G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero (U.S. TV)

This series' concept was originally meant for the creation of a Marvel comic book using a reworked series proposal by Larry Hama originally titled, "Fury Force," in which the son of Nick Fury (the executive director of S.H.I.E.L.D.) organizes and leads a special military unit of that intelligence organization to counterattack the villainous secret organization, HYDRA. While the proposal of the comic didn’t move forward, the toy company, Hasbro, did approached Marvel to create a comic book based on their revived G.I. Joe toy line. As a way to have the characters and equipment be showcased more than what can be advertised on televised toy commercials. As a result, the "Fury Force" comic was redesigned to match the toy line with Marvel writer Archie Goodwin suggesting that HYDRA would be renamed and retooled as Cobra for the main villain. That idea was accepted with some reluctance from Hasbro as they had some doubts that an army of villains would sell well. In the end, as it turns out, the sales of Cobra action figures and accessories makes up 40% of the toy line's sales.

This series followed a "no deaths" production edict in which death along with even serious injuries was virtually absent. This meant that individuals seen on screen rarely get shot by a gun, pilots are always seen bailing out of a downed craft, & nearby explosions have little effect on the people who are within the blast range.

Michael Bell was often times erroneously believed to have voiced Dr. Vandermeer in episode 1. The doctor in question was actually voiced by Peter Cullen. This incorrect attribution was resulted from the fact that Bell did voiced the doctor when he was voicing Major Bludd in disguise.

In episode 1, the Cobra fighter jets in the opening scene were unnamed. That was until 2012, when the G.I. Joe Field Manual was published which named them the Diamondback air-to-air fighters.

In episode 1, the Cobra officers are nearly indistinguishable from their blue suit action figure counterparts. In this episode, they would wear the same blue tunics and pants, with the red Cobra emblems on the chest area. The officers additionally have a rank chevron on their helmet and gray gloves. By the time “The Revenge of Cobra” mini-series aired, Cobra officers would officially be seen wearing the proper silver Cobra emblems, helmet chevrons and black gloves, like their action figures.

In episode 1, the sound effect of the cannon on the R.A.M. used by Stalker to infiltrate the home base of the Relay Star satellite originated from the lasers used in the original “Battlestar Galactica”, which was also the source of the sounds of the G.I. Joe’s Cylon lasers.

In episode 1, the sound effects used for Cobra's weaponry, originated from the lasers used by the android crew of the antagonist's ship from the movie “The Black Hole”.

In episode 2, the Russian delegate at the Tanu Island conference bears a resemblance to Leonid Brezhnev (1906-1982). Brezhnev was a Soviet politician who served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1964 until his death in the year 1982. who had died in November 1982, almost a year before this episode aired. He also served as the Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet (Soviet Union’s head of state) from 1960 to 1964 and again from 1977 to 1982. His 18-year term as General Secretary made him second longest serving General Secretary with Joseph Stalin being the longest serving General Secretary.

In episode 2, the S.N.A.K.E.s were treated to be like robots, when they are actually Cobra soldiers wearing advanced armored suits.

In episode 2, Destro claimed that he developed the M.A.S.S. technology, when in actuality the technology was developed by Dr. Laszlo Vandermeer.

In episode 3, the small diving vessels used by the Joes resembles the more well known submarine used by the Joes known as the S.H.A.R.C.. The name for these small diving vessels was never given in this episode. It wasn’t until after the “G.I. Joe Field Manual” book was published which did listed the vessel as an early prototype for the S.H.A.R.C..

The underwater Cobras with the red diving suits in episode 3, had no action figure counterpart at the time this episode aired on TV. They would eventually receive an action figure counterpart in the year 2008(25 years after the episode first aired).

In episode 4, the scene in which Gung-Ho's gun being teleported was cut from the F.H.E.'s home video release of the series.

In episode 4, features what appears to be early designs for the Cobra jet fighter known as the Rattler; most notable the pivot-wing V.T.O.L. design. These fighter jets didn’t officially had a name until after the “G.I. Joe Field Manual” book was published in 2012. In which they were officially named the fighters V.T.O.L. skirmisher.

The footage in episode 4 would be end up being reused for the Cobra Rattler jet fighter toy TV commercial.

In episode 5, the flashback to Duke's childhood was cut from the F.H.E.’s home video release of the series.

In episode 5, Scarlett described Duke as being "six foot two, eyes of blue". Six Foot Two was the name of the parody song (with the lyrics "six foot two, eyes of blue") of the song Five Foot, Two, Eyes of Blue (Has Anybody Seen My Gal?) by Brother Bones and His Shadows.