The first season of G. I. Joe consisted of 55 new episodes, plus reruns of the two earlier 5-part miniseries, for a total of 65 episodes. In the second season there were 30 additional shows, followed by a direct-to-video Movie (aired on TV in five parts). All together, there were 100 Sunbow cartoon episodes (5 + 5 + 55 + 30 + 5), along with five different opening sequences.
For the purposes of this analysis, the first two miniseries will be counted as part of the first season, and the Movie will be added into the second season.
While the comic focused on military intrigue, the cartoons took a high-tech approach to the series. This was in part necessary because censors preferred laser weapons to bullets. Fully sixty percent of each seasons' episodes had a significant science-fiction angle (40 for season 1, 23 for season 2). Nearly a third of the remaining shows dealt with the paranormal, from ghosts and ESP to apemen and UFOs. For those who like their animation more down-to-earth, here are the most "realistic" episodes:
| Countdown for Zartan | The Funhouse | The Million Dollar Medic |
| Cobra Stops the World | Where the Reptiles Roam | The Rotten Egg |
| Battle for the Train of Gold | The Traitor I-II | The Spy Who Rooked Me |
| Lights! Camera! Cobra! | An Eye for an Eye | My Brother's Keeper |
| Cobra's Candidate | Hearts and Cannons | Raise the Flagg |
| Red Rockets Glare | The Wrong Stuff | The Most Dangerous Thing in the World |
| Twenty Questions | The Great Alaskan Land Rush | Ninja Holiday |
| The Viper Is Coming | Let's Play Soldier | Not a Ghost of a Chance |
| Cobrathon |
Many of the shows were character-driven and fleshed out one or two individuals. This was more the case in the second season than the first, but season 1 had special episodes devoted to characters such as Ace, Barbecue, Dusty, Lady Jaye, Roadblock, Shipwreck, and Wild Bill. It was the strength of these and other personalities that drew me and many other collectors into the G. I. Joe phenomenon. The skill of the creators is evident in that often there was no specific line or scene that stood out, but the character's whole demeanor and how everything about that Joe or Cobra fit together into an interesting package. Even some of the "lesser lights" managed to establish themselves in their few scenes.
In the first season, the Joe team had 44 figure-based members and 4 animal sidekicks, along with cartoon-exclusive characters (detailed here). This number includes all the individuals released through 1985, with the exceptions of Colonel Hawk, Crankcase, and Keel-Haul. Those 48, plus Crankcase and the non-figure Sparks, are the "roughly fifty" active Joes mentioned in Worlds Without End I. Colonel Sharp and Admiral Ledger are also considered Joes by many viewers but are not officially part of the team. The second season saw the introduction of 15 more (counting Crankcase), with 9 others appearing only in the Movie.
As for Cobra, there were 15 individual Cobras in the first season, plus 10 figure-based troop types. (AVACs appeared early, and Stinger Drivers did not appear at all.) The second season gave us 6 more individuals and 4 more kinds of soldiers, not counting cartoon exclusives or the Cobra-La team of the Movie.
For both Joes and Cobras, the creators evidently tried to spotlight the newer characters while still giving decent attention to the older ones, especially in the first season. Neglected, however, are most Joes from 1982, who received most of their screen time in the two miniseries that preceded the regular run of the show. In addition, about half the vehicle drivers (underlined in the chart below) got the short end of the stick when it came to speaking roles. But it is remarkable that even the less-featured characters had distinct personalities and gained the affection of fans through their occasional appearances. In the following table, characters are grouped by the year their first figures were released and the total number of lines they spoke in the cartoon series. The number of 22-minute episodes in which each character appeared is in parentheses. (See figure entries in the Guide for specific line counts and episode titles.)
