Some children’s shows have not aged well despite a lasting legacy of several seasons. And then there are a few others that couldn’t even make it through one season, facing early cancellation because of low audience ratings.
Series like Spiderman: Unlimited or the Napoleon Dynamite animated series still had some potential that could have been tapped if they ran longer. Other animated series that were based on films, like Rambo and Dumb and Dumber, shamelessly tried to milk content from their source material. More than often, the reason behind their cancellation tends to be a reliance on oversaturated cliches or a plain lack of originality compare to their competitors.
Dumb And Dumber (1995-1996)
Dumb and Dumber was a strange comedic experiment of sorts, but the film still went on to have a cult fanbase, thanks to Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels’ slapstick performances. But extending their antics in the form of a Hannah-Barbara cartoon would be overkill. And that’s precisely what happened in the mid-90s.
The existence of this absurdly unfunny series is understandable considering the same decade witnessed animated ventures of other Jim Carrey films like Ace Ventura and The Mask. Forced goofiness, over-simplistic character designs, and overstretched toilet humor ensure that the animated Dumb and Dumber would last for just 13 episodes.
Karate Kommandos (1986)
With the success of Mister T, Karate Kommandos aimed at revamping a children-friendly image of action star/martial artist Chuck, Norris. The show, starring Norris as himself, followed a similar approach to that of Mr. T’s show but failed to make a mark, ending as a five-part miniseries with no future seasons or sequels.
The plot falls prey to Norris’s own cinematic cliches and lacks any amount of character depth to even be a guilty pleasure. The titular group refers to an army of young ‘karate kommandos,’ who fight an evil organization run by the villains called Claw and ‘Super Ninja’.
Mary-Kate And Ashley In Action (2001-2002)
The Olsen twins attained fame as fashion designers and a recurring role on Full House. Another venture to commercialize on their legacy was an animated series that just ran for 26 episodes and was canceled soon after low ratings.
Unsurprisingly, the storylines were mostly brainless, weirdly balancing between the twin siblings’ personal life and their stint as some sort of secret agents. The voice acting of Mary-Kate Olsen and Ashley Olsen too seemed to be robotic and lifeless, much like the animation. Even after getting canceled, the show kept on churning out money with a novel series on the twins.
Rambo: The Force Of Freedom (1986)
Despite having over 60 episodes in its one-season run, the Rambo series was a terrible excuse to show Sylvester Stallone’s character as a testosterone-pumping superhero of sorts.
More than anything, reducing First Blood (both the David Morrell novel and the first Rambo film) to a commercial animated venture took away the seriousness of its source material. The tale of a troubled war veteran compelled to get back to an endless cycle of violence just turned into a series of globe-trotting adventures, filled with explosions and cartoonish combat.
Hammerman (1991)
MC Hammer, his magnum opus You Can’t Touch This, and his signature Hammer Pants are iconic in their own right. But recycling these elements in a forgettable cartoon isn’t going to create an iconic series.
The protagonist, Stanley Burrell (voiced by MC Hammer), finds a pair of magical shoes that turn him into the superhero known as Hammerman (his costume adorned with Hammer pants and gold chains). Each episode would feature a new social issue to fight, followed by a live-action monologue by the rapper. The series was definitely driven by good intentions but maybe the Saturday morning cartoon was too random for anyone to get hooked to.
Inhumanoids (1986)
In the same line as other Hasbro toylines/animated series, Inhumanoids aimed at riding the wave of GI Joe and Transformers. While the Inhumanoids action figures line is fairly decent, the show’s sci-fi and Cold-War-based plot seemed to be too elaborate from a young viewer’s perspective (the intended demographic) and too goofy and derivative for a more teenager-dominated base.
The Inhumanoids were subterranean creatures, who often fought the heroic scientist-hero group Earth Corps. In fact, rather than the 13-episode season, a person can spend time reading the short-lived Marvel comic series it spawned that offers an edgier take on these characters.
Wish Kid (1991)
Post-Home Alone child actor Macaulay Culkin was at the peak of his stardom. And a show like Wish Kid just aimed to capitalize on this stardom. An uninspired Italian-American production, the series revolves around a kid who chances upon a magical baseball glove that grants him wishes after he punches it three times.
Every episode would feature one wish and the troubles this protagonist would encounter afterward. And then, every episode would also commence with a live-action segment, in which Culkin would offer some life moral or the other. The same routine being followed in every new storyline might get exhausting even for younger viewers. A 13-episode single-season marked the entirety of Wish Kid.
The Wacky World Of Tex Avery (1997)
For the ones unacquainted with Tex Avery, he was a renowned animator who ushered in a Golden Age for MGM and Warner Bros. helming the creation of characters like Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck.
However, the animated anthology series The Wacky World of Tex Avery hardly preserved the animator’s legacy with its substandard animated shorts that offered nothing new to children’s television. While influences from Avery’s Looney Tunes, Disney’s Silly Symphonies, and other vintage cartoons like Popeye seem to be present, the French-American series seemed to be just mimicking the goofs and gags of these classics rather than reinventing these tropes.
Little Shop (1991)
The film Little Shop of Horrors is a classic comedy incorporating horror, humor, and musical elements. However, an animated show toned down its genre-defying elements and relaced Roger Corman’s dark fantasies with kiddish surrealism.
Little Shop’s early cancellation feels justified as it might be one of those cartoons that didn’t require to be created in the first place. After all, the original film featured a carnivorous plant brutally eating up humans. In the animated series, this violence was toned down and the episodes began to feature a friendship between the plant and a teenager instead.
Dave The Barbarian (2004)
Dave The Barbarian is definitely way better than many of the shows mentioned. But at the same time, considering that it was a Disney production, the medieval fantasy-comedy fails to set itself apart in the face of other acclaimed short-lived Disney cartoons (American Dragon: Jake Long and Gravity Falls being major examples).
The titular protagonist is a parody of the stereotypical masculine hero in every swords-and-sandals flick. Other Arthurian and barbarian tropes make their way into the plot in a Monthy Python and The Holy Grail-like fashion. Despite the multiple influences (that might be intentional or unintentional), Dave The Barbarian suffered from stale humor and chaotic narratives at parts. To put it in a nutshell, the series has ambition but its sole season couldn’t add much to it.
