Today we’re continuing our look at some odd experiments in spinning off movies into their own TV cartoon series, starting with a pair of Star Wars attempts from the mid-1980s!

Ewoks (1985-87) and Droids (1985-1986)

Ugh. Double-ugh. This is what gets me about George Lucas. He created some of the most entertaining, quotable, fantastic films of all time which were beloved by people of all age ranges, yet Lucas continually suffers under the delusion that only 8-year-olds are his complete audience demographic. After Return of the Jedi blew theater-goers away in 1983, Lucas somewhat announced that the series was “complete”, and then left Star Wars fans in the lurch for any further on-screen adventures. Fans were hungry, desperate… and then all they got was a fistful of Ewoks.

As is well-documented, the whole Ewok presence in Return of the Jedi was hated by fans as being to patronizing to the kid market and too cutesy for the Star Wars universe. Naturally, Lucas latched on to Ewoks as the primary vehicle for the post-ROTJ Star Wars adventures, and authorized two crappy made-for-TV movies with them, and the Ewok/Droids cartoon duo.

This began as a one-hour animated show, containing two separate series (this sort of occurrence wasn’t uncommon in kid cartoon shows, by the way — many series have covered up their weaknesses with sheer variety as compensation). Ewoks, the worse of the two, focused on Wicket and his clan before the events of Jedi (no interstellar adventures here!). Kind of a low-rent Smurfs, to imagine it.

Droids, only marginally better because they weren’t on Endor and confined to stories about teddy bears, took the wimpy robots of Star Wars — R2-D2 and C3PO — across the galaxy in events far prior to the original trilogy. Interestingly enough, Droids also featured the voice of Anthony Daniels for C3PO, who reprised his movie role for the part.

One of the biggest questions I’ve had about the decision to go ahead with two of the least popular characters/races is: hey, this is Star Wars, why couldn’t you have picked anything cooler from the show to focus on? A Boba Fett variety hour! Or a Wedge Antilles talk show! Or Jabba In Charge! Or Luke and Leia’s Guide to Innocent Incest!

Ewoks lasted longer than Droids, as both shows were expensive to make, and the networks only decided on continuing with Ewoks past the first season. Why Ewoks? Because they hated all kids everywhere. With major retunings, Ewoks limped through a lackluster third season and was cancelled in 1987. Both shows are now out on DVD for must-have collectors who have severe brain trauma.

Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1995-2000), The Mask (1995-97), and Dumb and Dumber (1995)

Ah, the Holy Trifecta of Jim Carrey, otherwise known as the three spin-off series of films that Carrey’s actually funny in. Maybe it’s not “otherwise known” as that, but we can pretend, for one day we shall all die and this will be meaningless.

Let’s start with Ace Ventura. Don’t let this show’s six-year run fool you; we’re only talking about a paltry 39 episodes thinly spread over this time span. Seeing as how this show started after I began college, I never got around to watching it. Probably for the best, although I am a closet fan of both films (the stigma against stupid humor be darned!). Pet detective, tons of animals, fart humor. That’s the whole sha-bang in a nutshell.

The Mask’s situation is a bit more interesting. Because the film is based on a Dark Horse comic book, the series could not make Stanley look at all like Jim Carrey due to legal reasons. However, seeing as the film is pretty much a live-action cartoon, it translated well onto the smaller screen and became a sleeper hit for the networks. Not to be confused with the much cooler 80’s cartoon M.A.S.K.

Reportedly, there is an episode where a cross-over happens between Ace Ventura and The Mask, although I’m not sure what it’s called.

Dumb and Dumber lasted the shortest of them all, even with the voice talent of Matt Frewer. I think about four episodes were made and shown, mostly to give audiences an excuse to punch a television screen.