Someone has to stand up for these characters.

There are right and wrong ways to do the sidekick or “mascot” character. For me if the character contributes something important to the team and not just comedy I can totally accept them. Some people absolutely hate these kinds of characters and will tell you that they hated them as a kid and all kids hated them as kids.

They are wrong. I can’t say for certain that he’s lying. The video we’ll be picking apart is called “12 of the WORST TV Sidekicks WE Love to HATE but Secretly Loved”, though I don’t know if “The BEST Classic 80s TV Sidekicks” is part of a series name like the ones I do on this site or meant to be part of this video’s title alone. However, seeing little love for most of the characters, including the usual targets, I had to come in for defense. To be fair, the host of The GEN Xperience does defend a couple but if this were a stronger defense I would just make it a daily video and call it a day, not part of an unofficial article series where I beg to disagree. I also can’t defend every character on this list because a couple were for shows I didn’t really watch and one I actually agree with him on. Look, I can defend mascot sidekicks and even I have my limits. Given what I defend on this list that might surprise you.

Of course all of these characters come from 1980s productions, or in one case a show we could watch in 1980s through reruns but whose first season was in 1979. As an 80s kid myself (born in 1973–yes I am that old–but really didn’t pay attention until practically 1980) I have different memories of these characters and more fondness than he does, even on the ones that are indeed loved to be hated by other “more mature” people. Me? Disagree with the internet? Surely you jest. Watch the video for context (18:49 runtime plus whenever YouTube shoves ads in there), then read my thoughts.

A lot of Victor’s chosen mascot sidekicks are ones the internet loves to rag on, but do I think they deserve that hate? Let’s analyze his list one by one. Note that Uni from Dungeons & Dragons I’m not going to go into because I never really watched the show. Dark fantasy, which is what the games are based one, wasn’t really my thing as a kid, either. It does stream as part of the Dungeons & Dragons streaming channel alongside gamer playthroughs if you’re curious to see it, but I can’t tell you if the unicorn was useful or just annoying. As for the rest….

Wendy, Marvin, & Wondedog (Super Friends season 1)

There’s a reason I don’t have any good pictures of the original Junior Super Friends. While one of my favorite Saturday morning shows and I’m extremely happy MeTV Toons is airing the show and I have access to it, season one has issues. One of them is Wendy, Marvin, and Wonderdog. I don’t hate the characters but they are totally out of place in the show. I’m one of those kids who would have found it cool to hang out with the heroes rather than be one because my life goals includes NOT being shot at by death rays and mutation gas. Funny, I know, but I was a timid child unless I was enraged.

I keep hearing that there was some out of show documentation that said Wendy was the granddaughter of one of Batman’s mentors, but I don’t remember that being said in the show and I did rewatch the entire first season. I don’t plan to do so again, but they weren’t the biggest problem. It was the formula for the show that failed that season. None of the usual DC enemies show up. Flash, Green Arrow, and Plastic Man make cameos (and William Callaway did nothing to make his Green Arrow sound that different from his usual Aquaman) but that’s the only showing of the rest of the DC cast. Plastic Man would later get his own cartoon from Ruby-Spears (which also started airing on MeTV Toons recently), Flash became part of the cast, and Green Arrow disappeared.

The villains with one or two exceptions weren’t necessarily evil. They just took an extreme view to solving whatever world problem the writers wanted to discuss that episode and forced their wild solutions onto everyone, causing accidental dangers. The kids somehow get trapped by the bad guys and end up convincing them they’re doing wrong while the Justice League Of America members would perform rescue operations and then push the moral message. And the show, like The New Scooby-Doo Movies, clearly did not have the best budget for an hour long show. The animation was terrible even by the later show’s Sat AM budget limits, but didn’t have the excuse for celebrity voice actors that weren’t already regular voice actors alongside “regular” performing like Casey Kasem or Olan Soule. The change to better animation and replacing the Juniors with the Wonder Twins and Gleek was probably the best idea, as heroes in training made more sense and they could have the occasional short solo adventure as well.

THEY STILL DIDN’T DESERVE THIS JUST WHEN YOU FOUND A USE FOR THEM, DC COMICS!!!!!

Yes, years and continuity reboots have passed and I’m still upset about this. Someone liked the Junior Super Friends and I still don’t believe in shock value cannon fodder for useful characters. Moving on because this is a long list.

