Civilisation is cast into ruin in the year 1994 when a runaway planet speeds between the Earth and the Moon, unleashing a cosmic chain reaction that destroys both worlds.
2,000 years later, the Earth is reborn from the ashes with a savage landscape, strange creatures, monsters, mutants, barbarians and a primitive sense of justice.
But one man fights to spread peace throughout the land – Thundarr the Barbarian (a slave who broke his bonds) and his companions Ookla the Mok and sorceress Princess Ariel, who boasts a working knowledge of pre-apocalypse times.
The trio journey from village to village through a ruined and dangerous landscape using their strength, courage and wits – plus Thundarr’s magical Sun Sword (which looks and behaves like a Star Wars light sabre) – to liberate slaves and battle all kinds of beasts, mutants, wizards, thieves and robots.
Over the course of the series, Thundarr visits Manhattan, Washington DC, Las Vegas, San Francisco and London.
This NBC Saturday morning series was created by Steve Gerber of Howard the Duck fame.
It debuted on 4 October 1980 on ABC and was an immediate ratings success.
The network ordered a second season (of only eight new episodes), but while ratings for the first season were excellent, the second year – starting in September 1982 – experienced some problems.
The series was consistently preempted by football for the first three months of the second season, decimating the ratings.
In an attempt to resuscitate it, ABC played Russian roulette with the timeslots, moving it one week to later and another week to earlier.
Eventually, it settled to very early in the morning, which was too early for its intended audience.
Thundarr wasn’t cancelled entirely due to poor ratings. Garry Marshall had the three hottest prime-time shows on ABC at the time – Happy Days, Laverne and Shirley, and Mork and Mindy– and he (and Paramount) wanted animated versions of them on Saturday mornings. So Thundarr had to make way for Fonz and the Happy Days Gang.
Thundarr seemed doomed to syndication, but an unexpected development occurred. NBC was doing horribly in the ratings with The Jetsons, and – deciding that Thundarr’s ABC ratings were preferable to their own numbers – they picked up the series (for re-run purposes) to air from 9 April 1983 to 15 September 1984.
Thundarr
Robert Ridgely Princess Ariel
Nellie Bellflower Ookla the Mok/Gemini/Vortak/Skullus
Henry Corden Vashtarr
Michael Ansara Narrator
Dick Tufeld Additional Voices
Rachel Baker
Marilyn Schreffler
Julie McWhirter
Janet Waldo
Joan Van Ark
Stacy Keach Sr
Alan Dinehart
Shep Menkin
Alan Oppenheimer
This NBC Saturday morning series was created by Steve Gerber of Howard the Duck fame.
Eventually, it settled to very early in the morning, which was too early for its intended audience.
