The Story of the Very Bizarre, Short-Lived Manimal: 8 Episodes Was Plenty
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 16 ก.ย. 2020
- Manimal is an American action-adventure television series created by Glen A. Larson and Donald R. Boyle, that ran on NBC from September 30 to December 17, 1983.
The show centers on the character Dr. Jonathan Chase, a shape-shifting man who can turn himself into any animal he chooses. He uses this ability to help the police solve crimes.
Only lasting 8 episodes there was very little other merchandise but there was an incredibly bad Manimal toy line.
Dr Jonathan Chase... wealthy, young, handsome. A man with the brightest of futures. A man with the darkest of pasts. From Africa's deepest recesses, to the rarefied peaks of Tibet, heir to his father's legacy and the world's darkest mysteries. Jonathan Chase, master of the secrets that divide man from animal, animal from man... Manimal!
Help the channel continue to grow by checking out our Patreon: / toygalaxy
To become a TH-cam channel member:
th-cam.com/users/toygalaxytvjoin
Follow Dan on Instagram:
/ toygalaxy
Toy Galaxy
P.O. box 3976
Manchester, NH 03105-3976
Business Inquiries:
toygalaxytv@gmail.com
/ toygalaxytv
/ toygalaxytv
teespring.com/stores/toy-galaxy - บันเทิง
I am not ashamed to say that this was my FAVORITE SHOW for the few weeks it aired. I was 10. Not ashamed.
Have you considered going to a church to have your shame recalibrated? I think it's out of whack. 😉
It wasn't my fave onlybecause they kept changing the timeslot and I never got to see it.
Automanimal: the obvious evolution.
You should be
Solidarity! Young me also liked it. It's a pulp hero concept and TV audiences (generally) haven't liked such a thing on the small screen.
I definitely remember watching it and enjoying it. But not more than Automan and the other shows I was watching in that era.
I was just a kid when all these 80's shows came out and I have to say, with no shame, that I loved them all. The joy of being a kid...
This was my jam as a kid growing up in England, hell yes!! This, Airwolf, Street Hawk and Automan were very popular in the UK. We had no problem taking the American rejected 1 season specials 🤣🤣🤣😳😳😳
Side note; Loved it when the camera showed his hand always turn into a panthers paw
Oh what memories!!
Street Hawk! I loved Street Hawk
None of my friends remember this show. Thank God for the internet or they would still think I was making this show up.
I was in the same situation pre-internet. No one remembered it and I’d thought I’d imagined it.
I really just want to know why his hands turned into the eagles claws, rather than his feet. This breaks all my understanding of the science behind it.
There was science behind it?
I remember being really salty in 1st grade when Manimal was canceled. That was my favorite show back then and it was better than He-Man. I was salty because none of the other kids in my class wasn't watching Manimal like I was. I remember being on the playground folding down my fingers and trying to perfect my panther transformation.
...I so knew, w/enough effort,
I would eventually be able to
extend my fingernails like claws.
I did finally achieve sore hands!
I would also flex the muscles in my hand to get that "bubbling" look... Can't do it anymore. Just tried.
Same. God the 80's were so much more fun than many decades since.
@@natejones4590YES! Me too!
I never considered the possibility that “Manimal Purists” may actually exist 😆
Sheds skin as snake or spider.
It's a very odd hill to die on.
They are called Furries
Hahaha so good lol
I would like to be one
I loved Manimal. I was a small boy, and I loved the transformation scenes. I honestly, watched every single week on our massive tube television. It was high tech special effects then. That’s seems funny, but I had never seen anything like it. It was so brief, I forgot about it completely until I saw that bird transformation scene. It came flooding back. It was like seeing a Weeble.
th-cam.com/video/bx_Wejs5SlM/w-d-xo.html
They wobble but they don't fall down. Weeble's that is, not Manimal's.
@@robertbenton1367, I like pie.
I have heard about this series, but I never knew that this series had a toy line.
And having seen them now, we shall *never* speak of them again.
Now, where's the brain bleach? 🤔
I was just a gradeschooler when this came out. It seemed to stretch on much longer than just seven episodes!
My classmates and I would copy his transformation poses, and we'd sometimes get scared that we got it right and would turn into animals.
I ADORED this show as a kid. I mean, Stan Winston. 'Nuff said.
"The EAGLE eyes of a... hawk."😐
😉
😆 Lol, didn't catch that at first!
I loved it. I have it on DVD. Loved the early 80, with other great shows like Automan, The Master, Knight Rider, Voyagers, Tales of the Gold Monkey, The Powers of Matthew Star, V, Greatest American Hero, The A-Team, & Otherworld.
