Friday, August 2, 2013

Toons After Dark: Jokebook (1982)

In 1980, Hanna-Barbera got back into producing animated fare for primetime consumption. Naturally, it started with a new set of Flintstones cartoons produced specifically for primetime, this time on NBC, which was home to the Bedrock gang at the time.

The next attempt came as a late-season entry in 1982, but it's one that most of you probably haven't heard of. To tell you the truth, I never saw this show, because it was running during baseball season, and the Mets took precedence at my house. Still, Jokebook lasted about a month, didn't get much fanfare, and the material was such that it could probably pass as time filler today on [adult swim], provided of course the nimrods in charge even bother to find it in the vault.

Muttley16 uploaded the open. The title song is sung by the inimitable Scatman Crothers (ex-Hong Kong Phooey, Chico & The Man), who'd done the same thing for Heathcliff & Marmaduke a year earlier over on ABC.



No rating.

4 comments:

magicdog said...

Believe it or not I DO remember this show - but I can only remember one skit that was somewhat amusing:

Two gunslingers about to duel it out in the old west. You see the POV from the back of one of the gun fighters - the other gunfighter appearing from the distance as the viewer looks through the other gunfighter's legs.

They get closer and closer - the tension mounts.. Finally, they meet - and we find out the other gunfighter really was a tiny little guy and not at a distance at all!

Yeah.

hobbyfan said...

That puts you one up on me.

magicdog said...

I think what went wrong with this show was it was a decade too late in many respects. The character design and animation seemed more like from the "Wait Till You Father Gets Home" era, and the skits also seemed outdated.

I know HB was usually on the ball when it came to pop culture spoofs and knockoffs, but by the early 80s (dare I say, as early as the mid to late 70s) they were pretty far off the mark.

hobbyfan said...

Both "Father" & Jokebook had designs done, according to someone on YouTube, by an artist from--get this--Playboy. Go figure.