Carl Macek was the TV producer that brought American kids Robotech in 1985.  Robotech was spawned out of the Anime series Macross, but because Macross was only 36 episodes, and you needed 80 to get a daily syndication run in the US, he came up with this crazy idea to mash it up with 2 additional series that had giant robots, do a little re-editting, and make an over arching 3 generation story arc.  It sounds crazy, but it really did work.

Kids TV in the mid 80s was thinly veiled toy commercials, however because Robotech’s product partner was a model company, they were able to shoot for a higher level of sophistication with an 11 – 14 target audience.  It meant that Robotech had a real plot, real emotions, real conflict, in a way that nothing else did at the time.

I have fond memories of waking up early on Saturdays and Sundays to watch it.  In college I managed to get video tapes of the show from my friend Julie, who was 3 years older, so had the sophistication to actually record these things when she was a kid.  Later, when Harmony Gold finally rereleased Robotech on DVD I managed to do what most people can’t, buy a little piece of my childhood back.  I still love the series to this day.

Carl, thank you for what you created.

Instead of a moment of silence, I’ll leave you with the opening credits from Robotech as the best tribute that we could give to Carl.