20TH ANNIVERSARIES

15TH ANNIVERSARIES

SPIDER-MAN 3 CEREAL

SPIDER-MAN 3 CEREAL

General Mills

            The final entry in what would become the Sam Raimi Spider-Man film trilogy came with 2007’s Spider-Man 3. Written by Raimi, his brother Ivan, and Alvin Sargent, the film became the victim of studio interference and more characters began being added than could adequately be managed in a single film. Along with Sandman (Thomas Haden Church), there was Harry Osborn’s (James Franco) transformation into a new kind of Green Goblin and Peter Parker’s (Tobey Maguire) new work rival Eddie Brock (Topher Grace) becoming the symbiotic villain Venom. Also thrown in was Gwen Stacy (Bryce Dallas Howard) to create a love-triangle for Peter and Mary Jane (Kirsten Dunst). Sony Pictures released the film on May 4, 2007, and despite less-than-favorable reviews when compared to the first two films, it ended up grossing a series high of $890.9 million; becoming the 3^rd highest of the year and setting a worldwide single-day record of $104 million.

            Replacing Kellogg’s as the food tie-in partner of the franchise, General Mills released Spider-Man 3 cereal. They chose to represent the cereal with red and blue ball puffs that had a fruity flavoring. The back of the box was taken up by a single large maze game set in a spider’s web. Like Kellogg’s, General Mills included tie-in premiums in their other cereals in the form of squirt toys in the shape of Spidey and the film’s three villains.

Back of the box.

SPIDER-MAN MOVIE CEREALS

SPIDER-MAN / SPIDER-MAN 2 / THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN CEREAL

Kellogg’s

            The comic book movie revolution from campy novelty to summer blockbuster may have quietly begun four years prior with Blade and later X-Men, but with 2002’s Spider-Man it was in full (pardon the pun) swing.  Written by David Koepp and directed by Sam Raimi, Spider-Man presented a slightly modified origin for the titular character (Tobey Maguire) and his arch-nemesis, the Green Goblin (Willem Dafoe), as fate and circumstances brought the two to a head in a climactic battle. Released by Sony Pictures on May 3, 2002, it became an instant hit. It was the first film to pass $100 million in its opening weekend and the fastest to surpass that mark. By the end of its run, it had grossed $821.7 million.

The back and side of the Spider-Man cereal box.

            That September, Kellogg’s announced its partnership with Marvel Comics and Sony Pictures to release Spidey-themed food items, including a cereal (which they mistakenly touted as the first, ignoring Ralston’s 1994 offering). The limited-edition Spider-Man cereal featured “web”-shaped cereal pieces with artificial berry flavoring. While some of the webs were naturally colored, others alternated between red and blue coloring. Adorning the boxes was a foil-stamped logo and eyes in Spidey’s mask on the front, a story on the back with some stock drawings of Spidey in various poses, and a trivia game related to the story on the side panel. Later, when the film was released onto home video, the boxes came with a small blurb advertising it and a picture of the DVD set.

            As part of their promotional campaign, other cereals in the Kellogg’s line came with premiums related to the film. Amongst them were glow-in-the-dark stickers, temporary tattoos, and a web-shooter water squirter. They also teamed-up with America’s Dairy Farmers to offer a send-away promotion for a free Spidey CD-ROM game (which was essentially the 2000 Spider-Man video game with the character model altered to resemble the film’s suit and other minor tweaks).

            After such a successful film, there was no doubt that a sequel was in order. Spider-Man 2, written by Alvin Sargent, introduced Doctor Octopus (Alfred Molina); a scientist who became bonded to four-mechanical arms he invented to aid in his scientific experiments and became mad with a desire to see his experiment through at the risk of the city. Released on June 30, 2004, the film was as well-received as the first and shattered its opening day record. However, it ended up grossing about $40 million less with a total of $783.8 million.

The back of the Spider-Man 2 box.

