As any kid in the 80s, I was a cartoon fanatic.  And, to be perfectly honest, I think we had the best cartoons of any decade.  Yes, I will challenge anyone who disagrees with me to a Filipino knife fight. 

Silverhawks was produced by Rankin/Bass for Lorimar television, the same people that brought us one of the most loved cartoons of the 80s, the Thundercats…oh, and the less successful Tigersharks cartoon.  I guess the head honchos at Rankin/Bass wanted a cartoon for each element — air, water and land…the only one they missed was fire.  It’s too bad their fourth series, Flaming Hairdressers, never made it on air.

Anyway, the Silverhawks had the same designers, animators and voice actors as the Thundercats…the cartoons felt like they existed in the same universe and told very similar stories.  Even their villains had a similar schtick — where Mumm-Ra powered up with a bit of poetry, so too did Silverhawk nemesis, Mon*Star, who would armor-up with his haiku of power “Give me the mind, the muscle, the menace, of MON*STAR!”. Interestingly enough, that is the same exact poem I use to get an erection.

My favorite Silverhawks villain was Mo-Lecular…I always thought they should have brought in a Larry-lecular and a Curly-Lecular to round out the team.

The Silverhawks were made up of a group of special agent-cyborgs, all with a bird theme to their look and abilities…well, except for Colonel Bluegrass who had the power of a robot country-western singer…space guitar, cowboy hat, space assless chaps and all.  The team leader was Quicksilver, with his bird-companion, TallyHawk.  The Twins Steelheart and Steelwill gave the team its muscle.  I always had a thing for Steelheart.

The final member of the team was the Copper Kid, who was from the “Planet of the Mimes.”  That’s right…he was from the “Planet of the Mimes.”  I have no clue what the producers were thinking.  I guess it wasn’t any worse than the fact that the stories took place in the “Galaxy of Limbo,” which seemed to have an oxygen atmosphere and gravity — everyone could breathe and survive outside of their spaceships, even regular humans, and, better yet, if you stepped out of a spacecract you would fall.  No clue where you would fall too, but their little corner of space was definitely a bit odd.

The Silverhawks lasted for a total of 1 season and 65 episodes.  In Hawaii, where I grew up, the show stayed until at least through 1990 in re-runs.  I used to hound my buddy Marc in to skipping swin practice to watch them after school everyday.  Great stuff and definitely worth skipping atheletic practice over.

While there aren’t current plans by Warner Brothers to bring the Silverhawks out on DVD, you can still find VHS copies on places like Amazon and Ebay.  Or, if you do some searching online (or at the Frank & Son shows) you can pick up some bootleg copies on DVD for around $30.  I would absolutely love to see an official release in the future. 

Siiiiilllllverrrrrhaaaaaawks.

-Mat N., The Nifty Nerd
http://www.TheNiftyNerd.com