The Final Episode #107: He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (1983 - 1985)

 

This is a genuine surprise to me.  That I didn't talk about He-Man before this. I think It's because of my "oh that show is now in my head so let's find its Final Episode and talk about it" kind of deal and not any kind of planning out stuff. I mean I planned out a few Christmas episodes around Christmas and a few Syndicated shows after that but for about 106 of these I just picked whatever random show popped into my head at that moment and I like the flow of that honestly even if it ends up with me taking one hundred and seven posts to finally get to one of the most popular animated series of the 1980s and without a doubt Filmation's most famous animated project. Brace in folks this is gonna be a wild ride because I'm finally talking about He-Man and the Masters of the Universe.

So let's first start back in the beginning, the beginning of the animated studio Filmation. A company that got flack but had heart and it's own charm. Yes, this is your old buddy Michael sticking up for the admittedly cheap animation of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s from internet people who want you to only look and appreciate and enjoy the newest animation from Disney. Your buddy Michael ain't like that and he ain't playing that game homey! These things are a part of animation history even if they were made to sell toys and yes I will not doubt that but they still had charm and heart to the animation. There's a reason ANIMATION TWITTER that they keep bringing this stuff back. It's not that it's just a money making thing it's that children and manchildren enjoy them!

So Filmation pretty much started with three men who worked for Larry Harmon Pictures. An animation studio created by a man named............Larry Harmon. I mean it's not really a surprise because it's in the name of his studio. Anyway he was himself a blow hard. The man claimed to have created Bozo the Clown (he didn't that was the original voice of Goofy from the Disney cartoons Pinto Colvig. He and Gaylord DeBois clearly have the most 19th Century names a person COULD have and I love them for it. He also claimed to be a good friend of Stan Laurel of Laurel and Hardy because of the cartoon he made of Laurel and Hardy but one of the last letters Laurel wrote was of wanting to sue that asshole. The asshole in question being Mr. Larry Harmon. His studio made Popeye cartoons, Mr. Magoo cartoons, and Bozo the Clown cartoons. I don't know what Popeye or Mr. Magoo cartoons I would watch as a kid but I'm going to assume it was a mix of the really old Fleisher and UPA stuff. I don't think I ever saw the Laurel and Hardy cartoon but I do know a video store used them kinda as mascots on their sign. Wild. I also never saw anything related to Bozo the Clown and probably only know Bozo the Clown because of Seinfeld. "YOU'RE HUNG UP ON SOME CLOWN FROM THE SIXTIES MAN!"

Anyway that long ass paragraph was necessary but with someone with talent and even an editor could have made way better but you don't come to this blog for that you come to this blog for weird half thought out ramblings about some random thing that popped into my head. Anyway Larry Harmon Pictures is where three men, Norm Prescott, Hal Sutherland and Lou Scheimer all met each other for the first time. And now you know how to connect the original voice of Goofy to the guys at Filmation. It really is a small world after all. Anyway they started in 1962 and their first project or what they wanted to be their first project was Journey Back to Oz but that would not come to fruition until 1972. They mostly did commercials until I believe CBS called them to do a Superman cartoon. They said yes but the major hitch was DC Comics wanted to check out their company which had at that point all 3 men who created it would always be there so that if debtors were calling they would never get to talk to same man twice. They weren't in a great place.

Still they actually fooled DC by getting their wives and siblings and any person they could to show up there and pretend that they were working on things. They even got an animator from Hanna-Barbera to show up for half a day before he pretended to have a toothache to leave. It worked and they got the Superman show. Then a Batman show. and Aquaman. Then Archie. Then Fat Albert. Then He-Man. Okay yeah there's a ton of stuff in between that stuff but those are the big things Filmation did. I've already talked about Fat Albert and their version of  Ghostbusters and I'm surprised I haven't done more. 

Anyway He-Man wasn't created by Filmation, only the cartoon. The creation of He-Man was done by Mattel in 1982. I believe they were trying to get the Conan the Barbarian license but someone else got it. So they created He-Man. Well a man called Roger Sweet created He-Man by using old Big Jim figures and a whole lot of clay. He called him He-Man because he thought it was a powerful name that you could just drop into any kind of place. I'm pretty sure when it came to the rest of the characters and battle animals they were brought into existence by a ton of people at Mattel. I should have watched the Toys That Made Us episode on He-Man but I did not. I literally woke up and was like MAN I WANNA TALK ABOUT THE HE-MAN WOO! 

