Godzilla: The Series

Godzilla as depicted in Godzilla: The Series

Godzilla: The Series was an animated television series which originally aired on Fox Kids. The show premiered on September 12, 1998, and is a direct sequel to the film Godzilla.

Using an art style similar to that of Men in Black: The Series, the series follows the Humanitarian Environmental Analysis Team (or "HEAT"), a research team lead by Dr. Nick Tatopoulos (voiced by Ian Ziering) as they battle giant creatures which frequently appear in the wake of the events depicted in the film. Godzilla, the only hatchling to survive in the original movie, imprints on Nick and provides the "muscle" against the other monsters encountered by the human characters, much in the spirit of the Japanese Shōwa era films and the Hanna-Barbera cartoon. Also more in keeping with the Japanese image were Godzilla's atomic breath (absent in the film, though some fans disagree on this due to an odd glow in the monster's teeth and tongue that has been noted, and the detonation of some objects exposed to the monster's 'hurricane wind breath') and fighting spirit.

The series also introduces two new characters: Monique Dupre, a French secret agent assigned by Philippe Roache to keep an eye on Godzilla and HEAT, and Randy Hernandez, an intern of Nick's who specializes in computer hacking. Also, during the series, Nick is presented with a trademark quote: "GO! GO! GO!!!"

Fox released two episode sequences on VHS and DVD: "Trouble Hatches," the two-episode pilot, and "Monster Wars," a trilogy that pays tribute to Destroy All Monsters by depicting an alien race called the Tachyons attempting to conquer Earth by controlling its monsters. "Monster Wars" also features Cyber-Godzilla, a cybernetic reconstruction of the creature from the film (inspired by Mechagodzilla), and the creation of Site Omega (a homage to Monster Island in Destroy All Monsters). And Just Recently Monster Mayahem and Mutant Madness.

The series made several other tributes to Godzilla films and other creature features:

• The character Dr. Yukiko Ifukube (from the episode "Competition") is a homage to the late Godzilla series composer Akira Ifukube.
• The team up of Godzilla and the Giant Bat is reminiscent of the Godzilla/Rodan tag-teams.
• The Mimic (from the episode "Trust No One") pays homage to John Carpenter's The Thing.
• The Robo-Yeti (from the episode "Competition") is a probable tribute to King Kong/MechaniKong.
• Godzilla's fight with Robo-Yeti is a probable tribute to King Kong vs Godzilla.

Despite the negative response to the 1998 film, the animated series still did surprisingly well during Fox Kids Saturday Mornings and was praised by fans who condemned the film. Ultimately, the series was overshadowed by the late 90's Pokémon–Digimon war between Kids WB and Fox Kids over Saturday morning ratings during the 1998-1999 season. The result was Godzilla: The Series being placed in different timeslots on Saturdays to accommodate many of the Digimon marathons and "Back-to-Back" episodes; this would also affect other Fox Kids shows as well. For a brief period of time, Godzilla: The Series didn't get to rerun most of its episodes or episodes were skipped over and rescheduled for a later time. There was a brief span where the show was taken off the schedule to accommodate new shows for mid-season. The result was three episodes unable to broadcast at all.

Characters

The H.E.A.T. Team

• Dr. Nicholas "Nick" Tatopolous - Leader of H.E.A.T., the adopted father of Godzilla.

• Monique Dupre - A Vietanamese/French Nationality, she is Philippe's best agent in the French Secret Service. She specializes in hand to hand combat and infiltration. Originally, her mission to have Godzilla killed, but had a change of heart after the monster saved her. Despite her cold demeanor, she does have a soft spot. Overtime, she begins to fall in love with Randy.

• Randall "Randy" Hernandez - An intern working under Nick. He was a New York City College drop out, who had great talent in all fields of technology. However, his slacker image reduced him to nothing more than a computer hacker. However, he is inspired to attend college once more after saving Godzilla from Cameron Winter. He has a crush on Monique, but is always shot down.

• Dr. Mendel Craven - He's a bit of a coward and he does seem to be alergic to everything around him, but that doesn't mean that he can't do his job. He has a serious crush on Elsie ever since she, Nick, and Hicks were on the original job in search of the original Godzilla. He's the engineer of robotics and machines of the team, and one time when Godzilla was poisoned, Craven developed an antidote and cured Godzilla. By the time the fight was over Godzilla sort of scared Craven, he thought Godzilla was going to eat him but instead he thanked him, his way.

• Dr. Elsie Chapman - One of the original members of Nick's team, she is more cynical in this series. In addition, has developed an attraction for Mendel.

