How familiar with the show am I?: I'd never heard of it before.
In this fantasy sci-fi hybrid series, in a galaxy far away, a primitive from the land joins forces with someone from the more advanced world of the sky to fight the forces of evil.
How familiar with the show am I?: I was unaware of it.
Is this the first episode?: A pilot aired three years before the show proper began - as per usual, I'm ignoring that pilot in favour of the first regular episode.
A boy called Warren got a curse put on him by some kind of demon, and now he turns into a big blue monster (or back to human) every time he sneezes. And he tries to keep this fact a secret from everyone, except for his sister and the ghost who lives in the attic. Yes.
How familiar with the show am I?: I watched a lot of this one as a kid!
Is this the first episode?: There was a separate pilot episode that I'm not counting towards the series as usual.
Rugrats is a show about a group of babies with big imaginations. Like Muppet Babies, episodes are often spent half in reality and half in what they're pretending (although not this episode). Unlike Muppet Babies, these babies are humans! Also, they aren't old enough for the adults to understand them.
How familiar with the show am I?: I used to watch this one as a kid!
A stop-motion animated series about a hospital whose staff and patients are all anthropomorphic animals, Hilltop Hospital is a show I have fond memories of. But does it hold up when I watch it now?
How familiar with the show am I?: I'd never heard of it before.
The Brothers Flub is about two alien brothers named Fraz and Guapo who work for an interstellar package delivery company, getting into all kinds of silly adventures in the course of their job. Yes, I know you're thinking of Futurama, but this show came first, just about.
How familiar with the show am I?: I know the character of Morph from his appearances on the art show SMart, but I don't know if I've seen any of this show specifically.
Morph is an orange plasticine stop-motion character whose whole gimmick is exactly that - he is made of plasticine even in-universe and can re-shape himself as he likes, and lives on a desk alongside his similarly-made friends. He sometimes interacts with his live-action creator, Tony Hart.
How familiar with the show am I?: Of course I've heard of Charlie Brown, but I wasn't aware of this particular show before.
When I first saw the title of this show, I read it more cynically than it was intended, and thought this was going to be some kind of satire about modern life. Instead, it's the history of the United States with the Peanuts characters plopped into it, starting with this episode that focuses on the journey of the Pilgrims on the Mayflower.
How familiar with the show am I?: I hadn't heard of it before.
The Power Team is the cartoon segment from a live-action, video game themed show called Video Power. Like Saturday Supercade, it uses characters from all different video games in its cast - unlike Saturday Supercade, the characters all appear together, and none of them are any characters that you've heard of. The concept here is that they've all emerged from their video game cartridges in order to fight crime in the "real world".
How familiar with the show am I?: I was aware that America had its own Dennis the Menace, but I'd never seen any of it.
I grew up reading and watching the British Dennis the Menace, but I was aware that there was an American comic strip character that coincidentally had the same name. Dennis Mitchell is a little blond boy who is well-intentioned, but his attempts to help out always result in chaos and disaster.
How familiar with the show am I?: I know of it - it's definitely possible I've seen some of it before.
Chip and Dale were an existing pair of mischievous chipmunk characters from Disney's old short cartoons, but this series gives them new roles as part of a team of adventuring heroes. Is it as successful in this sort of goal as DuckTales was?
Oh, heh, that's weird - along with The Telebugs, that's two shows in a row I've covered where one of the main characters is named Chip!
How familiar with the show am I?: Not familiar at all.
The Telebugs are... well. This show stumps me a bit, to be honest. The Telebugs are three robot characters with television screens for faces, able to display their facial expressions and other things on them, who get around by being able to fly. What do they actually do in their adventures, though? Well, it's hard to know from just the first episode...
How familiar with the show am I?: Yet another show I had no familiarity with before this project.
A spin-off from an anthology series called Raw Toonage, Bonkers is a show about a world where "toons" live alongside humans, and cartoons are filmed with cameras as if they're live-action movies. And one of those toons, named Bonkers, ends up partnered with a human police officer as they investigate crimes.