Anyway I think it's time to finally, finally talk about the actual last episode of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe! It was called The Cold Zone and was first broadcast on November 21st, 1985 and was written by shain's favorite person of all time J. Michael Strayznickdfghrfadfsfdsafgswewhdfdisdky. No I'm not looking up how to spell his last name SHAIN. Now be good. Anyway before we get into this episode I just gotta tell you about some of the things I love about this show. I like most fans of it enjoy the now campy nature. That's a given, but I also love the character designs. Man at Arms looks like a gay pornography star from the 1970s and that's great! He-Man has more muscles than humanly possible! Orko is just a cutie! I just love it and them. I love the music, both the theme song and the stuff that just plays during the episodes. I love the backgrounds in this cartoon and other Filmation cartoons. I guess they couldn't get the most amazing animation so they made sure that the backgrounds were creative and fun. They make Eternia look like a real place if that makes any sense. I dunno. I'm just overwhelmed with entertainment because this has been the first time I saw He-Man since the days when I had Teletoon Retro (by the way fuck Cartoon Network for killing Teletoon. Fuck.)

The episode starts with Orko doing a spell and fucking it up. Causing three robot birds of Man at Arms to fly away. Orko then goes and catches them and a giant crazy ass machine comes to them and its Kobra Khan the bad guy snake guy! I love snake guys in any kind of thing because they allways do the SSSSSSSSSSSSS thing whenever a word has an s in it. I am sorry but that will never get old to me. If it ever does I don't know if life would be worth it to continue living. the Snake Men doing the SSSSSS thing is that important to me. Anyway he tells He-Man that his people's The Eternal Flame has gone out and that they will all soon start to fall asleep FOREVER! This gets He-Man (whos Prince Adam at the moment), Cringer, Orko and Man at Arms to check it out. They then get into an crazy awesome vehicle (that in 1985 you could have bought for 14.99 but now you have to spend 149.99 to get it)

Anyway they run afoul of a monster that well He-Man kicks the fucking shit out of. Tying all of its arms together and just does it without giving a single fuck. Kobra Khan then even saves Man at Arms but you hear him thinking WAIT UNTIL WE GET TO MY PEOPLES PLACE HAHAHAHA. also there are several times when you just hear what the snake men are saying and even then they still do the SSSSS thing. It's beautiful. It's wonderful. I love it. They then get to the Snake Cave, which is which what I'm calling the place the Snake Men  (and probably Women) live in. They are stopped by the Snake Men who aren't Kobra Khan who think He-Man took away the Eternal Flame because Kobra Khan said so!!!!

Kobra Khan after getting the king to take He-Man and the gang away also gets the king to agree to let him become the new king if he takes care of the Eternal Flame problem. He then goes and pretty much talks to himself about how he used an icicle to cool down the flame but the problem is the icicle has done its job TOO well! However another Snake Man named Scales was listening and then goes to help He-Man. However he gets there just in time to see He-Man knock the shit out of the door keeping them in jail. They go to Eternal Flames room and Man at Arms said the Flame is too far down in the earths core for them to help.

He-Man is like BITCH PLEASE and literally uses his sword to knock down a giant stalagmite. He grabs it and TWISTS IT AROUND LIKE A DRILL UNTIL HE HITS THE MOLTEN CORE OF THE EARTH. He-Man is fucking awesome and anyone who disagrees can choke on a pile of ass! A incredibly smelly pile of ass. I will not let any He-Man sass enter this blogs comment section YOU HEAR! Kobra Khan then pretty much outs himself because half way through his little speech the King himself comes by. The King asks him again if He-Man is guilty and Kobra Khan says yes! He-Man says "Oh boy not again!" or some saucy 1980s cartoon comment. I like the word saucy. It's fun. 

The King's Guards actually grab Kobra Khan and the King tells him he's not listening to him the second time! The king then says he will let He-Man become king because that was the deal but He-Man is like "NAH BRO kobra khans a big jerk and tricked you. You stay king. I want to punch shit." They then do the fade out thing and it's now a big thing with a lot of cartoons from this era. The public service announcement. Man at Arms tells us that we should look at the whole big picture before making a decision. Yeah, many people has made fun of these things because they are cheesy and all but I'm not going to because that's a fucking lesson a lot of human beings (including myself) should really listen to more often.

FINAL VERDICT: I didn't know where to mention this but apparently according to Lou's daughter Erika (who voiced She-Ra!) Filmation was the gayest place in town. She should know being a lesbian and all. I figure that means I can call He-Man a pride month selection! YEAH! Anyway this episode was a fucking hoot and a half! Would rank pretty high on the whole Final Episode sheet list thing If I ACTUALLY kept one of those. I really should have but hey hindsight is twenty twenty.