| Total # Lines, All Seasons | 1982 | 1983 | 1984 | 1985 | 1986 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 200+ | Cobra Commander (80) Scarlett (54) | Duke (60) Destro (66) Gung-Ho (60) | Baroness (46) Zartan (45) Roadblock (58) | Lady Jaye (65) Flint (62) Shipwreck (50) Tomax and Xamot (35) Dusty (30) Alpine (38) | Dr. Mindbender (30) Hawk (26) Serpentor (25) Beach Head (27) Wet-Suit (23) Leatherneck (23) Sgt. Slaughter (13) Lifeline (27) |
| 100-199 | Cobra (69) Breaker (38) | Wild Bill (43) Ace (30) Cover Girl (36) Major Bludd (25) | Mutt (31) Buzzer (49) Torch (48) Spirit (26) | Quick Kick (26) Bazooka (32) Footloose (22) Polly (24) Barbecue (22) | Dial-Tone (27) Mainframe (25) Slip-Stream (16) Zarana (20) Low-Light (25) Strato-Viper (15) |
| 50-99 | Cobra Officer (38) Clutch (20) | Snow Job (20) Doc (24) Torpedo (13) | Recondo (23) Ripper (46) Deep Six (17) Storm Shadow (16) | Crimson Guard (40) Airtight (17) | Lift-Ticket (21) Cross-Country (16) Iceberg (14) Sci-Fi (17) |
| 25-49 | Steeler (13) Stalker (23) Rock 'n Roll (26) Grunt (14) | Airborne (15) Tripwire (10) | Rip Cord (21) Wild Weasel (10) Cutter (19) Thunder (17) Firefly (13) Scrap-Iron (12) | Tele-Viper (21) | Monkeywrench (16) Viper (24) |
| 13-24 | Flash (9) Short-Fuze (13) Zap (14) | Blowtorch (14) | Snow Serpent (12) | Thrasher (13) Motor Viper (15) Zandar (13) AVAC (6) | |
| 4-12 | Copperhead (3) | Eel (13) Heavy Metal (6) Frostbite (5) Tollbooth (5) | |||
| silent | Snake Eyes (44) Grand Slam (0) | HISS Driver (3) Viper Pilot (1) | Crankcase (3) Lamprey (1) | BAT (21) |
One distinguishing characteristic of toy-based cartoon series are that each season, the creators must adapt the show to suit the year's new releases. For some cartoons, the differences might be fairly minor: introduce a couple new villains in one episode, or give the main character a new look. But in 1986, both G. I. Joe and the Transformers went through drastic changes. Each series received new leaders for both sides, necessitating a whole new command structure. For G. I. Joe, the new season also meant a build-up to the upcoming Movie.
Whereas Transformers: The Movie had killed off many of the older robots, all the Joes and Cobras were still alive. But many of 1986's toys were essentially replacements of figures and vehicles no longer in the stores, and so the older stuff was fated to recede into the background. In addition, Sunbow was having to direct much of its attention to the Movie, so the Joe series episodes sank a bit in objective quality. Plots weren't as tight, dialogue wasn't as snappy, and the animation suffered the most. Nevertheless, the second season introduced some of Joe's most memorable characters, and it managed to put the spotlight on all the new Joes and equipment by the season's end.
It is with regard to character appearances that the two seasons of G. I. Joe stand in highest contrast. While the second-season premiere and a few other episodes featured cameos of older Joes, much of the series focused almost exclusively on the newer characters. Even major figures such as Bazooka, the Baroness, and the Crimson Twins took a back seat to Hawk, Serpentor, and their new recruits. Some viewers think less of the second season because of its almost exclusive focus on the new team members, but the writers' decision actually helped provide balance to the series when taken as a whole. The older figures had the opportunity to appear in 90 to 100 episodes, but those introduced in 1986 had only 35 episodes maximum, counting the movie. In all fairness, the '86-ers dominated the later episodes no more than the pre-1985 characters dominated early first-season episodes.
Vehicle changes were noticeable too, since the new 1986 equipment served the same function as the established vehicles. SkyStrikers, Dragonflies, and Rattlers gave way to Conquests, Tomahawks, and Night Ravens. Dreadnok Swampfires replaced the seldom-used Chameleons. Maulers and HISS tanks remained alongside the HAVOCs and Stuns, but the old MOBATs and Wolverines were almost nowhere to be seen. Firebats were also frequent, but they had been introduced in the first season in a grey color.
There are limits to how far a character can develop if he's just sitting at a conference table or making a few quips during a battle. The real "meaty" roles are spread around pretty well, reflecting a deliberate effort on the part of the writers to give as many Joes as possible their 22 minutes of fame. There were eighteen "stars" who had ten or more major roles, with about the same number of individuals left with only minor speaking parts. (Here, major roles are defined as 10 or more lines in a single episode.)
Whether for copyright issues, creative license, or practicality, all the characters on the show look at least slightly different from the figures they represent. Some of these changes are very subtle, such as the presence or absence of gloves. But nearly half the characters have significant changes, a few so drastic that Joe fans new to the show might have difficulty recognizing who's who.
Since I usually prefer the cartoon look to the figure look, I've always thought it would be great for Hasbro to release some of the more altered characters with their cartoon look, especially Ace, Torpedo, and Flint. As it is, the designs have given customizers as many projects as the exclusive characters have. The following are selected examples of major design changes:
Three characters each have two different designs, only one of which resembles the figure.