Godzooki (Godzilla)

And here’s where my disagreements with the internet and the host begin. (I also don’t hate Minya/Millia by the way but that’s another discussion). I don’t buy the “Godzilla nephew” thing. It’s the just same people who hate Scrappy (and of course he’s on this list) projecting onto Godzooki. There’s less evidence of this than Wendy’s grandpa training Batman.

What there is evidence of is that Godzooki served a purpose on the team. As Victor even mentioned, Godzooki co0uld call Godzilla for help when the crew of the science vessel Calico needed the Big G’s help. Remember, this is back when even in Japan our hero had reformed and became the second of Earth’s “guardian monsters” along with Rodan after being talked into it by original guardian Mothra. It was a change that was explained and worked for me when they had to fight Ghidorah. Godzooki, being a monster, could also fly the team out of danger or check on them deep underwater, like the time the bathysphere found a world underneath the water. Literally under the water thanks to an air pocket. Plus he kept Pete company. What kid wouldn’t want a monster for a pet? Godzooki may have been there for comedy but he also was a benefit to the team and that makes him useful. Zook gets a bad rep in my opinion, and he doesn’t deserve it.

Slimer (The Real Ghostbusters)

Is Slimer helping the boys fight other ghosts really an issue. We’ve seen them help good ghosts and other paranormal critters, like the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future, and without the Traveller’s influence the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man wasn’t just a big softie in body. The Ghostbusters busted evil ghosts, and Slimer wasn’t so much evil as wild when they first met. Granted it was the trailers for the movie that made him look more interesting that he was in the original movie, and his part in the second movie only existed because of the cartoon. (Frankly, I prefer the cartoon to any of the sequels and reboots.) Fans hate what ABC did to the characters in later seasons when they hired idiots as consultants (Sweet Baby Inc isn’t special, just a modern brand of idiot consultants) but nobody hated Slimer. They hated his comedy shorts, which I didn’t, but not Slimer himself. Kids loved Slimer. His voice? I thought it fit. He didn’t have one in the movie outside of screaming.

Madame Razz AND Kowl (She-Ra: Princess Of Power)

Might as well put them both together as they’re from the same show. I’m actually kind of neutral here. I see the potential. Kowl in the movie/five part pilot was Bow’s sidekick and was meant to balance out his admittedly earned ego. He could also serve as a scout, like Tally Hawk for the Silverhawks (glad he wasn’t on this list), but I don’t think the show really used them very well. Madame Razz could offer exposition about what little magic and history Etheria had, which was never as interesting as the deathtrap sister world of Eternia, but not much else.

They also never show us HOW Madame Razz, Kowl, and I’m guessing Broom knew Adora was She-Ra. It was never shown in Secret Of The Sword (reworked from the five-part episode “The Sword Of She-Ra”) or anywhere in the full series. I’m a big proponent of superheroes having a support group of allies who are in on their alter egos, but when and why did they find out? Otherwise, Razz is an Orko knockoff (and he’s of course ALSO on the list) that could have been better used but wasn’t. Kowl at least had more potential on his own.

Twiki (Buck Rogers In The 25th Century)

This is totally a personal taste issue. Not from anywhere else in the Buck Rogers franchise and never appearing again, Twiki and later robot Crichton were only here because of R2-D2 and C-3PO. Remember, ABC changed Glen Larson’s ideas before due to Star Wars so it’s not surprising NBC would do the same. They also forced changes on Filmation with Flash Gordon, my favorite Sat AM cartoon in season one. (Hey Vic, why isn’t GREMLIN on this list! I’d totally back up not liking that mascot sidekick!) I also admit the “beditbeditbedit” stuff was annoying, but Twiki was fun and did help Buck out a time or two thanks to being a small robot when he wasn’t carting one of Earth’s AI overlords on his chest as Twiki tried to learn Buck’s 20th century jargon. Twiki’s fun and we’re just going to have to agree to disagree on this one.

Then again I don’t have his childhood trauma. We’ll just say the same about Boxey and Daggit because he doesn’t have any details for me to push back against. Agree to disagree. Plus Boxey is also Atreau and I did get to ask him about “working” with Daggit. He didn’t hate him.

