My Little Pony 'n Friends production info?

[Monzo]

Hi there, everyone. I'm a fan of the various animated productions put out by Sunbow and Marvel Productions in the 1980s, including My Little Pony, Transformers, Jem, G.I. Joe, etc. For some of these shows, internal behind-the-scenes information like episode production numbers have made their way to the public - for instance, the five episodes of first G.I. Joe miniseries were coded 4005-4009 and the Transformers pilot episodes were coded 4023-4025.

This numbering system seems to have been exclusive to Marvel Productions TV specials, because when Joe went to full series, the ep numbers became MP600-01 and up, while Transformers became MP700-04 and up. Jem appears to have avoided this trend, though - perhaps by dint of starting out on the multi-feature "Super Saturday/Super Sunday" block - as the episode codes begin with 5205-. Likewise, the episodes of Jem's "Super Saturday" alumni Inhumanoids start with 5206-.

I was wondering if any of this kind of information has surfaced for the original My Little Pony TV specials and series. I know the UK DVD releases of Transformers, Inhumanoids, and Visionaries included dialogue scripts from those series as extras (scripts which the actors used while recording their dialogue, rather than the full scripts done up by the writers), which provided those fandoms with the episode production codes for the first time. This kind of info can also be interesting when compared to airdates, because sometimes episodes would get delayed and shown on television way later than they were developed. Jem's 5205-37 originally aired between 5205-48 and 5205-52!

I know I met someone (and their sister) at 2012's My Little Pony Fair in Orlando who had some internal Sunbow material - I bought a pile of 1980s Edgmont MLP comics from them - but I have no idea what I did with their contact information in the meanwhile...

Anyway, any help in digging this info up would be appreciated. Thanks!

[Strawberry Swirl]

Oooh, I'm for sure interested in seeing what can be found!

[Taffeta]

I have seen people discuss stuff around the creation of MLP before but I have never seen the kind of indepth liaising in this community with the animation team of MLP&Friends as for example with Jem, where key people involved in the show have been at various points involved in the community, (Christy Marx, Anne Bryant, etc etc). A lot of Jem series information is out there in the public sphere because of this, I am assuming you have probably already plugged through a lot of that although things like original scripts I believe are closely guarded by copyright agreements. I haven't ever heard of the scripts being released on DVDs as extras.

I do remember lots of discussion about episode airing order in the US for Jem and the fact that two different US DVD releases of those had certain episodes running in a different order from the other because of the official episode numbers/original airing order. It's also clear from watching Jem when an episode really should have come earlier or later in the process. There have also been discussions about songs from episodes that were in the script but later cut for time.

I'm not sure whether people have that information about MLP because for a lot of the community the animated series was limited run and is a part of the whole franchise but not the core of it. Most old pony collectors have spent more time on the products the animation advertised rather than the TV series, so I can't remember a discussion of the same kind of depth as some of those in the Jem community in times past.

 I am pretty sure that the comics you are talking about are those which were created in the UK, with some transmission of the stories in translated format across on the European continent. They have nothing to do with MLP&Friends or Sunbow, were never released in the US and before the birth of the international collecting community were not known about by most US pony fans. The comics often contradict the plotlines and characters of the TV show and ran for a far longer period (1985-94 I think), thus incorporating more ponies than the limited animation run. They were released here on either a weekly or fortnightly basis over that period of time. So while they are awesome, they may not be useful for the kind of information you seek. All the airing numbers you mention refer to US airing dates and codes but I am not certain if MLP ever aired on TV in the UK in the 1980s or whether it was distributed entirely on VHS until the mid 1990s when it played on Sky1 for a while, so it might be that only US source material can help you in your quest.

Good luck

[LadyMoondancer]

I wonder if the collector you talked to at the convention was Wildshadow?  I think she collects MLP & Friends related production stuff. 

[Carrehz]

I was thinking of Wildshadow, too I know she's posted a lot of production stuff in the past - she has an amazing collection Maybe she'd have some of the info you're after.

[Al-1701]

Those are probably Marvel Production's codes for G.I. Joe and Transformers.  MP for "Marvel Productions" and the first number was the series code with the episode code after the hyphen.  Not sure with the Super Sunday shows, maybe they went with Sunbow's production codes.

This would make me suspect MLP would be MP800- if Marvel Productions were the ones coding it.  Though, who knows.  How things were divided between the two company was complicated (and hotly contested from what I heard).

[Deep Purple Crystal]

I wonder if the collector you talked to at the convention was Wildshadow?  I think she collects MLP & Friends related production stuff. 

I was wondering that as well - considering Wildshadow's extensive range of production material (man, am I jealous of that Sunbow writer's guide!) and even-more extensive G1 comic collection (Man, am I jealous of... never mind, just tell me what numbers you received. Shrewd, I know, but I have an automatic urge to ask about such matters after so many years of G1 comic collecting).

Interesting information about the production numbers. Considering how the original MLP n' Friends ending credits were pretty much chopped out of the episodes for syndication, this may clear up some ambiguity (I always have to wonder if 'Fugitive Flowers' was written earlier than some of the episodes it aired after - having read the Sunbow writing guide and with the episode being written by the show's head writers, I always consider it as having been their 'example script' of the content they were asking for in the guide ('light', 'whimsical' 'Disneyesque' and 'non-condescending' emerge to mind here).