Hasbro has released 15 episodes of their classic 1980s G.I. Joe cartoon.
The unabashed American flag waving kid's cartoon is about G.I. Joe, a special mission force, battling the vicious terrorist organization known as Cobra. G.I. Joe was one of many cartoons that were produced as extended advertisements designed to sell action figures and playsets. Each cartoon features characters and vehicles that were available at your local toy store and made many a young boy's Christmas gift list.
While wildly violent, and fun, to watch as vehicles explode and soldiers shoot laser guns, Hasbro also introduced interesting social responsibility messages tacked on to each episode at the end. Who could forget that knowing is half the battle as G.I. Joe characters warned kids not to play with downed power lines? The violence was also curbed as Cobra terrorists always managed to parachute out of airplanes or leap from tanks just a moment before they went up in an explosion.
While easy to disregard as either harmless fun for kids on Saturday morning or as jingoistic militarism, the plot lines of G.I. Joe are kind of mind-blowing when one steps back and takes a close look at them. The three-story arcs released by Hasbro for free viewing on Youtube include "The M.A.S.S. device", "The Revenge of Cobra", and "The Pyramid of Darkness".
The zany but entertaining plots came from the fertile imagination of career writer and producer Ron Friedman who used his upbringing in West Virginia as inspiration for G.I. Joe, a multi-cultural force that fights for freedom.
The 15 G.I. Joe episodes are available on Hasbro's Youtube channel, and the interviews with Friedman on Youtube are also a lot of fun if you check them out.
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Reach Jack Murphy: jack@connectingvets.com or @JackMurphyRGR.
