Syndicated cartoons in the '80s and '90s often relied on repeating plot structures to sustain long seasons, especially when producing 65+ episodes per year for weekday syndication.
David Wise wrote two episodes I remember well that seemed pretty... familiar? This had been brought up in Transformers and Turtles fandom, but at least one stock aspect was also used in G.I. Joe.
Transformers episode The Girl Who Loved Powerglide (original air date, November 18, 1985). Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles episode Poor Little Rich Turtle (original air date, October 27, 1990).
These are almost scene-by-scene, note-by-note copies of one another.
Then there was the G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero episode Million Dollar Medic (original air date, October 2, 1986); while not sharing the same writer, it did have many of the same plot beats.
Writers like David Wise had to juggle tight deadlines, toy tie-ins, and network demands, so it was an economical choice to lean into stock plot loops. These were reliable story templates that could be tweaked and reused across different IP.
Spoiled Heiress:
Astoria Carlton-Ritz/Buffy Shellhammer/Brittany "Bree" Van Mark
This was a stock character archetype in syndicated cartoons and elsewhere. The spoiled heiress would be very "extra," overly dramatic, flirty, and certainly entitled. Stunningly beautiful, designer clothes, money, privilege, an inherited tech empire, and so on.
Very much the chauffeured lifestyle.
In G.I. Joe, Bree was portrayed in a much more overtly sexual manner; her first appearance featured a pan shot of her lounging in a bikini as Conquest X-30s flew overhead. G.I. Joe attracted an older audience, so it provided something a tad different. Lifeline, a humble medic, had to manage what soon would become a very eager girlfriend.
Whereas Buffy in TMNT was depicted as more of a brat, age-appropriate "cute," learning simplified lessons through her interactions with Mikey. A lot of her issues stemmed from having a lot of responsibility thrust on her at an early age/not being able to just be a child/teenager. Astoria, on the other hand, was somewhat clueless about danger and the realities of the world, which Powerglide had to address.
Thus, the spoiled heiress stock character could be redone, fine-tuned for the age group watching each cartoon.
Corporate Secrets as MacGuffin Devices:
Powerglide and Michelangelo were the protectors of these ladies, set up as foils/contrasting personalities. A brash, self-centered girl and a reluctant hero. This created humor and growth, forcing the heroes/spoiled heiress to confront their own biases, learn a "lesson" in a 22-minute episode.
The Technodrome was typically "stuck" somewhere throughout the cartoon, and a standard plot loop was that the villains would pursue an item/formula/power to get it "unstuck." The villains would fail until the end of a season, when the Technodrome would be freed/get loose, until the Turtles caused it to get stuck again.
With the Transformers, Astoria Carlton-Ritz was the new chairman of the board of Hybrid Technologies. So, the Decepticons wanted to capture her, but she played coy with Powerglide about why. But the truth was, her father did give her a secret energy formula before he died that the Decepticons wanted.
All episodes of Transformers (before Season 3) basically settled into a rather simple plot loop: the Decepticons trying to get energy/drain energy on Earth for their war with the Autobots/save their home planet, Cybertron.
It was a little trickier with G.I. Joe as the cartoon either had to come up with take-over-the-world plots, or at least gain-control-of-a-reign plot or item to help them in their war with G.I. Joe, or to take over the world.
Cobra was after control of Bree's father's company, Van Mark Industries, which Bree's father also played coy about. Why would Cobra attack a coconut milk bottling plant?
Later, Van Mark explained/admitted that his company also sold hi-tech weapons, and if Cobra takes control of his firm, then the weapons would be in Cobra's control.
Bree, for her part, became infatuated with Lifeline because he did save her life/her father's life at the top of the episode.
She was giving Lifeline expensive gifts, some of which "backfired" and put suspicion on her and her father as Cobra allies. This was also a stock plot loop in a Season 1 episode, Lasers in the Night, where Quick Kick's girlfriend, Amber, fell under suspicion.
