The Big Broadcast of 2006 (episode)

This article is about the Generation 1 cartoon episode. For the comic adaptation of this episode, see The Big Broadcast of 2006 (issue).

« The Transformers ep 85 » « Transformers 2010 ep 21 »
The judge is on the court, bweeeeeeeeeoooop!
"The Big Broadcast of 2006"
Production code	700-105
Production company	Sunbow Productions
Airdate	November 12, 1986
Written by	Michael Reaves
Animation studio	AKOM
Continuity	Generation 1 cartoon continuity

Attempting to retrieve their lost records journal, the Quintessons use subliminal messages on the Junkions, and inadvertently the entire galaxy.

Synopsis

"THE PRIME RIB IS GONE!"

On the planet of Junk, Wreck-Gar and his special lady friend are concluding a fine day of watching television... as observed by the inquisitive Quintessons, who are searching for one of their lost journals. After observing the native Junkions, the Quintessons send a Sharkticon retrieval team. The Sharkticons locate the journal quickly, but Wreck-Gar leads a force of Junkions against them and drives them off.

The Quintessons hijack the television broadcasts the Junkions watch, planting subliminal messages telling the Junkions that being neat is a good thing... and the other races are their enemies. Wreck-Gar and his people are soon cleaning up and sorting out their accumulated detritus, and soon find the journal that the Quintessons seek.

They always fall for the exploding machine trick.

Travelling through the Junkion sector, Sky Lynx comes under attack by Astrotrain. While the two battle, the Junkions fire on both Transformers. Sky Lynx races back to Cybertron, and informs Rodimus Prime and Ultra Magnus. The Autobot leader sends the Aerialbots to investigate. Astrotrain also returns to Chaar to report his encounter, but Galvatron doesn't care. Cyclonus, however, is interested, and takes Scourge and the Sweeps to investigate.

The Aerialbots arrive over Junkion, and are attacked by both the Junkions and the Quintessons. The Aerialbots form Superion and target the Quintessons. Superion inflicts massive damage on the Quintesson ship, but is knocked out in the process and rescued by Sky Lynx. The Quintessons withdraw.

Wreck-Gar and his cohort are eager to get back to watching television, but Cyclonus and the Sweeps arrive to investigate, prompting another battle. The Decepticons withdraw after Cyclonus is satisfied with his observations.

Omega Supreme has yet to realise that he isn't good at playing Hide and Seek.

The Quintessons discover that Superion's attack damaged the transmitter sending the messages to the Junkions, causing the Junkions to believe that they should transmit their broadcasts to other races. The affected races soon begin lashing out at their neighbors, causing what promises to become an interstellar dark age. The Quintessons see a good possibility here, as they can sell weapons to the warring races, but decide that the recovery of the journal is the higher priority.

Back on Chaar, Galvatron displays anger at Cyclonus for going to investigate Junkion, but Cyclonus continues on, believing that to turn the Junkions on the Autobots is too good an opportunity for the Decepticons. Hoping to find answers, Rodimus, Magnus, Kup, and Blaster head to investigate in Omega Supreme, but come under attack by Cyclonus and the Sweeps. Omega is damaged, and the Autobots draw the Decepticons away from the wounded Guardian robot. Finally, Omega Supreme is repaired, and the Decepticons retreat.

We're sorry, but this wiki has exceeded its quota of "compensating for something" jokes.

Meanwhile, the affected races have converged on Junkion, and are firing on everyone in sight. Chaar has also been targeted, and Galvatron is drawn into the bedlam. Knowing they have one chance, the Quintessons make a move for the journal, but a stray blast from Galvatron damages their shuttle and sends the journal hurtling into the void. Arriving, Blaster determines that the transmissions are the cause of the violence, and sends out transmissions to counter them. Their senses restored, the Junkions stop fighting everyone... and start concentrating on the Decepticons, who retreat. Rodimus asks Wreck-Gar what happened, but Wreck-Gar doesn't know.

