Before we get started, I wanted to start off by saying that this show is dedicated to a friend and listener, and is also dedicated to the memory of her sister, Katie. Katie was a big fan of My Little Pony when she was a kid, just like me and my sister. Katie’s birthday is in November and if she can hear me, I hope you are having a fabulous birthday in heaven. I’m sure my sister would gladly share cake with you, she definitely had an impressive sweet tooth. Now, let’s get on with the show!
My sister and I didn’t grow up as the kids who dreamt of one day owning a pony or a horse and we never asked our parents if we could get horse back riding lessons. Sure, we went riding here or there with our respective girl scout troops but, for me especially, ponies and horses were just not my thing. That being said, when me and my sister were little kids we became enthusiastic fans of My Little Pony, the toy figurines first created by Hasbro which eventually led to several TV series incarnations and full length movies. I distinctly remember singing the theme song with my sister all of the time and my dad would often chime in with his own version. My sister and I would be shouting “My Little Pony, My Little Pony” and my dad would say “My Little Pony, Tony Bologna.” I have no recollection as to where the whole Tony Bologna thing came from, but there’s just something about that disgusting lunch meat that I still find hilarious to this day. I can’t remember whether or not my dad had a friend named Tony and I don’t remember him ever eating bologna, but anyways….
On today’s show you will learn everything you ever wanted to know about My Little Pony, and then some. What started off as a simple toy horse 40 years ago, has evolved into an incredible media and merchandise powerhouse. So, grab a tiny comb to brush your favorite pony’s mane, your cowboy boots and a saddle, here we go!
Hello and thank you so very much for tuning in to the Pop Culture Retrospective Podcast, a show inspired by, and in memory of, my big sister Rebecca and her love for all things pop-culture, especially the people, places and things of the 80s, 90s and early 00s. My name is Amy Lewis and I am your captain aboard this pop culture time machine. You are tuning in to episode # 43 - My Little Pony, the 1980s child’s toy and media juggernaut that refuses to quit. Apparently MLP, like MC Hammer, is just too legit to quit. Let’s find out why, shall we?
Credit for the ultimate development of the MLP toys that we remember can be given to a woman named Bonnie Zacherle. She fell in love with a horse named Knicker when she was a little girl while living in Japan. Her father was a veterinarian so she came into contact with a lot of different animals as a young child that her father was taking care of. Eventually the family moved away from Japan, but Knicker always stayed with her. I always admire the people who find horses to be magical and majestic. All I think about is how humongous horses are, including their teeth which could chew through my fingers or their incredibly strong legs which could back kick me really hard, thus sending me flying through the air like in movies, landing on a pile of garbage cans and trash bags. Anyways….
Zacherle studied illustration in college and eventually landed at Hasbro, the toy company. She had previously worked at a Greeting Card company.
Is it just me or does there seem to be a link between artistic women, working at a greeting card company and the development of a successful animated female character?! Think about it- Rainbow Brite and Strawberry Shortcake were both created by female artists who worked at Greeting Card companies. Mind blown.
Anyways, she pitched the idea of a toy horse for many years but was consistently turned down. She was told over and over again that girls didn’t want to play with horses, they wanted to iron clothes and cook. She felt frustrated and deflated. Didn’t Hasbro know that girls also wanted to ride skateboards and jump ramps on their bikes or was that just me as a little girl? Good grief, Hasbro. Eventually though, in 1981, Hasbro released a 10 inch tall plastic horse called My Pretty Pony, it was moderately successful and sold about 1 million units. After that relative success, Hasbro FINALLY decided to further develop the toy horse idea. Through some discussions and brainstorming with Zacherle, they decided to make the toy softer and smaller, shrinking it to about 5-6 inches and making her hair more combable. And guess whose hair was not combable? That’s right mine- until I was about 14 or 15, it was quite difficult to brush my messy hair. I’m not kidding. At first, Hasbro, based on Zacherle’s design, was going to use a traditional color scheme to appeal to both boys and girls. Eventually someone convinced Zacherle to make the horses brighter in color, a bit more cheerful and childish. She was initially resistant but she agreed that they could give it a whirl on a trial basis. And with that, in 1982, the first 6 original ponies were released: Cotton Candy, Blossom, Blue Belle, Snuzzle and Butterscotch. At a toy fair shortly thereafter, there wasn’t a ton of interest but Hasbro stuck with their guns and decided to produce the horses and they immediately flew off the shelves. It was almost an instant success. Included with the ponies was a carrying case that sort of resembled a horse stable, just big enough to hold the 6 ponies. The stable was white with a pink shingled roof, complete with a handle. I distinctly remember playing with the ponies of course and the stable. COMMERCIAL SOUND BITE HERE.
