Introductions & Finales

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Lancer_97

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I was reminiscing earlier about some of the animated programs that I enjoyed in my youth and it occurred to me that it’s quite uncommon for an animated program to have both an official introduction episode and an official finale. Some animated programs have had one or the other, but it’s the ones that have both that I find to be the most intriguing. I realize that the popularization of anime and its influence on contemporary animation has begun to change this fact, but I believe that this is still worth discussing. I will also ask some questions at the end of this thread, as usual, so I hope that you will all take the time to participate.

The first animated program that I could think of was “101 Dalmatians: The Series”. It’s one of my all-time favorite animated programs, even though it had practically no continuity aside from a few minor references to past events. However, despite this fact, it had both an official introduction and an official finale. It’s first episode, “Home Is Where The Bark Is”, introduced all of the characters and the core concepts behind the series. It’s last three episodes, “Dearly Beloved”, served as a three-part series finale that was also released as a DTV movie. Personally, I believe those episodes were amongst the best in the series; they provided substance that was seldom found in the normal episodes, and the fact that the characters had some of their best roles certainly didn’t hurt either. All in all, I believe that such introduction and finale episodes are typically better than normal episodes, which brings me to the point of this thread.

Do you believe that introduction and finale episodes should be used more or less in animation? What do you believe introduction and finale episodes bring to an animated program? Also, what are your favorite introduction and/or finale episodes that you have ever seen, and why do you feel that way about them?
 
MOST people who make cartoons think that kids are stupid hence why we never get an official intro and finale. Others probably get stopped by the studio and/or network. For example, I think Animaniacs had an introduction but didn't really have a finale unless you count Wacko's Wish which really wasn't much of a finale. Then there's Batman: TAS which sort of had an intro with the "On Leather Wings" episode and it had a finale if you count Batman Beyond and that JLU episode involving Terry McGinnis.
 
The 80's TMNT series had a set up mini-series, and I recall reading (But because I never saw most of the last season) that the show ended with Splinter telling the Turtles that their training was over with the defeat of Dregg.

Gargoyles also had a set up mini series, and TWO series finales, even though The Goliath Chronicles ending is no longer canon.
 
Funny, I've noticed that a lot of shows have introductions. Birdman, for example, had a downright clever first episode, introducing the character through an F.E.A.R. briefing on their greatest enemy, and generally having an introductory tone for the rest of the episode. (It also had a sort of ending in "The Wings of FEAR", but due to many of the FEAR episodes being out of order, it's hard to tell; I might not have noticed if they hadn't mistakenly put "Murro the Marauder" after it.)

Actually, come to think of it... most animated series I can think of had some type of beginning, be it an origin, a regular adventure with introductory overtones (see Batman: The Animated Series for an excellent example), or something else. I'm having a hard time thinking of any that didn't. Examples?
 
I’m sorry, but that doesn’t count. I’m talking about full-fledged introductory episodes that establish the course of the series. There are numerous examples of what I’m talking about; “The Angry Beavers” episode entitled “Born To Be Beavers” is an appropriate example, as is the five-part introduction of “Gargoyles” entitled “Awakening”.
 
I really only care about introductory and ending episodes in action shows or drama shows. Pure comedy shows like Spongebob or Ren & Stimpy don't really need them, though Spongebob does have both. They can't hurt, but I'd enjoy Spongebob as much as I do now if "Help Wanted" and the movie never existed.

That said, Mighty Max also had both
 
I think it's more often a studio or network mandate, although I think we're seeing a change. The tradition has been for shows that can be watched in any order, skipped over, etc.- with the sense that continuity would hurt ratings in the long run because it requires an investment kids can't always make with following a show. I grew up not being allowed to watch afternoon toons on weekdays up until high school when I edged into it with Gargoyles and then playing catch-up with Animaniacs and Tiny Toons. I found continuity did help hold my interest and I think primetime tv's gone in the same direction. And then you add in the internet and TiVo... these things can be facilitated in a whole new way where shows that wouldn't have continuity in earlier generations can afford to have a bit.

And part of that is the influence from Japanese marketing that brings in themed seasons and cast changes. It's not hard to see the connection between Power Ranger retheming and Masters of the Universe vs the Snakemen, Naruto Shippuden and Ben 10 Alien Force, etc. It's plot evolution as freshening up the brand. New characters means new toys, and if you can get the show immersive enough without losing the less entrenched viewers... It's a definite balancing act, but it has leaned more towards continuity as shows have gotten better at appealing to both levels of viewers and missed episodes can be read up on through tv.com and such.
 
That's being going on since the 80s. Heck, specifically the 80s where they had to rotate in new characters for the kids to buy all the toys. Not exactly a new concept or anything... it's actually been toned down since the 90s, thankfully. Transformers and Chaotic are now the only toy-centric show around these days, IIRC. For the better, if you ask me.
 
It just depends on the show itself I think.If it's a show with an ongoing storyline with the occasion fillers then it should have a proper ending.But if it's just a show about total random plots and characters that are forgettable.Well,then it's forgettable.Avatar should have a proper ending,for example.But a show like Camp Lazlo isn't in need of some grand finale,IMHO.
 