Returning to their ship, the two Quintessons prepare to accept their punishment, but their superior declares that finding the journal is now their priority... before their clients do.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots	Decepticons	Junkions	Others
Sky Lynx (5) Rodimus Prime (6) Ultra Magnus (7) Silverbolt (12) Air Raid (13) Skydive (14) Fireflight (15) Slingshot (16) Superion (17) First Aid (19) Omega Supreme (21) Kup (22) Blaster (23)	Astrotrain (8) Galvatron (9) Cyclonus (10) Sweeps (18) Scourge (20) Blast Off (cameo) (24) Soundwave (cameo) (25)	Wreck-Gar (1) Nancy (2) Short Junkion (11)	Quintessons (3) Sharkticons (4)

Quotes

"I know you're bored, Rodimus, but with the mantle of leadership comes obligations."
"Mmm. Don't suppose I could interest you in a used mantle?"

—Ultra Magnus and Rodimus Prime

"Life support functional. Weapon system: charred beyond recognition!"

—the Quintesson sense of humor is wry indeed

"To share is to care. To care is to share."

—Quintesson

"Mrs. Peel, we're needed. Our five year mission: to boldly share our signal with all the sloppy lifeforms who are our enemies. There is nothing wrong with your television set. We are controlling transmission. We control the horizontal. We control the vertical. We've got the touch!"

—Wreck-Gar channeling Stan Bush and being badass in his own way.

"Mighty Galvatron, where are you going?"
"To the signal. To be a winner! Because I believe in me!"

—Cyclonus and Galvatron discuss the latter's newfound belief in positive thinking.

Blaster: We're outgunned, man! We don't have a chance!
Kup: Boy, that's what makes life interesting.
Rodimus: Or over!

—The Autobots discuss their situation.

"It's a war! And it looks like half the galaxy's involved!"
"Whatever happened to the good old uninvolved galaxy I used to know?"

—Ultra Magnus, awestruck, and Rodimus Prime, cavalier

Notes

Continuity notes

• The first bit of television that Wreck Gar watches, in the first scene, features a very brief cameo by Starscream! He's trading shots with Powerglide (and his blue jet bits are colored gray. And he's missing his wing stripes. But it's definitely Starscream!) It seems to be a direct reference to the opening scene of "The Master Builders" from the second season.
• Nancy's character model is actually a recycled, recolored Lithone.
• Gadgets and powers:
  • The Sharkticons are shown - again - to be flight-capable in their shark modes, however absurd and ungainly it may be.
  • The Aerialbots are shown having flown all the way from Cybertron to Junkion. Interstellar flight has not been part of their retinue till now.
  • Nancy gets blown up and instantly flies back together, a variant on the Junkions' ability to reassemble themselves during battle.
• Places affected by the subliminals include Delta Pavonis IV, the green moon of Antar, and Cygnus Seven.
• This episode is Omega Supreme's only Season 3 appearance, and last appearance in the cartoon. Consistent with pretty much every other appearance, he transforms from just his rocket ship section (his arms) into his full robot self. Future episode "Grimlock's New Brain" will mention in passing that Omega is "away on a mission", perhaps an attempt to explain his absence for most of the season.
• The adventures of the Quintesson journal will continue in (you guessed it) "The Quintesson Journal".

Real-world references

• The title is a takeoff of the "Big Broadcast" series of movies in the 1930s.
• The If You Can Name That Price game show is an obvious parody of The Price is Right.

