The very first episode of Thundarr the Barbarian aired on this date in 1980. Forty years later, the series still boasts a cadre of devoted fans.

The series is set two thousand years after a Velikovsky-esque planetary catastrophe destroyed Earth’s civilizations. Like Vance’s “Dying Earth” milieu or some early D&D adventure modules, straight-up magic functions right alongside super-science. Barbarian tribes and hordes of mutants abound. That, my friends, is a damned fine recipe for adventure.

The three protagonists of the series were Thundarr, barbarian wielder of the Sunsword, the magic-using Princess Ariel and—my favorite—the leonine Ookla the Mok. The very first episode swung for the fences, with the trio fighting the Jack Kirby-designed sorceror-cyborg, Gemini. Gemini ruled from his base in “Manhat” and Thundarr and the gang had to fight a magically-animated Statue of Liberty.

Another episode—co-written by DMR author, Buzz Dixon—saw the trio battling the wizard, Khromm, who was besieging some unfortunates holding out in the Alamo.* Thundarr ends up briefly back in twentieth century San Antonio—Robert E. Howard’s favorite city.

In another episode, Thundarr battle the Brotherhood of Night, which is led by the lycanthrope, Zevon. “Zevon”, of course, is a reference to Warren “Werewolves of London” Zevon. There are several sly references like that throughout the series.

While the level of writing in the series was certainly not up to the level of Vance’s “Dying Earth” tales, let alone Wolfe’s The Book of the New Sun, the writers seem to have striven for something a notch higher than the average early ‘80s cartoon.

I won’t lie: Ookla the Mok really made the series for me. If he wasn’t ripping up a tree or ripping off a cyborg’s arm to smite his foes, he used his bow to shoot down the smarter ones who refused to get within bludgeon-range. All while roaring, howling and grunting in the coolest fashion possible.

So, for those who don’t get it, that’s fine. We Thundarr fans will keep (re-)watching anyway and having a great time doing it.

*Click here and here for a cool interview with Buzz Dixon discussing his experience writing Thundarr scripts.

I couldn’t post this article without letting y’all check out this mock movie poster by the very talented Christopher Shy.