Television & Cartoons

Don’t fool your memory into thinking that the NES only stayed in the protective boundary of video games! Just like most any other craze of the late 80′s and early 90′s, Mario, Luigi, and a whole cast of other Nintendo characters had their own television shows. Game shows involving Nintendo challenges became a huge hit, too!

Browse around to find info, screenshots, and downloads for all NES-related cartoons and game shows.

Captain N

Nintendo, just like any other money craving company, released a cartoon series known as Captain N – The Game Master. Despite obvious attempts at marketing the latest Nintendo merchandise, the cartoon some how managed to last 3 seasons.

The cartoon stars Kevin Keene, Kid Icarus, Simon Belmont, and other less known (but still famous) Nintendo characters as they battled against the evil Mother Brain (from Metroid).

The show originally aired as a 1 hour Saturday morning cartoon on NBC, but in later years got mixed with other adaptions. (Captain N and the Adventures of Super Mario 3, and Captain N and the New Super Mario World.)

Episode Guide of Cap N Episode #33: Battle of the Baseball Know-it-alls

Sound Files:

-Theme Song
-“You’re on…dude.”
-Captain Crossdress
-Video Game Addiction
-Princess By Candlelight
-Mother Brain’s Beauty Lines

Flash Movies:

-(Adult Content) Captain Nasty
-Dirty Dancing
-Tossed Salad

Animated Pictures:

-Tomato Ladies – Sizes: Large / Medium / Avatar
-Schwing!
-Billy the Freak
-Doggie Love

Live Intro (Click to Enlarge)

Screen Grabs (Click to Enlarge)

Gamepro TV
by J.D. Turbeville

Back around the late 80s, I went to the store and picked up a copy of Gamepro magazine. I found it as a great alternative to Nintendo Power, plus Gamepro reviewed more than just video games and accessories made by Nintendo. Finally, who could not forget the infamous author Scary Larry and many others? In 7th and 8th grade for our magazine drive, I got myself a subscription to the magazine and still have the issues lying around in random parts of the house. Back around the time I was subscribing to the magazine or earlier, there was a supplement to the magazine … GPTV — Gamepro TV!! It’s main purpose was to give you the latest tips and reviews to the games of the time. It’d be lucky if anyone taped the actual TV episodes, but I was lucky to cash in on a couple of their commercial tapes that were released. What really knocks my head is the awesome theme song.

Gamepro TV began syndicating in 1990 and moved to the new Sci-Fi channel sometime the following year. To my knowledge, it was on at early parts of the morning before the Saturday morning cartoon lineup. It was hosted by J.D. Roth mostly known for doing his game show stint on Fun House and Brennan (I forget his last name), a virtual unknown who had the same function as Roth. (Heh heh … those memories of J.D. Roth and Fun House … oh baby I need to get a piece of the cheerleader twins Jackie and Samantha Forrest. In fact, don’t you think they should’ve been the Gamepro girls? Imagine that one for a second …). There was a later version of GPTV in 1998 that had some host doing voice-overs while reviewing games. A source tells me it was on early mornings on Prime Ticket (now Fox Sports).

Samantha (in red), Jackie (in yellow)

A typical show began with the kick-ass theme that sounds vaguely similar to the Skate of Die 2 ramp song and then the overview of the GP episode. The show was exactly like the magazine’s format: reader letters, tips and tricks, reviews, and more!

GPTV was one of the few TV shows that reviewed NES games and even presented them in a hip style that made it look interesting to buy. Ya know, where J.D. Roth would act like he was a part of the game and then go into his review? Priceless … one viewer even reminded me how at the end of the episode they would emulate being a part of the game and act out thinking they were a part of it. Sounds good to me … I knew JD Roth had some Captain N in him!

Nick Arcade
by J.D. Turbeville

Did you ever wish you could be inside of a video game? Remember Captain N and how he was sucked through the television? In 1992, this sort of became a reality with the Nickelodeon show Nick Arcade. The series lasted five years and was later sold into international syndication. In the US, it currently airs on Nick Games and Sports (Nick GAS), which is a television channel devoted to the old Nick game shows of the time like Making the Grade, Double Dare, and others.