• As a Junkion-centric episode, this story is positively drowning in pop culture references. In addition to generic phrases like "this concludes our broadcast day," "it slices, it dices" and "waxy yellow build-up," specific references spewed by the various Junkions include:
  • "Here's looking at you, kid." – Humphrey Bogart's famous line from Casablanca.
  • "For a transcript, send $1 to Merkle Press." Merkle Press used to charge $1 to print the weekly transcript of Meet the Press.
  • "Live from New York, it's… your hit parade!" – a dual reference to Saturday Night Live and Your Hit Parade.
  • "Say goodnight, Gracie!" – a reference to comedienne Gracie Allen.
  • "Oh, Cisco!" and "Oh, Pancho!" refer to The Cisco Kid and his sidekick, but Wreck-Gar and his lady friend use the names in a swooning, romantic way, which is... not... right.
  • "Fly somebody else's friendly skies!" – a warped version of the United Airlines slogan, "Fly the Friendly Skies."
  • "And that's the name of that tune!" – the catchphrase of the titular character in 1970s detective show Baretta, itself a reference to Name That Tune.
  • "Tenk you veddy much!" – the catchphrase of Latka Gravas (Andy Kaufman) on the sitcom Taxi.
  • "Your mission, should you choose to accept it…" – the famous introductory line from the Mission: Impossible TV series.
  • Wreck-Gar and his little buddy assume the roles of Perry White and Jimmy Olsen from Superman, respectively. "Jimmy" refers to Wreck-Gar as "Chief", at which point Wreck-Gar quotes Perry by shouting "And don't call me Chief!"
  • Following on from Wreck-Gar's insistence that he not be called "Chief," the "Jimmy" Junkion responds with "Sorry about that, Chief!", in the style of Maxwell Smart (Don Adams) from 1960s spy comedy, Get Smart. Wreck-Gar also later mimics Smart with a cry of "Missed me by that much!"
  • "Warning, Will Robinson! Danger! Danger!" – the famous line from Lost in Space.
  • Wreck-Gar assumes the role of Jimmy Olsen when he refers to "Mr. Kent".
  • "I pity the fool!" – catchphrase of Mr. T.
  • "Let's consume mass quantities of TV!" – Saturday Night Live sketch characters the Coneheads liked consuming mass quantities of stuff.
  • Finally, Nancy takes the role of Jimmy Olsen when she screams: "Look, up in the sky! It's a bird! It's a plane! It's...", and Wreck-Gar quotes Perry's catchphrase, "Great Caesar's Ghost!"
  • Wreck-Gar cries out to his lady by calling her "Lassie."
  • "Baby, you're the greatest!" – common catchphrase of Ralph Kramden (Jackie Gleason) from The Honeymooners.
  • "Mrs. Peel, we're needed." – Wreck-Gar adopts the role of John Steed (Patrick Macnee) from The Avengers and calls on his teammate Emma Peel (Diana Rigg).
  • "Our five-year mission...to boldly share..." – Star Trek, naturally.
  • "There is nothing wrong with your television set..." – Wreck-Gar recites verbatim several lines from the opening narrative of The Outer Limits.
  • "We've got the touch!" — Possibly a callback to the rock anthem from The Transformers: The Movie but also identical to an old CBS tagline in the 80s.
  • "Lookin' goooood!" – catchphrase of Chico Rodriguez (Freddie Prinze Sr.) on Chico and the Man.
  • "Laser Wars...nothing but Laser Wars...!" – Wreck-Gar parodies a parody, mimicking Bill Murray's comedic rendition of the Star Wars theme on Saturday Night Live.
  • "Ward, I think we've been a little rough on the Beaver." – reference to the 1950s sitcom Leave It to Beaver.
  • "Go ahead...make my day." – Clint Eastwood's famous line from Sudden Impact.
  • "I dunno! I wuz a victim of soicumstance! Yuk yuk yuk!" – banter in the style of the Three Stooges.

• The television show "Space Age Jack" that is broadcast is a parody of G.I. Joe, with the titular "Jacks" facing off against "those lousy reptiles" while screaming the battlecry "Yo, Jack!" Michael Bell, who voiced Duke in the G.I. Joe animated series (and numerous Transformers), plays the part of the battlecrying Space-Age Jack.
• And then, to cap it all off, the Quintessons emphatically tell one another that the journal was "Lost in Space."
• Star Wars sound effects:
  • Death Star superlaser as Cyclonus and the Sweeps take off from Chaar.
  • Deactivating lightsaber as Omega's hatch opens.
  • Millennium Falcon engine burst as the Quintessons launch their recovery ship.
  • Snowspeeder engines as the Decepticons flee Junkion.