Orko (He-Man & The Masters Of The Universe)

To be honest the 2020s remake did a much better job with him, but it’s an example of how you do a GOOD reboot and Netflix should have taken notes. LOTS of notes because the shows they’ve made do NOT measure up. However, we’re talking specifically 1980s Orko and he’s still wrong. There were times when Orko helped because the plot allowed him to. A young Trollan who was already called Orko The Great back home, he just had trouble adjusting to Eternian magic. I have theories on that I might get into someday but that’s not for this article. He was one of the three that knew Adam’s secret, but unlike Adora we never saw He-Man’s origin so it’s not the oversight Razz and Kowl’s part are. We do know that when Orko arrived on Eternia his first act was to save a young Prince Adam, and if he didn’t there wouldn’t be a He-Man and with She-Ra thought forever lost Skeletor would have taken over by his first week in pursuit of Castle Grayskull.

When Orko’s powers did work he’s been able to capture villains, force secrets from evil wizards, have knowledge about magical things, sensing evil magic, and being a good friend due to his kind heart. He’s just very curious, still a youngun in his dimension, and had trouble adjusting to foreign magicks. I have no issues with Orko.

Scott Trakker & T-Bob (MASK)

Like with Daniel, when it comes to Scott & T-Bob it depends on the writer of the episode. Some of them were better at using the character than others, and those that couldn’t were wise to just leave them for comedy or to show what VENOM’s actions were doing away from MASK’s point of view. That’s kind of where they shined, but there were also times they either got the plot moving or were beneficial to the story. Occasionally they would mess with VENOM , and since in the show VENOM didn’t know the MASK agents identity until the “racing season” (unlike the comics where they were fully aware) they still weren’t tied to Matt Trakker and MASK. I’m surprise Miles Mayhem never thought twice about this kid and his robot showing up again when they did catch him…they were exactly Penny Gadget & Brain.

Under bad writers they were out of place, or rather writers who didn’t know what to do with the pair. Not necessarily bad writers. Some writers just can’t work with kid characters, but the ones that could gave us some good moments. So whether or not they deserve to be here depends on the episode. Used right they kept the plot moving or gave us a different view of the impact of what was going on to the people being saved.

As mentioned, I don’t know anything about Uni besides she existed (didn’t even know it was a she until this video), so moving on.

Tattoo (Fantasy Island)

Now I know there’s something wrong. How do you hate on Tattoo? The late Hervé Villechaize is just so likable in this role! Besides, of all the characters on this list, Tattoo probably serves the most narrative important role of all of them. For the uninitiated, Fantasy Island is about an island where people come to live out their fantasies. Usually the fantasies don’t go as planned, but rather than being some anti-fantasy diatribe, the guest often got what they were really after from the fantasy. Sometimes it was love, sometimes confidence or other form or inner peace. It’s not a bad show if one of the episode’s fantasies interested you. For me it didn’t often.

Tattoo’s role was more for the meta than the story. He was there for Roarke to tell the audience parts of the guests’ lives that explained why they wanted to live this alternate life for awhile, or to explain things in the fantasy that may not exactly come out in the story otherwise. Basically, it’s a variation on narration, but one that could be humorous to break up some of the darker events of the fantasy. Plus Ricardo Montauban and Hervé Villechaize just have great on-screen chemistry together. Would you really deny us that?

Scrappy-Doo (the Scooby-Doo franchise)

I’ve defending this actual nephew so often he could be MY mascot at this point. Scrappy essentially kept the franchise on the air, as ABC was going to cancel it unless they could find something fresh. So he was shoved into scripts clearly not intended to have him in it. Otherwise, it’s just season two of The Scooby-Doo Show, my favorite period of Scooby-Doo. They even tried to get rid of him in the final episode, introducing “Scrappy’s Gang”, which he could have been left with and the gang could move on.

Instead, ABC liked the idea of Scooby, Shaggy, and Scrappy having their own adventures and the next season lost the formula. They tried to bring it back in later seasons but given what they did to The Real Ghostbusters I wouldn’t be surprised if ABC fought them until A Pup Named Scooby-Doo. We wouldn’t get proper Scooby until the direct to video movies and What’s New Scooby-Doo. None of that is Scrappy’s fault, as he did grow as a character and mystery solver, just not in age. Making him the poster child of Hated Character Syndrome and blaming him for the direction the franchise took is just not accurate. Scrappy’s decent enough, and I wouldn’t mind seeing him put back together with his gang in New York, or even the Uncle Yabba stories. Blame the network, not the puppy.

At least he realizes Snarf is cool.

What about you folks? Any character you thought should be on this list (Gremlin–even then he was forced on Filmation and they didn’t know what to do with him, so it’s still NBC’s fault) or doesn’t deserve the hate he/she gets?