Toonfomercial(s): Look who's shilling for Dr. Pepper! (1979)

In the late 70's, Dr. Pepper was big. Big as in, on the level of rivals Coca-Cola and Pepsi, thanks to a marketing campaign that made a star out of actor-singer David Naughton, who parlayed the ad campaign into the short-lived ABC series Makin' It and the horror movie, "An American Werewolf in London".

Dr. Pepper also contracted with Hanna-Barbera to have a couple of familiar cartoon icons appear with Naughton. First up, Popeye (Jack Mercer):



And, then, Fred Flintstone (Henry Corden), with a side order of Jimmie Walker (Good Times):



While Dr. Pepper is still around, none of their ad campaigns in recent years have matched the pop culture power of "Be a Pepper".

Toons After Dark: Coneheads (1983)

Original Saturday Night Live cast members Dan Aykroyd & Jane Curtin reprised one of the show's most beloved sketches of the golden era when Rankin-Bass was commissioned by Lorne Michaels' Broadway Video to produce an animated Coneheads primetime special in 1983 for NBC (of course).

This pretty much explains how Beldar and Prymaat ended up on Earth in the first place......

This would be one of the last uses of Rankin-Bass' classic logo, as it was discarded two years later with Thundercats, but this was one of their first efforts in conjunction with Telepictures, now a branch of the WB tree.

No rating.

Game Time: Popeye shills his video game (1983)

Yes, it's true. Popeye merited his own home video game in 1983, produced by Parker Brothers. Have to assume that even though they'd stopped making Popeye cartoons a year earlier, Hanna-Barbera might've been involved in the production of this ad. John Bartholomew Tucker is heard as the announcer at the end of the clip.

Toon Sports: Sport Chumpions (1941)

Here's a Looney Tunes entry that hasn't seen the light of day in way too long, insofar as I know. Haven't seen this turn up on either Cartoon Network or Boomerang of late.

"Sport Chumpions", narrated by Robert Bruce, Jr., is a satire of sports newsreels.



Today, of course, I don't think you see too many women using caps when swimming.

Rating: B-.

Toon Legends: Supermarket Pink (1978)

Here's a case where the Pink Panther is just like you and me.

The Panther goes shopping when he realizes his cupboards and refrigerator are just as barren as, say for example, old Mother Hubbard. Pity the Little Man when he encounters "Supermarket Pink":

As you can tell from the background music, this was used on the New Pink Panther Show when it aired on ABC.

Rating: B.

Toons After Dark: Welcome to Eltingville (2002)

Evan Dorkin's Welcome to Eltingville didn't get beyond the pilot episode commissioned by [adult swim] in 2002, but, by all rights, it should've.

Spun off from a feature he created for Dark Horse Comics' Instant Piano anthology comic, Dorkin presented the four members of the Eltingville Club behaving like normal kids. Arguing, fighting over petty things. The language and other mature themes landed Eltingville on [adult swim] rather than Cartoon Network proper. Dorkin took on a supporting voice role in the show, as you'll hear.

Director Chuck Sheetz would also work on What's New Scooby-Doo, and other projects for WB. The music was composed and performed by the Aquabats, who'd later land their own series-----but not on CN/[as]. And, yes, the intro sequence is a homage to the 1966 Batman series, as envisioned by Dorkin.

I think Dorkin was hoping this would work, because his more familiar creations, Milk & Cheese, would've been [as] material. 

Rating: B.

Tooniversary: The Case of the Lighthouse Mouse (Clue Club, 1976)

CBS got the jump on everyone else 40 years ago this month with the launch of Clue Club. In this writer's opinion, Clue Club cannot be considered a knockoff of Scooby-Doo, whom the Club was ironically replacing on the CBS roster.

Clue Club was launched early due to the US Open tennis tournament, which CBS held the rights to at the time, and would otherwise hold back the start of their children's lineup for a week or two. While this was a novel idea, it was never duplicated, due to the simple fact that Clue Club was not renewed for another season. As we've documented before, the series was reworked into edited reruns under the title, Woofer & Whimper, Dog Detectives, as part of Skatebirds the following year, before reverting back to the original title and 30 minute format in 1978.

In "The Case of the Lighthouse Mouse", the Club has to clear their Uncle Salty (Paul Winchell, also the voice of Woofer) of the theft of some priceless jewels.

Edit, 9/17/23: Had to change the video. We have just this short excerpt.

At least we know both of the boys, Larry (David Jolliffe) and D. D. (Bob Hastings) were old enough to drive. Not sure about Pepper.

The biggest difference between Clue Club and Scooby-Doo was that this was more of a procedural crime drama, with the dogs acting as comedy relief. Should it surprise anyone that Whimper (Jim McGeorge) was actually smarter than Woofer ever gave him credit for?

Rating: A-.