Stevie and Zoya

Stevie and Zoya is an animated series that appeared first on MTV in the late 1980s. The one-minute shorts were produced by Joe Horne, who later worked for Disney and on Class of 3000.

The setting is New York City in the near future. The title characters work for a law enforcement agency called "DADDIO" (which seems to be a play on the similar organization in The Man from U.N.C.L.E.). Stevie Washington is depicted as a young white male in his early twenties, with black hair, sunglasses, black tee shirt, jeans and sneakers. He is rarely seen without his red, white and blue skateboard. Zoya (no last name mentioned) wears a red jumpsuit with a black belt, collar, gloves, stilletto-heeled boots and a large hair bow that resembles a Playboy bunny's rabbit ears. She is armed with the unlikeliest of weapons: a yo-yo. She uses it to swing from lamposts or buildings a la Spider-Man, to disarm opponents and on one occasion to defuse a bomb (by knocking off the fuse).

Stevie and Zoya attempt to stop the nefarious plots of various supervillains, including space aliens, the Minute Women, the voodoo priestess Mamuwaldi, the Discozombies, and most of all, disfigured evil industrialist John Warlok.

The early series was crudely scored (mostly with a pastiche of old movie and television music) and more crudely animated. Zoya spoke in only two episodes, and Stevie in only one with a single word..."Framed". The series was quickly paced, which gave it a cult status. Narration was supplied by actor Russell Johnson.