erisk75 wrote:I can see why the Hasbro brass would have been a bit apprehensive. The Gagoyle ripped off D'Compose's arm. That's kind of shocking to me today, and I'm 39! Still, I loved it as a kid, and my son thinks it's the best of my "old" shows. Given that they were apparently going to introduce the "Devil" on the show, I can see parents groups coming unglued. But man, what a premise!
Thinking back to that era in kids' entertainment I could actually see the Devil making through. While not overly what some would call Satanic, most Saturday morning fare had appearances by the guy in the red union suit quite regularly. And I'm not talking about Santa Claus. Heck, the Looney Tunes had the Devil show up in an ep or two. Duke frequently said
"What the Devil !." as an expression of surprise on
G.I. JOE:A Real American Hero !. The Joe ep
"Skeletons In The Closet" Lady Jaye being sacrificed to some Lovcraftian creature by Destro.
The Real Ghostbusters were literally trapped in Hell as contestants on the Devil's own gameshow. And Satan's various other names were even rattled off by Ray as an answer to one of the questions. It wasn't until the early Nineties when family values started becoming a buzzword ,and political correctness became the rule instead of the exception. When
The Real Ghostbusters aired on the Family Channel, the episode I mentioned was dropped from the rotation along with others because some felt it was encouraging devil worship. Although, I think we could get away with the Devil character today, instead of calling him the Devil or Satan. We'd name him something like Baal, Demonicus, or some other synonym for Big Evil Demon Ruling Hell. Flint Dille and company never struck me as lacking an imagination.