RoboCop is a 1988 superhero animated series based on the 1987 movie of the same name.[1] The series was produced by Marvel Productions in association with Orion Pictures Corporation, and was syndicated by New World Television as part of the Marvel Action Universe programming block.[2]
| RoboCop | |
|---|---|
 Title card | |
| Genre | Action Adventure Cyberpunk Superhero |
| Created by | Edward Neumeier Michael Miner |
| Developed by | Rich Fogel Mark Seidenberg |
| Directed by | Bill Hutton Tony Love |
| Voices of | Robert Bockstael Barbara Budd Len Carlson Rex Hagon Dan Hennessey Ron James Greg Morton Susan Roman Allen Stewart-Coates Chris Ward Gordon Maston |
| Music by | Haim Saban Shuki Levy |
| Country of origin | United States |
| No. of episodes | 12 |
| Production | |
| Executive producers | Margaret Loesch Joseph M. Taritero |
| Running time | 30 minutes |
| Production companies | Orion Pictures Marvel Productions[a] |
| Original release | |
| Network | Syndication |
| Release | October 1 – December 17, 1988 |
| Related | |
| RoboCop: Alpha Commando | |
The show made a number of changes to the RoboCop universe to make it more appropriate for younger viewers, including replacing bullets with laser weapons and shifting the series to a more science fiction setting. In this series, RoboCop had a red light in the middle of his visor (which occasionally panned the whole visor). It is set in an alternate continuity where events similar to those shown in the movie happened, excluding Clarence Boddicker's death, who shows up in the last episode.
Ownership of the series passed to Disney in 2001 when Disney acquired Fox Kids Worldwide, which also included Marvel Productions, while Amazon's Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (under Orion Pictures label) remains as current rights holder of the RoboCop franchise.[3][4][5]
Plot
editBased on the original movie, the series features cyborg cop Alex Murphy (RoboCop), who fights to save the city of Old Detroit from assorted rogue elements, and on occasion, fighting to reclaim aspects of his humanity and maintain his usefulness in the eyes of the "Old Man", Chairman of Omni Consumer Products. Many episodes see RoboCop's reputation put to the test or soured by interventions from Dr. McNamara, the creator of ED-260, the upgradable version of the Enforcement Droid Series 209 and the top competitor for the financial backing of OCP. He continually develops other mechanical menaces that threaten RoboCop.
In the police force, RoboCop is befriended by Officer Anne Lewis, who is depicted to have romantic inclinations towards him, but is also picked on and lambasted by the prejudiced Lieutenant Roger Hedgecock (who appeared as a minor character in the original film), who is determined to be rid of him and his kind, who he sees as ticking time bomb. Their rivalry comes to a fever pitch during the episode "The Man in the Iron Suit", in which Hedgecock comes close to finally beating Murphy with the aid of a new weapons system developed by McNamara. He almost kills Lewis when she interferes, enraging Murphy into tearing Hedgecock's iron suit apart and nearly crushing his skull before Lewis comes to his aid. RoboCop is maintained by RoboCop Project director Dr. Tyler.
The title sequence features a brief animated variation on Murphy being gunned down by Clarence Boddicker and his gang. Throughout the series, RoboCop struggles to deal with the pain of losing his humanity. Other themes include racism ("The Brotherhood"), prejudice at work ("Man in the Iron Suit"), environmental espionage ("Into the Wilderness"), terrorism, and the Middle East peace process ("A Robot's Revenge").
While this series is based on the original film, there are significant changes to RoboCop and his environment. RoboCop is faster and has a greater range of movement than in the films. The Old Detroit of the series is also considerably more technologically advanced: lasers replace handguns and robots are commonplace, Dr. Tyler (who appears in the original film) is the creator of the RoboCop Program, not Bob Morton, and also serves as one of Murphy's confidants as well as his caregiver, along with Dr. Roosevelt. Clarence Boddicker, the man responsible for Alex's Murphy's death prior to him becoming RoboCop, despite dying in the film, is shown to still be alive and battles RoboCop again in "Menace of the Mind", indicating the series takes place in an alternate continuity.