Animation and/or technical glitches

Magnus the Red-Mouthed Robot
Had a very AKOM mouth

• AKOM episode. Stock errors to watch for include:
  • Rodimus and Galvatron are both consistently colored using outdated color models; Rodimus's shoulder indentations are red instead of white, his pelvis-windshield details are white instead of light burgundy, and his gun is red instead of black, while Galvatron has pale purple "underpants."
  • Colored character mouths. Magnus = red (sometimes blue), Cyclonus = purple
  • Cyclonus's eyebrows (and sometimes "eyelids") are dark purple.
  • The Sweeps are drawn with the heads-sticking-up model in their hovercraft forms.
• Five voices of doom:
  • Several unique and recurring voices were cast for the five-faced Quintesson Judges, who, in AKOM episodes, were keyed to specific faces. Regis Cordic voices "Quintesson #1," speaking from the face of Doubt; Roger C. Carmel performs "Quintesson #2," who uses the face of Laughter; and Jack Angel portrays "Quintesson #3," represented by the face of Death. Of course, it's hard to call any divergence from this an error, since the voices are those of a specific individual Quintesson, not a specific face, and the Quintessons can change faces as they please, but "Big Broadcast" does stand out as an episode with larger number of instances than normal of the face and voice not "matching up."
  • Charlie Adler jumps in to voice a fourth Quintesson this episode. He speaks only one line while talking with his fellows, delivered by the face of Bitterness; otherwise, his voice is the one that delivers the Quintessons' subliminal message, which is shown being spoken by the face of Death.
• While driving off the Sharkticons in the beginning, Wreck-Gar is shooting lasers from his axe. It changes to a gun in the last shot.
• Wreck-Gar shoots the journal out of one of the Sharkticon's hands. A moment later, he slices it out of the Sharkticon's hands again with his shield-wheel.
• Sky Lynx's transporter section sort of gets shoved out of the way when he transforms to bird mode.
• Astrotrain appears to be the same size as Sky Lynx while in his robot form. Sky Lynx usually appears to be the size of a combiner. (This does continue a trend of the Movie/post-Movie era occasionally treating Astrotrain as this enormous looming threat... but probably it's just cruddy animation.)
• After the Junkions drive off the Sharkticons, Wreck-Gar is shown standing next to... Wreck-Gar and Wreck-Gar.
• As he notes Rodimus' boredom, Ultra Magnus has an Autobot logo on each shoulder. There should only be one on his right shoulder.
• Ultra Magnus' back is shown as plain red in several scenes, where it should have a grey panel with differently colored squares.
• After Sky Lynx's (unheard) report, Rodimus's spoiler seems to have rotated to one side.
• Astrotrain transforms and lands without any transformation sound effect.
• Astrotrain's missing the fin on his back as he "reports" to Galvatron.
• In the same scene, Cyclonus is missing the lower orange shape on his waist, and Galvatron mouths part of his dialogue.
• Astrotrain's face is the same light gray as his helmet as he flees from Galvatron, rather than white.
• The Quintessons open fire on the Aerialbots, who do not react at all. Then the Junkions also open fire, and the Aerialbots still do not react in the slightest.
• After the commercial break, Silverbolt and Air Raid are suddenly combined as 2/5ths of Superion, while Silverbolt still gives orders in his own voice. Then they're shot, knocking Air Raid loose - but even as he tumbles off in another direction, most of him is still attached to Silverbolt!
• As Superion's blast overloads the Quintesson ship, a red alarm light flashes on a console and is visible through a Quintesson standing in front of it.
• Superion's face is rounded (missing all its angles) and all-black (should have a gray mouthplate) as Sky Lynx deposits him on Cybertron.

The cat aliens actually attacked them because they hate the 1940s.

