What happens when a network is desperate to get ratings from the latest toy related fad, but the toy is an inanimate object? You get ABC’s short-lived Saturday Morning Television show Rubik, the Amazing Cube. The only "amazing" thing about the show is how lax the FCC was back then, because surely such an amalgam of children’s programming and crass consumerism would never be permitted these days.
So how did the show’s producers bring life to an inanimate object? They made him an alien from outer space that fell off some old man’s horse and carriage and into the lives of a generic Latino family. Little Rubik had a creepy looking head and got extra powers when he was “solved”. The slightest vibration, perfectly timed to occur at the worst possible moments would make him lose these “powers” when his colors became scrambled. If that wasn’t bizarre enough, the Latino teeny bopper musical group “Menudo” sang the theme song to the cartoon.
