2017 will mark 30 years since Captain Power and the soldiers of future first aired on t.v. stations around the U.S. but it was short-lived due to low ratings and poor toy sales. It was the first interactive tv show where you can aim at the bio-dread bad guys on the tv screen with your power jet xt7. Two words, Power on!
shareBefore NBC had bought and incorporated the Super Channel, the show ran on it. In other words it had satellite coverage, and for me, it came at a time, when I couldn't bundle confusion.
What I mean is, before the internet, and my country's inability to further jam Western broadcasts, I had the erroneous notion, that 24 hour news networks and private TV networks must have been a long staple of daily life in any Westerners life.
In a lot of sense, shows like these were ahead of their time. Whenever I read, that in retrospect it had corny CGI, it was waaaaay better, than the shoddy practical effects my countrymen could come up with. While visits to the West were limited and very pricey, the TV shows still could air minus any merch readily available. It helped me gain English as a second language at a time, when it wasn't allowed to learn it, and I watched this one in German as well.
The problem then was the same as it is today, creative control being tied to undisclosed focus groups, overbearing zealots wishing to ban things, and executive meddling. Mattel hasn't spent much time on realizing the access to new markets. Heck, when Hook came out in '91, having a McDonalds tie-in was a huge sales boost, as after being merely 3 years into the country, people had not yet known was cross promotion was. Yet, it remains to be a problem today, with angry chants of not wishing to change the memories we grew up with, while ignoring the fact, that said memories were always influenced by the same executive meddling.
It's a shared, global memory, and it's not aimed at you or your peers, but there are times I'm frankly pissed how such events are being monopolized by some very loud Americans, as if it was only made for you, and made by you, and those executives cave before testing other markets for turnovers, killing good shows and movies in the process.
I for one would welcome a reboot, that can talk to a global audience, and its revenues will supersede local disappointment, as something, that only means a cheesy show to some, just might mean the window to the world to others, and teach about loss, tolerance, camaraderie, and the human experience.
I remember when Pilot had to go back undercover at the facility, and met with youngsters who only knew the world as Lord Dread let them experience it, and viewed it as the best possible. Many of my peers also follow such leaders even today. I didn't became "woke", just opened up to other interpretations from the ones everyone else keeps saying to be true above all else. I don't mean to offend North Americans, but without actual oppression, the additional layer of not being just sympathetic but also empathetic to it goes lost without experience, and hopefully you don't have to go through it. I'm aware, that many people identifying with a marginalized group goes through that, but non oppressed people have a chance to change it for them, even within the system, it's only bleak when that doesn't exist anymore, and society cheers for it.
In a different universe Mattel could have grabbed the bulls by the horn, as Habsro's surge with the Marvel deals and their story lines is a huge evidence there's a market for shows that both talk to kids and adults alike.
I live in the Gordius Apartment Complex, my interior designer was M.C. Escher.