Thinking of a specific scene but can't remember where it was? This might help. (I'll add suggested memorable moments upon request.)
Even though he was an "American hero," G. I. Joe fought Cobra all over the world. Cobra apparently moved their central headquarters frequently, and set up smaller temples for specific missions. Over the course of the series, the Joes and Cobras traveled to all the major oceans and every continent except Australia.
We know from the Movie that Cobra ultimately originates from Cobra-La's ice dome in the Himalayas in Central Asia. These mountains were also the site of Cobra's broadcast station in The Wrong Stuff. The Joes traveled to India in Jungle Trap and Operation Mind Menace, and to the Indian Ocean in The Pit of Vipers. I'm not sure where Ghenghis Khan's tomb is (ASA), or whether the mountain K-12 exists (Operation Mind Menace), but they would be around this region as well. (Duke says K-12 is in the Himalayas.)
Since Vietnam wasn't all that distant a memory in the 1980s, the cartoon writers usually steered clear of Southeast Asia. However, there was a Cobra air attack over Thailand in Cobra Quake, and a mind-control operation there in Let's Play Soldier. The events of Ninja Holiday took place in the nearby Philippines.
The Tienshan Mountains of western China are the resting place of Sun-Tzu (ASA). This is also the likely location of the fictional City of the Dead, location of one corner of the Pyramid of Darkness. (The actual Terra Cotta warriors that inspired the city are in central China, east of Xian.) The episode Cobra Quake features Hokkaido, Japan and several locations around Tokyo, including Mount Fuji, the Toshogu Shrine, and the Great Buddha in Kamakura.
Only four episodes deal with the Middle East. Locales near the Cobra temple in A Real American Hero make it appear that its location was in this region, near a mountain/jungle area. Cobra attacked the oil fields of Sheik Ali, possibly in the UAE, in Cobra Soundwaves. Dusty and Footloose met King Jabal in Hearts and Cannons, and aliens "abducted" Tomax and Xamot from the Middle Eastern desert in The Invaders.
Many of the Pacific island locations in the Joe series are, as far as I can tell, fictional. This includes Snake Island from Lasers in the Night, Cobra Island in the second season, the location of Temple Alpha in There's No Place Like Springfield, Tanu Island from A Real American Hero, the Island of No Return in The Revenge of Cobra, and the islands visited in Memories of Mara. (The comic book's Cobra Island was in the Gulf of Mexico.) The Sea of Lost Souls was a concept created for The Pyramid of Darkness, but ARAH's heavy-water trench was probably the Mariana Trench not far from Guam.
Pine Tree Cove and Mondo Tango, both from Bazooka Saw a Sea Serpent, were most likely in the Atlantic Ocean, since the serpent went on to attack New York City. Dialogue in Raise the Flagg indicates that it was in the Atlantic that the Joes' aircraft carrier sank during Computer Complications.
Antarctica shows up in two episodes. The Joes stumbled upon a Cobra R & R base in Queen Maud Land in The Viper Is Coming. (Of course, a more logical "5-75" for the Joes to investigate would've been 5º N, 75º W near Bogota, Colombia.) Snow Job and Frostbite chased Firefly near an Antarctic research base in Eau de Cobra.
Cobra had several operations going in Africa over the course of the series. We first visit the continent in Satellite Down, where Storm Shadow forms an uneasy truce with the Joes to escape a tribe of ape-men. Cobra established a base in Madagascar in Eau de Cobra, and one of Dr. Mindbender's labs was on the African coast in In the Presence of Mine Enemies. Egyptian tombs are the subject of two episodes, The Gods Below, and ASA Part 2. The Joes also shut down a Cobra outpost in North Africa in Sins of Our Fathers.
England was apparently a favorite location for the writers, being featured in at least six episodes. Breaker mistakenly beamed the Eiffel Tower to London at the end of A Real American Hero. We saw the Dreadnoks at work in London in Lights! Camera! Cobra!, and Firefly hitting a museum there in Eau de Cobra. The episode Excalibur drew on the legend of King Arthur, and Destro's family manor in Scotland was featured in two shows: Skeletons in the Closet and Sins of Our Fathers.
Elsewhere in Western Europe, we saw Paris in A Real American Hero and Arise, Serpentor, Arise!, and Serpentor interrupted the Joes' maneuvers in the Netherlands in My Favorite Things. There were also various missions in and around the Mediterranean in Spell of the Siren, Arise, Serpentor, Arise!, and G. I. Joe and the Golden Fleece.