Kellogg’s was once again on board and re-released their Spider-Man cereal. The cereal was essentially the same, except it came in a new yellow orange box with Spidey in a new pose, and only on the back was the Spider-Man 2 title present. For a time, the foil-stamped logo and eyes also made a return before being replaced with standard art later in its run (excluding the international box, which had no foil and came with a blue background). The back of the box this time was adorned with several Spidey-themed games, including a trivia game, crossword puzzle, a maze, a match game, a hidden item search, and a word scramble. This time, tie-in premiums included web-shooter-like laser pointers that projected one of four different designs.

The Raimi film series would gain one more less-welcomed entry in Spider-Man 3, but it was General Mills who made a cereal for that one. Ultimately, Marvel and Sony decided to scrap Raimi’s proposed Spider-Man 4 in favor of rebooting the franchise with a new direction and a new cast. Written by James Vanderbilt and directed by Marc Webb, The Amazing Spider-Man took Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield) back to high school as he explored a mystery involving his parents, which took him to Oscorp where, like in the original films, he was bitten by a genetically modified spider and gained his powers. Meanwhile, Dr. Curt Connors (Rhys Ifans) had transformed himself into the monstrous Lizard in an attempt to stop his former boss (Irrfan Khan) from using ins imperfect serum on unknowing test subjects. Ultimately, that led to his wanting to transform all of New York into lizard people like him and forcing Spidey to stop him.

The Amazing Spider-Man cereal back.

The film was released on July 3, 2012 to generally favorable reviews. Like the Raimi series, it managed to pull in a box office of $757.9 million; becoming the 7^th-highest grossing film of the year. As part of the film’s promotion, Kellogg’s also rebooted their Spider-Man cereal as The Amazing Spider-Man cereal. This time, the web pieces were all colored red and two-toned green marshmallows were added to represent the Lizard’s face. The back of the box featured a word, trivia and maze game.

FANTASTIC VOYAGE (1968)

FANTASTIC VOYAGE (1968)

(ABC, September 14, 1968-January 4, 1969)

Filmation Associates, 20^th Century Fox Television

MAIN CAST:

Marvin Miller – Busby Birdwell, Guru, The Chief

Jane Webb – Dr. Erica Lane

Ted Knight – Commander Jonathan Kidd, Professor Carter, Narrator

            Devised by Otto Klement and Lewis Bixby, Fantastic Voyage is a 1966 science fiction film directed by Richard Fleischer about a crew of explorers that utilized shrinking technology. Originally meant to be set in the 19^th Century with a heavy influence from Jules Verne stories, all of that was abandoned for a more contemporary Cold War setting by screenwriter Harry Kleiner.

            Both the United States and the Soviet Union had developed shrinking technology that can only be utilized for an hour at a time before the shrunken objects revert to their original size. Soviet scientist Dr. Jan Benes (Jean Del Val) figured out how to keep things shrunken indefinitely and attempted to defect to America. However, he ended up placed in a coma during an assassination attempt. To save his life, the Combined Miniature Deterrent Forces (C.M.D.F.) shrank a submarine populated by pilot Captain Bill Owens (William Redfield), Dr. Michaels (Donald Pleasence), surgeon Dr. Peter Duval (Arthur Kennedy) and his assistant, Cora Peterson (Raquel Welch) and sent it into Benes’ bloodstream to remove a blood clot from his brain. Despite racing the clock and dealing with the dangers natural to the inner workings of the human body, the crew also had to content with the potential that one of them was an assassin sent to finish the job.

The movie crew navigating the blood stream.

            The film was released by 20^th Century Fox on August 24, 1966. Despite favorable reviews and a box office of $12 million, the film ended up taking a loss overall. It was nominated for five and won two Academy Awards. Isaac Asimov was retained by Bantam Books to write the novelization of the film, and was allowed to deal with several plot holes he found in the original script. Because of his writing speed and the film’s comparatively slow production, the book ended up coming out 6 months before the film.

The cartoon crew: Guru, Erica, Kidd and Busby.

