"The Mixed-Up Mystery of Deadman's Reef", a Captain Caveman & The Teen Angels short, plays as if it was originally meant for Scooby-Doo. Why do I believe that? Because the short starts with our heroes having a moonlight beach party.
Anyway, what appears to be a simple case of a disappearing boat isn't what it seems....
Yes, the audio is a little off. It's an internet thing.
Rating: B.
Monday, August 31, 2020
Sunday, August 30, 2020
Saturday Morning's Forgotten Heroes: Captain Caveman & Son in I Was a Teenage Grown-Up (1986)
From season 1 of The Flintstone Kids:
Captain Caveman & Son (Mel Blanc & Charlie Adler) run afoul of a miserable adult known as Mr. Bad (Michael Bell), who turns the kids in Bedrock into adults because he hates fun. The show-within-a-show appeared every other week during season 1. For the record, Blanc wasn't the voice of young Barney Rubble. Instead, Hamilton Camp (Smurfs) filled the role, with Len Weinrib & Julie McWhirter-Dees as Fred & Wilma.
Here's "I Was a Teenage Grown-Up":
The Captain Caveman & Son shorts were even campier than the original Captain Caveman series nearly a decade earlier, and needed the help of a narrator (Kenneth Mars) to move the story along.
Rating: C.
Captain Caveman & Son (Mel Blanc & Charlie Adler) run afoul of a miserable adult known as Mr. Bad (Michael Bell), who turns the kids in Bedrock into adults because he hates fun. The show-within-a-show appeared every other week during season 1. For the record, Blanc wasn't the voice of young Barney Rubble. Instead, Hamilton Camp (Smurfs) filled the role, with Len Weinrib & Julie McWhirter-Dees as Fred & Wilma.
Here's "I Was a Teenage Grown-Up":
The Captain Caveman & Son shorts were even campier than the original Captain Caveman series nearly a decade earlier, and needed the help of a narrator (Kenneth Mars) to move the story along.
Rating: C.
Saturday, August 29, 2020
Rein-Toon-Ation: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003)
After 4Kids Entertainment was entrusted with programming Fox's Saturday morning block in 2002, it was a matter of time before they'd find a tentpole to build the block around.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was brought back with a shiny new coat, if ya will, as a mid-season replacement, debuting in February 2003. It was a completely new continuity, with a new voice cast, but with the same ol' attitude. As shown in the following intro, Casey Jones was already established by the time this series premiered, and the producers decided on making Casey and April O'Neil into a couple.
The series went through a few format changes over the course of its Fox run, and has been brought back again since, with the last two iterations airing on Nickelodeon.
Here's that intro. Mind the cheesy theme song, which is worse than the original series.
Rating: B.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was brought back with a shiny new coat, if ya will, as a mid-season replacement, debuting in February 2003. It was a completely new continuity, with a new voice cast, but with the same ol' attitude. As shown in the following intro, Casey Jones was already established by the time this series premiered, and the producers decided on making Casey and April O'Neil into a couple.
The series went through a few format changes over the course of its Fox run, and has been brought back again since, with the last two iterations airing on Nickelodeon.
Here's that intro. Mind the cheesy theme song, which is worse than the original series.
Rating: B.
Friday, August 28, 2020
Family Toons: The Barkleys in For The Love of Money (1972)
It's way past time we visited with The Barkleys.
When Arnie (Henry Corden) learns an old classmate is in town, he originally resents the idea of reconnecting, but when he finds out the classmate is now independently wealthy, he schemes to get a piece of the action "For The Love of Money":
No rating, out of respect to the memory of co-producer Joe Ruby.
When Arnie (Henry Corden) learns an old classmate is in town, he originally resents the idea of reconnecting, but when he finds out the classmate is now independently wealthy, he schemes to get a piece of the action "For The Love of Money":
No rating, out of respect to the memory of co-producer Joe Ruby.
Toonfomercial: The Pink Panther buys auto insurance (1979)
As someone whose day job is in the insurance industry, this one puts a smile on my face.
The Pink Panther stars in this 1979 spot for Safeco Insurance, which today is affiliated with Liberty Mutual. The Inspector makes a couple of quick cameos.
Bionic Disco has located a number of lost or obscure ads for his YouTube channel. Check it out!
Now, if he could just find one from the same period that has a mother kangaroo promoting the March of Dimes.......
