ProStars was a Saturday-Morning Cartoon, produced for NBC by DiC Entertainment, starring Michael Jordan, Bo Jackson and Wayne Gretzky. It ran 13 episodes in 1991. The show stars animated versions of Michael Jordan, Bo Jackson and Wayne Gretzky, who all fight crime and save the environment. In most episodes, they'd get called in to save the day by a kid, get some sports-related weapons and battle a villain who is wreaking havoc just because they can. Some episodes dealt with things like the larceny of the Stanley Cup, or kids in gangs, for example. At the end of each episode, the athletes themselves explained the lesson in a live-action clip.
Tropes used by the series:
- Animation Bump: The intro to the series uses more professionally done animation.
- Batter Up!: Considering that the cartoon ProStars has Michael Jordan, Wayne Gretzky and Bo Jackson fighting crime, it was inevitable that they'd go into battle throwing basketballs, swinging a hockey stick, and bashing attacks out of the air with a baseball bat.
- Battle Cry: "It's Game Time!"
- Big Eater: Wayne Gretzky. His mind is always on food.
- The Big Guy: Bo Jackson, whose strength often ranges into the superhuman.
- Butt-Monkey: The Neighbor. All the machines are just out to get him.
- Charles Atlas Superpower: Bo Jackson. How does he even get strong to superhero levels?
- Cutting the Knot: One episode had the heroes trying to turn off a force field in which a girl was being held. They fed a lot of data into their computer like the girl's weight. The computer's answer? Pull the plug.
- For the Evulz: Most of the villains can be likened to the villains of Captain Planet and the Planeteers, for example. A few cases though did include an actual motive like driving inhabitants off an oil field.
- Haggis Is Horrible: Wayne digs into it with gusto... until told how it's made.
- Horrible Judge of Character: Keith from “Gargantus and the Road of Doom” thinks the titular Gargantus is a great role model. Keep in mind that Gargantus is an Obviously Evil Expy of Humungus and Wes.
- Idiot Ball: The show is prone to these, with a common occurrence being the ProStars not using their gadgets until they're needed for the plot when they could've helped earlier.
- I Know Madden Kombat: All of the heroes' crimefighting gadgets involved their respective sports (except, of course, Bo Jackson, who could seemingly pull out any sport he wanted due to Dual Classing in baseball and football).
- Job-Stealing Robot: "The Per-Bots of Dr. Lobe" is about a Mad Scientist planning to replace human sports with spectacles played by his creations. The guys are determined to stop him not just because of their pride as pro athletes, but from the sound of things, what jobs might be next if the Per-Bots prove themselves better.
- Limited Animation: It's typical Early-90's DIC faire, of course, so expect a lot of obvious shortcuts and constant animation gaffes and model deviations.
- My Brain Is Big: Dr. Lobe has an enlarged head due to his intelligence.
- Not Quite Starring: While the ProStars don't voice themselves in the cartoon, Gretzky and Jackson appear in the live action segments.
- Obviously Evil: Literally every villain does this, but Gargantus from “Gargantus and the Highway of Doom” takes the cake.
- Rerelease Soundtrack: The original theme song was "We Are ProStars", a song almost identical to Queen's "We Will Rock You". It was replaced very quickly by a new theme that de-emphasized the similarity.
- The Tape Knew You Would Say That: Dr. Lobe is so smart he can anticipate exactly what the ProStars will say in response to the message he sends them.
- Techno Babble: For all its attempts to make Michael Jordan into a genius to encourage kids to take their schooling seriously, when he actually talks through a technical procedure it's always complete nonsense.
- Shoe Phone: The guys use lots of spy-type gadgets built into common-looking sports equipment. In "The Per-Bots of Dr. Lobe", Michael even uses a communicator built into the bottom of one sneaker.
- The Smart Guy: Michael Jordan. In addition to being completely awesome and a basketball champion, he also was the smartest and taught kids to learn about mathematics.