Cast
edit- Robert Bockstael - RoboCop/Alex J. Murphy, Dr. McNamara
- Susan Roman - Anne Lewis
- Harvey Atkin - K.R.U.D. station manager (in No News is Good News), Zocastani sheik (in A Robot's Revenge)
- Barbara Budd - Dr. Tyler
- Len Carlson - Lt. Roger Hedgecock, The Scrambler
- Allen Stewart-Coates - The Old Man, ED-260
- Rex Hagon -
- Dan Hennessey - Vandel Chainsaw, Ace Jackson, Birdman Barnes, Edwards (in Into the Wilderness)
- Ron James - Wheels Wilson
- Gordon Masten - Joe Cox
- Greg Morton - Sgt. Reed, Dr. Roosevelt, Vandel Headhunter
- Chris Ward - Cecil, Ralph (in Into the Wilderness)
Crew
edit- Stu Rosen - Voice Director
Episode guide
edit| Nº | Title | Written by | Air date | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Crime Wave" | Rich Fogel and Mark Seidenberg | October 1, 1988 | |
|
Dr. McNamara hires a very dangerous gang, the Vandals, to cause mass crime waves in Old Detroit. If RoboCop cannot stop this threat, Dr. McNamara will unleash his ED-260 weapon on the streets of Old Detroit. | ||||
| 2 | "Scrambler" | Rich Fogel and Mark Seidenberg | October 8, 1988 | |
|
A former OCP member, now a criminal, hacks into RoboCop's controls system and escapes from prison with help from a brainwashed RoboCop. Criminals control RoboCop and give him a mission to assassinate OCP’s leader, The Old Man. | ||||
| 3 | "Project Deathspore" | Donald F. Glut | October 15, 1988 | |
|
OCP's experiment Project Deathspore goes terribly wrong. It escapes into the sewers and streets of Old Detroit and feeds on the energy of the city and RoboCop's power. | ||||
| 4 | "The Brotherhood" | John Shirley | October 22, 1988 | |
|
RoboCop meets a Ku-Klux-Klan-like high tech criminal gang who call themselves "The Brotherhood". Their goal is to destroy all robots and cyborgs in Old Detroit with a high tech ball that causes errors in robots and cyborg programming. | ||||
| 5 | "The Man in the Iron Suit" | Rich Fogel and Mark Seidenberg | October 29, 1988 | |
|
Dr. McNamara creates an iron suit that is designed to be far superior to RoboCop. He gets Lieutenant Hedgecock into the suit to challenge RoboCop and prove to the Old Man that his product is far superior. The Old Man is only concerned about which product would be most profitable so he has Hedgecock and RoboCop compete to determine which product is more valuable. | ||||
| 6 | "The Hot Seat" | Marv Wolfman | November 5, 1988 | |
|
Dr. McNamara frees the Vandals from prison and hires them to steal RoboCop’s charging chair; without it, RoboCop is a piece of junk. The Vandals get RoboCop’s chair and try to sell it to Dr. McNamara. | ||||
| 7 | "No News Is Good News" | John Shirley | November 12, 1988 | |
|
Dr. McNamara sabotages OCP's new tank, AW7 to make it attack the people of Old Detroit. A corrupt reporter attempts to "defame" RoboCop, but faces a number of obstacles in the process. | ||||
| 8 | "Night of the Archer" | Michael Charles Hill | November 19, 1988 | |
|
RoboCop investigates a man named Archer, who plays Robin Hood as he steals from the rich and gives his bounty to the poor of Old Detroit. Inciting violence across Delta City, rioters begin looting and burning down stores and malls as reparations for what OCP's construction and pollution has done to Detroit. Lewis is in a moral crisis unable to connect the Archer's message to the violent actions of rioters, which includes the attempted murder of The Old Man. | ||||
| 9 | "Rumble in Old Detroit" | Donald F. Glut | November 26, 1988 | |
|
A gang war breaks out when a cache of illegal weapons is stolen from Metro West Police Station. Gangs attack gangs and the only one that can stop the violence is RoboCop. | ||||
| 10 | "A Robot's Revenge" | John Shirley | December 3, 1988 | |
|
RoboCop and Anne Lewis are assigned to protect Middle Eastern leaders Prince Zoras and Ilmar as they draft a peace treaty. Two terrorists send an ED-260 to assassinate the two leaders. | ||||
| 11 | "Into the Wilderness" | Roger Slifer | December 10, 1988 | |
|
RoboCop investigates an OCP factory that is polluting the water and environment. | ||||
| 12 | "Menace of the Mind" | Roger Slifer | December 17, 1988 | |
|
Dangerous micro-circuit amulets turn up on the black market. RoboCop discovers that the one distributing them is Clarence Boddicker, the man responsible for Alex Murphy's death. This episode also features Ace Jackson, Wheels Wilson and Birdman Barnes, the three members of RoboCop's Ultra Police team. | ||||
The reason why there were only 12 episodes instead of the traditional 13 for a weekly animated series is because Marvel Productions used the budget for what would have been the 13th episode of RoboCop to fund a pilot for a proposed X-Men animated series (also known as Pryde of the X-Men).[citation needed]
Home media
editIn 1991, three episodes of the series were released as individual NTSC VHS volumes, distributed by Best Film & Video Corp. under the "Marvel Video!" banner. The episodes were: "Man in the Iron Suit!" (volume 1), "Crime Wave" (volume 2), and "A Robot's Revenge" (volume 3).
