The long running era of the Saturday morning cartoon has officially ended, but no one can stop you from fulfilling your true weekend calling. Cartoons and Saturday mornings were made for each other and no one can tell us otherwise. It is to that end that we maintain vigil, bringing you animated selections each Saturday morning until the internet dies, or until we run out, good thing there’s always reruns.
“Bucky O’Hare and the Toad Wars” Based on the comic book of the same name; Created by Larry Hama and Michael Golden; Starring Jason Michas, Scott McNeil, Long John Baldry, Jay Brazeau, Terry Klassen, and Shane Meier. Originally aired September 8, 1991.
“Bucky O’Hare” began as a comic book written by Larry Hama and drawn by Michael Golden in May 1984. The story follows the title character and captain of mammalian spaceship “The Righteous Indignation” along with his crew and human tagalong Willy. They fight a group of toads who have kidnapped Bucky’s first mate Jenny, an anthropomorphized telekinetic cat.
In 1991 the characters were adapted into the cartoon series “Bucky O’Hare and the Toad Wars” which explored many of the same ideas with a new plot. In this iteration the toad force has moved against the planet Warren, Bucky’s home world. Bucky is able to rescue the final shipload of captors but not before the rest of the population have been taken into slavery.
The show ran for thirteen episodes and followed Bucky on his quest to liberate not only his home world but to save the rest of the aniverse from being taken over by the evil toad forces, which he successfully completes in the final episode, co-written by comic book legend Neal Adams.
While the concept may seem childish or silly, there’s something about the aesthetic and the story content that makes it not only easy to take seriously (as seriously as you can take a story about anthropomorphic animals) but a lot of fun.
The series lasted less than a year, with the final episode airing in December of 1991, only a few short months after its debut. Despite its short TV shelf life, the franchise was able to spawn a toy line and a console game, an arcade game, and a handheld game.
More recently there has been some talk of a “Bucky O’Hare” movie with Neal Adams and creator Larry Hama has indicated that the script has been written for some time, but nothing has yet materialized.
In the mean time, thanks to the archival nature of the internet, you can get your Bucky fix below.