Continuing from yesterday’s post, I will begin the second set of syndicated episodes produced after the 1985 feature film Rainbow Brite and the Star Stealer with Chasing Rainbows, which aired on 14 February 1987. After an accident, Murky is struck by a stroke of genius. Rushing to his lab, he creates a wind-up Rainbow Brite, which he uses to fool the inhabitants of Rainbow Land while the real Rainbow Brite is spreading color on the Earth. However, the Color Kids realize something isn’t quite right after the wind-up Rainbow doesn’t understand Night Sprite and she needs Moonglow to translate for her. When the real Rainbow Brite returns, she and the kids work to outsmart Murky at his own game. Realizing he’s been beaten, Murky rushes back to The Pits.

The episode was edited when released in North American markets. In the episode, after the Wind-up Rainbow malfunctions and stops working, Murky throws a rock at her head to correct the glitch – which works. The altered scene shows Murky hitting his remote until the glitch resolves itself. When released in European and other nations, the episode is unaltered to include the rock being thrown.

Written by Felicia Maliani, Murky’s Comet, aired on 21 February and is the only script of the syndicated series not penned by Cohen himself.

Bumbling sorcerer Sorrel, gets lost on his way to a mechanical spells convention and is forced to land his spaceship in The Pits. As a reward for Murky and Lurky’s help fixing his spaceship, Sorrel casts a spell that creates a comet from an evil rainbow to destroy  Rainbow Land. But the comet is so big, it threatens to take The Pits out with it. The only way to save both of their homes is for Murky and Lurky to get Rainbow’s belt and use a good rainbow to destroy the evil one. Taking on the task herself, Rainbow uses the Color Belt to make a rainbow that shatters the comet and saves the day! 

Another screenplay gifted to me by one of the voice actors, I thoroughly enjoyed the story Maliani crafted in this episode. She had a great voice and a real feel for the characters. 

On 28 February, the episode A Horse of a Different Color introduced Sunriser, a pink horse who lived in the mountains just outside of Rainbow Land. She was wild and free – and absolutely smitten with Starlite. Murky uses the opportunity of a horse race during the Sprite Fair to capture Starlite and On-X – which he does after releasing a gloomy cloud that affects everyone in Rainbow Land – except Stormy (because she likes clouds, but doesn’t like Murky). 

After seeing where Murky and Lurky took the horses, Sunriser leads Rainbow Brite to her best friend. Even though she brought Rainbow to save him, Starlites ego gets the better of him when he sees Rainbow riding another horse and rushes off. Returning home, Rainbow finds Starlite to tell him how much she loves him and that she’s clearly not the only one – Sunriser does too. 

Often paired with Tickled Pink, Sunriser was released as a hard-bodied horse by Mattel toward the end of the line’s original run. The original title of this episode was Riders of the Rainbow Sage, and it went through several drafts before Cohen submitted the final story for production.  My favorite part of this episode is watching Stormy use her powers. Not only is she immune to Murky’s gloom clouds, she can also control lightning. On 07 March, Queen of The Sprites served as the series finale. The episode brought The Dark Princess and Count Blog to Rainbow Land on a quest to get power back to the magic jewel Rainbow Brite and Krys destroyed during the events of the feature film Rainbow Brite and the Star Stealer. Worried her old foe has come to her world, once again Rainbow Brite uses her cunning and wit to defeat the Dark Princess once and for all.

While re-watching the series I realized that a lot of these syndicated episodes feel like extended toy commercials. Now, to be fair, so did MANY other children’s television series of the 1980s. At least with Rainbow Brite there was a story and a through-line that connected each episode. It’s part of the reason why 40 years later the character is still so well-loved.

There was a magic to Rainbow Brite and it has stood the test of time with fondness. It teaches children not just to be kind and listen to your parents, but to have faith in yourself – that you have your own power – and as long as we believe, the rainbow will take us anywhere! It teaches perseverance, which is something all of us could use a little more of.

This does conclude the review of the original 1980s series, but there’s still more Rainbow Brite to come so…

Stay Tuned!