M.A.S.K. (TV series)
M.A.S.K. is a 1985 American science fiction animated television series produced by DIC and ICC TV Productions, Ltd. The series was based on the action figures of the same name produced by Kenner Products. It was animated in Japan by Ashi Productions, Studio World and K.K. DiC Asia.
Overview
M.A.S.K. is a special task force led by Matt Trakker, who operate transforming armored vehicles in their ongoing battle against the terrorist organization V.E.N.O.M. with an emphasis on superpowered helmets worn by the characters of both factions.V.E.N.O.M.'s primary goal is obtaining money through either robbery, extortion, counterfeiting, kidnapping, or attempting to steal historical artifacts, but M.A.S.K. always finds a way to foil their plans.
Cast
- Doug Stone – Matt Trakker, Hondo MacLean, Dusty Hayes, Bruce Sato, Nash Gorey, Bruno Sheppard, Boris Bushkin, Maximus Mayhem
- Brendan McKane – Miles Mayhem, Alex Sector, Floyd Malloy, Jacques LaFleur, Nevada Rushmore
- Graeme McKenna – T-Bob, Brad Turner, Julio Lopez, Calhoun Burns
- Mark Halloran – Sly Rax, Buddie Hawks, Cliff Dagger, Ace Riker, Duane Kennedy
- Sharon Noble – M.A.S.K. Computer, Gloria Baker, Vanessa Warfield
- Brian George – Lester Sludge, Ali Bombay
- Brennan Thicke – Scott Trakker
Crew
Season 1 (1985)
- Story editors: Terrence McDonnell and Gary Warne
- Writers: Jina Bacarr, Rod Baker, Creighton Barnes, Patrick Barry, Jack Bornoff, Del Bruckman, Barbara Chain, Kerry Ehrin, Herb Engelhardt, Mel Gilden, Ralph Goodman, David Gottlieb, Barbara Hambly, Trevor Meldal-Johnsen, Fred Ladd, Chuck Lorre, Ali Matheson, R. Patrick Neary, Dianne Nezgoda, Jack Olesker, Glen Olson, Alfred A. Pegal, Jessica Radcliff, Ginger Roth, Jeffrey Scott, Chris Weber & Karen Willson, S. S. Wilson, Erica Byrne
- Directors: Bruno Bianchi and Bernard Deyries
Season 2 (1986)
- Story editor: Jack Olesker
- Writers: Ray Dryden, Jack Olesker
- Director: Michael Maliani
- Animation production: Ashi Production, Studio World
Episodes
A total of 75 syndicated episodes over two seasons were broadcast from September 1985 to November 1986. The first season consisted of 65 episodes. The second season, whose theme deemphasized crimefighting in favor of auto racing, lasted only ten episodes.Production
One of many cartoons produced during the 1980s as a vehicle for toy merchandising, M.A.S.K. was a hybrid of popular era cartoons G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero and The Transformers. When originally broadcast, M.A.S.K. was the first closed-captioned series to air in first-run syndication.Home video
Several episodes of the series were released under Karl-Lorimar's "Kideo Video" branding on VHS in the 1980s, with two episodes per tape. The "racing" second season was distributed by Tempest Video.In the United Kingdom, two releases titled M.A.S.K The Movie, and M.A.S.K The Movie II were released by Tempo Video, featuring episodes edited into a feature-length format. Several episodes of season one were distributed by The Video Collection in association with Karl Lorimar's Kideo Video, then a lot of these episodes would be distributed on later VHS tapes by Castle Vision. The episodes from season two were distributed by Golden Book Video.
M.A.S.K. episodes have been released on DVD in three different regions:USA: Shout! Factory acquired the Region 1 DVD rights and released a "Complete Series" set on 9 August 2011 containing only the episodes from the first season of the original series, as well as a separate 2-disc collection of the first 11 episodes, called "Volume 1" and released the same day. The second season, which consists of 10 episodes, are owned by WildBrain and are not part of the acquisition.UK: A single DVD set containing the first 5 episodes was released by Maximum Entertainment in August 2004. In November 2007, Maximum released Collection 1, containing the same number of episodes as the Australian set. Collection 1 was re-released on 31 August 2009, and Collection 2 was finally released on 28 September the same year. Both sets are distributed through Lace DVD, replacing Maximum Entertainment, and both sets are in Region 2 PAL format. All 75 episodes were released across both sets.Australia and New Zealand: Madman Entertainment released the complete series over two DVD collections for the first time in Australia and New Zealand. Collection 1 was released in November 2006 and contains episodes 1–38, while Collection 2 was released in March 2007 and contains episodes 39–75 which includes the season 2 episodes.