Continuing into my video game television thesis, I stumble upon this television show that featured the use of computer effects to make it look like you were actually playing in a real game. In reality it just seemed that the video game footage was overlayed onto the tv screen so that the television viewer sees it as a real people playing a video game.

Let’s get back to how the show was structured. The show would begin with the announcer telling us the two teams of the day. Then one from each side (usually boy vs boy and girl vs girl) would face each other in some video game. There were several types of these games, but the general idea was to navigate your character through terrain by jumping or maneuvering around them. For each unit of distance, you would get 5 points and the most points (i.e. whoever was further) would win the match up and control.

With a little detective work, I was able to track down co-creator of Nick Arcade, Karim Miteff, who answered a few questions for me. I asked him if he knew what happened to the set pieces and the show’s props (including all of those games!) after Nick Arcade had ended. Here’s what he had to say:

“I don’t know what happened to the set pieces, but they were most likely re-used or destroyed. It is rare that they kept anything for very long because of the lack of storage space and the need to re-use materials. I know that the prototype for the video game cabinets was just a little too big once they actually built it and we pared it down to size, but my partner at the time, James Bethea — who also co-created the show — got to keep it and used it like a TV cabinet for a couple of years, which was funny.

As far as what I could keep, I can tell you that I was left with a LOT of video games and game systems (sometimes the manufacturers let us keep games that we tried out but never used on the show, which was awesome); some Amiga computers that we used on other productions, like SlimeTime Live and U2U; a lot of documents and programs — if we got all the hardware back together I could get the basics of the show up in about a week…; and a metallic plaque that hung in the Studios on the wall marking the show’s premiere, which someone was kind enough to send me after Nickelodeon left Universal Studios for good. I did get to leave with a lot of good memories about that show.“

Thanks to Karim, we have some .pdf design diagrams of the set to show you, including the layout of the iconic Video Zone door:

Contestant Backdrop

Face Off Unit Type 1

Face Off Unit Type 2

Nickelodeon Arcade Set Layouts

Video Zone Door Layout

Video Power
by J.D. Turbeville

With the rising popularity of the NES and Genesis video game systems, there were several cartoons that were made to promote the buying of these products. Video Power was initially one of these shows to do this (notably they wanted you to buy Acclaim products as seen by what characters they picked to use on the show), but later blossomed into a great game show.

Video Power premiered on the syndicated market September 1989 with a format similar to The Super Mario Bros. Super Show: a cartoon and a real-life version of the notable stars. In this case we were treated to The Power Team, a gang of Acclaim characters, who went on daily adventures attempting to save the day and video game tips from the leader of the Power Team, Johnny Arcade, who seemed in reality to be more interested in making of a fool of himself by acting like a bad-ass vs. help us struggling video game freaks.

After the first season to my knowledge, Video Power was desperate to gain some viewers to go into a 180 degree turn on its genre. In order to survive a second season, they did the inevitable: change their show format from cartoon to a game show. They kept the basic elements of the original Video Power (Johnny Arcade real-life segments), but focused more on video game playing which was more entertaining and fun to watch. Four kids pre-picked before the show challenged each other to the video games of the week where they would have to either go the farthest, collect the most items, or get the most points depending on the type of game in 2:02. After the dust settled, two would move on and the other two would perish, but not without Johnny giving them a video game of HIS choice (oh boy, I won Classic Concentration and a glove to maximize by game playing ability … sheesh!). The following round consisted of a question and answer round of 5 questions where each question was 10 pts. except the last two, which was worth 20 pts. and the last being a video game question (the contestants would have to look at a screen and identify what game it was. The second half was the video game playing round, similar in format to the first round, but either with a different game, or with the same game and a different challenge, this time only having 1:01 to play. Following this, a champion of the day was crowned and he/she would get to go through the mall and play Mall Mania. This by far had to be a video game players dream at the time because one got to grab any game he could get his hands on (remember those Toys R Us contests? Same exact thing applies here). The winner got :41 to spend in the mall and had to go down a chute in order to claim his prizes. In the instance that this requirement was not met, he lost everything gained on the mall trip. This was not often the case, but I’ve seen it happen on more than one occasion.