Yes, it's obviously inspired by Who Framed Roger Rabbit, except without the main gimmick of that movie because the humans are now animated characters just like the toons are. But does it work?
How familiar with the show am I?: I had never heard of it.
This is one of those shows that's a completely separate story each week - we've managed to go quite a while without seeing any of those! - and this one focuses on humorous adaptations of fairy tales, all narrated by the legendary Spike Milligan who also provides all the voices.
How familiar with the show am I?: Not familiar at all.
We've had Transformers and we've had GoBots, but they were of course not the only giant robots around in 1984. So, now we have Mighty Orbots, one of the less well-known examples of the genre, focusing on one team of combining robots and their human inventor.
How familiar with the show am I?: Is it possible to have not heard of this? I don't know too much about it, though.
Is this the first episode?: There were a couple of TV specials first - this is the first episode of the series proper.
Another show made to sell toys, this time plush teddy bears (what else?), the Care Bears are all different coloured bears that live in the clouds and each have dominion over different aspects of life, represented by images on their bellies. Are they gods? That feels like a description of gods. Brightly-coloured adorable gods.
How familiar with the show am I?: I don't think I'd heard of it.
An anthropomorphic mouse called Chez, and a Frankenstein-style monster called Mo. An unlikely pair end up as friends, and this episode will show us how.
How familiar with the show am I?: I hadn't heard of it before.
Here's a unique animated show. The concept is that there are little people that live amongst nature, being named after - and made from - the various plants that can be found in the wild. But the exceptional part is the fact that all of the plants are real, animated in stop-motion, with what look like paper cut-outs added for faces and other things that can't be made out of plants. Let's see how that goes!
How familiar with the show am I?: I've played plenty of Mario games, and, even though I haven't seen most of this show, I happen to have seen this specific episode before.
After we last saw Mario as the protagonist of Donkey Kong in Saturday Supercade, he has become much more of a star. Super Mario Bros. and Super Mario Bros. 2 (US version, long story) are two of the best selling games on the Nintendo Entertainment System, and it's time for Mario and the other titular brother Luigi to get their very own cartoon. Technically it's a live-action show with a cartoon segment, but the latter is essentially its own show and is all that we care about here - some episodes instead had an animated segment based on The Legend of Zelda, which I will cover separately in a future Debutniverse entry.
How familiar with the show am I?: I don't think I'd heard of it.
Who is Henry? The answer to that is not forthcoming in this show, but we do get to meet his cat and a bunch of his animal friends.
How familiar with the show am I?: Not at all.
A human boy, his robot dog, and his alien friend go around the universe having adventures and learning things along the way. It's an educational show, based on a series of educational games, but it tries to make it fun.
How familiar with the show am I?: I recognise the name Jonny Quest, but that's about it.
Is this the first episode?: This is a continuation of the 60s TV show "Jonny Quest", but this is unambiguously the first episode of this particular incarnation.
Jonny Quest is a boy who travels around with his father and friends and gets put into all kinds of danger. Why is he doing all this and not going to school? The reasons are vague.
How familiar with the show am I?: I'd never heard of it.
I have lost count of how many shows we've done that are based on toylines. Popples were multi-coloured teddies of indeterminate species with rabbity ears and lollipop tails, whose gimmick was that they had a kind of "pouch" on their back that you could fold over to put the bottom half of the Popple inside it, essentially becoming a ball that could bounce around until you decided to "pop" them back to their regular forms. So, the show characters, who are toy-sized, all share this as their ability, along with a whole bunch of other magical powers!
How familiar with the show am I?: I was only vaguely aware of the character.
Is this the first episode?: Like a few other shows we've covered, there was a movie first, and this show continues from it, but this is the first actual TV episode.
Pippi Longstocking was a series of Swedish children's books about the strongest girl in the world. This TV adaptation of it was a Canadian co-production, which is how it has ended up on my English-speaking-country-focused cartoon blog.
