One of the things I’ve enjoyed about these pitch documents and writer’s guides is when they include potential stories. In the case of shows we actually got we get to see the early version of episodes we ended up with and which episode ideas were dropped altogether. So I’m glad that this first failed pitch for a Saturday Morning Transformers cartoon has some in there.
Remember, this was AFTER “More Than Meets The Eye”, the first miniseries that aired in syndication, was produced. In fact, the “Story Springboards” section makes note of it:
Note: TRANSFORMERS will be full half-hour episodes, each a complete story in itself. The series, unlike the specials, will not be serialized.
As it turns out, the series we got also wasn’t serialized. G.I. Joe had more serials before they started their series than The Transformers had, though there were a few two-parters and it ended on a miniseries, “The Rebirth”, which is kind of appropriate. Most Transformers series had ongoing plots within done-in-one episodes, which to me is the best way to go about it. I do enjoy a good serial, but it’s not always the best way to go about it.
There are only five sample stories, so they didn’t think out a full season. Thirteen was the average number of Saturday morning episodes, possibly due to the extra work that goes into making a cartoon so even the few live-action options for Saturday morning in the 1980s would be that length, while prime time adult shows got more. This also came about in syndication, at least for weekend shows. Weekday shows would have more episodes but it was still thirteen weeks worth of TV. Still, we have an idea of what the season could have started with while the other eight episodes were thought up and produced. It will still be interesting to see if anything was reworked for the syndicated series or if they would have been as interesting to kids as “Heavy Metal War”, to pull a random episode from memory. Let’s get on with it.
ROTTEN TO THE CORE
In this episode, Megatron learns of the New York City subway systems’ hundreds of train cars and decides to take control of the Big Apple from the inside, out. Arthur Kroll helps the Decepticons sneak into a subway tunnel where they proceed to “implant” their glowing energy orbs into the subway cars, transforming them into Decepticon robot warriors.
The Autobots track down the Decepticons, battling them beneath the city as they attempt to save the humans who are trapped in the cars. In the subplot, a group of Guardian Angel-like teens are caught in one of the subway cars and assist Duke and Prime in turning the tide on the Decepticons.
You could make the case that Astrotrain’s “Astroforce” from the episode “Triple Takeover” matches turning trains into warriors. Raul and his pals were the only street kids we see in New York, but they weren’t crimefighters. They were street performers and former car thieves. And New York shows up a few times as either a place to see a lot of reactions or the occasional base of operations. All of that is probably coincidence, and I’m betting the other four will come with the same situation. As for the episode itself, it’s not a bad story idea. We would get Autobots using trains in both the Japanese The Headmasters and Car Robots/Robots In Disguise. Come to think of it, Autobots tend to use train modes more than Decepticons, even with Micromasters. So what’s the next episode idea?
THE TITANIUM GERM
While Megatron is attempting to transform the oil platforms off the coast of Alaska into Decepticon robot warriors, Jazz (Porsche) comes in contact with a titanium alloy that is foreign to the Autobots. It acts like a deadly germ, invading his mechanical innards and developing into a bio-mechanical disease. The Autobots must not only stop the Decepticons, but find an antidote before Jazz loses is robot form.
The only Transformer “diseases” we ever get in G1 were Cosmic Rust in the show (which made a brief and far more dangerous appearance in Cyberverse) and the original version of the Scraplets in the comic. I don’t know why a foreign alloy would bother the Autobots if they’re doing the glowy orb possession thing as well. They’re made of the alloys that make up their vehicle modes. This needed a bit more thinking out. The need for Cybertonium in “Desertion Of The Dinobots” works better.
ANYTHING FOR A FRIEND
Megatron and the Decepticons attempt to track down a nuclear submarine so they can transform it into another robot warrior. This will give them the ability to continue their mission beneath the seas as well.
When Prime tries to “leave” his truck form and take over an old mothballed battleship to help stop the Decepticon submarine-warrior, he is almost destroyed. Duke, in an effort to save Prime, risks his life by forming a “mind-link” with Prime, putting the strength of both their wills together in order to defeat Megatron.
This one is a bit more out there. Optimus needing to switch bodies is something that only works with this show’s concept, but I don’t see Hasbro finding a submarine to use for a version that only had one appearance. A couple of years later we’d get Dive Dive over with the GoBots and maybe a Cybertronian sub among the Pretenders, but subs are a rarity because kids can’t play with them without making some part of their play area the “water” and they don’t float in real water. It’s why we don’t get a lot of boats, either.
NOT ON THE FIRST DATE
Wendy is about to go on her fist date (you mean FIRST date? this is Saturday morning!) with a nice boy from high school when trouble arrives. It seems Megatron has already broken into the largest electronics factory in Japan and is about to transform thousands of electronic gadgets (from computers to typewriters) into robot warriors.
Wendy’s date gets “stood up,” but there’s no time to lose, so when Toad (her VW) transforms into robot mode, she is dragged along on the deadly mission.
Oh, this totally would not have worked with the boys back then. I don’t think they care about icky girls dating boys. There’s a reason Spike never gets any action until he and Carly are adults and married. Megatron stealing electronics and going to Japan happened pretty often. Now that I think about it, with all of these extra non-toy characters, the cheap wanna-bes would be cleaning up if they looked at the one-shots or potential one-shots and made toys of them. Look at third party companies today. They made a Mountain Dew vending machine into a Transformer because of the live-action movies.
TIME FOR TROUBLE
Arthur Kroll proves what kind of louse he really is when, through his espionage work, he reveals to Megatron the location of a top secret test sight of a government time machine. With his help, Megatron and the other Decepticons take over the test sight, transforming the time machine into an incredible Decepticon warrior robot.
The Autobots must stop the Decepticons before they travel into another time where they can further their evil goals, free of Autobot intervention.
Oddly, it’s Challenge Of The GoBots that made something close to this story. Cy-Kill learns of some scientist making a time machine and tries to conquer ancient Rome, with the Guardians racing to stop him. The Transformers do have a few time travel episodes, but it was either Megatron or the Quintessons behind the machine or portal. It’s also how the Aerialbots returned the favor to Optimus Prime for creating them by saving his younger self to become Optimus Prime. Funny little world, isn’t it?
And that’s it. That’s where the first pitch ended. It would get submitted to CBS and to Hasbro to see if it got greenlit. Obviously we know it didn’t, but would have been a good show if it had. Next time we’ll transition from the first to second pitch by going over what happened and whether or not we’re better off that it didn’t.
BW Media Spotlight 