Should UPN have picked up "Iron Man" and "Fantastic Four" in 1996?

[TMC1982]

I was thinking about this the other day. UPN of course, aired the Incredible Hulk animated series on Sunday mornings around this time. During that first season (and really the only season that matters, but that's another story), there were two "crossover" episodes. One was called "Helping Hand, Iron Fist", in which Robert Hays (Tony Stark/Iron Man), Dorian Harewood (Jim Rhodes/War Machine), and Tom Kane (H.O.M.E.R.) reprised their roles from the recently cancelled syndicated Iron Man series. It truly felt like the 14th episode of Season 2 complete with the implementation of the Iron Man theme music ("I AM, Iron Man").

As I said just before, the second Marvel Action Hour crossover was "Fantastic Fortitude" featuring the Thing (voiced by Chuck McCann just like on the Fantastic Four cartoon) and briefly, by Mr. Fantastic (with Beau Weaver reprising his role) . Like with the aforementioned Iron Man appearance, this felt like a "lost" episode of that era's Fantastic Four cartoon.

Maybe down the line, I'll start inquiring why The Marvel Action Hour didn't last longer than it could've or should've been, but it's pretty save to assume that being on UPN was much more stable than being in first-run syndication (even though one benefit of being syndicated is that there are lesser network imposed mandates and restrictions).

I don't know if UPN wasn't so forward thinking, they didn't want to be pigeonholed as being the "Marvel network" (even though Fox was at one point, running X-Men and Spider-Man at the same time), the Iron Man and Fantastic Four shows had "run respective their course" (especially after the trainwreck of a first seasons they had), or this was around the time that Marvel was starting to have financial problems (which is why the Silver Surfer cartoon on Fox had to prematurely end).

 

[Fone Bone]

Hindsight 2020. Which is also the best upcoming campaign slogan ever.

 

[Rick Jones]

It could have been cool if they did. I'm not sure how successful revivals could have been but I really liked that Hulk S1 was the marquee show for the fledgling block, and with the same team doing that and the FF and Iron Man S2s, I would have been very open to seeing them do more. Maybe it would have helped the block out more. It didn't exactly have a super incredible lineup. When I think of shows that I really washed for the first time on the block, I think of Hulk, B.A.D, Jumanjii, Teknoman (Tekkaman Blade dubbed), Spider-Friends, and the later teen shows. Maybe it wouldn't have been the most diverse lineup but it would have been a recognizable one. All it even had to compete with on Sundays where first-run syndication and reruns on Catoon Network, Disney and Nick.

It would be funny if they were worried about becoming known as a Marvel block when that's what I started thinking of them as once they started airing old Marvel shows during the next season. If the management that was in charge for the first year stayed put, I would have been happy to see them revive the shows or green light any other Marvel shows but after what they did to Hulk season 2 with the network demands and the changing of the production team, we probably dodged some bullets.


Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

 

[AdrenalineRush1996]

It could've worked well for them.