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Saturday, 21-Nov-2009 01:57:17 CST

U.S. Adaptation and Syndication
The "conversion" of Gatchaman to the US market was something that was more the rule than the exception for a very long time, and to some extent is still being done today. It was postulated (correctly?) that the mass US public would not accept something that was created for the Japanese market in anything other than a humorous way. The Godzilla adaptations in the 1960's and 1970's "proved" this point time and again.

When Family Home Entertainment tested the waters with their Captain Harlock adaptation, the dubbing was only sometimes accurate and the entire production had drained away what made this such a good show in the first place. The second volume of the set is even worse than the first, if that's possible. Mercifully, there is a not third volume. However, this was about the only way people (other than maybe a double handful on either coast of the US) were seeing anime. It is in this context that Robotech was born.

The syndication market in the US in the 1980's had a few rules ... one of the big ones was the minimum number of episodes a series had to contain for it to be considered. With the phenomenal success of Macross TV in Japan, it was inevitable that someone in America would take notice (and that someone was Carl Macek), but the show had one big obstacle in the US: it was only 36 episodes long. With a show the likes of which were not shown in the US, Harmony Gold (actually, Carl) came up with an idea: cut together two other series, and rewrite the hell out of it so that a single series could be made from it. That the final product was very successful in the marketplace is a tribute to how well thought out the concept was. With his reputation secure, Carl struck out on his own, and thus was born Streamline. Carl Macek felt that his adaptation of existing materials into a new product was superior to the Japanese versions. Thus, very unusual combinations like the Captain Harlock/Queen Millennia amalgam were formed.

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