I Rewatched the First Couple of Seasons of the Original Transformers Show & Have Some Thoughts

 Since today is when the latest probably godawful Transformers movie comes out, I thought I'd post some thoughts I had from rewatching the original show on Pluto TV in the last week.  Pluto TV has a separate Transformers channel but mostly they had been showing 21st Century shows like Animated, Armada, Cybertron, Energon, and Robots in Disguise.  Finally they started showing the original series and when my brother mentioned it, I tuned in.  Unfortunately, as they usually do, they didn't show the whole thing.  They stopped sometime in season 2 and then just looped around.  So I brought it up On Demand, which was actually better in that there are a lot fewer commercials.  Anyway, here are some thoughts:

• While better than 60s & 70s animation, it was still kinda bad at times.  There were a lot of mistakes with the coloring, especially with characters who had the same basic design like Starscream, Skywarp, and Thundercracker.  Sometimes there would be just a totally illogical gaffe like the Autobot Sideswipe standing next to Megatron in Decepticon headquarters.  A few second-season episodes looked like they had been outsourced to Dic with cruder drawings and different colorings.  One funny verbal gaffe near the end of the second season is when Jazz says they attacked the "Optimus Prime Memorial" when Optimus is standing right there, alive and well; maybe it was a hint at his fate in the movie?  
• Where did the Protectobots come from? It was also funny that while the combiner groups the Constructicons, Stunticons, Aerialbots, and Combaticons all got a spotlight episode or two with an origin story, the Protectobots just suddenly appear in the last few episodes.  How they got there and where they came from, well...scene missing.  I'm sure part of it was they didn't have a lot of episodes left, but it was disappointing to me because I liked the Protectobots.  I actually have a knockoff set of the originals I got from Wish and a set of the Hasbro ones that came out a few years ago.
• A few episodes would probably get canceled now.  Since it was still the 80s, the show wasn't always culturally sensitive when featuring settings in the Middle East, Africa, South America, or Asia.  And of course most of the ethnic characters were probably voiced by white people because they weren't going to spend tons of money on having actors from every ethnicity.  I'm an old white guy so I shrug it off, but someone who is easily triggered might get set off.
• Other episodes really didn't age well.  Episodes like "Make Tracks," "Blaster's Blues," and "Auto Bop" really don't age well with their references to 80s music and culture.  I'm not sure if it helps or hurts they didn't have the money to license real songs so they just use instrumentals.
• Vic Caroli is an unsung hero.  Most fans talk about Peter Cullen as Optimus Prime or the many voices of Frank Welker or Michael Bell or Casey Kasem.  But rewatching the episodes, what really stuck out for me is Vic Caroli as the narrator.  His voice is deep and resonant but also a bit creepy.  It's like if you mixed Keith David and Vincent Price's voices.  And almost 40 years later I can still hear him saying, "It is the year 2005..."
• As always, the best episodes focus on characters.  While there were some epic episodes like the "Ultimate Doom" trilogy, for me the best episodes are the ones that focus on a character--or characters--like "Fire in the Sky" that focuses on Skyfire's origin or "The Master Builder" that focuses on Grapple.  It's part of why I've loved them all these years, along with the stories in their file cards.  There are also other great ones like "The Secret of Omega Supreme," "Search for Alpha Trion," and "War Dawn" that give us insights and tragic backgrounds for some of the characters, making them more relatable.  This is what has largely been missing from the Bay movies--and probably this latest one.

And going into season 3:

• Perhaps the problem is not with Rodimus Prime but in ourselves.  I was thinking about why we almost all hated Rodimus Prime so much that they had to bring Optimus Prime back.  I was thinking part of the problem was with us, the viewers.  In late 1986 I was 8-9 years old, since my birthday is in November.  A lot of viewers were probably about the same age.  We simply couldn't appreciate what the writers were trying to do with Rodimus, which was to have a flawed character learning and growing into the role of leader.  Optimus Prime was so strong, wise, brave, and noble, basically what every little kid wants in a parent figure.  He's basically perfect.  Especially then we were too young and immature to appreciate someone who has to struggle to know and do the right thing.  Though really Rodimus was far more like ourselves than Optimus.  And let's face it, most of us could aspire to be Optimus but we'd never make it; I'm sure far more of us are like Rodimus, questioning ourselves and what the right thing is.  A lot of this might also be why it took so long for a lot of Trek fans to appreciate Picard as much or more than Kirk, because he wasn't that strong cowboy-type; he was a lot more subtle and that's a lot harder to appreciate, especially when you're young.

Anyway, those are my random thoughts on it.