On February 18, 2008, UK distributor Maximum Entertainment released the complete series in a three-disc box set containing all 12 episodes.[citation needed]
DVD release
editUnited Kingdom
editIn the 2000s, Maximum Entertainment (under license from Jetix Europe) released several DVDs of RoboCop on Region 2 DVD in the UK.
| Title | Episodes | Region 1 | Region 2 | Region 4 | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RoboCop - Volume 1 | 1–5 | - | 30 August 2004[6] | - | |
| Action Man/RoboCop/Conan the Adventurer | 6–8 | - | 20 September 2004[7] | - | |
| RoboCop - Volume 2 (The Hot Seat) | 6–7 and 11 | - | 4 April 2005[8] | - | |
| RoboCop - Part Man, Part Machine | 1-5 | - | 4 June 2007[9] | - | |
| Transformers/MASK/RoboCop | 1-5 | - | 16 July 2007[10] | - | |
| RoboCop - The Complete Series | 1-12 | - | 11 February 2008[11] | - |
References
edit- ^ "A NEW SUPERHERO CARTOON-LIKE 'ROBOCOP'IS AIMED AT ADULTS, TOO". Beacon Journal. July 18, 1987.
- ^ Erickson, Hal (2005). Television Cartoon Shows: An Illustrated Encyclopedia, 1949 Through 2003 (2nd ed.). McFarland & Co. pp. 527–528. ISBN 978-1476665993.
- ^ "U.S. Copyright Public Records System".
- ^ "Disney+ and Missing Saban Entertainment & Fox Kids-Jetix Worldwide Library - StreamClues". 14 September 2022. Archived from the original on 26 December 2022. Retrieved 2 October 2022.
- ^ "Liste - BVS Entertainment | Séries".
- ^ "Robocop (Animated): Volume 1 [DVD]: Amazon.co.uk: Robocop: DVD & Blu-ray". Amazon.co.uk. 27 November 2006. Retrieved 2014-07-23.
- ^ "Action Man/Robocop/Conan The Adventurer [DVD]: Amazon.co.uk: DVD & Blu-ray". Amazon.co.uk. 20 September 2004. Retrieved 2014-07-23.
- ^ "Robocop (Animated): Volume 2 [DVD]: Amazon.co.uk: Robocop: DVD & Blu-ray". Amazon.co.uk. 27 November 2006. Retrieved 2014-07-23.
- ^ "Robocop - Part Man, Part Machine [DVD]: Amazon.co.uk: Robocop: DVD & Blu-ray". Amazon.co.uk. 4 June 2007. Retrieved 2014-07-23.
- ^ "Transformers/MASK/Robocop [DVD]: Amazon.co.uk: DVD & Blu-ray". Amazon.co.uk. 16 July 2007. Retrieved 2014-07-23.
- ^ "Robocop - The Complete Animated Series [DVD]: Amazon.co.uk: Paul Lynch, Alan J. Levi: DVD & Blu-ray". Amazon.co.uk. 11 February 2008. Retrieved 2014-07-23.