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Galaxy High School PDF Print E-mail
Written by Matthew Waldram   
SunriseIn an unstable World clouded by uncertainties and intangibles, it’s nice to be able to deal with facts and absolutes from time to time.  It’s nice to know that Day will always follow Night, that the Sun will always rise in the East and set in the West; and that this happens because the Earth always spins towards the East.

I know these things to be fact, as they have been scientifically proven, just as I know that "Doyle was the High School Star (everybody thought he’d get real far)", whilst "Aimee was the smartest girl in school (not very popular, not very cool)". 

I know this, not because it has been proven by science, but because – in 1986 – as a basketball bounced up and down upon a polished gym floor at a fictional High School in Middle-America, in time with the drum beat which kicked off a 62-second piece of music composed and performed by Don Felder, a robotic voice TOLD me so!

And, yes, that is the same Don Felder who played guitar during, and co-wrote, the song Hotel California as part of American Rock Band The Eagles.

If you don’t know by now what I’m talking about, then there’s every chance that you’re not familiar with the cult-tastic Kids’ show Galaxy High.

Galaxy High SchoolGalaxy High was an animated series that ran, in America, from September until December 1986 (it first showed in the UK around a year later) and lasted for just one season of 13 episodes.

The premise was that an intergalactic High School was established with the notion of taking in students from all over the Solar System in an attempt to bring about greater unity amongst differing races.  After many years of running successfully, it is decided that, for the first time in the School’s history, they will enrol a couple of Students from the Planet Earth.

The two students taken were Doyle Cleverlobe; a skilled athlete who is extremely popular at his High School back on Earth, and Aimee Brightower who was the smartest girl in that same High School but, as something of a geek, who was also very unpopular.  Aimee was accepted into Galaxy High because her grades were so good, whilst Doyle ended up there because it is the last School that will give him a chance to graduate, as his grades are so bad.

Once they arrive at Galaxy High, they find that their roles reverse somewhat.  Aimee, being an Earth-girl (and completely new to the students) becomes the most popular student there, whilst Doyle, being a complete dumbass, becomes ridiculed and universally loathed by pretty much everybody (except the six-armed Class President Milo de Venus).

Chief amongst Doyle’s tormenters is the School Bully, Beef Bonk (left); the leader of ‘The Bonk Bunch’.  He hates Earthlings Beef Bonk(apparently we stink) and looks like he could be the result of a relationship twixt Bull and Chicken.  Whatever he is, he makes Doyle’s life a misery from the moment the Earth boy arrives at Galaxy High.

There’s plenty to like about this cartoon; from the originality and inventiveness that went into the look, sound and personalities of the characters, to the artwork and animation which, considering it is now nearly a Quarter of a Century old, still looks pretty great today.

But what really strikes me about this show is the calibre of the Cast and Crew who were involved.  I’ve already mentioned that the hugely enjoyable, and easily memorable (it’s been in my head for 20 years) theme tune was written by a musical behemoth in Don Felder, but add to that the fact that the show was conceived, written and developed by Chris Columbus.  Coming, as this show did, in 1986, Columbus was already something of a hit in Hollywood having written the screenplays for the 1984 movie Gremlins and the now-legendary 1985 cult classic The Goonies.

He has since gone on to Produce several of the Harry Potter movies (he Directed The Philosopher’s Stone and The Chamber of Secrets) as well as Producing the Ben Stiller supernatural comedy Night at the Museum.

In short, this is a man with solid credentials and plenty of imagination.



 
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