[FILLER VIDEO] If CBS Had Made The Transformers Cartoon

With everything going on around here right now taking much of my focus away from the site, this came out at just the right time.

A few cycles ago, Chris McFeely told us about the Transformers we might have gotten in the form of “Mysterions”. (Not to be confused with Captain Scarlett’s nemeses.) In the video we also heard about a character named Muffy and an alleged show called Car And Cable, all of which eventually led to the “G1” Transformers cartoon we know and love today. However, the Transformers we know and love might have been very different had CBS carried the show instead of syndication.

The Sunbow Marvel Archive is always looking for more informations about the shows co-produced by Marvel Productions, Marvel Comics’ cartoon arm at the time, and Sunbow Productions, owned by Marvel’s advertising company. Events recently lead to the biggest news in Transformers development. Syndicated cartoons were always something of a gamble, though Filmation would lead the way away from network “standards and practices” forced on them by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and parent groups (yep, them again), which sanitized much of Saturday morning programming. While the 1980s and late 1970s found ways to work around those limits, they were still something of a pain, but still had the advantage of a bigger budget and wider distribution since you just had to go to the one network rather than a bunch of local stations to pitch your series. Basically, you choose your poison, put in the required 16 weeks of material (the requirement at the time–easier on a weekend show since you only needed one a week), and your good.

CBS wasn’t the only problem with the first attempt at making a Transformers cartoons. There was also the disagreement between Marvel Productions, some creators still upset about DePatie–Freleng Enterprises being taken over and altered, and Marvel Comics, the guys who took over and altered them. DePatie–Freleng is probably best known for the Pink Panther and The Inspector cartoons, both spinning off from them working on the title sequences for the original Peter Sellers movies. Pink Panther, the name of the jewel, appeared in the intros as an actual panther, leading to cartoons made about them even after the company folded, while the movie’s main character, the bumbling Inspector Clouseau, got his own series of shorts. They hated their new bosses, so internal politics also paved the way from a huge diversion.

However, why should I go on when McFeely has collected all the new information into a new video documentary going over the two failed pitches to CBS, the eventual parting, and get a small look at what might have been.

Don’t forget to watch shorter shows like this, Transformers: The Basics, on McFeely’s YouTube channel.

The ideas seen in these two pitches also got realized in two other ways that weren’t mentioned in the video. The bad bots getting human allies can be seen in the short lived character Dr. Archeville as well as Challenge Of The GoBots villain Dr. Braxis. There was also a main character on the Guardians’ side named Matt Hunter rather than Matt Conroy, another coincidence. The idea of energy beings taking over cars and befriending a race team (rather than a car club) was also the backstory for Hot Wheels’ Robo Wheels toyline, as seen in the promotional video that came with the first wave of toys. Also, you can see IDW’s first and highly unnecessary redesign of Bumblebee, which bears a few similarities to Muffy/Muffler by accident. You can’t replace Da Bee! He had to will himself into remaining awesome.

Personally, I wouldn’t be surprised if Scott didn’t insist on making his own replacement for Bumblebee, given the animosity between Marvel Productions and Marvel Comics, which McFeely briefly brought up. He did my boy wrong twice. Also, during the premiere I mentioned that the addition of Burt might have been due to Christy Marx liking to stick dog characters into Sunbow shows. McFeely corrected me, stating that Dennis Marx was actually responsible for that stuff, but wasn’t involved with this pitch since he wasn’t there anymore. Not sure if I at least got Sunbow right versus Marvel Productions.

If you want to check out all the CBS material for yourself, here’s the link on The Sunbow Marvel Archive, with other resource links in the video’s description on YouTube, but this won’t be my last look at this. Once the current crisis is over (which hopefully please God please will be soon) and I can focus on this site again I plan to do a review of all of this material like I did for “Beast Hunters”, the first concept that became Beast Machines as well as the recent looks at early pitches for Star Trek and Doctor Who. So there’s something to look forward to I hope. In the meantime I hope you enjoyed this overview. Curious if you think any of this would have kept The Transformers as popular as the show we got or if you prefer their ideas to the final product? Spoilers: I don’t.