Let's go to the Carnival:
All three episodes have what can best be called... dimwitted stooges who chase after the spoiled heiress throughout the episode.
Bebop and Rocksteady/Decepticon Conehead Jets.
Tomax and Xomat, on orders of Serpentor, were trying to get Van Mark to sell, but they are in the "goon" role all the same.
David Wise's two episodes featured the spoiled heiress insisting that the protagonists take her to an amusement park, despite the dangers involved. This amusement park detour served as a contrast between the hero's sense of urgency and the heiress's lack of awareness.
I'd say Lifeline got the best of it, as Bree "gave him no choice" and took him to a hunting lodge of her father's. She clearly had one thing on her mind before Cobra attacked, and it wasn't hot cocoa... Bree wanted to ride something (hint, not a merry-go-round). LOL
Extracting the Info:
David Wise leaned into the trope of the spoiled heiress vs. technology clash, using it for both comedy and plot resolution.
In each case, the villains deployed a mind-reading device (the psycho-probe in one, the brain-alyzer in another) to extract corporate secrets, but the heiress's chaotic personality didn't mix with the tech, causing it to backfire spectacularly.
This was a form of Plot Armor. Their unpredictability becomes a defense mechanism; they're too chaotic to be mind-read.
The Decepticon sky platform emitted energy waves to stop Powerglide from rescuing her, but Astoria threw her necklace at a tower, causing it to explode, so the Decepticons "nope" back to their main headquarters as this platform goes down.
Buffy also got some agency, causing chaos in the Technodrome to help the turtles rescue her.
Krang and Shredder thought they got her company's formula, but it was just a firework formula, causing the asteroid the Techodrome was stuck on to spin comically. While in the Transformers episode, the sky platform crashed into the sea, colliding with the Decepticon central base.
Basically... beat for beat... the same...
Final Thoughts:
Michelangelo already had a long-standing love interest in the '87 TV series, the female Neutrino, Kala.
Buffy's voice was very grating and obnoxious, an outright caricature of a "brat." There are a few fourth-wall-breaking jokes in keeping with the series, but ehhh... for as long as '87 Turtles ran, it's far easier to find better episodes than Poor Little Rich Turtle, even in its very season, Season 4.
Powerglide and Astoria aren't even scaled the same, say, like a Droid in Star Wars, so I have no idea how they could work. The corny heart Poweglide showed at the end was cringe, but generally, I'd say this was the stronger episode than the Turtles version. Astoria came off more "real" than Buffy, Megatron had more credibility as a villain than Shredder/Krang, and the animation was better.
There are countless recycled plot loops in children's cartoons: Monsters of the week, doppelgangers/evil versions, body swap, a third-party villain, time travel, etc. Framing devices reused weren't a big deal to me, but what was done in the TMNT and Transformers episodes was so blatant, outright script recycling down to the riding of the merry-go-round.
The G.I. Joe episode has some similarities, but it hits the beat that sometimes your knight in shining armor won't be exactly who you dream of. Lifeline was more mature than Bree, was a pacifist, and always looked for a non-violent solution. He was probably a good fit for her, frankly, to help her mature a bit.
Lifeline and Bree were much, much better as leads in their episode than Quick Kick and Amber in Lasers in the Night (which has to be in the Top 5 worst Sunbow episodes).
And the episode does end with them kissing (a rare thing in boys' cartoons), and they seem to finally be on the same page.
I don't recall the TMNT one and haven't watched the Transformers on in many years. Million Dollar Medic has notable use of Duke and Scarlett, the writers nod that they are still popular characters even if discontinued toys.
ReplyDeleteTerrordrome getting stuck every season. LOL. Like they didn't have the budget to show it moving, like old Lost in Space episodes where the Jupiter 2 ship is rarely seen in space to save effects budgets.
Yeah, and the other thing funny in the episode is Life-Ticket reacting to Bree fangirling over Lifeline in several scenes.
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