SWAT Kats revival

$107,410 pledged of $50,000 goal 8 days to go

That's a really neat watercolor-style piece for the thank-you. Heck, that alone has me considering throwing a little dosh at it.

Here's an interview with one of the creators.

It touches on some interesting topics, including the pitching of the show, the initial plans for Loonatic Unleashed, and why SWAT Kats was actually cancelled.

Does it ever mention their work on that Mega Babies show?

Edit: Turns out I was wrong. SWAT Kats got canceled for being too violent for the parents and for not generating enough money due to late toy manufactured. The creator basically says that the timing of the show was really bad sadly enough.

It appears the creator thought Mega Babies was to out there even for him. Apparently the only reason why that show stayed around for a while was because the ratings was threw the roof.

edited 14th Aug '15 2:33:53 PM by Bleddyn

I was wondering why they created it in the first place since it's nothing like SWAT Kats. Though your latter response probably might explain it.

Mega Babies was basically just a random out there show he came up with from what he said. Nickeleodeon thought it was a combination of Rugrats and....AKIRA.....yeah.

He doesn't flat out say it but I think the show was made to keep the animation studio afloat after they had to pull SWAT Kats. Once Fox got on it and the ratings went sky high (apparently a lot of people liked the show) they squeezed what they can out of it

edited 14th Aug '15 2:40:24 PM by Bleddyn

People liked Mega Babies? Seriously? Maybe it might of been before my time(I was born 1998) but I never heard of the show until a few years ago.

Yes apparently, the creator said the ratings for Mega Babies was through the roof. I saw the show when I was younger myself. I didn't really like it all though...

That is surreal.

Surprising on the violence, since they weren't that much worse than the contemporary BTAS.

Well it wasn't the only thing that got the show pulled. The toy manufacturing company for SWAT Kats got the toys out later then needed. They ended up not making up much money on the toys and while Season 2 of SWAT Kats was indeed a lot more popular the show just didn't make the revenue back.

The violence thing was due to stupid parental groups yet again. SWAT Kats and Mega Babies both got complaints from them. I don't know much about Loonatics Unleashed....

edited 14th Aug '15 4:52:00 PM by Bleddyn

I thought Mega Babies had very few episodes, so all this time I was thinking it had bombed.

It's worth mentioning the BTAS crew had to always keep fighting with tooth and claw, and BTAS had the advantage of living off the momentum of three successful Batman movies to keep itself going.

edited 14th Aug '15 6:16:34 PM by NapoleonDeCheese

Here's the real question:

When this show comes back, should it use the Season 1 theme, the Season 2 theme, fuse the two, or make something completely new?

edited 14th Aug '15 6:19:47 PM by KnownUnknown

Since the Brothers Tremblay said that this revival will be a continuation, I say that they should use a fusion of both theme songs.

Huh, a continuation?

I could see the arguments for it (namely, if the new series doesn't last long either, it would be a shame if a bunch of it was wasted going over basic stuff, similar to all of the superhero reboots out there), but at the same time, you kind of need to reinvent for the new era.

Although if this means we finally get to see "Succubus," "Doctors of Doom," and "Turmoil II: The Revenge," i'll be quite pleased.

Also, related to the noted issue about merchandising, the toys for B:tAS sold crazy-well. I don't even remember buying any of them myself, but I still have at least one toy from the series in my house right now. I knew one kid who had something like 7 or 8 different Batmen with different outfits and gadgets modeled after the show.

(Side fun fact: several of those weird Batman outfit designs from said toys were used in the last episode of Batman: The Brave and the Bold. I got giggles from all the outfits I recognized.)

I don't think I ever saw any SWAT Kats toys... I can mentally picture how I would design them, but I don't remember ever seeing them.

Apparently they also weren't very good. Dark Kat was supposedly quite mis-designed.

(One Google Image Search later)

... Indeed, they were not. The Dark Kat figure is particularly bad, but none of them were that good.

FYI: This Kickstarter has 15 hours to go, and is just less than $20k shy of the second stretch goal. I continue to predict it'll hit it.

The second stretch goal is $200k, so the kickstarter is actually $70k from hitting that goal.

So the campaign's pretty much over.

...so what happens now?

We play the waiting game or what?

Yes, we do; at least we're guaranteed a new teaser.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JVNMmsN3Co

Still wonder who they could get to bite on this.

Revival huh? I've seen reruns of this show, a bit too puny for my taste.

edited 1st Sep '15 7:19:37 PM by LSBK