
“More Than Meets The Eye” has already released in syndication, but Hasbro wanted to go with a major TV network, as the network would have picked up the costs of the show and they would have a ready station for the show, every network affiliate that carried the network’s Saturday morning programming. CBS was chosen for whatever reason. That’s not a complaint. I just couldn’t tell you why CBS was chosen over NBC and ABC. I don’t recall ABC ever carrying anything from Marvel Productions until 1987’s Little Clowns Of Happytown, VERY loosely based on the line of clown figurines. (I still have my Super Clown.) CBS did have some of their adventure and comedy shows, while NBC did all of their Marvel Comics based superhero shows.
Due to the rivalry between Marvel Productions and Marvel comics mentioned in Chris McFeely’s video, in case you thought animation didn’t trump comics in the media pecking order even back then because it was still TV, Jeffery Scott’s pitch ignored everything they already did in the miniseries and created an entire new concept from scratch than Hasbro had accepted from Marvel Comics’ Jim Shooter and the characters developed by Bob Budiansky. What came out was so far removed from what we know that it feels like an entirely different product from the start. Already this is a bad idea because kids would be trying to reconcile the two concepts. If you don’t think so, adults were still trying to force the comic and cartoon we got into one continuity despite more contradictions than the live-action movies. The comics were eventually forced to use the Floro Dery character models for the comics but the early issues used the toys as how they drew the Transformers.
Thus, the question is whether or not Marvel Productions was as smarter than their comic friends as they believed themselves to be. This portion of our look will have six chapters. The pitch by Scott, completed for February 25th of 1984, is split into backstory, Decepticon character profiles, Autobot character profiles, human character profiles, and something I don’t see enough of in these pitch bibles–sample episodes! We’ll compare them to the actual cartoon during each section, with a wrap-up section that will segue into the second draft. So let’s begin with a look at the story they came up instead of 4 million year old robots activating on Earth to resume their war.








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Posted by ShadowWing Tronix on September 25, 2025 in Comic Spotlight and tagged comics, Comics By Perch, commentary.
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