With a set of magical dancing shoes, a singing superhero brought hammertime to Saturday mornings, in the 1991 animated series, Hammerman, featuring none other than musical celebrity MC Hammer.

As the story goes, in the 60s, there was a superhero named Soulman. As his age advanced and his powers diminished, Gramps (as he was now lovingly referred to) and his granddaughter, Jodie, set out to find a rightful superhero heir. The found the perfect person in Stanley Burrell, a mild-mannered youth center employee. When trouble raised its ugly head, Stanley would throw on his pair of magic dancing shoes and transform into the hippest superhero on the planet, Hammerman (complete with Hammer Pants.)

Usually, trouble arrived in the form of the villainous Boss Griendenheimer, arch-nemesis extraordinaire who, although he was currently incarcerated, had a legion of loyal followers to carry out his evil plans. Luckily, Hammerman always had Gramps to turn to for helpful advice on how to handle these henchmen. At the end of each episode, the real Stanley, um, M.C. Hammer, would make an appearance and remind all of the dangers of things such as drug abuse and gang activity, common themes in the cartoon.

M.C. Hammer lent his voice to the cartoon character and created an original song for each show, always acting as the responsible role model. It wasn’t enough to stop the bludgeoning hammer of the network executives at ABC, however, and after a mere season, Hammerman was cancelled.