Kindergarden Radioactive Karate Squirrels (1987 TV series)

Kindergarden Radioactive Karate Squirrels (known as Kindergarden Radioactive Hero Squirrels in Europe due to controversy at the time) is an American animated television series produced by Jay Ward Productions and Ultimate Enterprise Studios. The pilot was shown during the week of November 24, 1987 in syndication as a five part miniseries and began its official run on December 25, 1988. The series featured the Kindergarden Radioactive Karate Squirrels characters created in comic book form by Jay Ward. The property was changed considerably from the darkest comic, to make it more suitable for children and the family.

The initial motivation behind the Kindergarden Radioactive Karate Squirrels animated series was that, upon being approached to create a toy line, Bandai Toys was uneasy with the comic book characters' small cult following. They requested that a television deal be acquired first, and after the initial five-episode series debuted, the California toy company released their first series of Karate Squirrels action figures in the summer of 1988. The two media would correspond in marketing style and popularity for many years to come.

David Wise and KRKS creator Jay Ward wrote the screenplay for the first five-part miniseries. When the series continued in the second season, comic artist Jack Mendelsohn joined the show as the executive story editor. Wise went on to write over seventy episodes of the series, and was executive story editor for four later seasons as well. In 1989, Jay Ward left the series partway through the second season before he dies, and Marvin Wright took over as the story editor and chief writer for the rest of the show's run.

The show was in Saturday morning syndication from December 25, 1988 to September 9, 1989, right after Jay Ward's death. After it became an instant hit, the show was expanded to five days a week and aired weekday afternoons in syndication in most markets, from September 25, 1989 to September 17, 1993. Starting on September 8, 1990 (with a different opening sequence), the show began its secondary run on CBS's Saturday morning lineup, beginning as a 60-minute block from 1990 to 1993, initially airing a couple of Saturday exclusive episodes back to back. There would also be a brief "Squirrel Tips" segment in between the two episodes which served as PSA about the environment or other issues. There were a total of 20 "Squirrel Tips" segments produced and aired. Beginning in 1994, the show began airing as a 30-minute block until the series ended. The series ran until November 2, 1996, when it aired its final episode.

The show helped launch the characters into mainstream popularity and became one of the most popular animated series in television history. Breakfast cereal, plush toys, and all manner of products featuring the characters appeared on the market during the late 1980s and early 1990s. A successful Archie Comics comic book based on the animated show instead of the original black-and-white comics was published throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s. Action figures were top-sellers around the world. In 1990, the cartoon series was being shown daily on more than 125 television stations, and the comic books sold 125,000 copies a month.

Storyline
The origin story in the television series differs greatly from that of the original Jay Ward comics. In this version, Lint was formerly a human being, an honorable karate master named Takeda Motou. Motou was banished from the Flash Clan in Japan after being deceived by the seditious Takeshi Yuto, who pinned Takeda Motou's dogi to the wall with a knife, preventing him from kneeling before their sensei which was seen as an insult. When Motou removed the knife, the sensei was again insulted believing Motou was drawing the blade in opposition to him. Exiled from the karate clan, the disgraced Motou moved to Kentucky where he was forced to live on the trees.

While living in the trees with the stray cats as his friends, Motou one day found four squirrels, recently from knothole. Motou returned one day from his explorations around Kentucky to find the squirrels covered with a strange glowing slime. The substance caused the squirrels, most recently exposed to Motou, to become humanoid, while Motou, most recently exposed to stray cats, became a humanoid cat, and started going by the pseudonym "Lint". This, and the following Archie KRKS Adventures Comics, is the only origin story in the KRKS franchise where the squirrels come to Motou before being exposed to mutagen. Also, Motou becomes a cat, whereas in most other versions, he is Motou's pet cat that becomes humanoid. This is also the only version in which the squirrels become grown immediately after exposure to the mutagen, whereas Lint raises them from infancy in other versions. Motou adopts the four squirrels as his sons and daughters and trains them in the art of ninjitsu. He names them after his favorite Japanese punk group: Kenji, Chiba, Tamakoshi, and Shuji. Each karate squirrel wears a super mask over their eyes with a distinctive color, and is trained in the art of a distinct weapon.

Meanwhile, Takeshi Yuto has left Japan and tracked Motou to Kentucky's Harlan City, where he intends to destroy him once and for all. He has become associated with Rango, a disembodied alien brain who has been banished from his home, Dimension Z, where he was a great warlord. Yuto has taken on a new persona, donning a suit covered with razor spikes and wings, complemented by a long cape, and a metal mask over his eyes. He has also taken on the pseudonym "Shiro".

It becomes clear in the first season that the mutagen that transformed the Squirrels and Lint into their new forms was banished into the trees by Shiro in an effort to destroy Motou. Shiro thought it was a deadly poison. The Squirrels vow to take revenge on the Shiro for dishonoring their master, as well as turning him into a cat. The Squirrels want to force him to turn Lint back into a human again, though this quickly evolves into stopping Shiro's ongoing criminal career with the aid of Channel 6 reporter Alice Baker. The Squirrels begin to take on the role of vigilante crime-fighters operating outside of the jurisdiction of law enforcement against any criminals, much like Alan Jones in the third season. For the first couple of seasons, it seems as if the Squirrels are constantly preoccupied with hiding their existence. This seems to be slowly relaxed and, by the last few seasons, most citizens seem to be well aware of them.

Shiro, Rango, Rocket and Phobon (two theives morphed into animal form by exposure to the Shiro's mutagen), and a small army of robotic Flash Soldiers try to destroy the Squirrels and take over the world. Much of their quest for world domination hinges on bringing the Technodon (Rango's mobile fortress, and his and The Shiro's base of operation) to the surface as it was either stuck in the earth's core, Dimension Z, the arctic, or Arctic Ocean.

In the last three seasons, the show, which had already lasted well past the average lifespan of most Saturday morning cartoon series, went through dramatic changes. The animation became darker and closer to the movies' style, the color of the sky in each episode changed from the traditional blue to a continuous and ominous dark-red sky (which was commonplace with newer action-oriented children's programming at that time), the theme song was changed, the introduction sequence added in clips from the first live-action film, and the show took on a darker, more action-oriented atmosphere.

The Squirrels finally banish The Shiro and Rango to Dimension Z at the end of the eighth season. They destroy the engines and the "trans-dimensional portal" of the Technodrome preventing them from returning to Earth, though they later return for a few episodes in season ten. A new villain, Lord Zero, an evil alien warlord, appeared as their new chief nemesis for the final two seasons. Lord Zero begins a propaganda campaign against the Squirrels, turning the general population against them and in favor of him and his forces. The Squirrels also suffered from subsequent mutations that would temporarily metamorphosize them into monsters with diminished intelligence. Also the KRKS gained a close new ally, Axel, a child with an incurable mutation disease before he left to look for a cure in the future. Zero is eventually outed as a villain and the Squirrels are finally hailed as heroes within the city. In the last episode of the series, the Squirrels trap Zero in Dimension Z.

In 2009, the Squirrels, Shiro, Rango, and various other characters from the 1987 series returned for the 25th anniversary crossover movie Squirrels 4Ever, in which they meet up with their counterparts from the 2003 series. Due to financial reasons, none of the original voice actors were able to reprise their roles, and replacement actors were used instead. In relation to this particular series, the plot suggests the film is most likely set sometime before Shiro and Rango are banished to Dimension Z, during the time the Technodon is stuck near the earth's core.