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Thundarr the Barbarian

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Thundarr the Barbarian was a Saturday morning animated cartoon show, produced by Ruby-Spears Productions. It was broadcast during the early 1980s.

Thundarr the Barbarian home video. From left to right, Ookla, Ariel, and Thundarr
Thundarr the Barbarian home video. From left to right, Ookla, Ariel, and Thundarr

Concept and characters

Twenty-one half-hour episodes were produced by Ruby-Spears Productions -- an independent animation house formed by Joe Ruby and Ken Spears, the uncredited co-creators of Scooby-Doo -- from October 1980 to September 1982, when the show went off the air. The show ran on the ABC network. Reruns of the program appeared on NBC's Saturday morning lineup in 1983.

The show was set in an post-apocalyptic wasteland whose ruins typically featured recognizable geographical features from the United States, such as Mount Rushmore, New York City, or Washington, DC. Other episodes with recognizable settings are located in Central America, while one is in London. Through this setting, Thundarr and his companions Princess Ariel and the Wookiee-like Ookla the Mok battled evil wizards who combined magical spells with technologies from the pre-catastrophe world. Further Star Wars influences can be seen in Thundarr's weapon of choice, the "Sun Sword", which projects a beam of energy when turned on, and can be deactivated so that it is only a hilt. Bob Ridgely was Thundarr's voice actor; Princess Ariel was played by Nellie Bellflower. Henry Corden was Ookla.

Comic book writer-artist Jack Kirby worked on the production design for the show. While many people believe that Kirby was the primary designer of the show (mainly due to his similarly themed Kamandi: The Last Boy On Earth), the main characters were in fact designed by fellow comic book writer-artist Alex Toth, who also designed the popular character Space Ghost for Saturday morning television. Toth, however, was unavailable to continue working on the show, so most of the wizards and other villains and secondary characters that appear on the show were designed by Kirby. He was brought onto the show at the recommendation of Gerber and comics and animation veteran Mark Evanier, who realized that the same imagination that produced Kamandi could contribute signifcantly to the series. Indeed, the evil wizard Gemini, the only repeating villain on the show, resembles Darkseid, an infamous Kirby villain.

The show itself was actually the creation of comic writer Steve Gerber, creator of Marvel Comics' Howard the Duck. The name Ookla actually comes from UCLA. Gerber and friend Martin Pasko were having dinner in the Westwood area one night during the time Gerber was writing the bible for the series. Gerber commented to Pasko that he hadn't yet decided upon a name for the Wookiee-like character the network insisted be added to the series, over Gerber's objections. As the two walked past the gate to the UCLA campus, Pasko quipped, "Why don't you call him 'Ucla'?" Pasko later became one of several screenwriters also known for their work in comics, such as Roy Thomas and Gerry Conway, to contribute to the show. After writing several scripts, singly and in collaboration with Gerber, Pasko became a story editor on the second season. Other writers included Buzz Dixon and Mark Jones.

The opening narration to the show is as follows:

The year: 1994. From out of space comes a runaway planet, hurtling between the Earth and the Moon, unleashing cosmic destruction! Man's civilization is cast in ruin!


Two thousand years later, Earth is reborn...
A strange new world rises from the old: a world of savagery, super science, and sorcery. But one man bursts his bonds to fight for justice! With his companions Ookla the Mok and Princess Ariel, he pits his strength, his courage, and his fabulous Sunsword against the forces of evil.
He is Thundarr, the Barbarian!

Episodes and locations

Season 1 (1980-1981)

Season 2 (1981-1982)

External links

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