(VIDEO) The Young Astronauts: full episode dialogue and series narrator auditions

With thanks to yanchagraffiti, the Sunbow Marvel Archive presents audio from Marvel Productions ill-fated series The Young Astronauts.

First is the full episode dialogue from MP 800-04 Ghost Ship.  Main session recorded 10th October 1985.  Pickup audio for Rick and Wendy Hampton recorded 3rd December 1985

(Thanks to Townsend Coleman for cast info)

Cast:
Commander Hampton: ?
Rick Hampton: Townsend Coleman
Wendy Hampton: Nancy Cartwright
Mikey Hampton: Stephen Dorff
Retro: ?
Mr. Flynn: Charlie Adler
Sam Turrell: James Avery
The Starseeker: ?

(If anyone can help with identifying the remaining voice cast, please get in touch)

Video runtime: 21:22

Next are the auditions for series narrator, with takes from the following actors:

Peter Cullen
Irv Immerman
Larry Marshall (3 takes)
Ed Gilbert
Aron Kincaid
Ron Gans
Bill Ratner
Norman Alden
Chris Stevens
Danny Dark
Gene Moss
Jack Angel
Bernard Erhardt
John Stevenson (2 takes)
Ron Feinberg
Joe Leahy

Video runtime: 13:38

Page index

Marvel Superheroes - 1981-1989. Spider-Man And His Amazing Friends, The Incredible Hulk, Pryde Of The X-Men

Dungeons & Dragons - 1983-1985

G.I Joe: A Real American Hero, Part 1 - 1983-1985  

G.I Joe: A Real American Hero, Part 2 - 1986-1992.  

The Transformers, Part 1 - 1984-1985

The Transformers: The Movie

The Transformers, Part 2 - 1986-1990

The Marvel Muppet Connection - 1984-1991.  Muppet Babies, Little Muppet Monsters, Fraggle Rock

My Little Pony N' Friends - 1984-1986.  My Little Pony, Potato Head Kids, The Glo Friends, Moondreamers.

Sunbow Syndication - 1985-1987.  Robotix, Bigfoot And The Muscle Machines, Inhumanoids, Visionaries, Air Raiders.

Jem - 1985-1988

Defenders Of The Earth - 1985-1986

Marvel's New World - 1988-1996.  Robocop, Rude Dog And The Dweebs, Little Shop, Time Challengers, Siegfried And Roy, Biker Mice From Mars

Sunbow Round Two - 1991-1996.  Bucky O'Hare, Conan The Adventurer, Conan And The Young Warriors, The Tick

Unproduced projects

Commercials

Toyfair Catalogues

Storyboard viewing gallery

Briefing/reference binder galleries

Other companies

The Young Astronauts: more information

Thanks to dialogue audio reels being sold on ebay, there is now more information on Marvel Productions ill-fated 1985/86 animated series The Young Astronauts.

First up is a full show reel for episode MP 800-04 Ghost Ship, recorded during November 1985 and re-recorded with revised dialogue the following month. The reel confirms Townsend Coleman and Nancy Cartwright among the main voice cast.

The next reel contains auditions for the series narrator.  Recorded at Wally Burr Studios, the actors confirmed to have read for the role are

• Peter Cullen
• Erv Immerman
• Larry Marshall
• Ed Gilbert
• Aron Kincaid
• Ron Gans
• Bill Ratner
• Norm Alden
• Chris Stevens
• Danny Dark

If any more reels that can shed light on this series become available, they will be showcased here.

Transformers: storyboards, unused premises, briefing material and more

Added to the Archive this month is a plethora of Transformers material, with storyboards from the following:

• Unproduced pilot miniseries/Season 1 intro sequence 
• More Than Meets The Eye, Part 2
• More Than Meets The Eye, Part 3 
• Transport To Oblivion 
• Roll For It
• The Ultimate Doom, Part 3
• Countdown To Extinction
• Unproduced Season 2 intro sequence
• Unproduced commercial bumper
• Autobot Spike
• The Immobilizer

Additionally, a quartet of story premises, written by storyboard artist Wendell Washer during early Season 2, have also become available.  Along with the early version of the 1985 New Product briefing he was given for reference.

All of these can be viewed at The Transformers, Part 1

Below is an animatic edited by me of the unproduced season 2 intro sequence:

Other companies page

I have re-opened the page dedicated to production material from show created by companies other than Sunbow or Marvel during the '80s and '90s.  Showcasing items from shows such as Ruby-Spears Mister T cartoon and an early outline for the Challenge of the Gobots movie: Starquest.  

One major addition since the last time this page was featured on the Archive are 41 scripts from Filmation's She-Ra: Princess Of Power.  Uploaded to the Internet Archive from the old BCI Eclipse DVD set, including all 28 scripts from Season 2 and featuring works by Bob Forward, Larry DiTillio and J. Michael Strasczynski.

View them all at Other Companies

The Flint Dille Collection: Bigfoot And The Muscle Machines

Some more material originating from Flint Dille's storage has been granted release.

After Ron Friedman's two attempts to create an outline for the Super Sunday anthology show Bigfoot And The Muscle Machines, Flint was tasked to take over the project.

The Archive is pleased to add Griffin-Bacal's briefing binder detailing Playskool's toyline, started in 1983 and inherited by Hasbro in 1984. For the series itself, Flint's full outline and two versions of the first episode script Cryptic Cargo.

Additionally, the Archive has added a Super Sunday press release which gives an insight into the early development of Robotix.  As well as brief synopsis for show ideas "Starlite" and "Stoney"

Both versions, along with auditions sheets read by Susan Blu and the full character lineup, are available at: Sunbow Syndication 1985-1987

Transformers The Movie: Ron Friedman's first script

In 2010, screenwriter Ron Friedman consigned many scripts and reference material from his days writing for Sunbow Productions in the mid-80s, to be sold by Heritage Auctions.  A group effort by fans, coordinated by Jim Sorenson, saw 31 Transformers TV scripts, briefing binders and the second script for The Transformers The Movie bought up, scanned and made available online.

One item that eluded this endeavour was Friedman's first script for the Movie.  Completed in February 1985 and rejected by Griffin-Bacal, who supplied a new outline for Friedman to make a second attempt, before Flint Dille was called in to make heavy re-writes as production commenced.

In Autumn 2020, former Sunbow producer Flint Dille was in the process of clearing out his storage, finding many items from his decades-long writing career.  One such item displayed online on October 9th was a second copy of that first Movie script.  Most likely in Flint's possession as reference for his and Creative Director Jay Bacal's own unsuccessful attempt at writing a Transformers movie: The Secret Of Cybertron.

The following month, Jim Sorenson flew out to LA in order to scan as many of Flint's written works from his Sunbow days before they were auctioned off.  On November 2nd, he scanned this script and sent the digital files to me for merging and OCR.

The script was used as the basis for a panel presentation at TFNation 2022, hosted by Jim Sorenson and Chris McFeely, that summarised the plot and featured fanart intepretations from a quartet of artists.

Now, fourteen years since it was first seen, nearly three years since a second chance emerged and a full year since the story was revealed to the world, the Sunbow Marvel Archive is proud to present the very first script for The Transformers The Movie (link to Movie page)