I was a big fan of the show and back then I didn't question why we saw his clothes rip as he transformed into animals but later was found funny clothed when he turned back into a human, I guess the transformation from animal to human sewed his clothes back on, a trick the Hulk could have benefited from
Hey, it was magic!
If it was some kind of scientific process of transformation I could see the need to get new clothes when he became a man again, but wasn't it a mystical thing? Magic can do crazy things, man.
Maybe he just used the Mending cantrip (cf. Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition)
Manimal missed a trick making it about him having other abilities and his relationship with his Father but this was early 80s. I suppose expecting more is unfair because it's escapism.
Although the idea he comes back and turns out to be a time traveller tracking down Jack the Ripper...
is Glen Larson out Glen Larsoining Glen Larson.
Knight Rider ironically was always a prediction of the future, intended or not, that has become true.
the worst part of Glen A. Larson was not the crazy stuff, but the mundane: when I was little I was fascinated with the crazy gimmicks but the procedural cop part of his shows always bored me.
@@souljastation5463 TV is still obsessed with cops. Viewers want escape from the real world not kept even half and half?
"MANIMAL!" Since his powers are mystical-based, he is able to shift his mass extra-dimensionally when changing into animals - in much the same way Transformers do so when transforming.
I think that explanation is pretty much standard in the Marvel Universe for any size changing characters, including the Hulk. At least it used to be in the old Handbooks of the Marvel U. I had as a kid.
@@davidhanson4909 Yep, the good ol' Classic Marvel Handbooks - that's indeed where I got it from! I'm a HUGE fan of the OHTTMU.
I think Alan Moore's Miracleman comics kind of used that same basic concept too. When "transforming" the characters shift bodies to another dimension - swapping body mass like clothes.
@@davidhanson4909 Marvel used to rely on the ol "unstable molecules" invented by Reed Richards back in my day
@@Getwright- That was how Reed Richard's costume stretched with him, or Sue's turned invisible, or Johnny Storm's didn't burn up, or whatever the plot demanded they do. Very versatile, those Unstable molecule cloths. I hope Reed held onto the patent.
God, I remember the Feathers emerging from the skin. That gave me flashbacks and PTSD. Horrid visual.
I use all the toy/pop culture info from your shows to wow my dates. I must have really blown the mind of my last date because she got up to go to the bathroom and never came back...thanks for being my imaginary wing-man!
It's all good until you walk in on Imaginary Wingman in the sack with Pretend Foreign Girlfriend. You think you know somebody...
@@CJ-ef4tg... you never do,
you really never do, C J.
(I am constipated, too!)
I'm one of the few people on this planet that not only remembers this show but was a major fan of it and freely admits that fact to this day. In the theater of this mind there was a super cool Knight Rider/Automan/Manimal crossover. But in lieu of that I loved his appearance on Night Man though admittedly I didn't know about it until years later. Simon MacCorkindale also fought Jaws the same year that show aired.
beane2099 there’s more of us than you think brother!
@@Jayk129 I'll second that statement. It was a cool TV concept just like Max Headroom.
I loved all of the weird shit that got as far as the UK, including Manimal - not sure if we ever got Night Man though
I'm right alongside you beane2099, I was 13 when the show debuted and for a kid who loved, hold that, needed as many heroes as he could get I took them all to escape into the world sci-fi/fantasy. Being a writer who has an overactive imagination I've created an alternate Earth-T where most of the heroes from the worlds of television co-exist. I'm trying to tie them together in a story I'm working on now.
Glen A Larsen in the 80s - When cocaine is your spirit animal
Reboots - Rehab stole the creativity to make more
You guys have pretty much covered most of the TV shows I grew up with...great job.
Manimal's minimal impact was nearly subliminal.
I can't even begin to imagine how proud you are of "seeing the world through an anamorphic lens". That pun is the highlight of my day.
I absolutely loved this show! As a kid, the ability to transform into animals was one of my fantasies. Despite being a horrible show, that premise made me excited to watch.
The '80s loved things that transformed didn't it? If only someone created a show about transforming ninjas that used UZI's as nunchucks and you would have had the greatest show ever created.
And the uzis would automatically shoot up rooms full of bad guys while the hero swung them around doing sick Bruce Lee nunchaku katas.
Oh, you
Manimal is trying to have sex with Nude Raider.
But then it would never have aired on British television, so we would've missed out!
Yes, if only there existed some type of TV show in the 80's where things transformed into other things, like some kind of "transformer." Surely it'd be more than meets the eye.
