By the late 80's, ABC was beginning to lean more on DIC for new product, especially to complement The Real Ghostbusters, which was in its 2nd season. Enter The Little Clowns of Happytown.
While there are those who claim they are afraid of or hate clowns for whatever reason, the Happy Clowns are just that. Happy, ready to put smiles on kids' faces.
Unfortunately, most viewers voted with their remotes. ABC was losing steam in the ratings, as their only ratings hits were the Ghostbusters and the Bugs Bunny-Tweety Show, which was also in its 2nd season. The clowns didn't generate enough ratings, and were gone by the end of the season.
Here's the open:
No rating.
4 comments:
I've only ever seen 2 episodes of this show. One of them was titled "Goodbye, Grandma", in which Hiccup and Blooper's Grandma Rosie comes to visit and then dies off screen shortly after wards. Besides that, I've only seen the short segments that aired during the commercial breaks where the Little Clowns would tell jokes.
I think I've seen some of those interstitial bits, but not the show itself. I can't remember where it was on the schedule, but if it was placed between Real Ghostbusters & Bugs/Tweety, you'd think they'd retain, not lose, the audience.
As Goldstar alluded to, "Little Clowns of Happytown" was heavy on Aesops; that might have been one factor as to why its' life span was so short. Perhaps, given that the show's stars were clowns, it might have worked better if the producers had opted to up the zany factor, like, have 3 or 4 shorts per show with lots of wacky slapstick and sight gags, a la "Tiny Toon Adventures". With a show about clowns, going the silly route seems like a no-brainer.
I think they did two eps per show, based on research.
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