Pro Stars
ProStars was a Saturday Morning Cartoon, produced for NBC by DiC Entertainment, starring Michael Jordan, Bo Jackson and Wayne Gretzky. It ran 13 episodes in 1991. The show stars animated versions of Michael Jordan, Bo Jackson and Wayne Gretzky, who all fight crime and save the environment. In most episodes, they'd get called in to save the day by a kid, get some sports-related weapons and battle a villain who is wreaking havoc just because they can. Some episodes dealt with things like the larceny of the Stanley Cup, or kids in gangs, for example. At the end of each episode, the athletes themselves explained the lesson in a live-action clip.
Tropes used in Pro Stars include:
- Armor-Piercing Slap: In one episode, an armor-piercing football tossed by Mom to get Bo Jackson ready, knocking him several feet across the room. To which Bo whined, "Even Jerry Rice couldn't catch that!"
- And Knowing Is Half the Battle: In the live-action segments.
- Bald of Awesome: Michael Jordan.
- Batter Up: Considering that the cartoon ProStars has Michael Jordan, Wayne Gretzky and Bo Jackson fighting crime, it was inevitable that they'd go into battle throwing basketballs, swinging a hockey stick, and bashing attacks out of the air with a baseball bat.
- Big Eater: Wayne Gretzky. His mind is always on food.
- Butt Monkey: The Neighbor. All the machines are just out to get him.
- The Big Guy: Bo Jackson.
- Charles Atlas Superpower: Bo Jackson. How does he even get strong to superhero levels?
- Wheaties.
- For the Evulz: Most of the villains can be likened to the villains of Captain Planet and the Planeteers, for example.
- Hilarious in Hindsight: One of the episodes had the athletes helping a South American kid voiced by Scott Menville.
- Green Aesop: Often.
- I Know Madden Kombat: All of the heroes' crimefighting gadgets involved their respective sports (except, of course, Bo Jackson, who could seemingly pull out any sport he wanted due to Dual Classing in baseball and football).
- The Merch: They even had a breakfast cereal.
- No Export for You: Like other American cartoons of this ilk screened on the UK's Channel 4 (though not New Kids on the Block), the live-action segments were cut.
- Not Quite Starring: As in Mister T and Chuck Norris Karate Kommandos, the animated stars actually have a live-action segment at the end.
- Off-Model: Courtesy of South Korean studios Dong Woo and Sei Young.
- Plucky Comic Relief: Wayne Gretzky
- The Smart Guy: Michael Jordan. In addition to being completely awesome and a basketball champion, he also was the smartest and taught kids to learn about mathematics.
- Team Mom: Mom, quite fittingly enough.
- They Fight Crime