Introductions & Finales

I see your point, though I respectfully disagree. As I said in the example, ?101 Dalmatians: The Series? was a comedy series with practically no continuity, but its introduction and finale were amongst the best episodes in the series. It can work, though I concede that it?s more difficult to do in comedies.
 
And, in your opinion, only an origin episode can establish the course of the series? Because "On Leather Wings" isn't just a random episode that happened to come first - it very clearly went out of its way to be a beginning, establishing all the major players and such, down to being the one episode to really focus on the Batmobile leaving the Batcave and rocketing off for Gotham.

For that matter, many anime, clear an introduction as they may have, begin in medias res and go from there, or feature the characters meeting without going into any real origin for any of them. In that sense, many cartoons have had introductions.
 
Introductions & Finales

I?ve never seen that episode, but I wasn?t particularly talking about that one. You were trying to imply that nearly every animated program has an introduction episode, but that simply isn?t the case. Perhaps ?On Leather Wings? counts, I can?t say, but the vast majority of animated programs don?t have introduction episodes; that is true especially for comedies.
 
You said,"I'm sorry, but that doesn't count." What were you talking about?
Hence my asking for examples, because as I said before, I was having a hard time thinking of any that didn't have some kind of beginning. In terms of action series, which I've been bigger on lately, literally almost every one that comes to mind had a beginning. Comedies, on the other hand... I know it's hard to give examples for something that's practically a given, but could you anyway? Because I'm honestly having trouble thinking of any there, as well.
 
You said...

Perhaps it’s subjective, but I don’t believe “introductory overtones” counts as an official introduction episode. The episode of “Danny Phantom” entitled “Mystery Meat” had introductory overtones, but I wouldn’t consider it to be an introduction episode. When I created this thread, I cited an example as to the sorts of episodes that I was referring towards. Episodes that establish the series. For example, “Brandy & Mr. Whiskers” takes place in the Amazon, but the first episode, “Mr. Whiskers’ First Friend” had the characters on an airplane. In that episode, a series of events occurred that caused the characters to plummet into the Amazon, ergo establishing the series and permitting every other episode to take place in the Amazon.


I’ve already stated on this forum that my memory is limited at best; I can’t just come up with examples. Off the top of my head, “Chowder” and “Yin Yang Yo!” didn’t have introduction episodes, though I can only name those because I’m currently watching them. There are plenty of others, though.

Perhaps I’m wrong and you’re right. Perhaps I’m an idiot who should stop making threads. However, as a fan of animation, I earnestly believe that there aren’t many animated programs that have had both an introduction episode and a series finale.
 
I personally think that all that is needed for an intro episode is that it has to clearly introduce all the main characters, their environment, their personalities, etc. As long as you understand their world near-completely in the first episode, it's as good as an intro. All shows (to my knowledge) have these intros. But you do have a point about origin episodes (but I don't care much about those, unless I'm really curious), which are scarce and even fewer are actually the first episode.
 
Some shows have a set number of episodes which has a plan for both an introduction episode and finale episode. Unfortunately, sometimes they don't get there - Super Robot Monkey Team Hyper Force Go! is one such example of a series stopped short of a true ending episode.

Tiny Toon Adventures clearly had an introduction episode (The Looney Beginning), but a simple question is what can you do for an ending for that kind of show? Darkwing Duck had a 2-part introduction, but if the show was to end at 65 episodes, what could you do for an ending in that season that would allow the show to continue into another season (as it did on ABC)? It's the finale episodes that put some kind of definitive ending to a season that pose the most problems if a show gets an order for another season. Kim Possible was somewhat of an example of that, but the producers already had a plan in place for the show if got renewed for a season 4.
 
I agree. While there's certainly nothing wrong with how they did it, Brandy and Mr. Whiskers could as easily have started in medias res - maybe with a flashback involved, maybe not - and, as long as they did it right and properly introduced the situation, they could've introduced the series that way.

The same goes for "Mystery Meat". Maybe we're working under different definitions of the word somehow, but I thought it established the series just fine.
(By the way, I trailed off the show after a while, and I've always wondered: Did they ever get around to showing the accident?)
 
People can watch any episode of any series and get to know the characters. I used “Chowder” as an example earlier; “The Froggy Apple Crumple Thumpkin” was its first episode, but it’s no different than any other episode of the series. Such things have to be taken into consideration; an animated program’s first episode isn’t necessarily an introduction episode. However, animated programs like “101 Dalmatians: The Series” and “Brandy & Mr. Whiskers” do have introduction episodes.


I'm not talking about origin episodes. "Freakazoid" had a two-part origin episode, but it took place in the middle of the season. I don't consider that to be an introduction episode.
 
Yeah, but I felt that episode [The Froggy Apple Crumple Thumpkin] established everything every well. And I didn't know that B&MW had an introduction episode, because I missed the premiere, so never realized that the plane one was the first episode. As with Danny Phantom, they did shove some light on it in one episode, but we never get to truly got to see the actual accident.
 
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