Watch The History of The Dungeons and Dragons Cartoon
Cartoon series Dungeons & Dragons is one of the greatest ‘toons of the 1980s.
Dungeons & Dragons featured six lead characters: Hank the Ranger, Eric the Cavalier, Bobby the Barbarian, Sheila the Thief, Diana the Acrobat and Presto the Magician. Across the course of its run, the show focused on the group’s attempts to escape the Realm and return home, all the while escaping the clutches of the evil Venger.
The Dungeons and Dragons cartoon hit the airwaves in 1983 riding the Satanic Panic wave from the Dungeons and Dragons Role-playing Game and only lasted a few seasons. It was also not helped by the fractured marketing approach which had a toyline and other merchandise being released as “Advanced Dungeons and Dragons” with no action figures made of the characters from the cartoon. Despite all that, it led in the rating for it’s first 2 seasons and made a lasting impression on pop culture at large.
But Dungeons & Dragons was almost never without controversy. Why was there so much parental turmoil surrounding Dungeons & Dragons? It all has to do with the “satanic panic” of American culture in the 1980s. At that time, almost everything that was directed at young people with supernatural topics was considered “by the devil”. Reactionary parents also referred to heavy metal music and even He-Man and the masters of the universe as satanic. Due to a suicide purportedly related to D&D (which has never been proven), the game was particularly focused. And thus require a healthy revision.
As the video explains, writer Mark Evanier cracked the code on how to simplify the complex mythology into something digestible for preteens. Taking a group of all-American kids and transporting them to the land of Dungeons & Dragons was a stroke of genius. But weird licensing deals resulted in the characters from the cartoon never getting toys of their own. Despite its popularity, the show only ran three seasons, so the kids stranded in D&D world never made it home.
facts:
Dungeons & Dragons was co-produced by TSR and Marvel Productions – a subsidiary of Marvel Comics. Marvel Productions produced various shows throughout the 1980s, including Jim Henson’s Muppet Babies (1985), Defenders of the Earth (1986), Jem and the Holograms (1986) and Rude Dog and the Dweebs (1989).