It would have been more successful if it were called "B.J. IS The Bear"
before there was Animorphs there was MANIMAL
MANIMAL was a sort of like a Animorph before Animorphs was a thing
The amazing thing is that Animorphs was covered by Toy Galaxy BEFORE Manimal!
Though manimal has more tramsformations in him.
And Manimal’s transformations were 203% less creepy . . .
To throw something at the wall and see what sticks must be my absolute favorite creative proces. Give me weird, give me strange, give me mad concepts and ideas, we will laugh, we will cry and maybe, just maybe we will find something worth watching for.
This is one of those shows that served the creators more than viewers. Meaning they got to learn and do things that would later help other projects and movies.
Sure, Manimal is cool and all, but he's no Puma-Man.
lol
well, he couldn't fly like a moron
He needed a big Mexican sidekick
Thepumaman?
OK now we need an "history of" The Wizard. I mean, come on, a toy maker who use toys to solve crimes !
There's a connection between Manimal and the Wizard as well as, of all things, "Thunder in Paradise" with Hulk Hogan. One of the episodes is exactly the same. It kinda made sense when Manimal did it, because he could turn into an animal, but made less sense when the Wizard and Thunder did it.
It's the one where they discover a wolf girl who's the only survivor of a family trip through, possibly, the Amazon. Seriously. It's the same exact story told three slightly different ways.
@@umachan9286 I know. In the Wizard they used a toy subarine to rescue the drowning girl. For manimal he changed into a dolphin if i recall. I don't remember much about Thunder in paradise (except the cool boat).
YES! MANIMAL ROCKS! I was ten when Manimal premiered and I loved it. Thanks so much for this video Dan and Greg. Hopefully after Max Headroom, Street Hawk, Automan, and now Manimal your future installments of “History of Terrible 80’s Network Prime-Time Sci-Fi” get to The Highwayman (Flash Gordon, An Energizer Spokesman, Diana from V., and Tuvok fight crime in the future with a super truck/helicopter vehicle combo) and Misfits of Science (Monica From Friends joins the X-men).
This was one of my fave shows from back in the day !!!!!!! My fave is when he turned into a panther . Damn the 80s was a fun time.
Glen A Larson imagination had no bound. Wish we has more ppl like him for today tv shows
We need an episode on thunderbirds 2086 !
I was in the second grade when it was on the air. I loved it. The Manimal episode of Night Man was the best episode of that show.
I can't believe it didn't get more series! I absolutely LOVED the show!
when u said "manimal" i was thinking of the 90's Gijoe Toy line lol.
"Press Bell, Turn Into Panther"
Instructions unclear, I'm now a snail and it's taken me 6 hours to type this.
“Glen Larson crosses your line in the sand.” Best thing I’ve heard all day!
I definitely remember watching Manimal when it first aired. Thanks, Dan!
Let’s keep the Glen A. Larson train going! Next up: BJ & the Bear! The jokes will practically write themselves! 😁
Let's board the Supertrain instead.
Oh, there HAS to be a toy line attached to BJ & the Bear!
Everything in the 1980s had a toy line.
almost every tv show in the 80's was just a toy commercial
THE LAST STARFIGHTER
WHERES MY GUNSTAR, DAN
The Terms of Endearment action figure line was amazing. Shirley MacLaine’s La-Zorr MonsterTruck made cool noises! Pew pew! Unfortunately, the toy line made for the sequel, The Evening Star, was not as rad. But that’s okay because I was preoccupied with my Tony Micelli figure with Kung Fu Grip, from Who’s the Boss! And the scrapes he got into with teammates Doogie Howser and Uncle Buck, well...
@@RobCamp-rmc_0 Don’t forget “The Big Chill” toyline. I had many memorable fights between William Hurt and Tom Berenger using the mansion play set.
High art. Maybe not but I loved it as a kid and I still think the shape shifting concept, popular with many comicbook characters, is a very workable idea with the right stories and special effects. Manamal was perhaps ahead of its time. It would fit in perfectly in the comicbook hero genre so popular today.
I still have vivid memories of this show. I loved it as a little kid.
Manimal had the coolest “transformation” music. I remember an episode where he had to fight some guy using martial arts and he had to use “animal style” Kung Fu. I either dreamed that or it was so ridiculous, it left an indelible mark on my young impressionable mind.
I used to tense my hands into 'panther paws' when I was a kid, but I forgot where I got that from: it was the Manimal Intro Titles!
I grew up in France and this show is still talked about today. Very entertaining at the time.
I loved this as a kid when it came out, I used to watch it with my best friend, and play act the changes the next day in the playground. I remember how gutted we were when it transpired there was to be no second season. It would have been lovely to see a fan review of it, rather than watching these guys sniggering over it. Kids see straight through to what's cool. The rest doesn't matter, any fan knows that, and as kids we didn't care. The transformations were amazing, both to watch and then to imagine you could also have this power to become an animal.