Dracula was of apparent interest to the creators of the show. He is first mentioned in The Phantom Brigade, which is set in Romania's Carpathian Mountains. Two of Dracula's castles appear in Arise, Serpentor, Arise! and My Favorite Things, both in connection with Serpentor.
The Soviet Union, first seen in A Real American Hero, was not as big a player as one might expect during the Reagan era. Three times, Russia and its Red Oktober Guard fought Cobra alongside the Joes: in The Invaders, The Great Alaskan Land Rush, and Arise, Serpentor, Arise!
South America and its Amazon jungle provided many story ideas for the show. In each of the first three miniseries, the continent hosted battles at an exotic (though fictional) location: the Ring of Fire, the Palace of Doom, and the Devil's Playground. Cobra operated a diamond mine in Cobra Stops the World, and Destro had a jungle lab in Red Rocket's Glare. We also see South American Cobra bases in The Funhouse and Last Hour to Doomsday.
Also south of the US is Montezuma's tomb in the Yucatan, one source of DNA for Serpentor. And the Joes met Owen Van Mark and his daughter in the Bahamas in The Million Dollar Medic.
Most of the Joes' activities took place fairly close to home. In New England, a battle was fought at Dr. Laslow Vandermeer's farm in A Real American Hero. Boston was the home of Barbecue's family in Captives of Cobra, and of the USS Constitution in Sink the Montana. Nearby upstate New York was the site of The Germ's events. Cobra attacked West Point (also in New York) in The Viper Is Coming. New York City saw attempted Cobra attacks in A Real American Hero, Bazooka Saw a Sea Serpent, and the opening of the Movie. We see the Philadelphia Naval Yards in Sink the Montana, and Pittsburg is the site of a Joe armor range in Second Hand Emotions. Washington, D. C. suffered attacks in The Revenge of Cobra, Battle for the Train of Gold, The Invaders, and Arise Serpentor Arise, and was also featured in Operation Mind Menace, Money to Burn, The Synthoid Conspiracy, and The Wrong Stuff.
Farther south, the Montana was sunk near Norfolk, Virginia. In The Rotten Egg, Leatherneck had some adventures at Parris Island, NC, and a nearby Cobra academy. Scarlett's family lived in Atlanta in Captives of Cobra. Zartan's lair was in the Florida Everglades, not far from Blackwater Prison, and is seen in The Revenge of Cobra, Cold Slither, Arise Serpentor Arise, and Once Upon a Joe. We also see these swamps in The Gamesmaster and The Pit of Vipers. The Cobra oil rig whose explosion sent Duke into a coma in The Traitor was in the Gulf of Mexico.
Not many Joe adventures took place in the Midwest. At least one Enterprise Tower was located in Chicago, which was attacked in The Greenhouse Effect. Thunder's home territory was Kentucky; we see his family in Louisville in Captives of Cobra, and he helped prevent Cobra's theft of gold from Fort Knox.
Events in the west include Cobra's purchase of a dude ranch in Texas in Where the Reptiles Roam, and their attack on Texas City in The Traitor. Spirit's family was near Taos, New Mexico, according to Captives of Cobra. This southern area of the Rocky Mountains is also a likely location for the Pit of Chaos, the Cobra-occupied town where Shipwreck was discovered, and the Cobra Temple in The Revenge of Cobra. Watchdog's Mesa in The Pit of Vipers may also have been in this part of the country. Also in the Rockies was a Cobra base in Money to Burn, the opening battle in An Eye for an Eye, and the Rocky Mountain Chemical Weapons Arsenal from Twenty Questions and The Spy Who Rooked Me.
The Spy Who Rooked Me opened in Las Vegas, which was also Dusty's hometown, though perhaps not where his mother was living in The Traitor. The Cobrathon took place in Las Vegas or Reno, and its broadcast station was in a nearby pueblo. The crystal incident in Captives of Cobra probably took place in the Mojave Desert. California was the home of Roadblock's aunt and uncle in Red Rockets' Glare, and of Quick Kick's and Shipwreck's families in Captives of Cobra. A Cobra base hidden in a redwood forest appeared in Worlds Without End. "Aliens" threatened San Francisco in The Invaders, and an island northwest of there was the site of a Cobra hideout in An Eye for an Eye. Finally, the Joes saw Hollywood in Lights! Camera! Cobra! and Grey Hairs and Growing Pains, and Madam Versailles' estate in the latter episode was probably in one of Los Angeles' wealthier neighborhoods.
