I pity the fool. Seriously.
Posted on June 24, 2004 @ 3:30 pm
Did you ever stop to wonder who in the world came up with the premise for the Mr. T cartoon of the mid-1980s? Oh, you don’t remember Mr. T’s Saturday morning cartoon? The one where T coaches a team of young gymnasts who travel around fighting crimes and solving mysteries? Well, they say a picture’s worth a thousand words…
All in all, the Mr. T-coaches-a-bunch-of-gymnasts premise made for a cartoon just ridiculous enough to make The Snorks seem like reasonable entertainment and not just an underwater rip-off of The Smurfs in comparison.
Still, how did they come up with this cartoon in the first place? I imagine someone in charge of developing the Saturday-morning lineup must have been working on two separate series originally: one about Mr. T, a white kid who dresses like him, and a dog who shares his unfortunate haircut and an entirely different cartoon about a multiethnic gymnastics team (probably created to capitalize on the popularity of Mary Lou Retton). Somewhere along the way, however, he realized that neither series could stand on its own. That’s when the lightbulb went off.
“Eureka!” he must have exclaimed to anyone within earshot. “We’ll combine the gymnastics show with the Mr. T show!”
Then, a production assistant probably wandered in and said something like, “Uh…why would Mr. T hang out with a bunch of gymnasts? It sounds creepy, if you ask me. And isn’t he wanted by the U.S. government for committing crimes during ‘Nam or something?”
“He could be…their coach! That’s it! Their coach!” replied the guy in charge, visions of dollar signs dancing in his head.
“So, uh, are kids supposed to tune in and watch Mr. T coach a bunch of kids in gymnastics? That sounds kinda boring,” the assistant likely pointed out.
“Good point, good point. We’ll have them…I don’t know…fight crime. Yes! They’ll be a team of gymnasts who fight crime alongside Mr. T! It’s pure Saturday-morning gold! Put it down for the 9:30 slot!”
Posted by Jess | Filed Under Pop Culture |
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Don’t be so quick to put down the Saturday morning fare of the 80’s. I seem to recall us watching the Mr. T cartoon on Saturday mornings.
I agree with Andy. If memory serves me right, I do believe that you were quite a Mr. T fan. Actually, you even had a poster of a Mr. T rip-off called Mr. K; you even had it autographed if I’m not mistaken. Man, you really should be a little more careful about what you include in this blog.
Mr. K? I know of no such autographed photo.