After the immense success of the first three television specials featuring the colorful characters of Hallmark’s Rainbow Brite property, an 8-episode syndicated series was green-lit for production, even before work on the feature film Rainbow Brite and the Star Stealer had concluded. 

Spearheaded by Howard R. Cohen, who had taken over for writer Woody Kling after a medical diagnosis left him unable to continue with the project, animation of the series transitioned from TMS Entertainment in Tokyo to Animation City Editorial Services based in Los Angeles. Cohen would go on to write all but one of the syndicated episodes.

These episodes – lead by the reordered 1984/85 specials to fill the lineup to 13 – premiered on Kideo TV in 1986 with the first unseen episode airing on 1 January 1987 with Invasion of Rainbow Land. 

Starting just a short time after the events of the film, the episode features a lost space alien, Wajja, who asks for Rainbow Brite and the Color Kid’s help after his spaceship crash lands next to the Color Castle. While the Color Kids (mostly Shy Violet) figure out how to get his spaceship up and running, Wajja reveals his people get their energy from colors. Overhearing this, Murky plans to kidnap the spaceman and use him to drain all the color out of Rainbow Land.

The episode was the first to feature Moonglow, who was part of a new line of dolls that would later be released by Mattel.

Mom (airing 24 January) served as a backstory for why Murky Dismal, whose full name is Murkwell, hates colors. After his mother makes a surprise visit, he lies, telling her he is the ruler of Rainbow Land! He then does his best to murk everything up while Rainbow Brite is away. When the lie gets out of hand, and Rainbow Brite returns, she joins forces with Mrs. Dismal to put Murky back in his place. 

Rainbow Night aired on 31 January and was heavily focused on the character of Moonglow and her role within the color scheme of Rainbow Land. She, along with her assistant Nite Sprite (the only sprite with moons on his antennas rather than stars), are responsible for keeping the moon, stars, and all the colors of night shimmering. This angers Murky as he feels that the night is the only time Rainbow Brite isn’t out making everything bright and colorful. It is meant to be dark! So he and Lurky kidnap Moonglow with the intent of burning out her powers by keeping her under a sunlamp (They do a lot of kidnapping). Even though Rainbow’s powers will not work in The Pits, she and Starlite rush to save their friend. 

Clearly, this episode was meant to promote the Moonglow doll, which was designed by Stefanie Clark Eskande from the Mattel Design team, based on ideas pitched to the toy company by Hallmark. The doll has become a holy grail among collectors as Moonglow was only commercially available in European markets.

I was given a copy of this screenplay by one of the voice actors from the original series, which was fascinating to read. Significant differences took place been the time Cohen wrote script to when the finished episode actually aired. One of the major ones being that, in the screenplay, Twink tags along with Rainbow and Starlite to save Moonglow from The Pits. In the final aired version, the white sprite stays behind in Rainbow Land. Moonglow is one of my favorite characters, and the episode helps to deepen the magic of Rainbow Land. 

On 07 February, the episode Star Sprinkled introduced Plock, an intergalactic conman who comes to Rainbow Land and tricks Twink into giving up the Color Cave in return for some “magic seeds” that he promises will grow an unlimited supply of Color Crystals. Rainbow and the Color Kids realize something is amiss when the hues start fading all over Rainbow Land. Plock then tries to turn a profit when he says the only way Rainbow or her friends can enter the Color Cave is by paying a fee (though for her, it’s half the half price). Murky is overjoyed and revels in the fact that Rainbow Land is losing its color, and he didn’t even have to lift a finger! Luckily, Plock sees the error of his ways and returns the Color Cave to the sprites so that Rainbow Brite and her friends can keep doing what they do best – spreading color and happiness to the universe!

The Star Sprinkled episode was included on a DVD that came with each packaged American Rainbow Brite doll released by Toy Play and music and sounds used in the Color Castle play-set in 2005. It was a random choice of an episode to use to introduce modern children to the characters, but was the first physical release of the episode after the Children’s Video Library VHS tapes of the 1980s, making it an absolute joy for collectors! The episode was also the first to feature Kitty Brite, which had just been released as a plush toy through Mattel.

At the beginning of 1986, the toy line was still incredibly popular, so there was a lot of cross-promotion between DiC and Mattel to include released (or soon-to-be-released) characters. 

We’re not done yet; there’s more Rainbow Brite magic to come, so…

Stay Tuned!