Here’s something that comes up in mind now and then. In the 1980s and 1990s, not so much nowadays, there were a bunch of shows made for kids to sell toys with an odd source: R-Rated movies. And these toys/shows were made with kids in mind, since the adult toy collector market didn’t really exist at the time and grown-ups were still afraid to be caught watching anything that didn’t feature Mickey Mouse, Bugs Bunny, or their friends.

Why did they exist? My theory is that movie studios wanted to promote movies like RoboCop, First Blood, and Men In Black that they didn’t want to avoid the shows parents and kids watched together, like the still-existing “family hour” or sports shows. So they created trailers that were safe to show around kids…who saw what looked like G.I. Joe or a police officer cyborg fighting bad guys, and a market was born.

Not all of them were very good. RoboCop the cartoon was okay on action, but the best thing that can be said about it is “at least it wasn’t RoboCop: Alpha Commando“. You also have James Bond Jr, who is actually James’ nephew because the 10 years olds shouldn’t hear that James probably has more kids than Nick Cannon. (I watch a lot of Masked Singer so it was the best example I had. Sorry.) Some things should never have even been tried to crossover the age gap, like the Police Academy franchise. However, some of these shows were actually quite good. I’m going to break out a few of them and explain why at least some of the hate these shows get are coming from hypocrites!

Let’s start with an easy one. Ghostbusters was not a kids movie or a family movie. It has a scene where a dude gets the Bill Clinton Special from a ghost, a man declaring another man is…shall we say incapable of receiving said Special, and a bunch of swearing. However, the reason I can’t get into Ghostbusters 2 is because The Real Ghostbusters was so good and ignoring it in favor of a “reunion movie” (a trope I’m rather tired of, by the way) turns me off to what could have been a good movie. Also, remember the movie that was originally going to be called Ghostsmashers took its name FROM a kids show.

The Ghost Busters was one of Filmation’s live-action Saturday morning offerings. The show reunited Forrest Tucker and Larry Storch, who were a beloved team on F-Troop and brought their antics to kids TV. (Nickelodeon would end up showing F-Troop in their kids timeslot to promote the Nick At Nite lineup to their parents.) This is why Filmation made their own Ghostbusters cartoon when the movie was shown to do well. (Larry Storch didn’t return for it because despite doing voices for Filmation it seemed wrong for him to reprise the role without the late Tucker even though the show was about their kids taking over the game just as a superghost unites the specters into a villain force.) The cartoon took on a more superhero vibe than the sitcom investigations of the original.

Somehow the movie did get kids attention. It was four guys fighting ghosts. Slimer became popular probably because kids found him funny, even though he was a one-shot antagonist like Black Adam or the Shredder. So he semi-reforms and joins the team. The “Real” Ghostbusters and the spin-off Extreme Ghostbusters also are an alleged influence for the next movie in the franchise, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, which is ALSO about a Ghostbusters’ kids taking over the business and IS a bit more kid friendly due to the age of most of the cast returning from Ghostbusters: Afterlife. Funny little world we live in.

Out of everything on this list, the Rambo franchise would on paper be worse than the Mortal Kombat franchise. Well, Mortal Kombat: Defenders Of The Realm was also garbage, as was Police Academy: The Series beyond the adaptation weirdness. Rambo: The Force Of Freedom on the other hand was pure action. True, you’re not getting much of John Rambo’s PTSD or messages about soldiers left behind after war or even the horrors of war. It’s made to capitalize on the success of G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero more than that. However, that wasn’t even the first Rambo toyline as I have comics with Rambo themed role play toys from before the action figures came out. All kids saw on TV was not-Duke causing bad guy buildings and vehicles to explode in ads for Rambo: First Blood Part Two, the movie that started Rambo’s weird numbering system.