• N.I.G.E.L. - The Kenny McCormick of the series. He was created by Mendel as an analysis robot, but was reprogrammed by Randy to have a more cheerful personality. He is usually destroyed in every episode.

• Godzilla- The only surviving offspring of the Godzilla from the film. Present at the creatures hatching, Nick has been imprinted as Godzilla's parent. When Nick is in danger Godzilla will arrive immediately and try to rescue him. For reasons not explained, this Godzilla is not capable of reproducing as the first one was.

Allies

• Major Anthony Hicks

• Audrey Timmons

• Victor "Animal"

• Philippe Roache

• Dr. Yukiko Infukube - She is the leader of the special unit in Japan, similar to H.E.A.T. She refers "Godzilla" as "Gojira", which got her into an argument with Randy. Also, she has an attraction to Mendel, much to Elise's dismay. Her creation, the Robo Yeti, is used to defend Japan from mutated threats. She pilots the Robo Yeti through a voice remote she carries with her. When Robo Yeti is destroyed by King Cobra, she is upset. Mendel conforts her by saying "I know how it feels".

Recurring Villains

• Cameron Winter - Probably the most hated villains in the series by many fans, with a Lex Luthor complex. A former classmate of Nick in college. He refers Nick as "Nickles" because he assumed that Nick's field of work would mount to nothing and he was only end up with nickles in his pocket. He is a technological mogul, who wants to use Godzilla for his own needs. He first attempted to use his Cybernetic Attack Drones ("Cyber Flies") to take control of Godzilla, but was thrwarted by Randy. Despite his arrest, using his influence, his sentence was reduced to nothing but community service. His second encounter with the H.E.A.T. team, was the creation of the genetic monster known as "Chameleon" which almost looked like Godzilla, but had three tusks on its face. That monster was taken out by Philippe. When Nick atacked him, he trapped Nick in his submarine base and set off the self destruct sequence and escaped. The final time the team encountered him, he created the Lizard Slayers units to destroy Godzilla. He also took control of the H.E.A.T. Seeker. However, with the combined efforts of the team, his Lizard Slayers were defeated. However, the victory was short lived when the army wanted a mass production of the units, bragging to Nick to no end. The feud between him and Nick remain unresolved.

• The Redneck Hunters (Dale, Bill, & Hank) - Based off the characters from King of the Hill, they are game hunters that came to New York to hunt for the "Ultimate Game" which was Godzilla. They serve as comic relief villains in the series. Dale, is the leader of the group, Bill is the middle man, and Hank is the dummy of the trio. Armed with heavy fire power, they chased Godzilla to no end; destroying the newly repaired Chrysler Building in the process. The damage they caused to the city got all of them thrown in jail. They were then released by Cameron Winter to have them pilot the Lizard Slayer units, only to be used as an alibi by Winter, which got them thrown back into jail once more.

• The Tachyons - An ancient race of psychic extraterrestrials, one of their spaceships, called the "Leviathan" by the humans who found it, crashed on Earth during the time of the dinosaurs. They remained active long enough to create the Cryptocleidus and Reptilians before going dormant. Upon discovery by humanity, the Tachyons attempted to conquer Earth and were thwarted by HEAT. They were presumed dead, but in "Monster Wars," it was revealed that they had downloaded their minds into human victims (who steadily mutated into alien forms), with the alien minds existing in the unused sections of the human brain.

Masquerading as human scientists, the Tachyons convinced Elsie and a military regiment under Colonel Hicks to help them salvage the Leviathan; from this, they set up the Site Omega facility, implanted alien minds into Elsie and the soldiers, constructed the Cyber-Godzilla, and began taking mental control of all of Earth's mutations, while simultaneously using their psychic abilities to keep HEAT divided.

Their plot's climax was having the mutations attack the capital cities of the militarily strongest nations, intending to heavily weaken the armed forces so they couldn't put up a resistance when the aliens' main fleet arrived.

The plan was undone when HEAT took out their mind control technology; acting under their own instinct, the mutations viewed the arriving fleet as invaders of their territory and destroyed enough Leviathan craft to force a retreat.

Mutations

Main Article: Mutations of Godzilla the Series

Site Omega (aka Monster Island)

Originally an uninhabited island used by the Tachyons as a base until their defeat, the military adapted it as a place to house any mutations they managed to capture. The island was fitted with advanced security measures, and each mutation's control methods were unique; for example, the Giant Bat's collar for preventing it from using its screech.

HEAT only visited the island once, to deliver Skeetera; all other mentions of the island were when they managed to capture a monster alive. When HEAT was delivering Skeetera, the group known as S.C.A.L.E. snuck onto the island and freed the mutations. What ensued was a monster free-for-all, with HEAT and Godzilla caught in the middle.