On Fridays, the NES fan was treated to seeing the four daily winners from Monday to Thursday square off for the champion of the week. Everything was the same format with that winner proceeding to the Tournament of Champions. Nine weeks and 45 episodes later, would be the day the nine weekly winners challenged each other for a NEO GEO and a $10,000 college scholarship. The format is simple: three champions face each other each day (Mon-Wed) and the go to the final show. But there was a second chance day where the second place people from each show went up against each other (Thu) similarly to the above. These four people would go into Friday’s show for all the marbles. The victor would claim the prize and all the glory.

Video Power survived two full seasons and 200 episodes (100 each season) and disappeared for the 1991-92 TV season. My best guess is that the NES and Genesis was starting to become popular and the producers lost interest in the show. By far, this was the only video game console show ever to grace our eyes. They tried to keep the old school alive as best as they can, but fell. When I think of the NES, it reminds me of Johnny Arcade and how he tried to become the next Vanilla Ice doing the Video Power rap which I present below with a link to him singing:

Video Power Season 2 Theme
As Sung By Johnny Arcade (Stivi Paskoski)

Download the intro movie

[echoing] Video Power … Video Power
My Show is kickin’ with maximum height
Say Video Power? Yeah, that’s right … word
I’ve got the ability to make you win
You want the edge, I’ll put you in a power surge
Let ‘er rip

Feel the power (power), feel the power
Feel the power of video game power
And feel the power (power), feel the power
Feel the power (of Video Power)
Feel the power (power), power
Feel the power (video power)

View an interview with one of the show’s contestants

Super Mario Bros. Super Show

The Super Mario Bros. Super Show originally started airing on NBC In 1989. The show was divided into four sections.

The first section included two live actors portraying the bachelor life of Mario and Luigi. After getting into trouble (usually dealing with their mother coming to visit) they introduced the first cartoon.

When the cartoon was finished the show returned to their plumbing business. The viewer then was updated on the mishaps of the two actors.

Next, the second cartoon was introduced. After feasting your eyes on the second spectacle of animation, the show returned to the Mario Bros. apartment once again.

The live acting segment was then wrapped up, and the show was ended.

Download .mp3 of The Super Mario Bros. cartoon theme song

Promotional production cel (used for VHS sleeve):

Cartoon production cels: Hand drawn scenes used in animated sequences during the filming of the actual show

Mario & Luigi

King Koopa

Commercial Break

Screen Grabs (Click to Enlarge)

The Legend of Zelda

Every Friday, instead of a Mario cartoon, a Legend of Zelda episode was played. The series centered around the basic plot of Ganon wanting the triforce of wisdom. There were only 13 Zelda cartoons created.

Link, being the perverted teenager he is, always attempts to get a smooch from the princess. His plan always gets thwarted, though, by some inadvertent mistake usually ending up with him saying, “Well excuuuuse me Princess!“

The voice of Link was supplied by Jonathon Potts, who you might remember as Professor Lowe from the movie “Jason X.” He’s also done voice work in the past for “Captain N: The Game Master” and “Swamp Thing.” [Thanks to Dan Marsico for this info!]

Download .mp3 of the Legend of Zelda cartoon intro

Blooper (yellow, purple, yellow)

Screen Grabs (Click to Enlarge)

Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3

After Super Mario Bros. 3 came out for the NES the Super Mario Bros., Super Show was deemed obsolete. The result was The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3.

This show has two cartoons every episode just like SMBSS. Some of the differences include the added ability of special items (i.e. frog suit) and the new Koopa Kids.

Although I do not like this as much as SMBSS it is still worth watching. Some videos of the show are still floating around in Electronic Boutiques across North America.