Wendy, Marvin & Wonderdog!

[Brainiac44]

These three have some sort of magnetic pull on me...  LOL!
I collect a lot of Superman stuff like most of you guys.  I only spend good money on the Superman statues and figs, ect...  If I went on to other characters outside the Superman family, I'd have to sell some of my organs...  Wendy, Marvin & Wonderdog are the only exceptions for whom I'd open the circle a little.
How do you guys feel about these characters?

[nightwing]

There are those characters you love as a kid but are embarassed by when you get older.

Then there are those you dismiss as "goofy" in your youth, then decide later in life that they were kind of cool.

Wendy, Marvin and Wonder Dog don't fit into either category.  :-) They were a dumb idea, probably from some "suits" at HB who felt kids couldn't relate to superheroes without some youngsters and animals added to the mix.  This is the same kind of brilliant thinking that gave us Tiny Toons, Scrappy Doo, kid versions of Fred and Barney and of course, Plastic Man's baby.

Moral of the story? No matter how juvenile a concept is in its original form, the networks can always find a way to dumb it down even further on the assumption that kids are idiots.

Well, okay so maybe Wendy was a little cute in a Joyce DeWitt kind of way.

[Just a fan]

Exactly who were Wendy, Marvin, and Wonder Dog? what was thier connection to the Superfriends anyways, and what happened to them?  Same thing for the Wonder Twins, where did the come from, who did the live with? was any of this ever covered?

[Super Monkey]

Exactly who were Wendy, Marvin, and Wonder Dog? what was thier connection to the Superfriends anyways, and what happened to them?  Same thing for the Wonder Twins, where did the come from, who did the live with? was any of this ever covered?

It sure was and you can read it in this book :



http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1563897164/qid=1084824009/sr=1-7/ref=sr_1_7__i7_xgl14/104-0822261-5291915?v=glance&s=books

[Gernot]

There are those characters you love as a kid but are embarassed by when you get older.

Then there are those you dismiss as "goofy" in your youth, then decide later in life that they were kind of cool.

Wendy, Marvin and Wonder Dog don't fit into either category.  :-) They were a dumb idea, probably from some "suits" at HB who felt kids couldn't relate to superheroes without some youngsters and animals added to the mix.  This is the same kind of brilliant thinking that gave us Tiny Toons, Scrappy Doo, kid versions of Fred and Barney and of course, Plastic Man's baby.

Moral of the story? No matter how juvenile a concept is in its original form, the networks can always find a way to dumb it down even further on the assumption that kids are idiots.

Well, okay so maybe Wendy was a little cute in a Joyce DeWitt kind of way.

Don't forget about Popeye & Son!  

Talk about a cartoon making you want to cry!  LOL

[nightwing]

Lots of shows were ruined like this.  I remember liking the old Plastic Man cartoon...it wasn't great, but it was kind of fun.  Then in the second season, some suit decided it needed more "kid appeal" and revealed that during the summer haitus, Plas had married the dimwit girl who had a crush on him in season one (and whom he'd never shown much interest in) and they'd had a "Plastic Baby" together. (!!!!!!!)  

Aside from the fact that they had to change Plas' character and the format of the show completely to fit in this annoying tyke (and had dredged up unwelcome mental images of what sex with Plastic Man might involve!), the whole concept was nuts: are we to believe a man with the ability to take any shape didn't appeal enough to kids?  They had to add a baby?  I guarantee in any group of 5-8 year olds you'll find at least 5 out of 10 boys who might think it'd be cool to stretch or bounce, but what grade school kid ever had the slightest interest in babies?  Kids want to see characters they can aspire to being like...who wants to revert to infancy?

The list goes on...after years of charming kids, suddenly Scooby Doo isn't cute enough and needs a puppy nephew???  Popeye and Goofy each get "cool" pre-teen sons?  I blame it all on Donald Duck, who started the ball rolling with those insufferable "nephews" of his (yeah right, nephews...like we don't know the truth about Donald and Daisy!).  And of course Pebbles and Bam-Bam...one day you've got a cool "Honeymooners" homage cartoon, the next it's all about babies.  And before you know it, there's a midget imp from another dimension.

[Gernot]

Well, the IDEA is good, but the examples you cited carries it too far to the extreme.  For example, how many of us liked Robin, The Boy Wonder, Bucky, Speedy, Toro, Kid Flash, Aqualad, Captain Marvel, Jr., Supergirl, Wonder Girl, Tula, Mary Marvel, Batgirl, and many others?  They were all (arguably) sidekicks to the main hero(es).  

Also, I think in your first post in this thread, that you meant Baby Looney Tunes, not Tiny Toons!  

Tiny Toons was a funny show;  Baby Looney Tunes was not!  

[Shazam!]

Well, the IDEA is good, but the examples you cited carries it too far to the extreme.  For example, how many of us liked Robin, The Boy Wonder, Bucky, Speedy, Toro, Kid Flash, Aqualad, Captain Marvel, Jr., Supergirl, Wonder Girl, Tula, Mary Marvel, Batgirl, and many others?  They were all (arguably) sidekicks to the main hero(es).  

Also, I think in your first post in this thread, that you meant Baby Looney Tunes, not Tiny Toons!  

Tiny Toons was a funny show;  Baby Looney Tunes was not!  

Hey! I'm partial to that!   I like Mary Marvel and Captain Marvel JR!
They're my family!

Tiny Toons and Power Rangers served to make me crazy. Now Wendy, she must have consulted with Daphne and Velma for that "Fashion Sense"