G.I. Joe

I have fond memories of watching G.I. Joe. I was in junior high when it became a regular series, and still remember coming home from school just in time to watch it.

It has plenty of action, there's no question about that. Nonetheless, one would gripe that, despite all the battle scenes, no one gets killed. But I suspected that the producers had managed to sneak some fatalities into the show every now and then. For example, I recall one occasion where a Cobra trooper falls during a gunfight, only to never get back up. And at other times, some characters (mainly Cobra troopers) stumble near explosions. I believe that they pulled off some casualties in such a way that many viewers are unlikely to notice.

One of my favorite episodes is the two-parter, "There's No Place Like Springfield." That's the one where Shipwreck supposedly had amnesia. It's a great mystery story.

Besides Shipwreck, my other favorite characters include: Lifeline, Duke, Snake Eyes, Zartan, Dr. Mindbender, Barbecue, and Blowtorch.

One interesting thing about Lifeline is that he is a medic, and refuses to touch a weapon. But one has to wonder why the toy action figure came with a pistol.

This show was it when I was in high school. I lived, breathed and talked this show. I could mimmick all the voices, write my own stories with them and collect all the figures. This cartoon had it all ! Great stories, wonderful humor, incredible action and all the women were complete babes, especially the Baroness with her tight black body suit (almost a precursor to Michelle Pfeiffer as the Catwoman). The heroes were a lot like Hogan's Heroes or the A-Team; almost completely infallible and always prepared. Unfortunately, nothing this good lasts for long. GIJoe the Movie with Don Johnson and Burgess Meredith marked the end as the series was taken over by other producers and quickly ruined with stupid situations, bad stories, lousy animations and everyone's favorite characters eliminated. With that sort of damage, the legacy ended not with a bang (the movie), but with a whimper.

GI Joe was essentially an advertisement for the toys; it, like the comic, was designed to tie in with the toy line, to support the storyline of the comic and toys, and to introduce new characters and vehicles.

Given the constraints of the advertising medium, the show was pretty good. The characters seemed to develop over time, and there were identifiable (and diverging) personalities. Unfortunately, GI Joe suffers from the same problem may other cartoons that depict battle show; no one gets hurt or killed.

I don't want to sound like a sadist or cheap thrill seeker, but one would think that a show depicting two large armed forces continuously battling over the globe would suffer casualties. Planes were constantly shot down, but no one ever died. Highly unrealistic, and with Robotech showing at the same time, GI Joe lost its edge. It may have been more popular than Robotech, but couldn't maintain interest for very long. ...and then there's the episode where Cobra has a high-powered laser, and- no, doesn't try to destroy Joe- attempts to carve the Cobra logo onto the face of the moon. What an effective use of technology and power! Graffiti!

G.I. Joe(1984) is a show that I really enjoyed when it was on television. Its one of the few cartoons of the 1980s that I have fond memories of. It was a good promotional gig for the people who sold the toy figures. I'm shocked that nobody has made a live action version of G.I. Joe(1984) as the people in Hollywood seem to do with every other cartoon that was popular during the 1980s. G.I. Joe(1984) belongs to one of the best era in television animation.

G.I. Joe, when I hear this word, my thoughts are going back to my early childhood when I was watching the great heroes defeating the "Free West threatening" enemy COBRA. And after I watched it, I always started to play with my G.I. Joe toys. I was building ambushes with the G.I. Joe action figures and when the COBRA forces came through it was always big fun. Throwing around the action figures, making noise and stuff like that. And the coolest character of G.I. Joe was Ponton. Everybody who watched this series knows Ponton. He was the best specialist en he just looked very cool. Too bad, in Europe aren't very much people who like G.I. Joe. They say that G.I. Joe is an "anti-Russian" and "arrogant American product". I don't mind what those hanger-ons say, I just want to say: G.I. Joeoeoeoeo!!!!!!!