I did watch some episodes out of curiosity, because being from the UK, only the first season was ever shown here on television in the 1980s. So I’ve not watched much of the cartoon. I’m… Not a fan, honestly. Saw one episode that had a funny line about “dinosaur electrons” and Trypticon stealing famous buildings, but then had some amazingly stereotypical xenophobic about Middle Eastern countries. Which I honestly couldn’t tell was played for deliberate laughs or not. Animation was pretty sloppy, and I could barely hear the dialogue over the booming, repetitive background music. Fair play to the voice actors and director for giving each character fairly distinctive voices, though. I don’t think there’s much here if you don’t already have a nostalgic attachment to the cartoon.
The whole "Carbomiya" tangent was due to the Libiyan (and perhaps IRA) terrorist attacks. However, they were so offensive that Casey Casen left the show in protest, as he was a practising Muslim at the time.I did watch some episodes out of curiosity, because being from the UK, only the first season was ever shown here on television in the 1980s. So I’ve not watched much of the cartoon. I’m… Not a fan, honestly. Saw one episode that had a funny line about “dinosaur electrons” and Trypticon stealing famous buildings, but then had some amazingly stereotypical xenophobic about Middle Eastern countries. Which I honestly couldn’t tell was played for deliberate laughs or not. Animation was pretty sloppy, and I could barely hear the dialogue over the booming, repetitive background music. Fair play to the voice actors and director for giving each character fairly distinctive voices, though. I don’t think there’s much here if you don’t already have a nostalgic attachment to the cartoon.
The whole "Carbomiya" tangent was due to the Libiyan (and perhaps IRA) terrorist attacks. However, they were so offensive that Casey Casen left the show in protest, as he was a practising Muslim at the time.
Source citation: This article written by Kasem.Mr. Kasem left the original Transformers cartoon during production of the third season episode "Thief in the Night" because of its depiction of the highly stereotypical Abdul Fakkadi as dictator of made-up Arab state Carbombya.[1] Kasem's family is Lebanese Druze. Kasem had elaborated that it wasn't that he minded Arabs being portrayed as villains per se; it's just when the villains are the only Arab characters in a story and there are no positive counter-examples that he felt offended. He supposedly didn't have a problem with "Aerial Assault" due to both sides being portrayed.
That's an urban legend I think. I seem to recall Dan Gilvezan or someone else being asked about that and said as far as they knew that never happened nor was it why he left.
"The portrayal of Abdul Fakkadi as the stereotypical "evil Arab" prompted voice actor Casey Kasem, who himself was of Lebanese descent, to quit the Transformers series."
"Mr. Kasem left the original Transformers cartoon during production of the third season episode "Thief in the Night" because of its depiction of the highly stereotypical Abdul Fakkadi as dictator of made-up Arab state Carbombya.
Kasem's family is Lebanese Druze. Kasem had elaborated that it wasn't that he minded Arabs being portrayed as villains per se; it's just when the villains are the only Arab characters in a story and there are no positive counter-examples that he felt offended. He supposedly didn't have a problem with "Aerial Assault" due to both sides being portrayed. Kasem's departure led to all of his characters being retired as opposed to recast..."
"...Kasem dedicated himself to improving Arab-Jewish relations, and wrote a brochure for the Arab-American Institute called “Arab-Americans: Making a Difference.” Because of this, there was one cartoon role he declined: that of the evil Abdul, King of Carbombya in a "Transformers" cartoon.
“I asked the director, ‘Are there any good Arabs in this script for balance?’” Kasem, the son of Lebanese immigrants, wrote in 1990. “We looked. There was one other — but he was no different than Abdul. So, I told the show’s director that, in good conscience, I couldn't be a part of that show.” Kasem left during the third season of "Transformers".
No problem.I see. Thanks for the clarification
I did watch some episodes out of curiosity, because being from the UK, only the first season was ever shown here on television in the 1980s. So I’ve not watched much of the cartoon. I’m… Not a fan, honestly. Saw one episode that had a funny line about “dinosaur electrons” and Trypticon stealing famous buildings, but then had some amazingly stereotypical xenophobic about Middle Eastern countries. Which I honestly couldn’t tell was played for deliberate laughs or not. Animation was pretty sloppy, and I could barely hear the dialogue over the booming, repetitive background music. Fair play to the voice actors and director for giving each character fairly distinctive voices, though. I don’t think there’s much here if you don’t already have a nostalgic attachment to the cartoon.
Carbombya is why Casey Kasem stopped lending his talents to the show. He is 1/2 middle eastern and didn’t like the shot being taken at his people.'Carbombya Capital City
4000 people
10000 camels'
Cheeky but this is a cartoon aimed at children, it may fly over their heads or they may take it at face value.
Aerial assault featured a Arab prince ousted by a gang of criminals, he was reasonably shown to be kind and helpful and very useful but the gang was an awful caricature.
Well-said. I think, by today's standards, this wouldn't fly in a children's cartoon. The excuse of "going over kids' heads" isn't really an excuse at all. If it was, all manner of overt, adult/NSFW content could be included, as children could be thought to be unable to "get it". Content aimed at children has to be "suitable for all", which includes adults, and "Carbomya" ("Car-bomb-ya") can easily be seen as potentially offensive to various groups of adults who might be watching (such as parents with children, adult fans of the show, or adult members of the show's cast).Carbombya is why Casey Kasem stopped lending his talents to the show. He is 1/2 middle eastern and didn’t like the shot being taken at his people.
Well-said. I think, by today's standards, this wouldn't fly in a children's cartoon. The excuse of "going over kids' heads" isn't really an excuse at all. If it was, all manner of overt, adult/NSFW content could be included, as children could be thought to be unable to "get it". Content aimed at children has to be "suitable for all", which includes adults, and "Carbomya" ("Car-bomb-ya") can easily be seen as potentially offensive to various groups of adults who might be watching (such as parents with children, adult fans of the show, or adult members of the show's cast).
Adult jokes, yes, but the point here is that the "adult joke" was considered offensive, by an adult. Personally, as an adult, I found the reference to be rather overt, at the least, regardless of how offensive it was, or was not.???
There's a long history of slipping adult-oriented jokes into children's cartoons. The DCAU practically made an artform of it.
Sure, there's overt rules against some of that stuff, but showrunners tend to be pretty canny at skirting the rules.
There is adult joke like putting in some innuendos and then there is insulting a race. It would be like today coming out as anti-gay. You get destroyed in reviews. Back in the 80’s the internet wasn’t around to let people voice their opinions though like now or I bet they would have gotten more heat for it.
Ah, that’s actually incorrect information on Wikipedia, as one of the other channels on the Sky service at the time broadcast Transformers rather than Sky One. But that’s Wikipedia, unfortunately.I remember that they only had part of series 1 and possibly part of series 2? They showed it on Wide Awake Club and Wakaday.
Here's the release info for the UK (although it's not clear which episodes/seasons were available in the UK, I would guess that Sky had all of the eps by the time they showed them, but as we didn't have Sky, I wouldn't know).
View attachment 649
(Source: - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Transformers_(TV_series)
However, I bought the Rhino boxed set in the UK. It was an easy way to catch up on all of the original episodes.