the writers strike of 87 really stopped this show
this show would have done great but the writers strike stopped it
shareActually, it was the poor sales of the toys that stopped it. It had nothing to do with the writer's strike - many of the second season script (and the overall story arc) were already written. Since the toy sales were a major part of the funding for the show, when Mattel pulled the pluig on the toys it also meant the demise of the show.
shareHmm, that's strange. From what I have read and hard, the toy sales were through the roof.
To see the only real monster, one must look no further than the mirror.
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Yeah, I agree that the parental group of the "Just say no" era really capped the show in the knees. But then, you also have to admit that it wasn't exactly the normal Saturday morning 'toon stuff. People died, there was violence, it was dark in atmosphere, and Lord Dread was quite the evil dude. When you run that right after "Smurfs", the dichotomy is startling and (frankly) hilarious.
I have always said the show was before its time. Can you imagine what they could do with CGI today? You could literally market this puppy to a late teen / adult audience on Sci Fi and make a mint off interactive toys. Who wouldn't like to sit during a show and have something to do?
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They are, but it's called The Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles. Terminator inspired this derivative show in the first place.
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All of those conservative groups had no idea what they were talking about, and the vast majority of boycotters never watched the show to even be able to make their case (this is true of most groups that call for the boycott or moratorium of something). I honestly never thought this show was very violent at all, even back when I was a kid. More people are digitized (which isn't even fatal) than are hurt or killed by being shot at, and most major injuries are the result of an accident, like a powersuit malfunction or a skybike crash (such as in "Judgement" -- that episode still makes me cry to this day). In fact, the vast majority of violence in the show was done towards the bio-dreads and the troopers, neither of which were human. There's nothing wrong with characters getting hurt in a kids show, because it shows that heroes are people that can get hurt, but when they do get hurt, they stand up and come back for more.
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http://www.avclub.com/article/captain-powers-vision-future-was-ahead-its-time-241589
The show also struggled to find its audience. Straczynski blamed the name, which he loathed. “For science fiction fans who were looking for a serious story, they wouldn’t tune into something called Captain Power. And those who would watch a show called Captain Power weren’t often in the mood for a serious science fiction story,” he opines in Out Of The Ashes. Erratic scheduling in many of its syndicated markets played a role, too, leaving intrigued audiences unable to follow or get invested in the dense drama as it unfolded from episode to episode.share
It’s also possible that the mature subject matter was an issue for some viewers. The writers’ desire to respect their younger audience was admirable—it’s a demographic that shouldn’t be underestimated—and not without precedent at the time. Comparatively complex villains like Stormer from Jem And The Holograms had introduced the idea of moral relativism to the children of ’80s television, and Optimus Prime’s fall had ushered in an awareness of death and impermanence. The existence of a range of Dune coloring and activity books would suggest that there was at least some market for pint-sized appreciation of weird and dark science fiction. But a show so intensely preoccupied with the weight and ramifications of the past can be a hard sell for a population that doesn’t yet have one of their own.
Of course, it’s also possible that, like so many prematurely canceled shows before and after it, Captain Power was just too much Of The Future to succeed. There’s a decent case to be made for that argument, as the show embraced everything from the act of making sci-fi television in Canada and the (almost) seamless blend of live action and CGI long before anyone else did, and its influence can be seen everywhere from Straczynski’s work on Babylon 5 to the design and ethos of Star Trek’s Borg. Jenny’s death might even have predicted the emotionally gutting character murder that the likes of Joss Whedon and George R.R. Martin have made their hallmark.