The Joes made several trips to Alaska. The Sea of Ice near the Arctic Circle in A Real American Hero was evidently there (or perhaps in Canada). The Alaksa pipeline was attacked in Spell of the Siren and The Invaders. Cobra's manipulation of the Aurora Borealis took place here in Haul Down the Heavens, as did the events of the Great Alaskan Land Rush. We also saw the Bering Sea and its Aleutian Islands in Not a Ghost of a Chance.
Other arctic adventures may have taken place in Canada or Greenland, such as the Roof of the World in The Revenge of Cobra, the Mountain of Glass from The Pyramid of Darkness, the Cobra base in The Gamesmaster, and the Arctic Environmental Research Base and the tropodome in Iceberg Goes South.
Several US locations are fictional or unspecified, such as Keystone City in Cobra CLAWs Are Coming to Town, Enterprise City in The Pyramid of Darkness, the cities featured in Cobra's Candidate and The Greenhouse Effect, and the Worldwide Defense Center in Countdown for Zartan. There are evidently several Terror Dromes, and the central one on Cobra Island is probably in the Atlantic Ocean somewhere, but we cannot be more specific than that.
All we can say for certain is that the HQ is somewhere in the United States. The landscape surrounding the base in various episodes suggest desert, low mountains, and woods. There are also indications that the base is near the coast. However, the episodes provide us with two sets of conflicting information as to which coast is nearby.
Words Without End gives strong hints that Headquarters is in California. Early scenes feature the Golden Gate Bridge and redwoods. From there the Joes travel on foot and by motorcycle to HQ. From there, Lady Jaye's team flies over Mt. Rushmore (in South Dakota) on its way to Washington, D.C. Subsequent episodes seem to support a coastal setting. In Flint's Vacation, we are told that Pleasant Cove is "on the coast" within a couple hours from Headquarters by car. The terrain seems closer to California's than to anywhere on the East Coast that I'm aware of. And in The Most Dangerous Thing in the World, Headquarters is very close to a seaside resort with palm trees.
However, in that episode, the map at Headquarters shows the ocean on the right, so that we would expect Headquarters to be on the East Coast (perhaps Georgia or Florida). In Sink the Montana, the Joes move quickly back and forth between Headquarters and events in Philadelphia and Boston. And in Into Your Tent I Will Silently Creep, Cross-Country leaves HQ on foot to a Cobra base where a river sweeps him out to sea. He flags down a Polish cargo ship, which is much more likely to have business in the Atlantic than in the Pacific. The most specific indication of where Joe base is comes in Grey Hairs and Growing Pains, when Beach Head states that Hollywood is "three thousand miles from Headquarters." Unfortunately, even New England isn't quite that far from LA, so he must be exaggerating. But if Headquarters were in California it is difficult to know what to make of Beach Head's statement.
One other odd piece of evidence is that in The Million Dollar Medic, Lifeline and Bre leave HQ heading northwest to a ski lodge in the Rockies. Only with great difficulty can one get to the Rockies flying northwest from California, and departure from somewhere like Florida would leave open too many possibilities for Bre's father to surmise that they were headed toward the Rockies. It seems the writer might have thought Headquarters was somewhere in the Midwest. But of course, this contradicts the preponderance of information that suggests that HQ is near the ocean.
My original inclination was to place Joe Headquarters in northern California, dismissing the second-season evidence. However, the Worlds Without End episode is the only episode that indicates a western location, and even that evidence is only suggestive. The second-season evidence is more specific, however this is not a settled issue by any means. One alternative solution is to propose a phantom headquarters on the East Coast whose existence is unknown to Cobra, with any Cobra attacks or infiltrations taking place at the western base.
The recent history of the Joe universe is as different from our own as it is from the dimension in Worlds Without End. Dialogue from The Great Alaskan Land Rush indicates that the Joes of that time are in the twentieth century, at least a hundred years past 1867. Mainframe says in Computer Complications that he worked in the Silicon Valley some time after returning from the Vietnam conflict. Floppy disks of the 5 1/4-inch variety seem to be state-of-the-art. The Cold War is at its height. The pop culture of the civilization in the first season is definitely early-to-mid 1980s. All these indications point to a setting not far from the time the cartoons were released.
The main exception is the advanced level of technology. From Cobra's superweapons to devices such as wristwatch-phones and laser pistols, we know that we are well beyond even early twenty-first century abilities. One could conjecture that this alternate universe has seen greater advancement due to any number of changed circumstances and unique opportunities and breakthroughs. Ultimately, I place the Joe cartoon series in the mid-1980s, stretched over about two years per season to account for seasonal changes.