Eventually the line of the first 6 ponies were expanded- including pegasus ponies, unicorns and sparkle ponies. There were also Drink ‘N Wet ponies which came with a diaper and somehow it showed up that the ponies had soiled themselves. I can’t make this stuff up, have a listen to another old commercial. COMMERCIAL SOUND BITE HERE. In total, there have been more than 600 different MLP toy figurines released, in many parts of the world including the UK and Japan.
Rescue at Midnight Castle is a MLP television special that was released in 1984. In the special, a demon wants to kidnap the horses to use them to pull his chariot of darkness. Thankfully the rainbow of Light, overpowers the Rainbow of Darkness and good conquers evil. Hmm... a rainbow that fights darkness? Sounds like the good folks over at Hallmark may have stolen some ideas from MLP for their Rainbow Brite character….the special included the voice talents of Sandy Duncan who you may remember from the Hogan Family (that show had an endearing and long theme song, CLIP HERE). Side note, did you know that theme song was performed by none other than Roberta Flack? I’m referring to the woman who sang the original version of Killing Me Softly With His Song which was later covered by The Fugees? That’s pretty darn impressive! Let’s get back to Sandy Duncan for a second, sorry for the tangent. For some reason, there has long been a rumor/myth that Sandy Duncan has a glass eye.
Apparently, that is not true, she had a benign tumor behind her left eye which was removed. However, the myth has persisted for decades, there is even a punk rock band based in California I believe, whose name is Sandy Duncan’s Eye. I would love to be in the audience when they are introduced to a crowd of people who aren’t familiar with the band or the actress. I would greatly enjoy the “What on God’s green earth does that band name mean?” looks on people’s faces. And if anyone asked who the hell is Sandy Duncan, I would say she is a gosh darn gift to this workd and that clearly we just don’t deserve her! The weird stuff you learn about. Anyhoo, the special also featured the voice talents of Tony Randall, a beloved Hollywood actor who starred in the show the Odd Couple and had an impressive list of movie and television acting credits. Escape from Catrina was the next television special which aired in 1985. In this equally bizarre special, a witch becomes dependent on a potion and enslaves creatures to help her make it and she then proceeds to kidnap a baby pony. Who comes up with this crap, honest to God? I have no formal education in writing and I feel like I could come up with a better plot for a children’s television special. Geez.
In 1986 - the film, My Little Pony : the Movie was released. Some of the voice talents in the movie include: Danny Devito, Rhea Pearlman and Cloris Leachman. This movie was the first domestic theatrical release produced by Marvel Studios. It was deemed a box office flop, earning only 6 million dollars in profit and was shown in only 400 theatres. Further, it was heavily criticized for essentially being an hour plus advertisement for MLP. That being said, despite the obvious advertisement undertones, the synopsis of the film is that an evil witch has her two daughters try to ruin a festival that some of the ponies are performing at. The film was released on both VHS and Betamax format in 1986, the laserdisc version came in 1988 and the DVD was released in 2006.
My Little Pony ‘N Friends (and that’s ‘N friends, not and friends, sort of like Salt ‘N Pepa) the first MLP tv series also first premiered around this time. The show ran for about 30 minutes, the first 15 minutes were of course focused on MLP and the second 15 minutes was another cartoon series like Potato Head Kids or GloFriends. The series ran for 2 seasons and roughly 65 episodes. In this series, the ponies all live in Ponyland, specifically at Pony Estate. In Ponyland, everyone plays and sings songs. Sometimes though there are evil witches and goblins who want to hurt the ponies or perhaps, um, enslave them. Yep. Some villains even threatened to turn the ponies into glue! Okay, that’s not true but sometimes I have a dark sense of humor, get off my back!
In 1992, we got a MLP TV series reboot with My Little Pony Tails, whose theme song I often find I have stuck in my head. And I’m not quite sure why the song was stuck in my head because I think by the time this show came out I was a little too old for it, but nonetheless it’s often stuck in my head - And now you can get it stuck, too! CLIP HERE. The show ran on the Disney Channel for about 4 months and a total of 26 episodes. The characters included: Patch, Clover, Starlight, Sweetheart, Melody, Bright Eyes, and Bon Bon. The horses were now teenagers and did stuff like humans like hanging out at the local ice cream shop and rollerskating. I definitely spent most weekends rollerskating and eating ice cream. Or not. And just like any typical teenage pony, the ponies on the show developed crushes on their male peers and even went on dates with them. Do you know what a pony’s favorite pick up line is when they see an attractive and potential mate pass by? Hay! The ponies also continued the tradition of performing musical numbers.
