The Coneheads was an animated series pilot created by the team of Rankin/Bass in 1983. Like the 1993 film of the same name, it was based on the Saturday Night Live sketches featuring the titular characters. Though it aired on NBC as a half-hour special, it was never picked up for a series, but it can be viewed online.
The plotline is very similar to the early part of the 1993 Coneheads film. It depicts Beldar and Prymatt's ship crash landing on Earth, the couple's discovery that they can't be rescued for a while, their settling in on Earth, and the birth of their daughter, Connie. After a visit from their neighbors, the husband of whom thinks the Coneheads are very strange, the pair get a visit by an IRS agent with some questions about their tax history. He quickly leaves after finding out they're 'illegal aliens'.
This work contains examples of:
- Alien Invasion: At least before Beldar crashes his ship.
- Animated Adaptation: Of the SNL sketches.
- Big Eater: Much like the live-action versions, the Coneheads eat a lot.
- Intimidating Revenue Service: The IRS guy who visits the pair to get tax information.
- Laugh Track: Mirroring the live-action version, it also uses applause.
- Long-Lived: Implied when Beldar says they could be stranded there for centuries.
- Not in Front of the Kid: When the neighbors bring over a 'coffee ring', a kind of cake, Beldar says this, believing it to be an 'edible sensor ring', a part of their species' lovemaking, and therefore inappropriate for Connie to see.
- Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: All three of them use a lot of big words.
- Small Universe After All: Remulak rules seven galaxies which goes up to eight and back down to six over the course of the episode.
- The Unpronounceable: Almost everyone, to Beldar's dismay, gets the last name wrong.Beldar: The name is Conehead!
