Megas XLR...

Several years ago, Cartoon Network aired a series called Megas XLR. I saw some of the series, but, it was gone before I had the opportunity to preserve any episodes for the archive.

In the distant future of 3037, humanity is fighting a doomed war against an alien race known as the Glorft. In order to save the Earth and their species from total annihilation, the human resistance steals a prototype giant robot from the Glorft and modifies it, renaming it "Megas" (Mechanized Earth Guard Attack System). The plan was to send Megas back in time to the Battle of the Last Stand in 3035, which was the last major offensive fought by humanity against the Glorft. Humanity lost that battle, and the war moved more and more in the Glorfts' favor ever since, but the members of the resistance believe that Megas can tip the scales and hand the Glorft a decisive defeat.

Before the plan can be executed, an attack by the Glorft forces the human resistance to send Megas back in time ahead of schedule. Kiva, one of the main architects of the plan, decides to pilot it and attempts to transfer into it from her own mech. During the attempt, Megas' head is blown off by enemy fire, destabilizing its timedrive and sending the robot to 1936. Megas languishes in a junkyard in Jersey City, New Jersey until it ends up in the hands of Coop (who bought it for two dollars, and never bothered to actually pay for it), around the year 2004. Coop turns Megas into a hot rod project and names it XLR, for Xtra Large Robot.

Kiva and the Glorft also go back in time in the hopes of retrieving Megas, arriving in Coop's time. When Kiva finds it she discovers that she is unable to pilot it because of Coop's modifications; because the Glorft attack destroyed Megas' head, Coop had to jerry-rig together a new set of controls using a car and various video game controls. Coop's constant video game playing has made him the perfect pilot for the remodeled Megas, so Kiva grudgingly decides to train Coop in Megas' proper use until she can repair the timedrive.

My favorite episode from the first season is The Driver's Seat. According to Wikipedia:

Coop accidentally teleports himself directly into the Karrajor, the Glorft Mothership, and now Kiva and Jamie have to figure out how to pilot Megas to save him. They do okay at first, but eventually crash into the Glorft mothership and get themselves - and Megas - captured. Fortunately, Gorrath foolishly lets Coop get the car, so Coop tears through the ship, intent on rescuing his friends and Megas. Now Coop must rescue everyone while finishing off the Glorft invasion once and for all, but how is he supposed to do that when the sheer amount of Glorft mech's overpowers even Megas and tears off several vital parts? Even worse, the Glorft have a new mech, the Karrajor in Mech mode, which is even larger than the UMD, which raises the question: how will Coop defeat this new threat with a critically damaged Megas?

According to BenelliM4's blog, not only is Megas XLR better than the Wii video game, No More Heroes, but, Cartoon Network seems to be aggressively seeking removal of Megas XLR from YouTube. Despite this claim, I did, however, manage to find one of my favorite episodes of the series on YouTube and add it to the archive. The quality wasn't as good as I would have liked, but, it's watchable.