The Pink Panther stars in this 1979 spot for Safeco Insurance, which today is affiliated with Liberty Mutual. The Inspector makes a couple of quick cameos.
Bionic Disco has located a number of lost or obscure ads for his YouTube channel. Check it out!
Now, if he could just find one from the same period that has a mother kangaroo promoting the March of Dimes.......
Thursday, August 27, 2020
Remembering Joe Ruby (1933-2020)
One half of one of the most prolific teams of the late 20th century has passed away.
Joe Ruby, who, with Ken Spears, co-created Scooby-Doo, Jabberjaw, Dynomutt, Fangface, Electra Woman & DynaGirl, Bigfoot & Wildboy, and so much more, passed away Wednesday of natural causes at 87.
As you can tell, Ruby, who served in the Army, had been with Hanna-Barbera in the 60's, then, after stints with DePatie-Freleng, 20th Century Fox (he & Spears were writers and story editors for the live-action Planet of The Apes), and Sid & Marty Krofft, launched his own studio with Spears as a subsidiary of Filmways, thanks to the encouragement of ABC, which bought the nascent studio's first series--Fangface (1978-80), Plastic Man (1979-81), Thundarr The Barbarian (1980-2), Heathcliff (1980-2), and Goldie Gold & Action Jack (1981), as well as a handful of ABC Weekend Specials, before Ruby-Spears sold anything to other networks. The first non-ABC entries for Ruby-Spears were Mr. T (1983-6) and Alvin & The Chipmunks (1983-9) for NBC. Ruby-Spears entered the syndication market in the mid-80's with licensed titles, including Chuck Norris Karate Kommandos, Rambo, and Centurions.
But if you're thinking Chumptoon Network/Boomerang will honor Ruby for his accomplishments, keep dreaming. CN won't break its string of daily spamming marathons of Teen Titans Go! to do the right thing.
Rest in peace, Joe.
Joe Ruby, who, with Ken Spears, co-created Scooby-Doo, Jabberjaw, Dynomutt, Fangface, Electra Woman & DynaGirl, Bigfoot & Wildboy, and so much more, passed away Wednesday of natural causes at 87.
As you can tell, Ruby, who served in the Army, had been with Hanna-Barbera in the 60's, then, after stints with DePatie-Freleng, 20th Century Fox (he & Spears were writers and story editors for the live-action Planet of The Apes), and Sid & Marty Krofft, launched his own studio with Spears as a subsidiary of Filmways, thanks to the encouragement of ABC, which bought the nascent studio's first series--Fangface (1978-80), Plastic Man (1979-81), Thundarr The Barbarian (1980-2), Heathcliff (1980-2), and Goldie Gold & Action Jack (1981), as well as a handful of ABC Weekend Specials, before Ruby-Spears sold anything to other networks. The first non-ABC entries for Ruby-Spears were Mr. T (1983-6) and Alvin & The Chipmunks (1983-9) for NBC. Ruby-Spears entered the syndication market in the mid-80's with licensed titles, including Chuck Norris Karate Kommandos, Rambo, and Centurions.
But if you're thinking Chumptoon Network/Boomerang will honor Ruby for his accomplishments, keep dreaming. CN won't break its string of daily spamming marathons of Teen Titans Go! to do the right thing.
Rest in peace, Joe.
Retro Toy Chest: Remember LJN SportsTalk? (1989)
Topps partnered with LJN to produce an experimental product, SportsTalk, in 1989.
Over 150 Topps cards from the 1989 set were expanded in size to have a disc placed on the back of the card. LJN produced a special player on which to play the cards (it won't work on a normal CD player, friends).
Unfortunately, the experiment was an epic fail. There were complaints about the player breaking, probably because of being cheaply made, and it was in cutout bins before the end of the year.
To be honest, I didn't know about this until receiving three of the cards in a trade last week. Here's a commercial:
Topps & LJN had planned on expanding and doing the same for basketball & football, but with poor response to the baseball set, the project was scrapped.
Over 150 Topps cards from the 1989 set were expanded in size to have a disc placed on the back of the card. LJN produced a special player on which to play the cards (it won't work on a normal CD player, friends).
Unfortunately, the experiment was an epic fail. There were complaints about the player breaking, probably because of being cheaply made, and it was in cutout bins before the end of the year.
To be honest, I didn't know about this until receiving three of the cards in a trade last week. Here's a commercial:
Topps & LJN had planned on expanding and doing the same for basketball & football, but with poor response to the baseball set, the project was scrapped.
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