Strange that there are none of the 60′s KFS made-for-tv shorts here. I’m guessing THOSE will be on Vol 2.

WHAT—no Dinky Dog cartoons?

I remember these being pretty bad though it was nice to hear the great Jack Mercer (sadly for the last time). Anyone know why Hanna-Barbera didn’t use Mae Questel & Jackson Beck? I’m guessing Jack’s salary blew their budget.

“Larry Levine says: WHAT—no Dinky Dog cartoons?”

Just a head’s up … Amazon.ca (the Canadian side) has the Dinky Dog Series by itself. It’s region 1, so it will play on US machines.

I’m glad they are releasing some of these episode. Rhino released some of the 80′s Popeye episode in ’99. My heart will always go out to the Fleischer ones, though.

That’s right, John Sanford… even in the stiff, el cheapo KFS TV catoons, Popeye was allowed to beat up the baddies!

What, you don’t like Popeye and Son?

I hope this includes the anti-smoking PSAs Popeye sold out to.

Just a word in defense of a few of the 1960′s KFS Popeye’s made by Paramount. Some of them tried to squash down original Segar continuities for TV (Myskery Melody and Me Quest For Poopdeck Pappy), though a lot was hacked out to fit the five minute format. Popeye gets off some woderfully wheezy puns like when he asks the little cheese soldier’s name in “Hits And Missiles”. The soldier says his name is Krans to which Popeye replies “Take me to your leader, Krans”. Or this one when Brutus, with the Sea Hag’s help, is transformed into a hunk. Brutus goes under the alias “Don Juan” and Popeye comes back with “When you’ve Don Juan, you’ve done ‘em all”. Hmm. Well, they gave me a chuckle.

Yeah, Some Guy….”I uses me pipe as a musical instrumink!” Next thing you know, they’ll make Popeye like something more than spinach…oh yeah, the Quaker Oats commercial did that. Oh those wacky ’70s and ’80s.

When the TVShowsOnDVD report said “family friendly” and then I saw the cover, I knew they’d use the H-B show before it was reported by Jerry. And I agree about the infuriating “no hitting” rule, but that was the ’70s for you…see also: the Superfriends. And worse, the Filmation Batman cartoon at the time. Believe me that makes SF look like JLUnlimited.

As for the KFS shorts…I know most Popeye purists frown at them. But I can’t do it, despite how corny and badly animated they were. Cause they were the Popeyes I grew up watching in reruns in the ’80s on WNEW-TV, Channel 5. Actually, since all 5 was showing then were the KFS’s (along with select Famous shorts, mostly AAP’ed films though some of them kept the Paramount open and close), that was the Popeye I knew before even the Fleischers! So I guess I will always have a soft spot for them, in spite of myself.

Believe it or not, Dave Tendlar did the stock animation for Popeye’s spinach-fueled transformation in those 70s H-B POPEYE cartoons. Also, Toby Bluth designed and painted the key pseudo-Fleisher backgrounds for the series.

But what was REALLY noteworthy about those shows were the health-and-safety tags. I was working in layout at the studio and did one that featured Popeye showing his nephews the proper way to brush their teeth — except that Popeye HAS no teeth — apparently, they’ve all been punched out. So, for that segment, we had to make a new model of Popeye WITH teeth! Even wilder, there was a rather lovable middle-aged designer/developement artist working on the show who was animation’s equivalent of Hunter S. Thompson as far as intake of substances went (he was always high on something/anything but had a personal code of responsiblity in that he refused to drive) who was given the assignment of designing a character called “Mr. Unh-Unh” or “Mr. No-No” or something like that for the ALL-NEW POPEYE HOUR’s PSAs. The character was supposed to represent every bad habit depictable (who knows if he was a porn addict, too) as a negative example to Popeye’s nephews. So our booze/pot/mushroom/etc.-addled designer came up with a funny-animal wolf wearing a purple pimp suit — complete with a purple hat with a long feather sticking out of its hat band — and the network went with it! What’s even funnier, that wolf somehow looked like the guy who designed it!

Boy, I’d buy this DVD just for another look at Mr. Unh-Unh!

As for POPEYE AND SON, I’m embarrassed to admit I wrote a few episodes for the show. My original scripts tried to ignore some of the worst aspects of the show and put some genuinely Fleisher-esque moments into the show — for example, since BS&P was only looking for “imitatable violence”, I came up with a sequence wherein Popeye and used car dealer Bluto got into a fight bashing each other with cars rather than fists — but every one of my scripts came back from the network with the line “GOES TOO FAR” scrawled across the cover sheet! No surprise, the results — revised by others writers — never resembled the “real” POPEYE in the slightest.

