While it wouldn't be possible to produce a show today, with the voice talent speaking in stereotypical Japanese accents (along with conspicuously stereotypical British and NYC Jewish charicatures (even pre-South Park, no one is safe), once one puts this in context as a product of its time, the short, 6-episode run of this show bears an overabundance of jokes that truly demand repeat viewings to catch even half of. Not all episodes are up to the laughing-milk-thru-your-nostrils standards as, say, "The Seven Brides of Lucky Pierre", but even its weakest episode is maybe too subversive to ever expect a show like this on any network to this day. But I caught episodes (and taped them religiously) starting in early 1988 on USA Network's Night Flight, then saw the first two episodes air once on Nickelodeon, and even as late as the mid-'90s caught Night Flight airing on Seattle's NBC affiliate and if I was lucky, a half-hour of DYNAMAN might be aired as part of it.
If you like Mystery Science Theatre 3000's meta-commentary and obscure pop culture references, you get it all here, too, in the ridiculously improvised English voiceovers that have no relation to the original dialogue from the Japanese show the footage comes from.
Kids and parents were cheated years later when "Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers" came from later seasons of the same Japanese show, with an American for the scenes out of costume, but the show was a cynical sugar rush of spastic action and merchandising. DYNAMAN, though, remains at least as quotable as James Cameron's ALIENS. Any time I'd see a clip from Power Rangers, I'd lament the missed opportunity that no one ever exclaims, "HEY!! It's a giant frog!! And he's all covered with swollen M&Ms!", or at least, "Hip-hip hooray!! We're orphans!"
Not for another 10 years or so, would I notice in the credits, that 4/5 of Kids In The Hall are credited with writing, and Mark McKinney is even the voice of Dyna Blue!
I suspected it was the totally incongruous pop music used in the action scenes that kept this show from getting past its 6th episode. It was probably just too oddball to find a network to do more than test it on audiences. It's not a show you can fold laundry to, you have to be there with it to catch most of the jokes (and, admittedly, some of them go by too quickly or in some cases, the recording sounds muffled (especially in the Flipper episode). This is a far, far better show than Power Rangers could ever be, and it's a shame this didn't find the success that the latter got.
Fragments of badly dubbed broadcasts are occasionally on YouTube... until they get pulled. Find some. Watch with friends. Then listen to your new Patrick Swayze album.
