Peter Keefe

Who was Peter Keefe?

Peter Eugene Keefe was an American television producer best known for creating the popular series Voltron. Keefe's work on the series is credited with introducing American audiences to Japanese animation and influenced later children's programs like Dragon Ball Z, Pokémon and Power Rangers.

Keefe was born on November 16, 1952, in Rochester, New York. His television career began as a movie critic for TV station KPLR in St. Louis, Missouri and he later produced documentaries for World Events Productions. His "hugely popular" 1980s cartoon series Voltron featured a group of five spaceships combined to form the robot Voltron, who used his sword to protect the universe. The series was credited by The New York Times in his obituary as having "helped prepare the way for other Japanese-style animation in the United States". During its run from 1984 to 1987 Voltron was the top-ranked syndicated children's program. It brought forth several spinoffs and merchandise licensing deals. The Voltron series was created by Keefe by cutting and pasting bits of the Japanese cartoons Beast King GoLion and Kikou Kantai Dairugger XV.