The Danger Team

The concept for "Danger Team" is pretty insane and you wonder why such a show was even attempted in the first place. Perhaps the inexplicable success of the California Raisins has something to do with it.

One day, Cheryl (Kathleen Beller) and a friend see a meteorite fly through their window and some blue goo is on it. Oddly, they don't think much of this. Even odder...three play creatures later climb off the rock and they turn out to be sentient creatures who can assume any shape very, very, very quickly. The biggest negative is that they are the size of hamsters. And, when Cheryl's friend is kidnapped, these tiny things turn into action heroes and help Cheryl rescue her friend.

This is a show that kids probably would have liked...adults...well, not so much. I found the creatures annoying (much like the Raisins) and the plot idea utterly ridiculous. No wonder the networks decided not to green light this as a regular series. Plus, given the time needed for stop-motion, I wonder if they even could have made a weekly series like this had it been approved.

carl stalling det agency

I remember taping this off TV when it ran in 1991; I think I must have watched it a bout a million times. I think that this was meant to be a pilot for an ongoing television show, but it doesn't seem to have ever taken off. It's a pity, because the outlandish plot would have helped it to stand out from the sit-com white noise of the age. The plot is, A ball of glop from outer space crashes into the studio of an artist. For some reason, he forms the glop into little cartoonish figures that (unbeknownst to him) come to life. It really is a shame that the show did not take off, because it left many openings for future plots in the pilot.

Hilarious claymation (at least, it's hilarious for a pubescent boy), though the high point is definitely the stream of consciousness 'auto-safety' sequence. I think the entire show could have been done in this manner, and it would have taken off enormously. Alas, the human characters kind of detract from the humor, but I think it's worth it. June Foray (Rocky the Flying Squirrel) makes up the celebrity addition, playing the non-verbal Nit.

I got lucky when I video taped this gem of a show one night and kept the video tape all these years. My (then) 3 year old son loved the show and watched it many times. While it was a show made for older kids than he was, it was not a show that adults would not have enjoyed either. As far as I know, only one episode ever aired. Too bad, it was never given much of a chance to succeed.

The story line involving the adult live actors was a little lame, much like something on the Disney Channel. However the three clay animated little men characters were a lot of fun to watch, funnier than the three stooges in their antics. They reminded me a little of Gumby in that they would walk into anything when they were hiding from somebody.

I wonder what the people who created this show moved on to in later projects? There were some talented animators in this show.