If your looking for some brain-dead cartoon to make you stop and ponder of why all things could have been only conceived from the depths of hell itself which are inane,insipid,and most of all insanely irritating but incredibly stupid beyond a reasonable doubt. To make all assumptions to that and then some of why there were of lot of repulsive blatant animated shows that came out of the 1980's,then the short-lived Saturday Morning series "The Gary Coleman Show" was one of them. This was a prime example of the very worst Hanna-Barbera had to offer. And it is right up there with some of the worst animated shows that came out of the 1980's that were produced by Hanna-Barbera like "Fonzie and the Happy Days Gang", "Scooby and Scrappy Doo",and not to even mention "The Flintstone Mysteries" or "The Flintstones meet the Shmoo"(WTF???) to name a few.
Gary Coleman at the time this show premiered as part of NBC's Saturday Morning schedule for the 1982-1983 season,was still at the peak of his fame with audiences in prime time as Arnold Jackson on the hit nighttime live-action sitcom "Diff'rent Strokes"(which starred Conrad Bain,Dana Plato,and Todd Bridges),which was one of NBC's biggest hits and was at the time still up in the top ten of the Nielsens. Seeking to capitalize on the Gary Coleman's overwhelming popularity, NBC comissioned his own Saturday Morning cartoon show starring the adorable lad. The animated version of Gary Coleman's show was based on the made for TV-movie "The Kid With The Broken Halo",which premiered as a live-action special for broadcast during a presentation of for the NBC Movie Of The Week that premiered in prime-time on April 5,1982. The movie also starred Robert Guillaume(of TV's Benson)along with June Allyson, Mason Adams,and Ray Walston(of TV's My Favorite Martian and also from the 80's movie Fast Times At Ridgemont High). The movie featured Coleman as an apprentice angel trying to earn his wings. The animated version was the same way,but with a twist. Coleman reprises his role as Andy LeBeau,who is an angel in training who is in charge of protecting a group of brainless kids in a generic city.
Naturally,he is no good at it. Fortunately for him,the only opposition he faces is in form of a devil-type character named Hornswaggle(who was sent by the competition)who obviously is crossed with the animated version of Dastardly(from Wacky Races)who in my opinion was one of the dumbest villains ever!!!! In just about every episode of this animated infantile mess,the imbecile Hornswaggle would always try to stop Andy from doing good deeds. And in just about every episode,the situations where Andy gets himself into trouble with just saving some of the stupid kids who in any case can't even defend for themselves in a crisis(including one episode where they come across a wolverine!!!) This show was totally lame with Gary Coleman(at the time this came out was heading toward the lowest point of his dubious career)doing voicework for his character based from the TV show. As for the show itself,it was lame and utterly boring. The animated Andy LeBeau was not as endearing as the real-life Coleman,and after 14 episodes,gained premature admittance into cartoon heaven. The show that replaced it? Mister T. the following season.
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