Exosquad

[ilostmyplace]

I know that it's an old American Sci-fi Mecha animated show from 1993 that talks about racism, the horrors of war, and losing loved ones in times of war, with complicated characters and not afraid to kill off main characters or important battle cruisers. But since this was an animated show on Saturday morning cartoon in 1993 made by Universal Animation Studios and pretty much owned by then now under NBC/Universal, the show is now on Peacock in the Kids section for free. I recommend everyone to at least go watch the first season.

The second season is kind of a gut punch when they end up killing more main characters than in one season of Game of Thrones. Still, a hart breaking American-made Macha Saturday morning cartoon was made in 1993 that only lasted two seasons. But worth it.

[CliffHanger2]

Haha I actually watched the 1st few episodes of this recently. Def worth it so many good cartoons on streaming now.

[The Cool Thatguy]

Who owns the copyright for this show, anyways?

[ZeroBG82]

I own the first season on DVD, but haven't seen the second season since it aired on tv. The animation was usually on the weaker side, but great storytelling.

[Frontier]

This kind of slipped by me as a kid so I might just check it out now .

[Gray Lensman]

This is a blast from the past. I remember the show quite well.

[ilostmyplace]

Who owns the copyright for this show, anyways?

Jeff Segal created the show and was head of Universal Cartoon Studios at the time. And Peacock is owned by NBC/Universal or Comcast which owns NBC, Universal Studios, Dreamworks, and Universal Cartoon Studios. PlayMats which made the toys had a license agreement with MCA/Universal back in 1993. That license agreement with Playmates long sents ran out years ago. So Playmates owns nothing.

[ilostmyplace]

I own the first season on DVD, but haven't seen the second season since it aired on tv. The animation was usually on the weaker side, but great storytelling.

Season two can only be seen on Peacock. You would have to look up bootlegs for Season two or make a partition and have a ton of people sign it. Which is most likely never gonna happen.

[ilostmyplace]

This is a blast from the past. I remember the show quite well.

I hope you remember good old Matthew Marcus didn't even survive the first season.

[ChrisIII]

Jeff Segal created the show and was head of Universal Cartoon Studios at the time. And Peacock is owned by NBC/Universal or Comcast which owns NBC, Universal Studios, Dreamworks, and Universal Cartoon Studios. PlayMats which made the toys had a license agreement with MCA/Universal back in 1993. That license agreement with Playmates long sents ran out years ago. So Playmates owns nothing.

Several of the toys were also repackaged Robotech toys. Macross/Robotech is a legendary rights headache all it's own, although I don't think the Exosquad stuff factored into it that much.

Despite the Robotech connection apparently the series often gets compared to Gundam, a series which also had a tendency to often kill off important characters and horrors of war.

[DrNewGod]

This kind of slipped by me as a kid so I might just check it out now .

Definitely worth it. I was a bit surprised no one tried to reboot it as a live action franchise during the MCU-triggered gold rush.

[The Cool Thatguy]

Definitely worth it. I was a bit surprised no one tried to reboot it as a live action franchise during the MCU-triggered gold rush.

I can't see it reflecting super heroes much, even if they have the cockpit like Iron Man's.

That said, it would certainly work well as a movie, as would MASK, which would be like Fast and Furious on speed.

[Frontier]

I was doing a watch of Roswell Conspiracies (another show that would probably never get made today) and there was an episode where the main character brought out a Mech suit that looked almost exactly like an E-Frame from Exo-Squad.

[XandertheWise]

Exosquad... damn lol. N ow thats a name i havent heard of in a long time. a long time.

i used to watch that show all the time when it was on WGN, TBS or WOR back in the day along with the animated C.O.P.S. cartoon and Captain Planet

[ilostmyplace]

Several of the toys were also repackaged Robotech toys. Macross/Robotech is a legendary rights headache all it's own, although I don't think the Exosquad stuff factored into it that much.

Despite the Robotech connection apparently the series often gets compared to Gundam, a series which also had a tendency to often kill off important characters and horrors of war.

Some anime fans still think that PlayMats owns the rights and that they were trying and that Robotech crossover was their attempt to take over the Robotech license. The Reality was that new guys took over Universal studios, I think it was Vivendi at the time. They stopped caring about Exosquad and fired Jeff Segal and then canceled Exosquad a month later. But let the show all of the season two episodes. And let PlayMats run wild with the license until it ran out, that is when PlayMats made a boardgame, and crappy video game for Sega Genesis that had nothing to do with the show, and the Exosquad/Robotech. Someone working at Universal/Vivendi did manage to get reruns put on USA Network here in the US and later Hulu. But for some reason, it was all pulled. But now Universal is owned by Comcast and renamed NBC/Universal and Exosquad is on Peacock. But the PlayMats license long since ran out years ago and NBC/Universal are pretending they've never even made Exosquad, even that the ending credits show that Universal, animated studios own all the rights to Exosquad and that Universal still pays to keep all the rights. If they don't it would all go back to Jeff Segal, and he could sell Exosquad to anybody. I can't tell you what Universal or Comcast are thinking???