He-Man and the Masters of the Universe
He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (often referred to simply as He-Man) is an American animated television series produced by Filmation based on Mattel's toy line Masters of the Universe.[1][2][3] The show was one of the most popular animated shows of the 1980s.
He-Man and the Masters of the Universe
He-Man
"Masters of the Universe"
- Shuki Levy
- Haim Saban
- Erika Lane
United States
English
2
130 (along with 1 theatrical movie "He-Man and She-Ra: The Secret of the Sword", and a Christmas special "He-Man and She-Ra: A Christmas Special" (list of episodes)
Lou Scheimer
23 minutes
Filmation Associates
Mattel
September 26, 1983 –
November 21, 1985
It made its television debut in September 1983 and ran until 1985, consisting of two seasons of 65 episodes each. Towards the end of the show's original run, it spawned one feature length theatrical movie He-Man and She-Ra: The Secret of the Sword, which served as the introduction for the show's spinoff literal sister series She-Ra: Princess of Power. There was also a primetime Christmas special, "He-Man and She-Ra: A Christmas Special", which served as an extension of both the He-Man show and the She-ra show, and which featured cast and major locales from both shows. Both the He-Man/She-ra movie and the Christmas special were Filmation productions, set in the same continuity as the original He-Man cartoon, and with the same production cast and crew. Reruns continued to air in syndication until 1988, at which point USA Network bought the rights to the series. USA aired He-Man until September 1990. The success of the toy based show in syndication greatly influenced other animation houses to produce half hour "cartoon commercials", and considerably changed the syndicated cartoon market.[4]
The franchise has been adapted many times in comic book and comic strip form, and a live-action film was produced in 1987. A rebooted series, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, renamed Masters of the Universe vs. The Snake Men during season 2, released on Toonami on August 16, 2002. Two series were released in 2021 for Netflix: one is Masters of the Universe: Revelation, a continuation for an adult audience and another is a family-oriented animated CGI reboot, also titled He-Man and the Masters of the Universe.
Synopsis[edit]
The series takes place on Eternia, a planet of magic, myth and fantasy. Its lead character is Prince Adam, the young son of Eternia's rulers King Randor and Queen Marlena. Prince Adam is also the twin brother of Princess Adora. Whenever Prince Adam holds the Sword of Power aloft and proclaims "By the Power of Grayskull! I have the power!” he is endowed with "fabulous secret powers" and transformed into He-Man, the most powerful man in the universe. Together with his close allies, Battle Cat (who undergoes a similar transformation from being Adam's cowardly pet tiger Cringer), The Sorceress, Teela, Man-At-Arms and Orko, He-Man uses his powers to defend Eternia from the evil forces of Skeletor.
Skeletor's main goal is to conquer the mysterious fortress of Castle Grayskull, from which He-Man draws his powers. If successful, Skeletor would have enough power to rule all of Eternia and possibly the entire universe.[5]
Production history[edit]
The Mattel company released the first wave of the Masters of the Universe toyline in 1982. After the Federal Communications Commission relaxed its ban on toy-based children's programming, Mattel decided to commission a cartoon to promote their toyline. Based on their animated commercial work for Mattel, including a spot for the toyline, Filmation was chosen to produce the series. Mattel hired screenwriter Michael Halperin, experienced in live-action TV, to write a pitch bible (submitted on December 1, 1982) to flesh out the backstory both for merchandising and for the cartoon.[6][7] The bible introduced He-Man's alter-ego, as well as the planet Eternia, Queen Marlena's origin, among others. Unfortunately, it was not considered viable, so the bible was reworked by Filmation staff writer Tom Ruegger, having already developed Blackstar along similar lines.[8] Most of the character designs were handled by Herb Hazelton.
Some time after, both firms pitched the idea to the ABC network, who turned it down. Then, on Lou Scheimer's suggestion, the show was re-pitched and sold at the 1983 NATPE conference to independent stations. By March 28, the show had cleared 60% of the country; by August 29 half of the 65 episodes were completed.[9] The resulting series, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, debuted through barter syndication in September 1983,[nb 1] and became the first syndicated show to be based on a toy. By 1984, it was seen on 120 U.S. stations and in more than 30 countries.[10] By mid-1985, it was airing on 152 stations across the U.S., and was the most popular syndicated program with children 2-11 with a 10.9 rating in that demographic.[11]
Despite the limited animation techniques that were used to produce the series, He-Man was notable for breaking the boundaries of censorship that had severely restricted the narrative scope of children's TV programming in the 1970s. For the first time since Ruby-Spears's Thundarr the Barbarian, a cartoon series could feature a muscular superhero who was actually allowed to hit people (although he more typically used wrestling-style moves rather than actually punching enemies), though he still could not use his sword often; more often than not He-Man opted to pick up his opponents and toss them away rather than hit them. The cartoon was controversial in that it was produced in connection with marketing a line of toys; advertising to children was itself controversial during this period.[12] In the United Kingdom, advertising regulations forbade commercials for He-Man toys to accompany the program itself. In similar fashion to other shows at the time, notably G.I. Joe, an attempt to mitigate the negative publicity generated by this controversy was made by including a "life lesson" or "moral of the story" at the end of each episode. This moral was usually directly tied to the action or central theme of that episode.[13][14][15]
The show was so successful that it spawned a spin-off series, She-Ra: Princess of Power, following the adventures of He-Man's sister, Princess Adora.[16] Mattel's subsequent attempts to relaunch the He-Man toy line also led to the short-lived sequel series The New Adventures of He-Man in 1990, and a reboot of the franchise for a contemporary audience in 2002.[17]
It is also noted for featuring early script-writing work from J. Michael Straczynski, later the creator of Babylon 5; Paul Dini and Brynne Stephens, both of whom who would go on to write acclaimed episodes of Batman: The Animated Series; Beast Wars story editor Larry DiTillio; and David Wise, later the head-writer of the TV version of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and The Real Ghostbusters.[18] In 2016, a new episode of He-Man was released.[19]
Music[edit]
The series' music was composed by Shuki Levy and Haim Saban.[20] The opening theme, snippets of which are used whenever Prince Adam transforms into He-Man and during interludes, is in C Mixolydian.
In 1984, a soundtrack album was released in France and Argentina by CBS Records and reissued on compact disc by XIII Bis in 2012,[21] featuring music from the series and an adaptation of "A Friend in Need" (French release)/"Diamond Ray of Disappearance" (Argentine release); La-La Land Records released a two-disc, limited-edition soundtrack album in 2015, containing the musical content of the 1983 LP and much previously unreleased material.[22]
The Latin American Spanish-language version of the show features an actual theme song complete with lyrics unique to this version, with vocals by Chilean singer Memo Aguirre (a.k.a. "Captain Memo") based on Levy and Saban's original musical score.
In 1986, Brazilian children’s music group Trem da Alegria recorded a song about He-Man.
Reception[edit]
He-Man and the Masters of the Universe is considered the most successful animated series ever made by Filmation. The show, as it was created to promote hyper-consumerism in children, left itself vulnerable to criticism. Many parent groups were also critical of what they saw as the show's homoeroticism.[13][14][23][24][25] In 2009, IGN ranked the series as the 58th greatest animated show of all time in their Top 100 list.[26]