Let me tell you, I will defend this show like crazy because as far as kid me was concerned, it was great! Rambo, joined by a mechanic and a mistress of disguise, takes on a would-be Cobra in some rather fun battles. Somehow, Havoc managed to get hidden gun emplacements to a New York street gang, and it didn’t get much weirder than that. This lacked the crazy sci-fi angles of the show it was emulating, but it gave The Force Of Freedom it’s own unique style apart from its muse. For me, the actual films weren’t for me, but I wouldn’t be surprised if this show wasn’t some kid’s introduction to the franchise and when he got older went to watch the regular movies.

If this were a list I could put a lot more positive examples up. Tales From The Cryptkeeper actually payed homage to the comics the HBO adult horror show was based on by bringing the Cryptkeeper’s “friends” from other EC anthologies while using the Goosebumps or Are You Afraid Of The Dark? method of using scares to teach valuable life lessons. Tales Of The Crypt was already something of a morality play, but instead of the protagonist dying, he or she learns how to NOT become the jerk that would get killed on the live-action series. Men In Black: The Series was better than any of the sequels, though all of them are just propaganda to hide the real MIB agenda seen in the original comic. Let’s just say Agent J is the only good guy from what I hear. So what’s the problem?

There’s always going to be those who hate kids, and hate anything made for kids because they don’t want to like anything made for kids. They want to be seen as mature, so the idea that something made for them was turned into something NOT made for them is immediately bad. Look, I get that to a point. I’ve certainly gotten mad at the “modern audiences” crowd taking things not made for them being turned into something only made for them, especially the shows I grew up with. The difference is what I’ve listed may lead kids to those other properties when they’re old enough to watch them without nightmares. I’m not pushing for a preschool Freddy Kruger or Spawn to be made for kids, though it would be nice to see a proper Superman or Batman adaptation that was. I’d settle for a comic, but we don’t get that, either. Here’s the thing, though. Most of you making that statement? YOU’RE A BUNCH OF HYPOCRITES! Rule 34 exists. Also, they took this:

and turned it into this:

YOUR ARGUMENT IS INVALID!!!!!!!!!!!!

The same people who get mad when they hear that Rambo had a kids cartoon or that Mr. T had a cartoon where he hung out with kids (because “Mr. T fans” are often fans of Clubber Lang or B.A. Baracus more than T himself) are perfectly happy with the Banana Splits pulling a “Five Nights At Freddy’s” or turning a children’s book series that just went public domain into Winnie The Pooh on a murder spree as a middle finger to Disney. There is an actual Banana Splits movie made for kids featuring the original costumes and voice cast that sends them into a cartoon world, but good luck finding that if you want to introduce your kids to the Banana Splits.

The sad part is…I’m probably just as guilty of reverse hypocrisy because the idea of kids shows turned into adult horror movies or that one producer that said he wanted to make an A23 style movie with Barney The Dinosaur makes me just as mad. For me it’s the continued attack on anything wholesome, sometimes doubly so if made for kids, and a desire to turn things made for kids into things NOT made for kids. Right now only one piece of Transformers media is made for kids. The movies and comics sure aren’t. I don’t think the world needs a Power Rangers for adults, but when I made an article about the possibility someone in the comments insisted we do need one. Never explained why, mind you. I could even handle a kids show turned into a grown-ups show if it didn’t feel like a childhood attack. For all my issues with the current state of superhero media, the rejection is usually not the goal, though it often turns out that way and there are cases when it totally is about making comics kid-unfriendly to prove to media snobs that comics aren’t a “kids medium” as if they care.

I stand by my claim, though. If you can make a good show for kids out of an adult property, and I listed a few, I’m not bothered by it. If you can make a story from adults out of a kids property that isn’t an attack or being mature for mature sake (I’m looking at you, ThunderCats: The Return), I can live with it and might even enjoy it. There’s a reason it’s considered popular and profitable enough to cross the gap, though I do agree some properties shouldn’t make that attempt, and I’m not disappointed it hasn’t happened since maybe the two Conan The Barbarian cartoons. Police Academy: The Series was a mistake even if had been funny.

This thankfully never happened for real. Granted, as a kid I would have watched it, but it wouldn’t have beat out Superfriends. Ultraforce or WildCATS maybe.