He-Man and She-Ra

[School of Everything Else 2016]

This week's episode is all about one of the first wildly popular toy and animated show tie-ins. Emerging in 1982 the Masters of the Universe toy line was hot on the heels of Star Wars and (thanks to the repeal of certain laws about ethics in programming) was able to advertise its products to the child during the commercial breaks as they were watching the show. And of course, seeing as most of the characters featured were already toys, every episode was a commercial in its own right.

He-Man is, by today's standards a dreadfully polite pacifist who seeks only to hold Eternia's morals in check, whist Skeletor is a charmingly gentle nitwit who seeks power via boneheaded schemes. Both of them have colourful henchmen and at the end of the day nobody is getting hurt. 

She-Ra is a scenario much the same, only she and her buddies in the Great Rebellion are always on the back foot and Hordak is an oppressive warmonger that they are trying to depose, giving that show more of a struggle and stakes, and a rather empowering female hero for many girls (and boys) to be inspired by. Stay to the end to see how Mattel sold this strong woman in doll form. 

We also cover the ill-fated New Adventures and the badass 200X show. Next week we're looking at the 1987 Dolph Lundgren movie.