Manimal: a proto Animorphs, also Teen Titans Beast Boy.
The whole show was a set up to the girl picking up a snake thinking it's him and then he walks into the room. MY dad was telling everyone about that bit for ages!
That sequence was even in the titles.
One of my favorite shows. It came on right after another great show I liked, "Knight Rider!" Awesome 2hr block!
I was 8 years old when this aired on a friday night. It was bizzare but I was definitly intrigued by the unique TV show. Cool stuff!
My hope for the fall: Dynamite and IDW entertainmenta get into a bidding war for Manimal and Automan rights to bring into their respective universes. True, Manimal probably fits better with Project Superpowers and Automan with IDW's Transformers/Micronauts/Rom etc., but I really want a team-up between the two.
Yeeeah...I don't think IDW is in a position to get into a bidding war for a roll of paper towels right now.
Glan Larson was one of those producers that, when he succeed, he hit big, and when he failed, it left a crater.
Yeah, but either way you knew you were in for a ride.
Loved MANIMAL. Today we have Beast Boy as a part for the Teen Titans. A character I like just as much. Love your channel!
I have fond memories of watching this show on U.K television as a young child, without actually remembering much about it.
My eldest brother's nickname on the Varsity football team was "The Manimal!" He was a mild mannered nerd, glasses and all, until game time when he unleashed the beast.
5:38 “Detective Brooke McKenzie was played by Melanie ANDERSON... “ What an overdub! Was that from a Speak&Spell?? 🤣🤣🤣
Either way it was hilarious.
ahh... I loved me Speak-n-Spell,
once upon a time... But, where
did it go?
OMG i remeebr this as an 8 yr old kid back in 83...holy moly..totally have forgotten about this..
I can't remember what happened in this show but i have a very clear memory of being a child and LOVING the idea of the show and the loving the transformation scenes.
He fights crime and that very act makes it a hit for me
11-year-old me LOVED it... Now? I just like saying "Manimal Annual" a lot. Manimal Annual! Manimal Annual! Manimal Annual! Mammimal Ammulul! MahMahMahMahMah!
Please tell me the NightMan spin-off would have been "Womanimal".
I vaguely remember that episode and I was kinda hyped for that possibilty.
That or The Strangers. It's a comic based a group of people who were on the same trolly and they become super heroes
i dated her... wasnt worth watching...more of a horror show than tv sequel
I was 5 when Manimal came out, so this was a super awesome show as I remember it, but hey, when you're 5 everything is more awesome than it really is..
One of my favorite shows when I was a kid.. I bought the boxset back in 2017 soon as it came out and I am not disappointed
I remembered this show, about as well as I remembered the late-70s misstep "Supertrain." I mean, at least Supertrain got one more episode aired than "Manimal" did?
Watched Manimal, but no memories of Supertrain at all.
I always preferred the movie “The Big Bus” over Supertrain . . .
To me as a child, Supertrain was just the cooler counterpart of Love Boat
I loved night man . His car was dripping
He was one of my better liked Ultraverse characters (Prime and Firearm were my favorites though), but I never caught the show.
Yes! The Plymouth prowler! Someone in my neighborhood had one and it really did look like a batmobile the first time i saw it
His car was dope, tho
A cool n' interesting concept, overall execution could've been better but nonetheless it strangely had a fascinating and intriguing atmosphere to it. RIP, Simon 'Manimal' MacCorkindale
I’ve been waiting for this! Thank you!
Simon was also known to swin with sharks in Jaws 3-D
I remember this show, lol. As a kid I thought it was pretty cool. I never knew it only ran for 8 episodes though. Also didn't know he crossed over on the Night Man series, which I also liked. We seriously need a Glenn A. Larson shared universe project. I'm down for whatever form in comes in, movie, cartoon, comic, etc.
...small town play house... tour.
Until now I thought I missed the episodes after eight. Thank you for finally clearing up my childhood disappointment.
I first saw this premiered on British TV as a kid . The trailer blew me away. I was pleading to my mom to watch it as my dad wanted to watch some wildlife program on another Chanel. My dad eventually gave in and agreed to watch it with me because my mom had convinced him that manimal was a wildlife show. When the first metamorphosis begins to a black panther my dad shouted " FUCKING Hell what is this shit". Lol
I can just picture him as a silver age dc character , those transformation scenes are something but Deceat
Not too dissimilar from Beast Boy in a way.
Actually, there WAS a Manimal comic...although it was darker than the show.