            Two years later, Filmation Associates acquired the rights to make an animated series based on the film. However, instead of being a direct continuation, they only took the basic premise and introduced an all-new line-up of characters as well as several overall changes. The name of the organization was changed to the Combined Miniature Defense Force; which used their shrinking technology to infiltrate and investigate things that normal-sized agents couldn’t. Instead of just the single hour, each episode of shrinking could last 12. The team was comprised of scientist Busby Birdwell (Marvin Miller), who created their special transport vehicle, the Voyager; special agent Commander Jonathan Kidd (Ted Knight); doctor and biologist Erica Lane (named for Erika Scheimer, voiced by Jane Webb); and Guru (Miller), master of strange mystic powers. They answered to a mysterious shadowy being known only as The Chief (Miller) and the shrinking apparatus was overseen by its inventor, Professor Carter (Knight).

The Voyager preparing for shrinkage.

            Fantastic Voyage debuted on ABC on September 14, 1968. Each episode saw the team tasked with dealing with strange biological life forms, radio waves, super spies and master villains. The episode “The Mind of the Master” played out in a similar fashion to the original film. The team’s mission would be laid out for them in the opening minutes by the Chief and Carter before cutting to the show’s introduction, which featured a descriptive narration by Knight. The series was written by Ken Sobol, David Melmuth, Eric Blair and H.F. Mauberly, with Sobol serving as story editor. Robert Allen and Ray Ellis (as Spencer Raymond) composed the series’ music.

Professor Carter watches the missions from HQ.

            The show only ran for a single season. While it was in production, Aurora Model Company was contracted to produce a model kit of the Voyager. It was released months after the show’s cancellation, and as a result only one press run was made. Due to the limited availability and the generally poor care of sold models being treated as toys, it has become an incredibly rare model and expensive on the secondary market. Polar Lights (whose name was an homage to Aurora) had acquired the rights to reproduce the kit, but passed on it citing a prohibitive cost for what was essentially a niche item. Moebius Models would eventually retool an original kit and put it back into production. Milton Bradley released a board game based on the show in 1968, and Gold Key Comics, who published the film adaptation comic, published a comic series for the show that ran for two issues in 1969. To date, the series has only been released to DVD in 2011 by Revelation Films in the United Kingdom.

EPISODE GUIDE:

“The Gathering of the Team” (9/14/68) – The CMDF assembles a team and sends them on a test mission in a drop of water, which becomes deadly when their ship becomes damaged.

“The Menace from Space” (9/21/68) – The team investigates how a rocket crew died from oxygen loss.

“The Magic Crystal of Kabala” (9/28/68) – The team heads inside of a magical crystal ball to destroy the evil within.

“The Atomic Invaders” (10/5/68) – The team investigates mysterious butterflies that cause explosions at power plants.

“The Master Spy” (10/12/68) – A spy infiltrates the CMDF and impersonates Carter to sabotage the team’s mission.

“The Mind of the Master” (10/19/68) – The team has to go inside Guru’s mind to repair the damage of an enemy attack, unknowingly bringing with them the very person that attacked him.

“Gone Today, Here Tomorrow” (10/26/68) – The team finds themselves up against a legion of miniature toys.

“The Day the Food Disappeared” (11/2/68) – The team investigates an outbreak of rapidly-growing weeds that destroy the nation’s crops.

“Revenge of the Spy” (11/9/68) – Busby ends up trapped in an enemy base but manages to send the ship back so that help can find and save him.

“The Hobby House” (11/16/68) – Something disrupts the CMDF radio beam and causes the ship to crash between the toys of Jacob’s Hobby House.

“The Spy Satellite” (11/23/68) – The team is sent to sabotage a satellite capable of taking pictures through walls.

“First Men on the Moon” (11/30/68) – Commissioner Upjohn’s bratty son steals the ship and strands himself and the team on an artificial moon used for missile testing.

“The Great Busby” (12/7/68) – Erica shrinks Busby to use as a puppet in a children’s hospital show only to have him stolen by a jealous puppeteer.

“The Barnacle Bombs” (12/14/68) – The team heads out to find a missing bathysphere full of Navy soldiers investigating an evil professor.

“The Perfect Crime” (12/21/68) – Kidd steals the portable miniaturization machine and joins a criminal mastermind.

“The World’s Fair Affair” (12/28/68) – The team has to save the World’s Fair from being blown up.

“The Most Dangerous Game” (1/4/69) – When radioactive ore is found in a mine the team heads in to prevent it from contaminating the state.

