April 23, 2002 The Lion's Eye Page 7 "Ha Ha." No, that phrase wasn't coined by Nelson Mutts, it was coined by Gordon Shumway. Who? Gordon Shumway, also known as everyone's love- able alien fur ball, Alf. ; The TV show Alf was an NBC sit- com that aired from 1986 until 1990, and followed the antics of Alf, an Alien Life Form, whose spaceship crashed into the garage of a mild-mannered Los Angeles family named the Tanners and their hairy “yet edible cat, Lucky. In the 102 episodes, Alf tries to adapt to life on earth, ever longing for his native planet of Melmac and his girlfriend ~ Rhonda. He also met people such as the . cast of Gilligan’s Island. Alf also made his way to an animated series and a recent late RE $B My Little Pony The little ponies of Ponyland live in Dream Valley inside the beautiful Paradise Estate. The cartoon series origi- nally started out as a Special, with the lit- tle ponies meeting the loveable baby drag- on, Spike and Megan, the girl who was always willing to help the little ponies out of any situation. A movie followed shortly there- "after and a series was born, appearing on the Disney channel in the afternoons fea- turing the adventures of the little ponies and their friends the Bushwoolies, the Princess Ponies, and the Flutter Ponies. . The My Little Pony toys wereout in stores. and were a hit amongst kids. ~ Hundreds of different types of ponies. . “were produced. Today, you can still col- So lect My Little Ponies on www.ebay.com. T hundercats "thunder...Thunder... THUNDER... “ THUNDERCATS...HOOOOOOO0OO!" : The ThunderCats were a motley crew of super felines. There was the leader Lion-O, who wielded the Sword of Omens; ‘Tygra, a bolo-slinging architect with the ability to turn himself invisible; mechanic Panthro, who kicked mutant tail with his nunchuks; Cheetara, a super-speedy female with an -acrobat's pole; Wilykit and Wilykat, bomb-tossing siblings; Jaga, the disembodied spiritual leader of the group; and Lion-O's oddball caretaker/comic relief Snarf. Together, they battled the mutants and Mumm-Ra Defender of the Universe “Activate interlocks. Dinotherms connected. Infra-Cells up. Mega thrusters are go." ! That is what was heard every time as the mighty robot Voltron, Defender of the Universe, was assembled. Voltron was one of the premier action cartoons of the 80s. It was a story of 5 space explorers from the planet Earth who were taken hostage by King Zarkon and eventually crash-landed on an alien planet after a risky escape. These space explorers then discovered the secret of the five robot lions that came together to form Voltron. They were later called the Voltron Force: Kieth (the Black Lion), Lance (the Red Lion), Pidge (the Green Lion), Hunk (the Yellow Lion) and Sven (the Blue Lion). Sven was later replaced with Princess Allura. Recently, a 3D computer animated version of Voltron has been around, but the phenomenon never caught on much to the chagrin of some. Voltron has paved the way for other children's shows like the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. . « OUI Ceneration Smurfs Lala lala lalalalalalala. Everyone remembers the Smurfs theme song. The Smurfs were small blue people with cool hats that lived in little huts by a river. Unfortunately, an evil sorcerer named Gargamel was their neighbor. He had an evil cat named Asreal. Their goal in life was to capture the Smurfs and use them for his evil spells. Luckily, the Smurfs outsmarted him every time. Some of the more known Smurfs include: Papa Smurf, who was the only Smurf to wear red and was the leaderof all the Smurfs, the smurfy Smurfette who was the apple of every- oned ™s eye andthe only grown-up female Smurf, Handy Smurf, who had the job of fixing everything in the village, and others, such as Clockwork Smurf and Hefty Smurf. The Smurfs are still around today on theCartoon Network. Be Smurfy and checkyour local listings for the times! Rainbow Brite Rainbow Brite began her cheery, color-filled existence as a character on Hallmark greeting cards. As the girl grew too popular to confine to a single draw- ing, the card company brought her to life for a series of animated television spe- cials in 1984. The theatrical release of Rainbow Brite and the Star Stealer followed a year later. Once upon a time, there was a girl named Wisp. By some stroke of fate, she became aware of the place now known as Rainbowland and wanted to save it from the darkened state it was in. The Dark One had taken over the entire planet and turned it into a gloomy, dismal place where no joy resided. But this young girl made it her mission to turn the world back into the beautiful land it had once been. The only instructions she had been given were to find the Color Belt and the Sphere of Light - and so she set out to do so. Originally created by Hallmark in 1983, Rainbow Brite was a cheerful little girl whose purpose was to restore color to a gray world. Using her magical rainbow belt and star sprinkles, Rainbow would color the world each week, despite the attempts by Murky Dismal and Lurky to keep it gray. Accompanying Rainbow at all times was her flying horse, Starlight, and her sprite, Twink. The sprites were a furry race of creatures who worked in the color mines and produced the star sprinkles used to color the world. Rainbow was not alone in Rainbowland. Her helpers were the Color Kids, Patty O'Green, Canary Yellow, Red Butler, Buddy Blue, Shy Violet, Indigo, Lala Orange, and their small furry Sprites, Lucky, Spark, Romeo, Champ, IQ, Hammy, OJ, who mined star sprinkles in the Color Caves. Not all inhabitants of Rainbowland support Rainbow's efforts. Murky Dismal and his sidekick Lurky are always up to some mischief - trying to take the color out of the world. avessses sts srerie testes rresteutstseneenierestettersereesresttitsteciteesstessresiteisiecensesseeastessueessecisiessiesssenssetesestnnetvedsitossersansenassnenanes All ‘SOs photos courtesy of www.yesterdayland.com! ev e0000000088030000000000000000I00000000000000seeretietteatITIrITIRIIeIIRIIIIILY Carebears The CareBears were started by Hallmark for their greeting cards and quickly became apopular icon for the eighties. Thephenomena grew into the animated cartoon that we know and love today. The Care Bears live ina place nestled inthe clouds called Care-A-Lot. Theirgoal is to help people on Earth care about each other. When someone is in danger, be it fromcarelessness or the evil Dark Heart and his sidekick Beastly, the Care Bearsrush to the rescue in their cloud cars. The problem is quickly solved with a simple hug, or a Care Bear Stare! Garbage Pail Kids TOPPS, the baseball card kings, changed gears in 1985 and came out with the Garbage Pail Kids, geared towards the gross-out humor that children love. Although the popular card series received a lot of attention from parents and teachers alike for it's somewhat off- color content, 15 editions were printed until the series took its curtain call in 1988. No plans for a re-issue of the Garbage Pail Kids are in the works, and calls placed to Barfin' Barbara and Moist Joyce were not returned. - OR oy He EE whens BHD AY AS Roland
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