Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Saturtainment: C-Bear & Jamal (1996)

In the 90's, Fox was taking whatever came along and trying to make a hit series for their Saturday morning block. And they took in a few clunkers along the way.

C-Bear & Jamal was snuck onto the schedule in February 1996 with little promotion. After 3 weeks, the series disappeared, only to return in the fall. The gap in between was too large for viewers to come back to the show for its fall run, and thus, a year after its launch, this innovative inner-city toon was el-defunct-o. Cancelled, that is.

Rapper-actor Tone Loc, best known for late 80's hits like "Funky Cold Medina" & "Wild Thing", voiced C-Bear, a talking teddy bear who was best buds with his owner, 10-year-old Jamal. On the surface, the series strove to be a post-modern, urban reboot of AA Milne's Winnie The Pooh, but failed miserably. Like so many other shows back then, Fox ruined it themselves with their schedule roulette, if ya will. Sad to say, the series hasn't been seen, not even on urban networks like BET or Aspire, since it was cancelled.

Here's the intro. Tone Loc also performs the theme song:



Like, I can't relate. I didn't have a teddy bear when I was a kid, unlike most guys at that age. My folks once got me a transistor radio shaped like a dog. No lie, I think it was a poodle or a cocker spaniel. Lasted less than a year.

Rating: None. Never saw the show.


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