Background
In order to cut production costs for the animated series, Hasbro dropped Sunbow and contracted DiC to continue the series. Story editor Buzz Dixon explained in an interview: "Hasbro had been funding G.I. Joe out of their own pocket; they got a ridiculous deal from DiC to take over the series and they pretty much let them."
The DiC series is a continuation of the Sunbow show, though it chose to focus primarily on new characters of the period. Hawk was retained as G.I. Joe commander and at times shared his duties with Sgt. Slaughter as head of the G.I. Joe team. Captain Grid-Iron was given field commander duties in Season 1, with Duke regaining his old position in Season 2. Storm Shadow was also now a member of G.I. Joe, as he had been sold as a Joe rather than a Cobra since 1988, keeping in line with the story of the comics, where he had abandoned Cobra in 1986-87.
The first season centered almost exclusively on the 1990 Joes; meanwhile, Cobra, having a less extensive cast, was augmented by select characters from 1989 and the yet-to-be-released 1991 figures. This new ensemble had a much wider variety of Cobra Officers as we were introduced to the Night Creepers and their leader, and many different forms of Vipers.
The first season of the DiC series was mainly standalone episodes that focused on establishing new team members and plots. The second season of the DiC show lowered the animation budget but began a series of two part episodes, which often told a deeper story involving more dramatic life and death situations for the Joes. Theme song and underscore by Stephen James Taylor.
Also a casualty of the animation company changeover, was the extensive voice cast Sunbow employed, which largely consisted of voice actors employed by West Coast American companies. Because this DIC series was produced in Canada, an almost entirely new cast was assembled. Only a few actors from the Sunbow series returned for the DIC series; including Sgt. Slaughter, Chris Latta (the voice of Cobra Commander), Ed Gilbert (General Hawk) and Morgan Lofting (Baroness). But with Season 2, those holdover characters & actors were either retired, or recast with new voices.
Read more about this topic: G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero (1989 TV Series)
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