You came home from school, dropped your backpack by the door, and the TV was on before your coat was off. Half an hour later you needed a new toy. Funny how that worked.
It was not an accident. A lot of the cartoons we grew up on in the 80s started as toy lines first and shows second. Grown folks call it marketing. We called it the best part of the day.
FIVE FACTS FROM THE TOY AISLE
1968. A parents group called Action for Children's Television was founded in Newton, Massachusetts. For more than a decade it pushed regulators to keep advertising in kids' TV on a short leash.
1978. Kenner's Star Wars action figures hit shelves about a year after the movie, and kids bought them faster than stores could stock them. The whole toy business noticed. In 2012 the figures went into the National Toy Hall of Fame.
Early 1980s. The rules loosened. Washington rolled back much of the oversight on how kids' shows could sell to kids, and toy companies and studios moved fast.
The He-Man way. Mattel released its Masters of the Universe figures first, then commissioned a cartoon to promote them. He-Man and the Masters of the Universe became one of the most popular animated shows of the decade, and every studio in town copied the play.
1990. After Congress passed a bill in 1988 that President Reagan did not sign, the Children's Television Act of 1990 became law. It required stations to air educational programming for kids and limited the commercials during kids' shows.
SO MANY SHOWS, SO MANY TOYS
Once He-Man worked, the floodgates opened. Hasbro had Transformers and G.I. Joe. My Little Pony got its own show. Even the Care Bears, who started life in 1981 as artwork on American Greetings cards, ended up with TV specials and a toy line. Strawberry Shortcake made the same jump.
Some of these were Saturday morning shows. A lot of them were after school, which is why the 80s kid lived on a schedule: homework could wait until the credits rolled. You knew which channel had what at 3:30, and you knew which friend had the Castle Grayskull playset, because that was the house everybody walked to.
THE LESSON AT THE END
Remember how so many of these shows ended with a little lesson? Talk to an adult. Do not play with matches. Tell the truth. That was on purpose. The studios knew parent groups were watching, so they wrapped the toy commercial in a message. G.I. Joe was famous for it. Half the fun was laughing at the lesson. The other half was quietly taking it to heart.
DID IT WORK ON US?
Be honest. You asked for at least one of these for your birthday. Maybe it was a Transformer that took a grown person twenty minutes to figure out. Maybe it was a pony with brushable hair. Maybe it was He-Man himself, with the power sword that went missing by February.
And here is the thing: we do not feel cheated. Those shows gave us friends to talk about at lunch, characters to argue over, and a reason to run home. The toys were the souvenirs. Most of us would trade a lot to sit on that carpet one more afternoon with a bowl of cereal and a cartoon that was basically one long commercial.
HONORABLE MENTION: THE COMMERCIALS IN BETWEEN
The cartoons sold toys, and then the commercial breaks sold more toys. Between the cereal ads and the toy ads, a half hour of TV was a full wish list by the time the theme song played again.
Which show had you begging for the toy? Tell us in the comments.
PLAY THE QUESTION
The Care Bears started out on what before they were toys and TV stars?
A. Cereal boxes · B. Greeting cards · C. Lunch boxes · D. Comic books
Answer: Greeting cards. American Greetings introduced them in 1981.
PROVE IT
Grew up in front of the TV? The Urban Rewind Trivia has a whole TV lane full of the shows we grew up on, plus Movies, Hip-Hop and R&B. Ten questions, twenty seconds each. If you know it, prove it.
Play The Urban Rewind Trivia on iPhone
Play The Urban Rewind Trivia on Android
Shop the merch, including Raised on Saturday Morning Cartoons (code REWIND10 for 10% off)