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The original GI Joe Cartoons, GI Joe: A Real American Hero, series was a half hour animated series that was first released back in 1989.

It began as a mini-series production and advanced to a regular TV series in 1990; lasting 2 seasons and boasting a cool 44 episodes.

The Hasbro Company is credited with the release of the GI Joe franchise that started as a toy line, then became a comic book, then a GI Joe Cartoons and more recently a movie.

The GI Joe Cartoons mini-series focuses on Cobra, a terrorist organization that develops several gadgets and devices to defeat the GI Joes.

GI Joe, which stands for Global Integrated Joint Operating Entity, must stop Cobra's ill intentions in order to save themselves, and the World, from the evil clutches of the Cobra organization.

The GI Joe Cartoons were based on "good vs. evil" storylines with the show's opening theme song including the narration: "G.I. Joe is the code name for America's daring, highly trained special mission force. Its purpose: to defend human freedom against Cobra, a ruthless terrorist organization determined to rule the world".

The show with its physical fighting and high-tech weapons became popular among its loyal young fans and helped to boost the sales of Hasbro's GI Joe figures. The show was, however , cancelled when the first movie was released.

The GI Joe animated series however made a significant return in 1989 with the animation company, DIC, taking over from Sunbow Productions which proved to be a bit of a great success 2 more seasons were made after the initial mini-series but it ended after 1991.

Hasbro decided to focus on new characters in the new series although some of the old crew were retained. Hawk was still maintained as the leader of the GI Joe organization and shared duties with Slaughter who only appeared during live combat episodes.

The GI Joes commander, Grid Iron, was assigned to field commanding duties while, Duke, another of the Joes, regained his previous position in Season 2. A new addition to the Joe crew was Storm Shadow, who defected from Cobra during the last sequel of the GI Joe mini-series.

Cobra, on the other hand, used some of its cast from the mini-series and a new one for the 1990 seasons. This saw the coming of the Night Creepers and Vipers into the Cobra camp. Surprisingly enough, the old Cobra leader, Mindbender was retained until the second season where he is replaced by Serpentor.

The first season of the GI Joe regular series was focused on introducing the new characters to the audience while the second series is where the story goes deeper and the storyline gets interesting with a few unexpected twists and turns.

Despite its financial difficulties, Hasbro was able to keep its audience entertained and even resurrected sales on the comic books and toy lines that were popularized in the two seasons.

Nothing much more happened until its resurgence in 2002 which was also accompanied by a new interest in the Real American Hero toy line.

There was a short series of webisode released under the title of G.I. Joe: Resolute in 2008, with a full series later broadcast on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim. Unlike previous GI Joe series these one contained more realistic and often graphic violence.