10TH ANNIVERSARIES

5TH ANNIVERSARIES

BUZZ BLASTS CEREAL

BUZZ BLASTS CEREAL

Kellogg’s

            Toy Story became the first full-length completely computer-generated animated feature to hit theaters in 1995, pulling in an impressive box office, igniting interest in others studios for computer animation, and beginning the long-standing relationship between Disney and Pixar Studios. The film centered on a world in which toys came to life whenever people weren’t around. Woody (Tom Hanks), the pull-string cowboy doll that was once the favorite in a group of toys, found himself replaced by the newer, electronic talking Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen) action figure. This led to many quarrels fueled by Woody’s jealousy until Woody came to accept Buzz and welcomed him into the group. Toy Story became a media franchise, spawning sequels, specials, books, games and even a Buzz Lightyear animated series.

            In 2002, as part of a multi-year deal with Disney, Kellogg’s released three cereals based on Disney characters. One of them was Buzz Blasts cereal, centered on the Buzz character. The timing of this release was interesting as the animated series was currently in syndicated reruns at this time and the next Toy Story sequel was 8 years away.

            Buzz Blasts featured cereal pieces in the shape of flying saucers, the Little Green Men toys featured in the movies and the cartoon, space ships and Buzz’s face. The pieces were done in Buzz’s purple and green color scheme, with all the pieces being purple and the flying saucers having an extra green ring as well as blue flecks. The cereal actually had a long life, running until 2005. The initial box featured a foil-stamped embossed logo and a game where you had to find the different space ship amongst three different fleets. At one point, a music CD with an exclusive song about Buzz was included as a premium. Another premium involved 3-D glasses to use with a new game on the back panel.  

Original back panel game.

The 3-D Glasses premium box.

BUZZ LIGHTYEAR OF STAR COMMAND

BUZZ LIGHTYEAR OF STAR COMMAND

(UPN, ABC, October 2, 2000-January 13, 2001)

Walt Disney Television Animation, Pixar Animation Studio

MAIN CAST:

Patrick Warburton – Buzz Lightyear, LGMs

Tim Allen – Buzz Lightyear (film)

Nicole Sullivan – Princess Mira Nova

Stephen Furst – Booster Sinclair Munchapper

Larry Miller (weekday episodes) – XR

Neil Flynn (Saturday episodes) – XR, computer, X-Treme

Adam Carolla – Commander Zeb Nebula

Wayne Knight – Emperor Zurg

Frank Welker – Grubs, various

Gary Owens – Opening narration

            While working for Walt Disney Feature Animation, John Lasseter became enamored with the possibilities that computer animation could offer when he was shown the lightcycle scene from Tron. He tried unsuccessfully to have Disney make The Brave Little Toaster into a completely computer-animated film before eventually being fired and moving on to Lucasfilm. 

The short that started it all.

            Lasseter went on to become a founding member of animation studio Pixar where he created short, computer-animated films to show off the Pixar Image Comptuer’s abilities. His 1988 short Tin Toy, which was told from the perspective of a toy and catered to Lasseter’s love of classic toys, became the first computer-generated film to win the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film. The short had gained Disney’s attention, and after a series of negotiations the two studios arranged to join together and turn Tin Toy into a feature film called Toy Story.

Concept art for Buzz Lightyear.

            The story was drafted by Lasseter, Andrew Stanton and Pete Docter to have Tinny from Tin Toy pairing up with a ventriloquist’s dummy to go on a grand adventure. Studio head Jeffrey Katzenberg felt the story was problematic and had them reshape it to be more of a mismatched buddy picture. Tinny, deemed too antiquated, became a military action figure before being given a space theme and named Buzz Lightyear (after Buzz Aldrin). His space suit was modeled after those worn by Apollo astronauts and G.I. Joe action figures, and colored green and purple after Nancy Lasseter’s favorite colors. Character designer Bud Luckey suggested that Woody (named for the material he was originally composed of) should be changed into a cowboy; a contrast of themes Lasseter liked. Eventually, they scrapped the dummy angle altogether and turned Woody into a soft pull-string doll (keeping the name as an homage to Western actor Woody Strode). The final script would be written by Stanton with Joel Cohen, Alec Sokolow and Joss Whedon and  Lasseter would serve as director.

