After a generally strong first season, “Ewoks” Season 2 (1986, ABC) purposely dumbs things down and lightens things up, apparently in an attempt to draw younger viewers – as in “just learning how to walk and talk” young.
Of the 22 episodes, only four are a full 22 minutes long (a half-hour with commercials); the others are 11 minutes (15 minutes with commercials). As you’d expect, the 11-minute episodes are simple fables about how to be a good person/Ewok.
Ignores most of Season 1
What’s really insulting to viewers, though, is that Season 2 mostly pretends Season 1 didn’t happen. This is blatantly represented by Teebo’s unrequited crush on Latara; in Season 1, it was Latara who had a crush on Teebo.
“Ewoks” Season 2 (1986)
ABC, 22 episodes
Lead writers: Bob Carrau, Paul Dini
Stars: Jim Henshaw, James Cranna, Cree Summer
Also in Season 1, Teebo was a budding young sorcerer’s apprentice, now he’s present for slapstick and pratfalls (most of which feature “Looney Tunes”-style exaggerated expressions and sound effects).
The looks of the four core Ewoks are redesigned so they’re brighter, particularly Latara (pictured above), who now has a mix of gray and white fur instead of being all gray, and Wicket, who now has lighter brown fur and a green hood instead of brown. The voice actors are all different, and mostly worse. Even the iconic theme song gets changed for the worse.
A simpler version
One might think a new, less-talented crew took over for Season 2, but oddly, Paul Dini and Bob Carrau are still the lead scribes.
I can only assume a network mandate called for a simpler version of “Ewoks,” because it’s hard to believe someone like Dini would purposely switch from the weighty series premiere “The Cries of the Trees” to the shallow fable of “The Crystal Cloak” (don’t steal stuff, because a dragon might try to kill you), which leads off the second year.
The bright spots of Season 2 are that Sue Murphy does an outstanding job voicing the humorously materialistic Latara, there is good chemistry between the four main Ewok kids, and late in the year we get “Battle for the Sunstar,” the only episode that can compete with the best of the first year.
Here are my rankings:
Full-length episodes
1. “Battle for the Sunstar” (episode 20, written by Dini)
Paradoxically, TV writers have the most freedom when their show is on the verge of cancellation. This is why “Futurama” could always get away with more than the higher-rated “Simpsons.” That probably explains why “Ewoks’ ” final full-length episode incorporates wider “Star Wars” elements for the first and only time. It feels like a strong “Droids” episode, despite not featuring Threepio or Artoo.
The four Ewok youths are captured by the Empire, and it’s amusing to see them encounter technology for the first time. For example, Latara jumps on the landing ship’s console with her butt, initiating take-off, so the Ewoks think that’s the way to operate the ship.
They meet a droid for the first time: PD (or “Petey”), who calls to mind Seth Green’s friendly Todo 360 from “The Clone Wars” and is designed like an “Episode I” pit droid. In a continuity gaffe, this marks one of at least four times the Ewoks encounter droids and technology “for the first time,” with the others happening in the “Ewoks”/”Droids” comic crossover, “Ewoks: The Battle for Endor” and, of course, “Return of the Jedi.”
“Battle for the Sunstar” features a corporatist villain, Dr. Raygar, who works tightly with the Empire much like the “Droids” villain General Koong, the Tagge family from the original Marvel comics and Count Vidian from “A New Dawn.”
Most shockingly, the Emperor appears in the episode – sort of: Raygar, attempting to rule the galaxy with the Sunstar, shoots at the Emperor’s shuttle as it approaches his Star Destroyer, and Raygar is later hauled aboard the shuttle to be punished by the Emperor.
In another continuity note, it seems “Battle for the Sunstar” marks the Emperor’s first interest in Endor. Indeed, it seems logical that all the “Ewoks” stories should take place before the second Death Star’s construction, which begins right after “A New Hope” in the Legends continuity, as we know from Brian Wood’s “Star Wars” comic series.
