Worldwide Web Warriors

In an attempt to catch the zeitgeist of the burgeoning internet scene the execs jump right on the band wagon but miss the point entirely. It is the early 90's, and a few exaggerated newspaper headlines lead the execs to believe that the kids will lap up anything internet related in spite of the fact that only the most hardened geeks have access to the "net". Thus in one fell swoop they manage to completely alienate their target audience and also invoke the ire of the geeks by misquoting technological terms and making a mockery of the whole thing.

Anyway, the hastily assembled cartoon series is called W.W.W. – Worldwide Web Warriors (which should really be 4 Ws). The WWW gang are of course a bunch of high school kids each with different skills and body sizes/skin tones. We have the white sporty leader, the fat but pleasant kid, a characterless girl, a disabled kid and, in a 90's political twist, a black computer wizard.

The adventures begin when the kids are trying to deal with some homework and the black kid suggests that they head back to his house and use "the net" to solve their troubles. "Wow!" say the gang, "You’ve got the net?!" We then get a semi-educational though flawed introduction to the web. The gang are astounded by the potential of the internet.

Before viewers lose interest the whole thing flips around into the normal after school cartoon run of things. If the execs are feeling adventurous the kids may get sucked in through the computer screen and fight baddies in the internet world in the manner of the Dungeons and Dragons cartoon. Baddies are generic and nondescript, as the makers are having trouble with the "net" jargon. We get Hypertext, Web Crawlers, Portals, Servers, Domains and of course the obligatory "Mainframe" thrown in for good luck. The kids may not be the most popular at school, and get teased for their scholarly ways, but now they don’t care! After school they can’t wait to rush over to the black kid’s house and have more real web adventures! Also through their adventures the answers to the homework are revealed in some fashion showing that the web is both fun and educational in case parents have any concerns.

If the execs decide on a more "realistic" approach, the "net" can be used by the kids to foil crimes being perpetrated in the real world. This however leaves them wide open and it will soon become achingly clear that they have no real grasp of what the web actually is – with scenes showing the kid altering the flight paths of missiles (a la WarGames) via the net. This second approach could cut the life of the series short very quickly.


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