            Toy Story centered on a world in which toys would come to life whenever people weren’t around. They had their own lives, personalities and autonomy, but they loved nothing more than to be played with. The world of a particular group of toys was changed when a new toy was introduced: the electronic talking Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen); a toy based off of an in-universe popular cartoon show. Woody (Tom Hanks), the original favorite toy of young Andy (John Morris), had become jealous of Buzz and all the attention he was getting from Andy and his fellow toys. Buzz was also completely oblivious that he was a toy and believed himself to be THE Buzz Lightyear. Their squabbling resulted in Woody and Buzz ending up in the clutches of their toy-destroying neighbor, Sid (Erik von Detten). Woody and Buzz had to work together and escape in order to return home before their family was set to move away.

The ever-growing members of the Toy Story franchise.

            Toy Story opened on November 22, 1995, becoming the first feature-length film to be completely computer animated. The film was a massive success, earning $373.6 million at the box office, critical acclaim, and several awards and nominations. The film not only began Disney and Pixar’s long-standing partnership (which eventually culminated in Disney buying the studio outright), but generated interest in the technology used for the film and production of other computer-generated media. 

            Toy Story has since become a franchise with three theatrical sequels, two holiday television specials, three theatrical shorts, video games, comic books, actual toys and more. While work was being done on Toy Story 2, which expanded both Woody and Buzz’s family of characters with companion toys from their respective franchises, the idea was floated of turning the Buzz Lightyear show into an actual program. Tad Stones was approached by Disney to create the series on an $8 million budget, along with Mark McCorkle and Robert Schooley. Initially, they had to juggle their duties on Buzz Lightyear with their work on Hercules: The Animated Series.

Buzz and Warp Darkmatter rescuing the LGMs.

            Buzz Lightyear of Star Command centered on the space-faring exploits of Space Ranger Buzz Lightyear (Patrick Warburton) as he protected the cosmos from the sinister machinations of his arch-rival, the evil Emperor Zurg (Wayne Knight, who voiced the human villain of the second movie). While on a mission to rescue three Little Green Men (or LGMs, the toys encountered in a claw machine in the first movie, all voiced by Warburton), Buzz’s partner Warp Darkmatter (Diedrich Bader) was lost, causing Buzz to vow to never have a partner again. 

Team Lightyear: Buzz, Mira, XR and Booster.

However, fate had other plans. Buzz’s superior, Commander Zeb Nebula (Adam Carolla) issued Buzz a new partner: Princess Mira Nova (Nicole Sullivan), heir to the Tangean throne with the ability to “ghost” through solid matter and read minds. The LGMs, who served as the loyal backbone of Star Command by developing and maintaining all of their equipment, provided Buzz with another partner in the form of the robot XR (Larry Miller & Neil Flynn). The eXperimental Ranger (although called eXpendable by most), was originally emotionless and designed to observe and learn from Buzz. And, in the event of his destruction (which happened on every mission), the LGMs could rebuild him promptly (the first time resulted in XR gaining an annoyingly animated personality). But yet a third partner presented himself in the form of Booster (Stephen Furst), a super strong and super dimwitted Star Command janitor who desired nothing more than to become a Ranger and achieved his dream when he helped defeat one of Zurg’s schemes. Together they became Team Lightyear.

Ty Parsec.

Other members of Star Command included Ty Parsec (Steve Hytner), an old friend of Buzz who got tired of always being rescued by him and ended up being transformed into a Wirewolf (a robotic werewolf); Rocket Crocket (Phil LaMarr), leader of Team Rocket and Buzz’s chief rival; Petra Hammerhold (Nikki Cox), forced to join Star Command by her father, Senator Hammerhold (Corey Burton), to keep her away from her boyfriend, Plasma Boy (Michael Showalter), who also later became a member of Star Command; and 42 (Joy Behar), an A.I. that once possessed Buzz’s ship and was later given a robot body to help the LGMs.

Emperor Zurg.

