trying to hit him. Commander Stargazer rules. Bluegrass the musician of the group stops Melodia and Yes-Man, while Commander Stargazer and Quicksilver take on Mon*STAR and blow up his Sky-Runner. You know the Squid tentacles. Apparently the Sky-Runner itself is a giant squid with some fancy shit on top of it. This show is wild and I love it. I was like so baffled for a second when I saw Mon*STAR fly off. It's great. The show ends with everyone at Commander Stargazer's office talking about how they failed to do their original Airshow but still put on a great show for the people of Bedlama. I don't know how any of them saw it but if they did yeah it was a pretty great show!

The show ends not with a PSA like in every other 80s cartoon but with Space Trivia. Quicksilver I think is quizzing the Copper Kid a weird alien kid that only speaks in whistles and shit about Space. I think this is actually a neat little change of pace from the well meaning but definetly cheesy as hell now as an adult PSAs that every show ended with. Some neat stuff for the kids to learn and done in a way that doesn't make them feel bored. I dunno. I would have been into it had I seen this show as a kid. That's where the second of Rankin/Bass' shows end. The last show they did was called The Comic Strip and had four shows within it. You will just have to wait to find out about that series when I cover it. 

FINAL VERDICT: Not as good as the Thundercats ending but it's still a pretty solid way to end a 80s cartoon. You get all of the heroes and a good chunk of the villains fighting each other and you get to see the comedic relief goofball characters help out. I always like when that happens. It's still a pretty solid Final Episode and a good way to end the show. I'm glad I finally decided to do this show and I had a bunch of fun tonight.