Defenders Of The Earth was a half-hour long syndicated television show primeiring in September 1986. Produced by Marvel Productions (in conjunction with King Features Entertainment who owns the IP). The series was based in the year 2015 with Ming the Merciless activitly working to take over the Earth, as he completely exhausted the resources on his own planet, Mongo. Flash Gordon, the Phantom, Lothar, Mandrake the Magician, and their children, Rick, Jedda, L.J., and Kshin, team up to stop him.

Several characters were updated from their original newspaper-strip portrayals. Lothar became Mandrake’s equal rather than his servant, while Mandrake’s hypnotic abilities became genuine magic, similar to Doctor Strange’s. The Phantom gained the strength of “10 tigers,” and Ming was given green skin to avoid the Asian stereotypes of his 1934 depiction (early character models showed him with blue skin)