This has already been posted at various Sonic/SatAM related boards and sites, but I want you guys here to check it out too. It was first posted at the newer SatAM related site, SMS. I later placed it at FUS too. It was originally part of a more formal intro at the first site I posted it at.

Here it is. It's long, so take your time.

'It wasn't until Sept. 17, 1993 that I first encountered the Sonic SatAM, through the ABC Sat. Morning Preview show. When I saw what it was about, I wanted to delve further into the show. I wouldn't be disappointed.

I had never seen, to that point, a 'toon show that wasn't afraid to display some realities of war to it's target audience, and the emotions that came along with it. From, as ABC's old 'Wild World Of Sports' show put it in it's tagline, '... the agony of defeat to the thrill of victory', or some variant of that.

And to see a show with such intense creative depth kinda gave an intellectual balance to that period's ratings monster, the Power Rangers(more on the PR's later). I felt very happy that the SatAM wasn't afraid to be intelligent and entertaining at the same time, like 'Biker Mice From Mars' and 'Gargoyles' ended up being as well.

Ben Hurst, Pat Allee, and Len Janson are frickin' geniuses that I have nothing but eternal respect for, for not pandering to the ones they were attempting to entertain, for the sake of network or Sega influences. They're probably the single best writing team in animated TV history, with their ability to tug at your heart-strings when telling a story. For that, I thank them!

Marsha Goodman and Ginny McSwain also knew what they were doing when they cast the VAs they did to help bring the charas to life. Jaleel showed that, under his 'Urkelized' exterior, beat the attitude of coolness personified when he unleashed Sonic's soul to us. Kath Soucie brought out the loving and caring essence of Sally that so gripped me. Christine Cavanaugh gave Bunnie a bit of a playful personality that wasn't condescending.

Jim Cummings gave Robotnik the malevolent spirit of the most satanic dictator that ever existed in animation. Rob Paulsen made Antoine the funniest Frenchman in entertainment since Inspector Clouseau. Charlie Adler surfaced a disturbed soul in Snively. Brad Pierce let his, at that time, 'cute' factor shine when voicing Tails, Cree Summer displayed her sitcom experience in making Dulcy, as WWE's Jim Ross'd put it, 'goofier than a pet coon', and Mark Ballou and Cam Brainard gave us different perspectives to Rotor that made our favorite walrus more than just 2-dimensional.

I'd also be remissed if I didn't give Will Windom big-ups for his vocal portrayal of Uncle Chuck, by letting Chuck show no compromise in his love for home and family by repenting for his (Chuck's) sins of the Great War.

Michael Tavera, Noisy Neighbors, Matt Muhoberac, John Zuker, Pete Fausone, Stuart Goetz, Steve Griffin, and Joanne Miller provided a kick-ass SatAM Soundtrack that gave an intense atmosphere to the action of the story. It made my adrenaline level go up to hear it at critical times during each ep. And who wouldn't want to chack out a show that had an opening theme song that SatAM did? It rocked! Just that simple!

All the above elements let me take one wild 104-week TV ride on both ABC and CTV here in Canada. I made it a point of my Saturday Mornings then to not miss a week of the show, first run or rerun. I watched, and later taped, quite a few SatAM eps from CTV(for reasons of consistency), although I should've taped more S1 eps than I did. Still, I got most of S2 on tape, and I still have that tape, on a small shelf in my bedroom.

But, as the saying goes, 'All Good Things must come to and end', and in the SatAM's case, it was far too soon for my fickle palette to tolerate. When I called my local CTV affiliate here, and they said that the SatAM wasn't to be on in the fall of 1995, I thought that just CTV would stop airing it. But when I found that it was on no TV station here, I was crushed like you wouldn't believe. So I just kept my SatAM senses satisfied the best I could for about 2 3/4 years with the eps I taped.

But then, when I was nearing my last 6 months in junior high school, for some reason, that SatAM feeling just went away for a few months. I can't really explain why, but I suppose it's just because much was happening with my family and in my school life that I just lost my focus. It wouldn't be until Nov. 1997, when I encountered an Archie Sonic Comic, on a grocery store newsstand, the the feeling came back to be, big time. Strangely enough, I had no clue, whatsoever, that Archie Comics were making Sonic comic books until then. Had I known that those comics were being done, I'dve had all of them from the start of their publication.

So is life, I suppose. But back to topic.

It would be January 1998 when I started surfing the Internet on a consistent basis. When I found such Sonic sites like Sonic HQ, and The Sonic Foundation (now closed), that's when my SatAM love returned, full blown. So I looked high and low for any SatAM fix I could find, and stumbled into SHQ's Cartoon section. When I found the theme song, I was so happy to hear it again! It made me feel good once again, and made me want to know more about what others though about the show.

However, at the same time, I also developed a sense of immature, unnecessary acrimony to a show that was also on at the time of SatAM's airing... Power Rangers. When I read that the PR's were (a) responsible factor in the end on SatAM on ABC, I went out of my way to be angry at those fans and that franchise in general. It's the first time in my life I ever felt truly jaded about something. And it's something that I agreed with for a long time.

