Ron Friedman 1932-2025

Variety has reported that TV and film writer Ron Friedman has passed away at the age of 93.

In late 1982, Sunbow Productions hired Ron to write the first G.I Joe animated five-part miniseries, the resounding success of which led to: 

• The writing of three more miniseries on G.I Joe: The Revenge of Cobra, The Pyramid of Darkness and the teleplays for Arise, Serpentor, Arise! 
• Acting as an interim dialogue editor on Transformers, beginning with Roll For It and ending with Make Tracks.
• Development and writing outlines for the initial fifteen-segment version of Bigfoot and the Muscle Machines
• Co-development (with Doug Booth) and the writing of an ultimately unproduced three-part miniseries for Air Raiders.
• Writing of two versions of the script for The Transformers: The Movie
• Writing the initial outlines for G.I.Joe The Movie

The Sunbow Marvel Archive sends condolences to his family and friends.

The Transformers: Transport To Oblivion storyboards, assorted models and backgrounds

With thanks to Matt Schantz and Ryan King, the Archive now hosts partial storyboards for The Transformers episode Transport to Oblivion, covering the aftermath of the Autobots fight to stop the Decepticons raiding a solar power station for energy, up until the reprogrammed Bumblebee returns to Autobot HQ to lead his comrades into Megatron's trap.

Additionally, the Season 1 background layouts book has been edited to add and replace certain pages with better scans. Model sheets of Skyfire, redesigned due to the legal issues stemming from Bandai's acquisition of the toy mold licensed to Hasbro as Jetfire, have been added to the Fire In The Sky model pack.  Finally, more models of the 1984 cast, as they were submitted to Sunbow for approval during the production of the pilot miniseries, have been consolidated with those models previously in possession of Wendell Washer.

To view these items, head to The Transformers, Part 1

Air Raiders press pack

The following is a press pack Sunbow Productions sent out in 1987, trying to sell Hasbro's latest toyline Air Raiders as a weekly series.  The cartoon concept had been co-developed by Doug Booth and Ron Friedman, with the latter writing a three-part pilot miniseries in January 1987.

However, due to low initial retail orders of $30 million at New York Toyfair that year, all plans for an Air Raiders show were scrapped and the toyline cancelled by the end of the year.

Super Sunday press pack: Robotix and early show ideas

In early 1985, Sunbow Productions sent the following press pack out to syndicators, selling the Super Sunday anthology concept before the shows that would make up the half-hour series were finalised.

Detailed below is an early backstory for Robotix, unrealized show ideas Starlite and Stoney, as well as notes on the show's format and sample ratings for Transformers on weekends in 1984.

The Transformers: weekday series press pack

Fresh off the success of The Transformers' first season on weekends in 1984, here is Sunbow Productions press pack to promote the series going to full weekday syndication in 1985.

My Little Pony: Rescue At Midnight Castle press pack

Featured below are the folder and pages for Sunbow Productions' press pack, promoting the first My Little Pony half-hour special (retroactively known as Rescue At Midnight Castle) to syndicators in early 1984.

In addition to promotion of celebrity guest voices Tony Randall and Sandy Duncan, the pack also contains a synopsis for the story that is somewhat gentler that the actual content of the special.