In 1983 Kevin Paul Coates and Dennis Marks, in conjunction with Marvel Productions and TSR, brought one of the most successful and long running tabletop games to life in 27 twenty-two minute episodes.
“Dungeons and Dragons” episode 1.1, “The Night of No Tomorrow” (7 out of 10); Starring Willie Aames, Don Most, Tonia Gayle Smith, Adam Rich, Katie Leigh, Ted Field III, Sidney Miller, and Peter Cullen; Written by Mark Evanier; Directed by John Gibbs and Bob Richardson.
Six children, ranging in age from eight to fifteen, take an enchanted theme park ride and end up in the realm of “Dungeons and Dragons.” There they meet a gnome-like creature who introduces himself as the Dungeon Master and gives them each a magical item which endows them with a weapon and/or ability.
Hank becomes The Ranger with a magical bow. Eric becomes The Cavalier with a shield and detestable personality. Diana becomes The Acrobat with an enchanted staff and stereotypically skimpy outfit. Presto is given a wizard’s hat and becomes The Magician, which is convenient given that his name is Presto. Sheila is The Thief, with a cloak that allows her to become invisible. Finally Bobby, age eight, is given a club and rounds out the party as The Barbarian, along with a baby unicorn called Uni.
The kids begin their journey to search for a way back home when they encounter a fantastic canyon with a seemingly endless echo. As they play, yelling into the canyon, they awaken Tiamat, a five-headed dragon. Bobby runs into the fray presumably because he’s young and stupid, the rest of the group runs to his aid. They trap the dragon in a cave by dropping a large boulder in front of the opening.
Shortly thereafter the Dungeon Master appears and sends the party to the village of Helix where an annual celebration is taking place to remember the defeat of Venger (the spirit of evil) and his dragons a thousand years ago. There, he says, they may find something that will help them get home.
On their way, the group encounters Merlin’s castle in the sky and visit him in hopes that his grand magical ability can help them get home. He says he doesn’t have a way to send them home but he can help them on their way. He parrots the Dungeon Master and tells them to visit Helix, suddenly Tiamat appears, understandably pissed off and the group plus Merlin retreats, ultimately trapping Tiamat in the dungeon by way of a magically produced carpet covering the hole.
Merlin, seeing Presto’s magical ability when producing the carpet, offers to take him on as his apprentice and teach him all he knows about magic, but only if he agrees to stay for the rest of his life. Presto agrees and the rest of the party leave without him to travel onto Helix.
Presto has many questions and Merlin tells him that the answer to all things are inside a large book beside the cauldron, he then exits the room instructing Presto to continue stirring the cauldron until he returns. Left with the book of all knowledge, Presto neglects the cauldron and searches for a way to get he and his friends home. He later reveals this was intention the whole time.
Presto finds what he believes to be the answer to their troubles and concocts a potion that should send them home but once he is finished a dragon emerges from his bubbling pot. Presto runs to Merlin for help and discovers that Merlin was actually Venger in disguise. Venger needed good magic to undo Merlin’s enchantment and free the dragons so he switched the spells and tricked Presto into setting them free while simultaneously sending his friends to Helix, to die.
When dragons appear over Helix the party realizes something must have gone wrong and return to Merlin’s castle to retrieve Presto and set things right. Venger attempts to steal their enchanted objects to add to his own power but the kids release the one thing Venger is afraid of, Tiamat the dragon. Venger flees vowing to return, while Presto fixes Merlin’s spell and saves Helix from the dragons.
Upon their descent from Merlin’s floating castle they meet the Dungeon Master who returns Presto’s stolen cap and disappears. The party is left with only the option of returning to Helix in search of a way home.
Considering the era and the audience, “Dungeons and Dragons” is a pretty good attempt at bringing the world of the game to kids and since each group of people will play the game differently, there’s no wrong way to position the series, though if I were to do a D&D cartoon my way, it probably wouldn’t be so fluffy.