Before there was Inspector Gadget...

Many people who know me know that I spend much more time watching cartoons than one who is ostensibly an adult without children probably should. Of course, I can always counter back that I more than create proper balance by virtue of the amount of time that I spend watching C-SPAN as well. But the watching of C-SPAN is a discussion for another time, perhaps, and so I will return to the topic of cartoons.

Frankly, I think that most of the cartoons that are created these days are atrocious. What, is it that when selecting ideas for children's entertainment people actually go through a process similar to this? It's extremely bewildering, let me tell you, and for this reason I tend to go for nostalgia and watch cartoons that were around when I was growing up. And of course this makes the Boomerang network perfect for me. For those who do not know, Boomerang is operated by Cartoon Network, but shows primarily much older cartoons. But in watching this channel in recent days, I have come to the realization that cartoon creation for children has perhaps always been done in an idiotic fashion.

A few days ago (I cannot say with certainty on what day this occurred), I happened to be watching Boomerang late at night or very early in the morning and I came across the program The Robonic Stooges. Now if you guessed from reading this show's title that it was a cartoon about The Three Stooges, then give yourself a pat on the back. Apparently, the Robonic Stooges first appeared as part of a show called Skatebirds in 1977, but then began a sixteen episode run of its own on January 28, 1978. And I know what you are certainly thinking right now, because it was the same thing I was thinking when I saw the show: how in blazes did it take people so long to come up with a great idea like creating cartoon versions of the Three Stooges, but only as cyborgs, who went around fighting crime? I mean gosh, if I were creating a cartoon this is the very first idea I would come up with...if I were an advocate of torturing children, which I am not.

So this is a good idea for a cartoon? So, I can only gather from the creation of the Robonic Stooges that the target audience for the Three Stooges was children. I guess this could make sense because I do have a hard time believing that adults would find the Stooges that entertaining. Maybe it's a generational thing, but I just don't get it. But let's go back to the thesis that the original target audience for the Stooges was children. The timing of this show's creation can only mean that the children of this country were distraught that their beloved Stooges were never to perform again. After all, Moe, Larry, Curly, and Shemp were all dead by 1975. I'm sure those people in charge of children's programing at CBS in those days must have been saying, "These poor children, their adored Stooges are now all gone and there has not been a Three Stooges movie since 1970. I know what we can do! We can create a cartoon where bionic versions of the Stooges haphazardly foil crimes! This idea is a winner!" Yes, that idea certainly was a winner and proves that people in entertainment just don't get paid well enough for great ideas.