So far, the only mutation at large not transported to Monster Island is Godzilla. It is now currently home to Crustaceous Rex, the King Cobra, and the Giant Bat. But also used to have Queen Bee, the Huge Rat, El Gusano Gigante, Skeetera, Cryptocleidus, and possibly the Giant Hummingbirds. The Queen Bee, the Huge Rat, Skeetera, El Gusano, and Cryptocleidus' remains are likely being studied elsewhere.

The Queen Bee, El Gusano, the Huge Rat and Cryptocleidus were killed by the Tachyons (aliens) in the "Monster War Trilogy" because the monsters fought back agaisn't them for invading their territory. Skeetera was killed when it was knocked into electric cables. Cyber Godzilla also made the appereance on Site Omega fighting agaisn't the Giant Bat and being killed by the real Godzilla, the parts are now likely being studied elsewhere.

Episodes

Season One

• 01.01: "New Family, Part 1"
• 01.02: "New Family, Part 2"
• 01.03: "Talkin' Trash"
• 01.04: "D.O.A."
• 01.05: "The Winter of Our Discontent"
• 01.06: "Cat and Mouse"
• 01.07: "What Dreams May Come"
• 01.08: "Leviathan"
• 01.09: "Hive"
• 01.10: "Bird of Paradise"
• 01.11: "DeadLoch"
• 01.12: "Monster Wars, Part 1"
• 01.13: "Monster Wars, Part 2"
• 01.14: "Monster Wars, Part 3"
• 01.15: "Competition"
• 01.16: "Freeze"
• 01.17: "Bug Out"
• 01.18: "Web Site"
• 01.19: "An Early Frost"
• 01.20: "Juggernaut"
• 01.21: "Trust No One"

Season Two

• 02.01: "Future Shock"
• 02.01: "S.C.A.L.E."
• 02.03: "Protector"
• 02.04: "Freak Show"
• 02.05: "End of the Line"
• 02.06: "What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been"
• 02.07: "Wedding Bells Blew"
• 02.08: "Metamorphosis"
• 02.09: "Area 51"
• 02.10: "The Twister"
• 02.11: "Shafted"
• 02.12: "Where Is Thy Sting?"
• 02.13: "Lizard Season"
• 02.14: "Underground Movement"
• 02.15: "Ring of Fire"
• 02.16: "Cash of the Titans"

Unaired episodes

• "Vision"
• "The Ballad of Gens du Marais"
• "Tourist Trap"

All three episodes were aired in Europe on Britain's Sky One.

Trivia

• Ian Ziering's first character choice was the villain, Cameron Winter, but he ended up playing the main character, Nick Tatopoulos, instead.
• Jason Priestly was the original choice to play the role of Nick Tatopoulos. He recorded a few episodes, which were later re-recorded with Ian Ziering for reruns.
• Malcolm Danare (Dr. Mendel Craven) and Kevin Dunn (Colonel Anthony Hicks) reprise their roles from the movie.
• N.I.G.E.L.'s destruction in many episodes is a direct homage to Kenny McCormick's deaths in South Park.
• The redneck hunters (from the episodes "Cat and Mouse" and "Lizard Season") are based on characters from the show King of the Hill—Dale, Hank, and Bill.
• The name " Ts-Eh-Go" is Navajo for "scorpion."
• The Sub-Zero Manta Ray was originally supposed to be a vulture.
• There was a toy-line released, but never hit toy stores; some of the toys included large models of Godzilla, Cyber-Godzilla, and Crustaceous Rex (aka C-Rex).
• There were two Game Boy Color games released based on this show. They loosely followed the plots of several episodes.
• Roddy McDowall's final acting credit before his death was the episode "DeadLoch," in which Godzilla and HEAT encounter the Loch Ness Monster.
• Todd Galina's online cartoon G VS G (available at http://www.toddgallina.com/gvg/index.html) shows a battle between the original Japanese incarnation of Godzilla and the American incarnation. One scene shows the American Godzilla actually using his atomic breath, leading the viewer to believe this is the cartoon version of the American Godzilla. The ending is probably an homage to the movie King Kong vs. Godzilla.
• The Ice Borer mutants are based on an April Fools Day prank from the science magazine Discover. The prank involved the alleged discovery of penguin-eating burrowing creatures living in Antarctica and ran with a picture of one of the critters, which was in actuality a modified picture of a naked mole rat.

Reference

• Johnson, Bob (2000). Godzilla: The Series. G-Fan 44.

External links

• Godzilla: The Series at IMDb
• Godzilla: The Series at TV.com
• The Ultimate Godzilla: the Series episode guide