Most timelines place the “Ewoks” TV series and movies between “Empire” and “Jedi,” but these stories don’t seem to fit if there is a Death Star in orbit and Imperial stormtroopers on the planet.
2. “Night of the Stranger” (8, Dini)
The plot is standard: A villain (in this case, arriving through a dimensional rip) seeks the Sunstar. Dini peppers in several elements that push this episode a notch above the norm: It’s confirmed that Duloks are still on the show (although they are even more incompetent than in Season 1), Latara kisses Teebo (! – and she’ll do so again in “Tragic Flute!”),
Asha makes a brief appearance in a fight (early confirmation that Season 2 does indeed take place after Season 1, even though it seems otherwise) and Logray seems to use the Force (!) to call his staff to him while trapped under rocks.
3. “The Raich” (5, Michael Reaves)
Teebo wants to take Latara to the dance, and Wicket accidentally awakens a forest beast. In Season 2, the woods are filled with tons of colorful and bizarre-looking creatures. The good guys are friendly and the bad guys are usually bungling and harmless. The tree-like Raich is one of the latter.
This marks Reaves’ “Star Wars” debut; he would also write the 11-minute installment “Hard Sell,” and two decades later, he would become a prolific novelist in the GFFA.
4. “The Season Scepter” (13, Carrau)
The most psychedelic “Ewoks” episode also has unusually high stakes: All of Endor is frozen, and it’ll stay that way if our young heroes can’t save the day. The Sun King voice actor gives a jarring beach-bum performance, and the Iceheads – who flip upside down and skate on their heads – might the wackiest-looking creatures on Endor.
Half-length episodes
And here are a half-dozen of the 11-minute episodes that aren’t completely terrible:
1. “The First Apprentice” (10, Dini)
Many “Ewoks” episodes use good and bad magic as thinly veiled stand-ins for the light and dark sides of the Force. Zarrak is a dark-side Ewok; he has a showdown with light-side Ewok Logray, and Teebo is caught in the middle.
2. “Princess Latara” (4, Dini)
Episodes where the self-centered Latara learns a lesson (or at least “receives” a lesson; she doesn’t seem to retain the knowledge) are always good for a few giggles. This week: Be careful what you wish for, because princes aren’t always Prince Charming.
3. “Baga’s Rival” (15, Linda Woolverton)
A beautiful unicorn named Silky wins over the young Ewoks, leaving Baga jealous and sad. It’s funny to see the over-the-top ways in which the Ewoks treat Baga like dirt, and the episode boasts an unusually dark ending as the villainous Jadru and Silky are essentially buried alive.
4. “Gone with the Mimphs” (9, Woolverton)
We get the classic comedy bit where three friends (Latara, Kneessa and Teebo) sob over the “death” of their other friend (Wicket), then get mad at him when he turns up alive. Yoda would be pleased with the lesson about size: Wicket tries to capture a huge creature (he’s always looking to add to his Belt of Honor) and instead gets captured by tiny Mimphs.
5. “Malani the Warrior” (22, Stephen Langford)
It’s amusing to see that Wicket has a crush on the warrior Chirita even as Malani crushes on him. Unfortunately, the series finale is also a prime example of Season 2’s continuity flubs, as Langford and his editors forgot (or didn’t care) that a whole Season 1 episode (“Rampage of the Phlogs”) chronicled Malani’s crush on Wicket.
6. “Prow Beaten” (14, Carrau)
It’s nice to see the Duloks prominently featured, although I miss their Season 1 edge. And it’s funny when each of the four young Ewoks imagines their fates from Chief Chirpa for losing a battleship prow. As it turns out, their punishments are lightened a bit due to their honesty about what happened.
How would you rank the episodes of Season 2 of “Ewoks”? Did you hate the changes in style and tone as much as I did, or am I being too hard on it?
And if you’re looking for a good place to watch “Ewoks,” “Droids” and the Holiday Special cartoon, I recommend the Thall Joben YouTube channel.
Main image: ABC publicity photo