Shark Bytes

You can't entirely fault the writers on the cartoon. The rules and regulations for cartoons of the 80s were absolutely ridiculous. Lasers had to be replaced for bullets and no one could get hurt, let alone die. The comic was written for teens who were into R-rated action films, while the cartoon was written for the grade school crowd.

Hama.

If anyone read the excellent Larry Hamma comic books, they'll know that the crappy cartoon version jumped from day one.

G.I Joe is an interesting duality, when you really think about it. Here you have a cartoon seris about a special military conter terrorism force fighting against a Global terrorist organization. Both sides have high powered weapons and vehicles that they use constantly at each other and yet...NOBODY EVER GETS KILLED OR EVEN WOUNDED!!!!!!!!! Nobody ever finally wins in this show because nobody ever freaking dies! I know it was a cartoon aimed at kids and the producers thought it was too grim to have it played realisticly. However, what you are protraying does more harm. Whatching this cartoon kids a lulled into a belief that nobody ever dies or really gets hurt in war. That is just a bad if not worse than showing people get blown away. Its that peradox that leeds me to believe they should never have made this show they way they did.

"In Reply To "people never getting hit":

People got hit all the time. Well-placed shots to the wrist that made the person drop their weapon were commonplace."

LOL

Still, there were a decent amount of quality story lines later on, and the movie, was overall interesting, so NJS is my vote. Only prob. w/ movie, is the cheesy way that they un-killed Duke, who obviously died, but they did a bizarre voiceover by Scarlett to conceal his death.

(Scarlett was great BTW)

I'd say both Sgt. Slaughter and Serpentor. Neither had anything interesting to their personalities. First, not all of us kids were braindead/redneck wreastling fans in the '80s. Second, the dynamic behind the dueling leadership styles of (pragmatic) Destro and (hysterical) Cobra Commander was fun to watch.

I used to love this show when it first came on, but I would have to say that it jumped with the movie. I recall the seeing the adds for the movie, and it looked like crap. Besides, I was at a point in my life when I was about ready to stop watching cartoons...

I have no recollection whatsoever of "Serpintine Man" or whatever..

I do remember catching a few reruns of this gem a few years back on the cartoon network late at night, and the animation did SUCK....

"Knowing is half the battle"...

Blame it on Hasbro. This started out as a very realistic military toyline, with very realistic Joes taking on a vast nameless, faceless terrorist organization. (The only non-generic bad guy was Cobra Commander - everyone else was just a soldier or officer.)

Then they introduced Major Bludd, and Cobra wasn't so nameless or faceless anymore. It only got worse with Destro, Baroness, and Firefly. But things escalated badly with Storm Shadow, Zartan and the Dreadnocks, Xamot and Tomax, and finally reached the point of no return with Serpentor.

I know some people think that Destro, Zartan, and Storm Shadow were cool, but giving Cobra members personality and individuality was a major departure from the original premise. G.I.Joe definitely jumped the shark, but it was Hasbro's fault and it happened even before the cartoon started.

Personally, I kind of dug Serpentor, though I would agree This I Command grew tiresome. The five parter introducing him was possibly the high point of the series, some of the best action I've ever seen in a cartoon. The Movie had some great stuff too, the real jump for me came with the switch to DIC. Episodes about Hawk's favourite cookies? No Thanks! I have to say though, the "Spark"/Just Say No episode wasn't badly handled compared to most cartoons tackling the issue.

Did you know Richard Gautier voiced both Serpentor and Rodimus Prime? Some must consider him the Ted McGinley of animation!

GI Joe jumped the shark because of 3 main reasons:

1) Season 2 (Serpentor and Sgt. Slaughter): I just loved Cobra Commander. Wicked, cunning, intelligent.. perfect villain. Serpentor, on the other hand, used to just scream This, I Command! His introduction took out the entire fun factor. And Sgt. Slaughter.. whoa.. were did he come from?

2) Movie: Do I need to explain further? It was horrible!

3) DiC Series: Animation was horrible and the producers ran out of plots. They phased out all popular characters and made the series a sci-fi action fantasy.

All said, the Season 1 of Sunbow's GI Joe was one of the best animated series of the 1980s.

Serpentor. That for me was when it stopped being at least semi plausible and jumped too far into the sci-fi/fantasy realm that reached its peak with the visually impressive but stupidly plotted movie.

THIS I COMMAND!

First of all, Serpentor was taken from the comics, so Marvel deserves some blame there. But you're all right, he did suck. And those PSAs, it just seems to me that the GI Joe base must have been in a town with a rather high number of really stupid kids.
"Joes, I'll tell you how we're going to handle these potentially lethal virus that Cobra is about to unleash in a moment. But right now, I have to go tell a couple of kids not to try to beat the train on their bikes. Leatherneck, you go to the beach and tell a nine-year-old girl to remember to use sunscreen. Lifeline, you hang out at the grocery store and make sure no kids are buying candy bars instead of apples. Yo Joe!"

I remember when shows like G.I. Joe and transformers were beginning to be lumped in to the category of senseless violent cartoons. I don't know if anyone else brought that up but remember when parents started to say these shows were bad for children. It just became obsolete. Now days even a violent cartoon on adult swin comes with some friendship message or something in the story. G.I. Joe was shoot first ask questions later

In Reply To "people never getting hit":

People got hit all the time. Well-placed shots to the wrist that made the person drop their weapon were commonplace.

G.I. Joe jumped in a number of ways. "Movie" for me is actually a "double-jump" For one, ALL 3 of Marvel/Sunbow/Hasbro's shows jumped in 1986, coinciding with Transformers: The Movie. (Meaning its shark jumps a movie for a completely different TV show!) From this point on, new background music was used, and even shared with its sibling programs, new casts were used, the characters often copying the roles of pervious characters (i.e. Lifeline replacing Doc as the medic; Flint, and later Hawk replacing Duke as leader; Lady Jaye, replacing Scarlett as the unconventional-weapon-using token female; Dr. Mindbender replacing Destro as Cobra's 2nd-in-command).
By the time G.I. Joe: The Movie came out (on OVA), damage done from the aftermath of Transformers: The Movie kept the Joes' movie out of theatres, and the drastic cast changes kept older fans from enjoying it as much as kids who loved seeing their then-new 1987 Joes and Cobras. (If you could refer to GIJ:TM as a jump, think of it like the Mountain Climber on The Price is Right... right after the contestant guesses a price over $25 different than the prize's. CRASH!)
Afterward, no new episodes were released, leading to the final 2 Shark Jumpings: DiC buys the rights to produce the franchise, phasing out most of the older (popular) characters. By the time the DiC series is underway, it jumps in one of the most popular ways of all: a second season noticeably different from the first. (Did I mention the 2nd DiC season has several "very special episodes"?)