But that wasn't what sealed the show's fate. Back in the day, animated kids shows lived and died on that toy revenue. Because of that, SWAT Kats toys weren't readily available. When the series debuted on TBS in 1993, the Ted Turner-owned network wasn't prepared for the show's instant success. They actually built a new state-of-the-art jet out of junk and took matters into their own hands. But these unjustly framed heroes didn't take that demotion lying down.
Together, they formed the secret team known as SWAT Kats after they were unceremoniously dropped from the Enforcers, the military police of Megakat City.
However, there are few shows that suffered such a lack of network support that fans actually blamed actress and activist Jane Fonda for the cancellation! The only series that lives up to that description is SWAT Kats: The Radical Squadron, but there's a lot more to the story.Īs noted above, the series starred humanoid-like cats named Jake 'Razor' Clawson and Chance 'T-Bone' Furlong. You can thank the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for that. During the '90s, there was no shortage of anthropomorphic crime-fighting animal animated series.