Zurg wasn’t without his own allies. The bug-like Grubs (all Frank Welker) served the same functions as the LGMs, albeit less competently. The Brain Pods (various) were brains in jars on robotic bodies that served as Zurg’s scientists and researchers while constantly plotting their escape from Zurg’s clutches. The Hornets were Zurg’s robotic foot soldiers. They were largely ineffective and extremely expendable, constantly being destroyed en masse by the Space Rangers. It would come to be revealed that Warp had secretly been working for Zurg all along and became Agent Z after faking his death. He gained a robotic arm that could house various attachments. 

Gravitina has Buzz on the brain (and a lot of other stuff!).

Other foes included Gravitina (Kerri Kenney), a large-headed woman that could control gravity and was in love with Buzz; NOS-4-A2 (Craig Ferguson), a robotic vampire created by Zurg that could drain anything powered by electricity as well as control any machine he bit; Torque (Brad Garrett), a career criminal that could create unstable duplicates of himself; and XL (Bobcat Goldthwait), XR’s predecessor who was initially shut down because of his villainous tendencies.

Buzz Lightyear of Star Command was finished long before Toy Story 2, so it was decided to hold on to it until after the film was released. This gave the production crew a chance to work on a direct-to-video movie to introduce the concept and new characters that would also double as the series’ first three episodes. Pixar created a new short intro starring the Toy Story 2 characters settling in to watch the movie, which was otherwise traditionally animated and had the highest quality of the entire series. Allen reprised his role as Buzz in the intro and re-recorded over Warburton’s recording (which was restored when the movie was broken up into individual episodes, and the Pixar portion omitted). Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: The Adventure Begins was released on VHS and DVD on August 8, 2000, becoming the first spin-off of a Pixar film. The series itself hit television screens on October 2, 2000. It aired both as a feature of UPN’s Disney’s One Too weekday programming block and as part of ABC’s Disney’s One Saturday Morning programming block, effectively airing seven days a week as a result for its entire 65-episode run. Each episode ended with Buzz saying his famous line, “To infinity…and beyond!”

Electric vampire NOS-4-A2.

While Pixar did provide some animation for the series’ opening titles featuring cameos of the Toy Story characters set to a narration by Gary Owens, the rest of the intro and the series itself were traditionally animated by Walt Disney Animation Japan, Sun Min Co. Ltd. Animation Production, Toon City, Jade Animation Intl, Sunwoo Animation Co. Ltd., Tama Production Co., Ltd., Wang Film Productions Co., Ltd. and Hana Animation Co. The writing staff included Adam Armus, John Behnke, Cade Chilcoat, Nick DuBois, Nora Kay Foster, Eddie Guzelian, Rob Humphrey, Greg Johnson, Ken Koonce, Michael A. Medlock, Michael Merton, Bill Motz, Mark Palmer, Jim Peterson, Bob Roth, Gary Sperling, Elizabeth Stonecipher, and Stones, amongst others. Adam Berry provided the music. In 2001, the series won a Daytime Emmy Award for “Outstanding Sound Editing – Special Class”.

Torque splitting.

Buzz Lightyear continued to air on UPN until 2003 when Disney’s partnership with the network came to an end. During that time, it also aired on the Disney Channel and again from 2006 to 2008 before leaving United States airwaves. It was also seen on Toon Disney from 2003-2007. The episodes “Inside Job” and “Conspiracy” were taken out of rotation following the 9/11 terrorist attacks due to their dealing with assassination elements, and “Super Nova” for its allusion to drug abuse. Lasseter ended up not being a fan of the series, resulting in Pixar barring any elements of it from being used in any other Toy Story media and even disallowing the mention of the cartoon in the movies. To date, only The Adventure Begins has been released on home media as well as the episode “Planet of the Lost”. 

