Making Sense of Generation One: Part 5

The original Transformers animated series is considered to be one of the best cartoons from 1980's. One of the saddest moments from that decade of great cartoons was when the series ceased its broadcast run in 1989. Season three of the series was definitely a difficult transition for many fans due to the change in setting, style, and characters. Due to the decline in success for the animated series after the failure of the 1986 film in theaters and the lackluster reception to the third season, Hasbro decided that season four would be the final season of new episodes. However, this season would consist of only three episodes. This mini-series was called The Rebirth.

Season four writer David Wise reported in 2004 that season four was supposed to consist of a five part mini-series to introduce the new Headmasters and Targetmasters and tie up the series. Hasbro then made a last minute decision to cram the story into three parts. David Wise did a great job with compensating considering the huge amount characters he had to work in. In three 22 minute episodes, David Wise introduced the Headmasters, Targetmasters, their origin, Sixshot, Nebulos, the Nebulon race, the evil Hive, Skorponok, Fortress Maximus, Punch/Counterpunch, the Autobot and Decepticon Clones, and the Horrorcons. Wise also crafted the story to see the restoration of Cybertron. That is a lot of story to cram into 90 minutes, but again, Wise did a great job introducing all of these concepts and giving the show a proper series finale in the U.S. The show again featured a new opening intro, however it retained the season three song but featured new animation from the commercials.

In 1988, Hasbro commissioned one final season of the Transformers. Hasbro created a stop motion animated Powermaster Optimus Prime to host a sort of "best of" collection of episodes which ran from 1988 to early 1989 on the weekends. This Optimus Prime would tell classic adventures of the Transformers to a young boy named Tommy Kennedy, and the two would interact verbally during the episodes. The episodes came mainly from the third and fourth seasons with the three part series premiere episode More Than Meets the Eye brought in at the beginning of the season's run. The show also featured the first ever televised broadcast of Transformers: The Movie, but it was broken down into five parts with the music video for Stan Bush's The Touch shown at the end of part five.

When the show finished its run, no new Transformers episodes aired in the United States until Transformers: Beast Wars in 1995. In 1993, Hasbro did re-air classic Generation One episodes under the Generation 2 banner for two seasons. However, no original episodes were produced. Many fans in the United States at the time the "fifth" season of the original cartoon ended believed the adventures of Generation One had ended. However, while the U.S. series was wrapping up in 1987, the animated series continued in Japan. In fact, three additional seasons aired as well as one additional series pilot from 1987 to 1990.