He-Man: cartoon hero or corporate salesman???
Back in the early 1980's, Mattel, the famous toy manufacturing company, was reportedly developing a "Conan the Barbarian" action figure series. It can be inferred that someone at the company deemed the Conan toyline inappropriate for children. The "Conan the Barbarian" toyline was then converted to a brand new series of toys, "Masters of the Universe."
"Masters of the Universe" toys hit the store shelves and sold surprisingly well. In order to boost sales, Mattel made a deal with Filmation, the now defunct animation studio, to produce a cartoon show based on the toys. "He-Man and the Masters of the Universe" was born. Filmation worked hard on the series, especially for the first season, creating a footage library of stock character movements.
"He-Man and the Masters of the Universe" started off as a basic cartoon series, telling fairly simple adventure stories housed on the planet Eternia. The prince of Eternia, Adam, used his magic sword to transform him into He-Man, the strongest man in the universe and also the hero of the cartoon. The evil Skeletor and his henchmen tried to conquer Eternia and also take over Castle Greyskull, the source of He-Man's power. However, the show developed into a unique cartoon series. The scriptwrites for the show, most notably Paul Dini, explored the characters as people. For example, Prince Adam worries in one epsiode that his father, King Randor, has more respect for He-Man than for him. This added depth to the show helped it acquire an adult audience.
The popularity of the show successfully made the "Masters of the Universe" toyline a hit. He-Man's success had its downside as well, since questions were raised about the ethics behind creating a children's cartoon based upon a line of merchandise. "He-Man and the Masters of the Universe" became an example of the lack of distinction between art and commerce. Despite the controversy, many similar toy-based cartoons were developed, including "G.I.Joe", "Transformers", "Thundercats", and the He-Man spinoff series, "She-Ra: Princess of Power". After two seasons (65 episodes each) totalling 130 episodes, production of the "He-Man" cartoon had stopped. Mattel decided to get Filmation to animate a new cartoon series based on its "Princess of Power" toyline. "She-Ra: Princess of Power" went into production just as He-Man was ending. She-Ra was given main priority and He-Man went from being the star of his own cartoon to a guest star on his sister's series. She-Ra lasted for two seasons totalling 93 episodes, compared to He-Man's successful 130 episodes. Mattel cancelled She-Ra due to poor sales (several "Princess of Power" toys were never released). Filmation stopped producing the show after the mediocre run of 28 new episodes in its second season.
Time passed, and Group W Productions, the owners of Filmation, eventually sold the studio to L'Oreal, the French cosmetic firm. It has been speculated that L'Oreal was only interested in acquiring the European rights to Filmation's library of past products, including "He-Man" and "She-Ra". L'Oreal fired the entire Filmation production staff in one day. Filmation's doors were closed on February 3, 1989. Ironically, the closure of Filmation by L'Oreal took place one day before a new federal law went into effect, a law requiring companies to give their employees 60 days' written notice before a mass firing.
Currently, Hallmark Entertainment owns the rights to the Filmation library. It is possible that He-Man and She-Ra will have a future. There is hope for this world!