I’m still trying to understand why H-B made Wimpy sound like W.C. Fields.

SS! it is great to hear from you. Funny thing…it wasn’t till I saw the restored Fleischers on The Popeye Show (Cartoon Network) that I knew that Popeye was intended not to have teeth…probably due to miscolorized Fleischer shorts and the Famous and KFS shorts that DID have a betoothed Popeye. (In the Fleischers, watching them in B/W you can tell by the dark color that what was seen at times in Popeye’s mouth were apparently gums) Then again, Popeye has been known to miraculously regain his other eye in the later shorts.

Wonder if he’s been eating pureed spinach all those years, then?

The correct name of the wolf in “The All-New Popeye Hour” public service segments is Mr. No-No. Before Cartoon Network, this show and the Famous Studios cartoon shorts featured on WGN-TV’s “The Bozo Show” were the only Popeye series I had access to. I have great memories of watching and recording “The All-New Popeye Show” (as The Family Channel called it), even after learning about the differences between the theatrical cartoon shorts.

I still enjoy this show for its interesting take on the Popeye characters (“Popeye’s Treasure Hunt”, “Private Olive Oil”, etc.), but I know that it doesn’t try to be like the Fleischer cartoon shorts when it comes to character interaction and animation. It’s similar to “The Price is Right” during Bob Barker’s last years as host. After many years running, favorite elements of the show were gone or not the same (announcers Rod Roddy and Johnny Olson and regular models Janice Pennington and Kathleen Bradley), but the star was always there. In the case of “The All-New Popeye Hour”, that was the main character and Jack Mercer.

The Fleischers’ colour Popeyes show the ol’ salt with red gums and no teeth – true to the sailor’s original design. The reason why Popeye’s mouth looks the way it does is, in great part, due to the fact that Popeye has no teeth (if you’ve seen people with no teeth, you’ll know what I’m talking about).

Ah,…how times have changed. I find it very ironic that, since then, the character of Popeye has been used to advertise everything including, believe it ot not, FLOSSING. At home, I have a sticker, which was sent to me by Fred Grandinetti (I think it is from the 80s), that shows Popeye smiling and flexing his arm muscles, which instead of a usual metaphor for strength (such as the Rock of Gibraltar, anchor, dynamite, etc.), have a dental floss product inscribed on them. Below Popeye, displayed are the words FLOSS IS BOSS. Hehehe…That’s like Wimpy advertising a healthy, trans fat-free diet. :)

As for this Hanna-Barbera incarnation of Popeye. I really cannot see how some people can find these films better than the 1960s KFS shorts. The KFS Popeyes are better than the late Famous output at their best and disturbingly campy at their worst. Still, they were not contaminated by the bacteria of political correctness. Popeye could punch people. And, also, there were some nice throwbacks to Segar’s bizarre universe. What’s good about Hanna-Barbera Popeyes? The fact that the visual designs are third-rate imitations of the Fleischer era? These films stink of Saturday morning soul-less-ness. They might have had any other characters in lieu of Thimble Theatre characters and there would be no difference. Give me disturbing campiness before generic facelessness any time…

Besides, why do people at WHV think that Fleischer Popeyes are not family friendly, anyway? I’ve seen kids watching Fleischer toons and they were immersed in them and ecstatic while watching these films. Two generations have grown up watching Fleischer Popeyes and there’s nothing wrong with these people. You don’t get more family friendly than Popeye’s “Just ’cause you’re taller, don’t hit someone smaller” philosophy in the Fleischers’ PROTECK THE WEAKERIST. Why introduce kids to the worst type of mediocrity when we have such artistic/entertainment gems in our cultural archives?

I enjoy the H-B Popeye cartoons because their was an attempt to capture the feel of the Fleischer films. Jack Mercer also wrote many of the scripts. I know, I know Popeye couldn’t belt people
but the stories made up for that. They’re certainly better than some of those ghastly animated Jack Kinney TV Popeyes from the 1960′s.

The series was a huge hit for CBS but once in went into syndication, that should have been it for the animated sailor. “Popeye and Son”
was a mistake unless it had been about Popeye and Swee’pea.