In a really strange story we nearly had an Austin Powers cartoon series in 1999 following the runaway success of The Spy Who Shagged Me. HBO purchased the rights to make a 13 episode cartoon series based on Austin Powers to be aired the following year. The reason the deal with HBO creates strange bedfellows with Austin Powers is at the time HBO was only really known for two dramas; The Sopranos and Sex in the City. Putting a cartoon Austin Powers series alongside this line-up does seem like quite a strange thing in hindsight. The fact is HBO was originally just a channel that showed movies hence its name Home Box Office. Nowadays the channel is known for producing other high quality dramas like Boardwalk Empire, The Wire and Game of Thrones as well as branching out to comedy with television shows like Girls. Back then though HBO had only just started making its own content and so a cartoon series based on a successful film was probably seen as a good way to bring more viewers and paid subscribers to HBO. We will never get to see what the show could have been as the 13 episode first season was cancelled early in production.
Born in the forgettable year of 1993 in Manchester, England and haven't moved since. Culture lover, film buff, television fiend, sport freak, music mongol... I'm running out of silly ways to say this.
