Description
He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (often referred to simply as He-Man) is an American animated television series produced by Filmation based on Mattel’s toy line Masters of the Universe. The show was one of the most popular animated shows of the 1980s.
It made its television debut in September 1983 and ran until 1985, consisting of two seasons of 65 episodes each. Towards the end of the show’s original run, it spawned one feature length theatrical movie He-Man and She-Ra: The Secret of the Sword, which served as the introduction for the show’s spinoff literal sister series She-Ra: Princess of Power. There was also a primetime Christmas special, “He-Man and She-Ra: A Christmas Special”, which served as an extension of both the He-Man show and the She-ra show, and which featured cast and major locales from both shows. Both the He-Man/She-ra movie and the Christmas special were Filmation productions, set in the same continuity as the original He-Man cartoon, and with the same production cast and crew. Reruns continued to air in syndication until 1988, at which point USA Network bought the rights to the series. USA aired He-Man until September 1990. The success of the toy based show in syndication greatly influenced other animation houses to produce half hour “cartoon commercials”, and considerably changed the syndicated cartoon market.