There was Animal Man: en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_Man
MANIMAL!!! I KNEW it was coming!!
I’m not ashamed to say Manimal was my favourite show as a kid for a while too! I still love the show now too. If I find the DVD set on sale anywhere I’m buying it!!
This is exactly the content I hoped my Patreon dollars would go towards. Thank you Toy Galaxy!!!
Thanks you for your videos . I work with kids . They get non of my references
Honestly I did not expect "Manimal" had a toyline ^^' I saw a few episodes of the series when I was searching for some "superhero-related" shows, but I kinda concur with the notion that only God knows how this get beyond pilot stage ^^'
Maybe if they threw in a supervillain in there? Nightman at least had those... than again - so did "Black Scorpion" and it didn't seem to help her much ^^'
Never knew about the night man episode. Another great Toy Galaxy video! Thanks Dan.
Honestly liked Manimal a lot, and I happy to see it playing in Italy when I visited in 86 along with some fantasy series that I can't seem to recall the name of.
I remember this show; I can't believe that it only lasted eight episodes.
Same here 🥺 it is on DVD 😊
Did you ever watch it ? Lol I am shocked it lasted that long on air .
Did that commercial just imply that the professor transformed into a shark and ate JR Ewing? Is that cannibalism?
How? Was JR secretly a land shark?
@@russellharrell2747 plot twist, JR Ewing was the candygram delivering landshark.
@@russellharrell2747 well if he turns into a shark and then back into a man, but still has texan in his stomach being digested does that make him a cannibal?
TheBd62 hmmmm. Was Manimal from Texas too? Anyway I’m not sure if he counts as fully human anymore, he’s more like a monster. I’ll count it as cannibal manimal though.
He should probably spit out anything he eats while being an animal before turning back because even grazing as a horse wouldn’t be a good idea if his human stomach has to do the digestion. Could he partially turn his internal organs or just parts of his body like the toys? I guess we’ll never know
"Mannibal".
The film 'The Howling' (1981) was another major influence on this show. I'll never forget the news reporter's transformation!
Man + animal *BOOM* Manimal. Also the car thief from Knight rider being his partner? Perfect casting!
I still have my originally bought Manimal annual 😄
Manimannual
Loved Manimal. And Automan btw. Would love to see the treatment for Man from Atlantis and Misfits of Science. I’m old. Shut upz
Love misfits of science and I salute you.
Manimal was actually really popular in my country, in France, it was brodcasted again and again quite a few times.
Manimal Annual. My favorite Marilyn Manson album.
You said "glen Larsen, and co'" and I swear you were going to say "caine" and not "producer"
The show was not the most popular show ever in France but it had a couple of re-runs on French television. A DVD set was even made and sold in 2012 in France.
I JUST loved saying "I'm watching MANIMAL tonight." I was 11 yrs old. 🤣😂🤣🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂😅😆😊🤗😋😍😁
Why was Melanie "Anderson" read in a robot voice?
Unsure, but I had my face pretty close to my phone at that point and sh*t myself.
*Melody
TIL that apparently Scott Bakula wasn't the first choice to play Jonathan Archer, which blows my freaking mind. Dude was perfect for the role!
I was 9 when Manimal was aired and I loved it. I was in total shock it got cancelled! I thought it was genius!
Ok, here we go. I'm in Puerto Rico, here they showed it in spanish and was an awesome show. My favorite. It was a great idea. To me, was at the same level as The A-Team, Knight Rider, Blue Thunder, Air Wolf and so on. Loved it
The comments are like lichens and moss. But faster.
I feel like this channel is slowly turning towards talking about old shows that just happened to have toys and I'm here for it!
We're just picking subjects we think we can have fun with. The next episode is almost only toys and the one after that has absolutely no toys.
I remember watching this damn thing when i was 9 or 10. I'm confident it still holds up just fine...
I rarely post comments on TH-cam, but I subscribed to your channel very recently after I saw you episode on Automan, in the hope that you would release one for Manimal. Back in France, when I was 5 or 6, I use to enjoy those shows and always thought they had more episodes, until I released (thanks to the Internet) that I might have watch them more than once each, since they were canceled very early. I guess them failing in the US, made them cheap TV shows to purchase afterward. Still, I have fond memories of those 2 shows, I really enjoyed your episode. Yes it was "different", but at least, they tried, and like you said, the early 80s were a lot of trials and errors, but what a time it was, to be a kid. :)
Thanks again for the show, keep it up... I'll go have a look at Too, now.
Cheers!
My 7y/o self really enjoyed Manimal and im pleased to see i wasnt the only one. I refuse to watch it again. I dont want to ruin my memories :)