• A sign on the dog planet reads "Lee,s Restrant" [sic].
• During the montage of the transmission's effects, one shot shows the Quintessons subliminal message as if it's a hologram, when it should be inside of the tv screen.
• In the last few shots of the Quintessons discussing the effects of the transmission on different planets, the Death faces on the Quintessons have orange-framed eyes (instead of green).
• "He hasn't change his mind?" - Cyclonus' back windows are not colored in (they should be orange).
• The first shots of Blaster show him with five buttons on his chest instead of three.
• Voice problems:
  • Throughout the episode, Omega Supreme's voice is missing its usual self-echo reverberation and bass-heavy modulation. He sounds a lot less impressive without it.
  • Blaster is likewise missing his usual voice modulation.
• When Omega comes under attack, Rodimus starts asking what happened to Omega before anything actually happens.
• As he and Kup fire back at the Decepticons, Blaster's hips are massive. We then pan over to Ultra Magnus, who is just standing there doing nothing while the Decepticons shoot at him.
• "War rages everywhere!" - in the next shot, the lower half of a Quintesson's orange face disappears as he leans to push a button.
• When we return to the same shot a second later, the same Quintesson's mouth is lined in orange when only the inside should be orange.
• As he looks at Omega Supreme's panel, Magnus is missing most of his detailing as well as his Autobot logo.
• "Draw them away from Omega Supreme" - Rodimus's spoiler vanishes as he turns toward Kup.
• When Ultra Magnus is repairing Omega Supreme, one shot is missing... well... everything but Magnus's hands. He appears to be repairing empty space.
• As he finishes the repairs, Magnus closes a panel that's already closed.
• Galvatron comes to a halt when he encounters Cyclonus in space; however, the closeup shot shows the stars still moving behind him. He then swats Cyclonus out of the way with no sound effect.
• As the Quintessons watch the big space battle, the display shows a grey background behind the ships instead of space.
• As Omega Supreme approaches the battle, one of his rocket fins is gray instead of orange.
• After he blasts Omega, Galvatron returns to robot mode without a transformation sound effect.
• When he lands on Junkion, Cyclonus is missing the lower orange shape on his waist.
• When Galvatron lifts Rodimus to throw him, Rodimus' spoiler is all-yellow when it should be orange in the middle.
• The Quintesson scout ship is hit by Galvatron's blast, sending the ship one way and the journal the other. Except... the animation shows them drifting away from entirely different spots, as if they had never been anywhere close!
• After Galvatron blows up the hypnotic TV, the next shot shows a poorly drawn and miscolored Soundwave, Cyclonus missing the orange shapes on his chest, and Rodimus' spoiler in all-yellow.
• As the Decepticons retreat, Soundwave's chest is white instead of blue and is missing its Decepticon logo. There's also three Cyclonuses (Cycloni?) in the shot.
• The last shot shows the Death faces on the Quintessons with orange-framed eyes again.

Continuity errors

• This episode aired out of order, as its ending scene leads directly into "The Quintesson Journal" - which had already aired. It is hardly the first time the cartoon had goofed up on such simple continuity beats.
• The episode was badly butchered in the editing stages, a fact made more evident by its alternate incarnation as an issue of the Marvel comic book series (see Trivia, below):
  • The opening scenes are mis-ordered. The more logical ordering appears in the comic, which features the Sharkticons seeking the journal and being repulsed, then the Quintessons analyzing the Junkions and concluding that they must be subtle in their attack - triggering the whole subliminal message plot. In the cartoon, the analysis comes first - "we must resort to more subtle means" - and is immediately followed by the Sharkticons' flagrantly un-subtle invasion.
  • Where the scene of the Sharkticon attack occurs in the finished episode is where the scene introducing the episode's central McGuffin, the hypnotic television that the Quintessons place on Junkion, ought to be. As seen in the Marvel comic, the scene features Wreck-Gar and Nancy waking up to find it having been left for them during the night. The television does appear in the finished episode multiple times, but without the introductory scene, it never appears to be anything more than a normal Junkion TV, and nothing connects it to the Quintessons' vague explication about "subliminals" until Galvatron declares it to be the source of the problem and blows it up at the episode's end.
  • Astrotrain's report seems to be badly edited:
    Astrotrain: "I have something strange to report, Galvatron!"
    [long pause]
    Galvatron: "Fool! Do you think I care w"
    It would seem that Astrotrain's report got cut out completely, and the end of Galvatron's line clipped off. In the comic book version, Galvatron's line is "Fool! Do you think I care what the Junkions do? Leave me!" In the episode, Cyclonus then tries to reason with Galvatron - with information Astrotrain hasn't actually shared!
  • A plot point included in the comic involves Fireflight disrupting local vision fields with his special weapon, giving the Aerialbots time to recover and combine. With the scene cut, Wreck-Gar's "Jeepers, Mr. Kent! Where'd they go?" line becomes a non-sequitur.

