In the ongoing push to refresh The Disney Afternoon block, Disney decided that Goofy would finally get his own series. After all, Donald Duck was appearing occasionally on DuckTales, but the block was cancelled before they got around to giving Mickey Mouse his own show. He'd eventually get two, but over on ABC (House of Mouse and Mickey's MouseWorks).
Unfortunately for Goofy, Goof Troop had just one season of first run episodes that aired weekdays as part of Disney Afternoon, with an extra 13 airing Saturdays on ABC. Mind you, this was before Disney bought ABC.
Goofy (Bill Farmer) returns to his hometown of Spoonerville with son Max (Dana Hill), and we see that Pete (Jim Cummings) is his next door neighbor, married with two children. This, I think, is what Hanna-Barbera had aspired to do with Popeye & Son a few years earlier, except the idea of families on this show was more fleshed out.
The series did, however, spin off two movies, the first of which, "A Goofy Movie", went into theatres, while the sequel was direct to video. Don't ask. By the time they did the sequel, Hill had passed away after complications from type-1 diabetes.
Here's the intro:
Rating: B.
2 comments:
Just a little fun trivia:
1. The show was previously titled "Goofy Troopers" and it was going to have Goofy as a well meaning but inept scout troop leader to a colorful group of young scouts. The show's final title "Goof Troop" was left over from this premise.
2. Pete's wife and daughter were both named after some of Pete's aliases in the theatrical shorts; his wife Peg (Peg Leg Pete) and his daughter Pistol (Pistol Pete).
I think what they were trying to do here was reintroduce Pete to a new audience, and soften his character. Just too bad that, I think his family was ret-conned out.
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