But then, along came a small website called Fans United For SatAM, created by former Sonic Pandemonium/Perfect Chaos/Shadow Of Light webmistress Sonique, in Nov. 2000. Understandably, at that time, it was rough around the edges, but I immediately fell in love with the site, and it's vision to bring the SatAM back to respectability again. So I agreed to give whatever help I could to the site, however small it be.

To that end, I dug out my SatAM tapes(I had now bought the DiC 1994 S1 tapes by this point), and started my own little project of creating the Complete SatAM Show Credits list. It was really bad looking at first, as I typed the names in caps, but it would be a little while before I adopted a format for them. In fact, it's takem me to now to compile the FULL list of those who delivered the best show DiC has ever done. It was a labor of love, and I thank all those who have accepted my list to their websites.

But, as we got to late 2001, DiC announced that, in partnership with Lions Gate and Trimark Releasing, that they would be doing the first ever SatAM DVD. This was obviously a time for some celebration within our little circle, as we thought then, 'Yes! The whole series is sure to follow!'. However, when certain, at that time, unknown forces, stopped other DVD's from coming out. It was then that the real reasons for SatAM's overall cancellation became known to us, outside the 'Power Rangers winning the ratings war in the Fall of 94' theory that was most frequently circulated.

We'd later discover that DiC blew it when it came to putting other DVDs out with Lions Gate and Trimark, when Disney's Buena Vista Home Video was still DiC's home video distribution partner, and the following conflict of interest that ensued. It wasn't until communication was established with Ben Hurst, that we'd find out much more as to why the SatAM was canned, and the role that Buena Vista's connected partners, ABC and Disney played in it, as most of us found that ABC wasn't as innocent as we thought they were.

As far back as '01 (I think), Ben told us that the show was canned, not just because of the ratings against Power Rangers ratings, but because of the merger of ABC/Capital Cities and The Walt Disney Co., and that the new ABC President had no respect for the show. It's something that really made no sense to me when I heard it, but I'd later come to know that the corporate world was a convulted mess, as something that happened within Sega would teach me.

When I saw that Sega wanted to concentrate all Sonic-related storylines out of the one that existed primairily in Japan, I figured 'Is this really the right creative step to take for them, when the differing multi-regional storylines work pretty well anyway?' At that point, I chose to be a bit rebellious to Sega, and declare myself part of the SatAM camp to everyone on a formal basis. I got a little annoyed with the 'creative direction' that Sega wanted to go into, and I separated myself from the games after Sonic Adventure 2.

Then, after the crap that happened in New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania 5 years ago next Monday, I became completely disillusioned with everything I thought I knew. And I became angry at everything as a result, including the whole corporate world. It wouldn't be for 3 years until I finally calmed down enough to cut the crap out of my mind, meaning I had to let go of the pretense in my personality too.

It also meant that I had to stop placing blame on those who didn't deserve it. So, to that end, I had to forgive the Power Rangers fanbase for being very stupid towards them. I went so far as to do a public apology to them on one of their MBs last year. It's probably the most liberating thing I ever did for my soul. It even made me like the SatAM a thousand times more too!

Eventually, I found out that the SatAM had returned to TV over in England on the station PoP TV(or something like that). I also heard of somebody 'Net-named' Coxy who made Ultra HQ ep files for all of us SatAM fans. So, I leaped on the opportunity to DL all the eps, and have them in the absolute best quality that exists! DLing them was the only way I could get the whole series, as it hasn't aired here in Canada since the 1995 cancellation.

Anyway, getting those ep rips inspired me to something. I used to go to the website called Team Artail to listen to SatAM sound clips, that were culled from the show. But I was a little ticked as to the sound quality I had listened to them in. So, I DLed the programs VirtualDubMod and Wavepad, and extracted the audio from the eps, pared them down, and got all the clips I needed to get. I also got a better version of the SatAM Main Theme than what existed on other sites.

Around the time that I had extracted the audio, I had noticed that this site, SMS, popped up. When I found this site, I was very happy to know that there was, once again, another SatAM site online. I was also excited to find that, even after 11 years off of TV, that the spirit of the SatAM was alive and well! If FUS could still be around today, I'm sure this site will be around for a long time to come. And I hope it will be too!

I then decided to contribute those sound files to different Sonic and SatAM sites, as a thank you to all those SatAM fans who let me be among them online! I always look out for those who I consider to either be 'friends' or 'friendly acquaintances', and try to do something nice for them. I also maintain a loyalty to them, and continue to support our common cause, or them in spirit if their chips are down.

So, in closing, I want to say that I will always be around either here, or other SatAM fan sites, for a long time to come. I will continue to support all of this until us SatAM fans can get a decent conclusion to this story that Ben, Len, and Pat started 14 years ago! The spirit of SatAM will never die! And we have to make sure it doesn't!'

So, what do you all think of it?