The early 80's have been referred to as the Golden Age of video arcade games, and, indeed, they popped up like pimples, starting with Pac-Man, who made his television debut in 1982 (previously reviewed). The very next year, Ruby-Spears, which had been dealing exclusively with ABC until then, made their first sales to NBC (Alvin & the Chipmunks & Mr. T) and CBS, which acquired Saturday Supercade, an anthology series featuring several video games adapted for television.
Sad to say, but the only segment of the series that has gotten any airplay anywhere since the series was cancelled in 1985 has been the 2nd season entry, Space Ace, whose hero tends to shift back to his wimpy alter-ego at the most inopportune times. Ace's adventures have been used on Boomerang in recent years as time filler. Rights issues may be holding back the rest of the components from being shown.
Tbomb02 uploaded the following video, which collects the open, along with individual intro bumpers:
One of the biggest surprises was the casting of comedy icon Soupy Sales as Donkey Kong. Like, whodathunk? In future posts, we'll collect as many of the features as possible, so you can judge for yourselves. As for the show itself.......
Rating: B-.
4 comments:
I hated this trend of toons!
The show itself was only a virtual replay of the video game's schtick! Frogger had to dodge things, Space Ace would go back and forth between forms (plus giving us "alternate sequences" of what could have happened if he took a different course of action), etc.
Talk about a one trick pony!
But there was one bright spot of sorts - my mom used to know the VA for Frogger's co-hort, "Sheldon". He was actor Marvin Kaplan (better known as "Henry" from the TV series, "Alice"). They grew up together in Far Rockaway NY. Kaplan's dad owned a candy store if I'm not mistaken. She told me he looked pretty much the same as a kid - glasses et al!
Kaplan's VA career goes all the way back to Top Cat. An unsung hero of the business if there ever was one.
https://www.change.org/p/sony-bring-the-rest-of-saturday-supercade-to-dvd
Assuming Sony owns the rights.....
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