Saturday Morning Cartoons – TigerSharks

It’s time! The week is over, the weekend is here and with it comes our favorite…Saturday Morning Cartoons!

This week, we’re diving back to 1987 to join Maco, Octavia, Walro, Dalph, Angel, Bronk, and their dog Gulp for the often forgotten TigerSharks!

If you were a fan of Thundercats and Silverhawks, then you’re in for a treat. TigerSharks is basically the underwater version (lol). Here’s a brief synopsis followed by episodes 1 – 4, courtesy of Rad Retro

An underwater salvage team, the Tiger Sharks, take on the task of defending Waterro. Using a device that allows the team to change to half man half fish, they are able to thwart the evil plans of T-Ray and Captain Bazarlie.

TigerSharks is an American animated children’s television series developed by Rankin/Bass and distributed by Lorimar-Telepictures in 1987. The series involved a team of heroes that could transform into amalgams of human and marine animals and resembled the series ThunderCats and SilverHawks, also developed by Rankin/Bass. Sourced from an original VHS and cleaned up for HD.

An underwater salvage team, the Tiger Sharks, is commissioned to retrieve a downed spacecraft from a nearby planet Waterro. Waterro is a planet that is over ninety percent water. The planet’s inhabitants, the waterians, agree to let the Tiger Sharks salvage the ship and also send a couple of their own citizens, who can breathe on land as well as in the water, to help in the salvage effort. The Tiger Sharks send single member, Lorka, to handle the retrieval.

The downed spacecraft’s cargo contained X-400, the most deadly and destructive explosive in the universe. While the preliminary prep for the ship and its cargo, a Mantaray ship, commanded by T-Ray, arrives on the planet. Upon his arrival, he frees an old enemy of the waterians, Captain Bazarlie, and his pet Dragon stein. The two had been frozen in the ice a long time ago.

T-Ray submerges his ship and finds Lorka and his two waterian. They are all captured, but not before Lorka sent out a distress signal. Once the Tiger Sharks receive the distress signal, they have the ship’s computer, SARK, prepare for take off. The Tiger Shark team is made up the commander/leader Maco, Octavia, Walro, Dalph, Angel, Bronk, and a dog Gulp. During launch prep, Walro unveils his new engineering feat, a large water tank between the front underwater loading bay and the cargo hold.

Upon diving in the tank and activating it, Walro changes into a half man half walrus. This change will allow the Tiger Sharks to be under water with out bulky scuba gear. Walro informs Maco, in order to return to their natural state they have to go through the tank to change back or be stuck in the alternative state forever. As soon as the Tiger Sharks arrive on Waterro, they attack T-Ray in order to free Lorka and the waterians.

T-Ray and his crew are able to fend off the Tiger Sharks and keep their prisoners. As soon as they are away from the Tiger Sharks, the mantaray ship is attacked by Captain Bazarlie. Upon realizing that both he and Captain Bazarlie are on the side, evil, he bargains with Captain Bazarlie to team up with the goal of taking control of the planet.

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I have to admit, I didn’t get to see TigerSharks often when it originally aired, having watched most of the series in my adult years. I do recall catching an episode or two, but it was on a time and/or channel that interfered with watching something else, so it was often overlooked. That said, it’s definitely a fun series, if you’re in to Thundercats and/or Silverhawks as mentioned above.

What’s your take on TigerSharks? Let me know in the comments and as always, if there’s a cartoon you’d like to seen showcased here, just give the word! Thanks as always for spending some of your time here, I hope you enjoyed! See you next week!