 Mattel, who released toys for the Toy Story franchise, released two waves of figures based on the show. The first wave, called Toy Story and Beyond, featured Buzz, Booster, XR, Zurg and Warp. The Space Rangers all came with a LGM while the villains came with a Grub. The second wave, called Cosmic Clash, featured new Buzz, Booster and XR figures without LGMs, and NOS-4-A2 as their primary foe. The following year, McDonald’s included six toys based on the show in their Happy Meals. Team Lightyear, Nebula and Zurg could all be launched from a spaceship part that could be assembled to create a larger spaceship. Random House published a series of story and glow-in-the-dark sticker books that adapted various episodes, as well as a pop-up book, punch-out doll book, and coloring books. Five comic strips based on the show were published in the pages of Disney Adventures Magazine between 2000 and 2001. Traveler’s Tales developed a game with Disney Interactive that was published by Activision. It was a rail shooting game that saw Buzz having to traverse various planets for three missions: a race against a criminal, a time trial, and recovering all of XR’s body parts. It featured the show’s voice cast and cut scenes comprised of clips from various episodes.

EPISODE GUIDE:

“Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: The Adventure Begins” (8/8/00) – Buzz swears off partners after his is lost to Emperor Zurg, but ends up working with three cadets to save the Little Green Men.

“The Torque Armada” (10/2/00) – Zurg’s Hornets free Torque from prison and take him to Planet Z.

“Gravitina” (10/3/00) – Buzz and his team try to save Star Command from an asteroid field but discover it’s being directed at the base by Gravitina.

“XL” (10/4/00) – XR is used as bait for a high-tech robber, which turns out to be his predecessor XL.

“Little Secrets” (10/5/00) – Searching for a spy complicates Mira, Booster and XL’s plans to hide a secret from Buzz.

“Inside Job” (10/6/00) – Buzz teams up with Flash Flemming to stop an assassination.

“NOS-4-A2” (10/8/00) – Zurg tricks the Rangers into bringing a box back to Star Command that contains an energy-draining robotic vampire.

“The Planet Destroyer” (10/9/00) – Buzz has to stop Zurg’s new weapon from claiming its third world.

“Tag Team” (10/11/00) – Buzz teams-up with Warp Darkmatter to find out who put implants in them.

“The Main Event” (10/12/00) – Buzz and XR end up stranded on a planet battling against gladiators.

“The Return of XL” (10/13/00) – XL kidnaps XR and steals a part from him, causing XR to feel depressed and run off to Tradeworld for repairs.

“Lost in Time” (10/14/00) – Zurg uses Buzz’s trip into a Black Hole to trick him into thinking he’s wound up in the future.

“Strange Invasion” (10/15/00) – Team Lightyear ends up stranded in another dimension.

“The Taking of PC-7” (10/16/00) – Torque arranges for a jailbreak when Booster and XR escort him to prison.

“Mindwarp” (10/17/00) – Klerm kidnaps Buzz and uses his mind to create an army of Slam-Bots.

“Mira’s Wedding” (10/18/00) – Lord Angstrom arranges a marriage for Mira in order to take attention away from his plan to overthrow King Nova.

“Panic on Bathyos” (10/19/00) – Team Lightyear is sent to investigate the theft of fusion crystals on Bathyos.

“Shiv Katall” (10/20/00) – Brain Pod #13 defects from Zurg and Zurg hires infamous bounty hunter Shiv Katall to eliminate him.

“Rookie of the Year” (10/21/00) – Being nominated for “Rookie of the Year” causes Team Lightyear to fight amongst themselves and allow Zurg to steal a matter transporter from them.

“Stress Test” (10/22/00) – Buzz is forced to go on vacation.

“A Zoo Out There” (10/23/00) – Buzz has to find a group of kidnapped ambassadors.

“Root of Evil” (10/24/00) – Team Lightyear investigates reports of mutant vegetables terrorizing a planet.

“Super Nova” (10/25/00) – A mission causes Mira to gain new powers, which gives her the confidence to take on Zurg by herself.

“Downloaded” (10/26/00) – XR becomes a target when he downloads the Galactic Alliance files into himself.

“The Plasma Monster” (10/27/00) – Booster ends up battling a new recruit’s boyfriend when he becomes smitten with her.

“Wirewolf” (10/29/00) – As Buzz and Ty Parsec battle NOS-4-A2, the radiation on Canis Lunis ends up turning Ty into the Wirewolf.

“The Crawling Flesh” (10/29/00) – Zurg manages to turn all of Star Command into blob monsters.

