7.6 /10 1 Votes
First episode date 2 September 1989 Network Broadcast syndication | 7.5/10 IMDb Country of origin United States Final episode date 20 January 1992 Number of episodes 44 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Voices of Maurice LaMarcheChris LattaScott McNeilGarry ChalkSgt. SlaughterTed HarrisonDale Wilson Cast Similar GI Joe Extreme, GI Joe: Resolute, GI Joe: Sigma 6, GI Joe: Renegades, Ring Raiders | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero is a half-hour American animated television series based on the toyline from Hasbro and the comic book series from Marvel Comics. The series was produced by DIC Entertainment and ran from 1989 to 1992.
Contents
The series debuted in 1989, with a five-part mini-series titled Operation: Dragonfire. The regular series began in 1990, lasting for two seasons and 44 episodes. The series continued the original G.I. Joe animated series produced by Sunbow Productions and Marvel Productions that ran in syndication from 1985 to 1986.
Background
In order to cut production costs for the animated series, Hasbro dropped Sunbow and contracted DiC to continue the series. Story editor Buzz Dixon explained in an interview: "Hasbro had been funding G.I. Joe out of their own pocket; they got a ridiculous deal from DiC to take over the series and they pretty much let them."
The DiC series is a continuation of the Sunbow show, though it chose to focus primarily on new characters of the period. Hawk was retained as G.I. Joe commander, and at times shared his duties with Sgt. Slaughter as head of the G.I. Joe team. Captain Grid-Iron was given field commander duties in Season 1, with Duke regaining his old position and appearing more often in Season 2. Storm Shadow was also now a member of G.I. Joe, as he had been sold as a Joe rather than a Cobra since 1988, keeping in line with the story of the comics, where he had abandoned Cobra in 1986-87.
The first season centered almost exclusively on the 1990 Joes; meanwhile, Cobra, having a less extensive cast, was augmented by select characters from 1989 and the yet-to-be-released 1991 figures. This new ensemble had a much wider variety of Cobra Officers as viewers were introduced to the Night Creepers and their leader, and many different forms of Vipers.
The first season of the DiC series was mainly standalone episodes that focused on establishing new team members and plots. The second season of the DiC show lowered the animation budget but began a series of two part episodes, which often told a deeper story involving more dramatic life and death situations for the Joes. Theme song and underscore for both seasons were provided by Stephen James Taylor.
Also a casualty of the animation company changeover was the extensive voice cast Sunbow employed, which largely consisted of voice actors employed by West Coast American companies. Because this DiC series was produced in Canada, an almost entirely new cast was assembled. Only a few actors from the Sunbow series returned for the DIC series; Sgt. Slaughter, Chris Latta (the voice of Cobra Commander), Ed Gilbert (General Hawk), Jerry Houser (Sci-Fi) and Morgan Lofting (Baroness). With Season 2, Chris Latta was the only voice actor to return, and the Baroness and Hawk were recast with new voices.
Episode list
See List of G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero episodesCast
Additional voices
Crew
VHS
Select episodes of the series were released on VHS. The first tape, "Revenge of the Pharaoh", was released in 1990 by Hasbro packaged with an action figure of G.I. Joe member Rapid-Fire, who was named after DiC executive Robby London. Buena Vista Home Video later distributed a series of three VHS tapes in 1992, each containing a single episode, while another set of two VHS tapes was also released in 1992 under the DiC's Toon-Times branding, each containing a two-part episode.
DVD
After releasing the entire Sunbow series on DVD, Shout! Factory and Vivendi Entertainment subsequently released the entire DiC series. G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero Series 2, Season 1 was released on January 10, 2012