Robotech

Name: Robotech
Genre: Animation

1985SyndicationAnimation

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Three unrelated Japanese series cut together into one American saga, and the opening is where the seam shows: the same theme and the same establishing pan every week, then a different logo card and a different war.

Robotech rebuilt its titles: three distinct opening sequences are catalogued here across seasons 1–3, running between 91 and 92 seconds.

At 92 seconds at its longest, it opens well above the 58-second median for animation sequences in this catalogue.

It arrived on Syndication in 1985, when Romper Room, Truth or Consequences and Soul Train were also on the network.

Only 139 of the 2,618 shows catalogued here changed their titles at all; Robotech did so two times.

3 sequences97th most looked up of 248 in the 1980sIMDb ↗

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All 3 opening title sequences

Season 1

92s

The Macross Saga. A slow pan across a ruined landscape in a film-strip frame, then the SDF-1, the Veritech fighters and a pilot's helmet — all of it drawn from Super Dimension Fortress Macross, the first of the three shows folded into Robotech.

Season 2

91s

The Masters. Identical theme and identical opening pan, so the change announces itself in two places: the logo card gains a subtitle, and every frame after it is re-cut from Southern Cross footage.

Season 3

The New Generation. The third logo card, and Invid-era footage throughout — the last of the three source series, and the only one whose opening most American viewers met without ever knowing it had another name.

More animation opening titles from the 1980s

2 sequences

The Simpsons

1989–FoxAnimation

The only main title in television built to be different every week: the chalkboard, the saxophone solo and the couch gag all change, so the sequence is a format rather than a film.