Saturday Morning Cartoon Show from Another Earth: The New Adventures of SeaQuest DSV

In this special Cereal Creatures blog series, we imagine a Saturday Morning Cartoon Show from Another Earth and this time it's The New Adventures of SeaQuest DSV!

Ever thought about why some TV shows or movies never got their own cartoon spin-off? There are tons of examples of ones that did, often attracting fans who hadn't even seen the original movie that inspired the cartoon. At Cereal Creatures, we were all about The Real Ghostbusters before we watched the first movie! And yes, we did wonder why the actors didn't look like their cartoon counterparts!

In our new blog series, we've created artwork and show guides for those animated series that never made it to Saturday morning TV—at least not on our planet. Maybe on some other world, they did—and maybe they'd look a bit like this!

The New Adventures of SeaQuest DSV

One of our favorite live-action sci-fi shows of the '90s that didn't have Star Trek in the title was SeaQuest DSV and its third season renamed follow-up SeaQuest 2032. The first season was grounded in science and starred Jaws' Roy Scheider and teen heartthrob Jonathan Brandis. Produced by Amblin Entertainment for NBC, it included Steven Spielberg as one of the executive producers. The series, set in 2018, featured a high-tech submarine charged with exploration and keeping the peace for the United Earth Oceans Organization. The premise was very optimistic, not unlike the original Star Trek, leading some to call it "Star Trek underwater."

The series suffered from "retooling" each season, with the second season losing key actors due to a move from LA to Orlando, Florida, and a focus on less science-focused stories and more on sci-fi and mysticism. The quality of the stories suffered greatly, and that led to another revamp in the third season, featuring a time jump of 10 years and Michael Ironside taking over from Scheider. The third season, now called SeaQuest 2032, put the titular sub and crew in a more militaristic, grounded environment. While the show's stories improved greatly, the ratings didn't, and it was canceled midseason. But what if, during the highs of that first season, NBC had commissioned an animated Saturday morning companion show? That never happened on our Earth, so we imagined what it might have been.

In our version, we opted to leave it during the final months of the first season, before the SeaQuest is destroyed and most of the crew splits up. Although we've since lost Scheider and Brandis — the latter to suicide — we imagine they'd have both provided the voices for their characters. Of course, the kid-friendly talking dolphin, Darwin, would be a main character, and we'd add a half-man, half-sea creature called Lt. Gil. Like the first season of the show, our stories would be grand in scale but grounded in science, making it entertaining for all ages. With the numerous reboots these days, we think Universal should pull SeaQuest out of mothballs for a new series of adventures. But if they don't, here are some imaginary episodes from our cartoon show from another Earth, The New Adventures of SeaQuest DSV.

“The Phantom of Pelican Bay” When sonar pings spell out an S.O.S. from a “ship” that sank 60 years ago, Bridger suspects a hoax—until the SeaQuest finds itself in a pocket of dark water in a cemetery of lost wrecks.

“Darwin’s Day” Darwin accidently triggers Chief Crocker's security protocol, locking down the boat as pirates approach. As the only one who can navigate through the entire boat, can the dolphin save the day?

“Lt. Gil Goes Missing” When a probe disappears into an undersea cave, Gil volunteers to retrieve it--putting him face to face with other Mods--modified amphibious humans--who plan on capturing the SeaQuest.

“The Kelp Caper” The crew investigates a reef that’s “vanishing overnight,” only to discover eco-thieves harvesting rare kelp for illegal fuel—forcing Lucas and Darwin, separated from the SeaQuest to pull off a bait-and-switch with fake kelp.

“Bubble Trouble” A massive methane bubble field turns the ocean into a fizzy roller coaster, wreaking havoc of the SeaQuest. Can Dr. Westphalen convince her old mentor to stop the methane tests or will Bridger and crew be caught in the middle of something even more explosive than a methane burst?

“The Vocoder Ventriloquist” Darwin’s voice device starts translating a secret code that Bridger and Lucas track to a colony of psychic soldiers preparing to attack the UEO.

“Attack of the Trash Kraken” When a trash hauler dumps its waste into the ocean, a glowing chemical turns an octopus into a mutant kraken and Bridger is determined to stop it without killing it with time for an undersea colony running out!

“The Day the Sea Turned Green” A harmless glowing algae bloom makes the ocean glow—and scrambles sensors leading the SeaQuest to offer help from ships knocked off course. All is well until the SeaQuest's outer hull starts reacting to the algae and the boat itself starts making course corrections on its own!

“Clockwork Leviathan” A rogue inventor and ecoterrorist's abandoned maintenance robot mistakes the SeaQuest for a sunken oil tanker and prepares to detonate a nuclear bomb on the hull!

“The Great Reef Riddle” When Lucas and a group of teenagers get lost in an underwater coral maze, they must escape the pirates who caused it--with a little help (we're using that term very loosely here) from The Regulator!

“Seawest Side Story” Rival research teams argue over who discovered a new thermal vent first, and it’s about to get petty—until the vent begins venting too much, forcing both sides to cooperate before the site collapses.

“Captain's Reunion” Bridger must face the SeaQuest's first captain, Marilyn Stark, who has returned to command an enemy nation's new submarine that can rival the power of the SeaQuest.

“Pod Bless This Mess” Darwin visits his old pod for a peaceful holiday—until a loud undersea mining test spooks the dolphins into danger; Bridger and Lucas must shut it down while Darwin saves the day with a heroic warning call.

"Of Titantic Proportions" SeaQuest engages a group of ecopirates stealing an iceberg but inadvertently unleashes a long-frozen sea monster from the age of the dinosaurs!

"Send in the Clowns" Ford, Hitchcock and O'Neill discover a circus-themed waterpark dome than sunk decades earlier. What they don't expect is that the robotic AI performers are still active and have somehow evolved! The show must go on, but the grand finale might just be the destruction of the SeaQuest!

"Mysteries of Sea and Stars" When a team from SeaQuest boards what they believe is an old, unmanned NASA space station that crashed into the ocean, they quickly learn it's a flying saucer captured by the government decades earlier. What they don't expect is suddenly finding themselves thrust into the future with a sunken SeaQuest off their bow and a world being invaded by extraterrestrials. Can they return home to their SeaQuest and return the saucer to its rightful owners in time?

Honestly, we could keep coming up with more and more of these story ideas! Would you watch a SeaQuest cartoon series? Should Universal bring the show back with a reboot or continuation?

The full series is streaming on Peacock, give it a watch!