A lot of time would pass before we’d hear much about MLP again, for a while it seemed like maybe they were being put out to pasture. Ha! There were some DVD releases here and there in the early 2000s, but that was about it for a while. However, in 2007 the 25th anniversary edition of the MLP toys were released, including all 6 of the original horse figurines. This would be just the beginning of the MLP rebirth and would show just how strong it’s staying power really was and is.
My Little Pony : Friendship is Magic premiered in 2010 and ran for an incredible 9 seasons. The series is set in Equestria- what a genius title for a fictitious town where a bunch of ponies live, no wonder the series had such longevity! The show actually received some strong critical acclaim for it’s themes around feminism and acceptance. Further, it was also given accolades for it’s creative animation. Anyways, the series ran on the Discovery Family Channel. Since the show aired for so many years and was so popular, it created a diverse fan base, and not just 5 year old girls.
A whole new group emerged as a result of these series - adult male fans or “Bronies.” I am not making this up. Bronies were truly a phenomenon, there was even a documentary put out about them. There was just something about this unique show that spoke to people. It’s called Bronies: The Extremely Unexpected Adult Fans of My Little Pony. A lot of judgment has certainly been passed on the male fans of MLP and I’m not quite sure why. Can’t we all just like what we like? I don’t know about you but I have a lot of other stuff to worry about besides who likes MLP. In addition to the documentary film about them, websites for male fans like Equestria Daily (which is still active by the way) started popping up left and right and got tens of thousands of hits on a daily basis. That reminds me of an encounter I had one time with a former student, it’s one that I will never forget. I’ve spent the last 10 years of my career working in education, primarily as a School Counselor. One time a male student asked to meet with me, he told me he had something important to share. He wasn’t someone that I met with very much at all, so I was prepared for him to disclose something very serious or concerning. Perhaps he was struggling with depression. Perhaps his parents were getting divorced. I wasn’t quite sure but I was prepared to hear anything. We sat down together in my office and I asked him how things were going.
“I’ve been wanting to tell someone this for a long time. I can’t hold it in anymore.” He said.
“‘I’m really glad that you felt comfortable talking to me. Please know that you can tell me anything” I said.
He relaxed into his seat and with sweet sincerity he uttered: “I love My Little Pony.”
“Oh” I said, a bit caught off guard. Is that what you wanted to tell me?”
“Yes, I feel so much better now.”
“Well I am so glad to hear that! You should always feel good about the things that you like, no matter what. I’m a grown woman who is obsessed with Disney World and has a dinosaur lunch box, so I appreciate you just being yourself!” I said.
He smiled and we talked a bit more before he left my office.
Although I continued to work in the same building as this student for the next several years he never again needed to speak with me one on one about anything. It was just for that one moment in time when he wanted to tell me how much the cartoon characters meant to him. And as you just learned, he was not alone.
With the success of the show came a film release - My Little Pony : The Movie in 2017. My Little Pony Life, which is a comedy series, began airing in 2020. Recently released on Netflix (I think it was just this past September) is : My Little Pony - A New Generation. The timing is truly impeccable because almost 40 years after adults in my sister and my generation were introduced to MLP for the first time, we can now expose our children to the ponies that just refuse to die.
I hope you have enjoyed this look back on My Little Pony, the toys and cartoon characters that have been galloping across store shelves and tv screens for 4 decades. What started off as just a standard, plastic toy evolved into the colorful and diverse equine icons that we know and love today.
As you may or may not expect, there continues to be a plethora of MLP merchandise available online for the middle-aged MLP fan- shirts, stickers and coffee mugs in a multitude of designs can be found on Etsy, Red Bubble and 80s tees.com. MLP just shows us over and over again that not only are children fans of these four legged characters, but so too are adults, some just can’t get enough.
Like I mentioned at the top of the show, I can’t say that me and my sister were huge fans of ponies or horses per se as children, or as adults, but we often poked fun at people who were. One time while the two of us were together, we somehow stumbled upon an embroidered pillow that we couldn’t stop laughing at, it became sort of an inside joke of ours for many years. Anyways, we saw this pillow in a catalog or something and on the pillow is an embroidered horse of course with the wording: “A life without horses?.....I don’t think so!” stitched alongside. Without fail, just bringing up that line alone could make either one of us burst out laughing at any given moment. Perhaps fans of today’s show topic feel the same way...A Life Without My Little Pony?....I don’t think so!
I hope you will join me for my next show where we will take a look back at the life and career of Oprah Winfrey, one of my sister’s idols who we had the pleasure to meet after a taping of her show many years ago. Until then, BKBSAHOTYM.