Trivia

• When the US comic needed a fill-in issue, this episode was chosen and script adapted. While the UK offices were in no position to pass up on any US material being produced, this issue also completely conflicted with the Movie-Future they had established. To sidestep continuity problems, Simon Furman wrote a framing sequence establishing US #43 as an imaginary story dreamed up by Wreck-Gar, as part of a lead in to his "Space Pirates!" arc.
• The EDC officer that gets dragged off on Cygnus Seven is pretty much Marissa Faireborn's character model, with a screechy Southern belle accent so we know it's not actually her.
• Blast Off's appearance serves absolutely no purpose at all. He's not shown fighting or speaking or anything. All he does is follow Galvatron around, then discharge his lone passenger Soundwave - who also proceeds to serve absolutely no purpose at all.
• Interesting that while the warring forces are drawn in by messages of violence and destruction, Galvatron responds to a message about "believing in himself".

Foreign localization

German

• Title: "Das Hyperraumprogramm" ("The Hyperspace-Program")
• Original airdate: ?

Italian

• Title: "Messaggi subliminali" (First dub, "Subliminal Messages"), "Il grande programma del 2006" (Second dub, "The Great TV Show of 2006")
• Original airdate: ?

Japanese

• Title: 2010年の大放送 (2010 Nen no Daihōsō, "The Big Broadcast of 2010")
• Original airdate: April 30, 1987
• A "Secret Files of Teletraan II" segment unique to Japan was attached to this episode. This segment recapped the events of "Dark Awakening". It replaces the original "Secret Files" segment which focused on the Autobots.

Mandarin

• Title: "2006 Nián Zhòngyào Guǎngbō " (2006年重要广播, "The Significant Broadcast of 2006")
• Original airdate: ?

Home video releases

All releases listed are in English audio unless otherwise noted.

VHS

1989 — Transformers — The Big Broadcast of 2006 / Fight or Flee (Tempo Video)
1992 — Transformers — Super Video (Tempo Video)

LaserDisc

1999 — The Transformers: 2010 (Pioneer LDC) — Japanese audio only.

DVD

2001 — The Transformers: 2010 — DVD Box (Pioneer LDC) — Japanese audio only.
2004 — The Original Transformers — Season 3 Part 2 & Season 4 (Rhino Entertainment)
2004 — Transformers — Season 3 and Season 4 (Metrodome)
2004 — Transformers — Collection 5: Series 3.2 (Madman Entertainment)
2006 — Transformers — The Complete Generation One Collection (Metrodome)
2007 — The Transformers — Complete Collection (Madman Entertainment)
2009 — Transformers — Season's Three & Four [sic] (Metrodome)
2009 — The Transformers — Complete Collection: Decepticon Edition (Madman Entertainment)
2009 — The Transformers — The Complete Series: 25th Anniversary "Matrix of Leadership" Collection (Shout! Factory)
2010 — The Transformers — Seasons Three & Four: 25th Anniversary Edition (Shout! Factory)
2011 — The Transformers — The Complete Original Series (Shout! Factory)
2014 — The Transformers — Seasons Three & Four: 30th Anniversary Edition (Shout! Factory)
2014 — Transformers — The Classic Animated Series (Metrodome)

External links

• Episode Dossier at The Cybertron Chronicle