“Dirty Work” (10/30/00) – Cosmo’s new robotic appliance is bitten by NOS-4-A2 and ends up taking over the diner.

“The Slayer” (10/31/00) – Buzz and XR team-up with Savy SL2 to take down NOS-4-A2.

“The Lightyear Factor” (11/1/00) – Zurg breaches another dimension and recruits an evil Buzz.

“Clone Rangers” (11/2/00) – Zurg creates clones of Buzz, Mira and Booster.

“Bunzel Fever” (11/3/00) – Booster must return home to cure his case of Bunzel Fever.

“Rescue Mission” (11/4/00) – Buzz is shrunk down to stop a threat that turns out to be his own team.

“Devolutionaries” (11/5/00) – Team Lightyear discovers that something is de-evolving the populace of a planet.

“Head Case” (11/6/00) – XL kidnaps XR after he’s damaged in battle.

“The Yukari Imprint” (11/7/00) – Team Lightyear has to protect an ambassador and his delegates.

“The Shape Stealer” (11/8/00) – Zurg creates an assassin that can take over other people’s bodies.

“Star Crossed” (11/9/00) – Zurg hires Mira’s ex-boyfriend to retrieve Brain Pod #57 for him.

“Haunted Moon” (11/10/00) – A ghost tries to prevent Team Lightyear from saving a planet.

“Star Smasher” (11/11/00) – Zurg takes one of the Little Green Men and plans to use his knowledge to create a devastating device.

“Stranger Invasion” (11/12/00) – Zurg invades Roswell to use it as a staging zone for his next attack on Capital Planet.

“Eye of the Tempest” (11/13/00) – Mad scientist Spyro Lepton lures Buzz into a trap.

“Revenge of the Monsters” (11/14/00) – XL and NOS-4-A2 invade Star Command to turn Ty Parsec back into the Wirewolf.

“Lone Wolf” (11/15/00) – When lack of evidence is about to allow a criminal to go free, Buzz regales his team with a story of a similar situation from his past.

“Planet of the Lost” (11/16/00) – Investigating the disappearance of ships causes Team Lightyear to become the next victims.

“Revenge of the Raenoks” (11/17/00) – Booster is captured by the Raenoks to bargain for the release of their leader, Varg.

“Enemy Without a Face” (11/18/00) – Team Lightyear ends up in the middle of a 900-year conflict.

“The Starthought” (11/19/00) – Zurg takes over Star Command’s newest ship.

“Millennial Bugs” (11/20/00) – Zurg attempts to hatch fossilized Millennial Bug eggs.

“Conspiracy” (11/21/00) – Buzz is framed for the attempted assassination of the Galactic President.

“At Large on a Small Planet” (11/23/00) – Buzz and Booster have to shrink down in order to find out who kidnapped an ambassador.

“Sunquake” (11/24/00) – Evil Buzz returns and enlists Gravitina in ruining Buzz’s reputation.

“Good Ol’ Buzz” (11/25/00) – Buzz from the future arrives to save Mira’s life.

“First Missions” (11/26/00) – Trapped in a hopeless situation, Team Lightyear tells their charge about their first meetings with Buzz to reassure him that Buzz will save them in time.

“Large Target” (11/27/00) – XR impersonates Buzz to gamble at a casino and ends up attracting a load of trouble.

“War and Peace and War” (11/29/00) – Suspicions about Guzelian’s desire to bring peace to the galaxy has Buzz working with Zurg to investigate Guzelian’s true intentions.

“Return to Karn” (12/2/00) – Mira and the President are shot down and hunted by Zurg.

“Speed Trap” (12/9/00) – Team Lightyear must stop a ship from crashing into the sun and destroying it.

“Holiday Time” (12/16/00) – Zurg steals Santa’s time-stopping device to go on a terror spree.

“Opposites Attract” (12/23/00) – Gravitina mutates Buzz’s head like hers in the hopes it will make Buzz fall for her.

“Ancient Evil” (1/6/01) – When the Little Green Men awaken space mummy Natron, Zurg wants him for himself.

“42” (1/13/01) – Buzz has to save XR and 42 from Valkyran raiders.