As a game designer and developer, I do a lot of research on a variety of subjects. Some of this research is, to the majority of people, pretty gorram weird.
Specifically, old cartoons.
A lot of the cartoons I grew up on were essentially just toy commercials. We all know this. As such, they’re an interesting look at how to expand a brand. They also show one way of adding lore in easily-digestible parts rather than doing an enormous infodump.
Look at GI Joe for a prime example. The first five-part miniseries established the universe. It explained in simple, easily-understandable terms exactly who GI Joe and Cobra were, it gave us some main characters, basic equipment, and a straightforward, linear story line with enough cool stuff to keep the audience watching. And more importantly wanting to buy the toys being dangled in front of them.
After that worked, they made a few more little five-part miniseries. Each time they would keep the characters the audience had shown interest in (read: “bought the toys”) for continuity, added some more cool stuff to the toy and story lineup, and gave the audience another fun story to make them want to buy the new toys to go with what they already had. Then they made a multi-season series and a movie, all adding more and more to their world.
Some additions were obvious: “hey kids! Did you like Cool New Character™? What a fine coincidence! We just happen to have Cool New Character™ available at your local toy store! Tell your parents how much you like Cool New Character™, their buddy Other Cool New Character™, their ride Kickass Vehicle™ and their arch-nemesis That Fuckin’ Asshole™!”
I may have paraphrased a bit there.
Others were a bit more subtle, but still there. You know, character development (varying wildly in depth and quality) and world development. At the end of the first miniseries, you had a solid grasp of where GI Joe and Cobra fit into the world. By the time the series hit, the audience had a solid enough grasp they could probably attempt to write an org chart for either and have a good idea what any given character would or wouldn’t do in a given situation.
All of which helped increase audience engagement and further sell the toy line. You didn’t want Cool New Character™ because they looked cool (which didn’t hurt), you wanted them because you thought they were the bong especially when you and your buddies were all building little special operations forces with Cool New Character™, Other Cool New Character™, Comedy Relief Sidekick™, Token Ethnic Character™ (who wasn’t just exotic, but came with a pet!), and a whole bunch of Kickass Vehicles™ of various types.
OK, here’s where I run into a problem.
Some of these things did not age well at all. Obviously plotlines and dialogue meant for young teenagers (or younger, depending on the show) aren’t going to hold up decades later. These were kids’ shows, after all. You also had troubling ethnic and other stereotypes, very outdated gender roles, and some pretty serious ethical issues when you looked at the real messages behind the episodes’ solutions.
So while they may be useful research, holy crap are some of these things terrible. Not just “wow, this didn’t age well,” but full-on “wait, I used to rush home from skool every day to watch this shit? Then go back to skool so we could all tell our own stories about what your Crass Commercialism Characters™ did in our version of their world? Really?”
Behold the power of marketing, especially when applied to a mind that not only wasn’t prepared for it but didn’t even know said marketing was taking place.