How familiar with the show am I?: I'm mostly aware of the G.I. Joe franchise through its crossovers with Transformers, and little else.
We've seen a few of Hasbro's toy-promoting TV shows already in Debutniverse, but this is where it all started. G.I. Joe had been the ubiquitous American action figure since the 60s, but in the 80s Hasbro decided to reinvent the concept as a whole team of soldiers fighting against a terrorist organisation called Cobra. It was so successful, the cartoon-and-toyline setup became their standard business model for a long time afterwards!
How familiar with the show am I?: I hadn't heard of it, but obviously I have heard of Sherlock Holmes!
The world's most famous detective, Sherlock Holmes is inextricably associated with Victorian London. This cartoon explores the question - what if he was resurrected in the future? I'm not sure if it was a question anyone was asking, but still, it's intriguing.
How familiar with the show am I?: I was vaguely aware of it, and I know of the book but I don't think I've read it.
Is this the first episode?: The show was preceded by a movie based directly on the book, so this continues where that left off, but of course movies do not count as episodes for the purpose of Debutniverse. Although... the situation gets stranger than that, as we will see.
The original book of The Wind in the Willows is up there with Peter Rabbit as one of the canonical "clothed anthropomorphic animals in a countryside setting" children's books, so it's no surprise that both have had multiple animated adaptations. This stop-motion one, as mentioned above, is a continuation of a movie with mostly the same cast.
How familiar with the show am I?: I had never heard of it.
Is this the first episode?: IMDb lists the episodes in a different order, but it's unclear why - this is clearly meant to be the first episode, and other sources indicate it was aired first.
KaBlam! It's a sketch show! Presented by two animated kids called Henry and June! With a bunch of different animation styles for the featured segments! Its title is very excited!!!
How familiar with the show am I?: I had never heard of it.
After we spent last week in Scotland, we've now moved on to Wales! In fact, this was originally a Welsh-language show called "Wil Cwac Cwac". Will is an anthropomorphic duckling in another of those cosy countryside settings we've seen a few of.
How familiar with the show am I?: I seem to vaguely remember it from childhood.
If you've heard of anything about Scotland, you've probably heard about the legend of a monster in its Loch Ness. Well, this show is about a whole family of them! And it's full of stereotypical Scottish accents provided by a pair of definitely English actors.
How familiar with the show am I?: I've watched plenty of Spider-Man things, including the 1994 cartoon, but not this particular show.
What's that? We've covered a 1981 Spider-Man cartoon before? You're right, but this time, he's with his amazing friends! Both shows debuted on the same day, to make use of the potential of Marvel's most popular character as much as they possibly could. The friends in question are Iceman from the X-Men, and Firestar, an original character created due to rights issues preventing the show's creators from using their first choice, the Human Torch from the Fantastic Four.
How familiar with the show am I?: I hadn't heard of it.
A British storybook-style show about a boy who makes friends with an alien. Narrated by Jon Pertwee, best known for starring in Doctor Who, and we've previously heard him as another alien, Spotty from SuperTed - wow, that's typecasting!
How familiar with the show am I?: I hadn't heard of it.
It will not surprise you to hear that Piggsburg Pigs exclamation mark is about a town inhabited by anthropomorphic pigs, but it appears to be only half about their everyday lives and half about facing various supernatural threats - the opening sequence shows them doing things like surfing at the beach and playing baseball, but also walking through a dark forest and running into a vampire and a Frankenstein's monster, among other things. And this episode is a perfect example!
How familiar with the show am I?: I have watched the original trilogy of Star Wars films, and I was somewhat aware that the cartoon spin-offs existed.
Return of the Jedi, the third movie in the Star Wars franchise, introduced the forest moon Endor and its lovable population of fuzzy bear-like beings called Ewoks. They were especially popular with kids, which made them an obvious choice for an animated spin-off.
How familiar with the show am I?: I am somewhat aware of it due to its Transformers connections.
The Transformers is of course now the most famous of the transforming robot franchises, at least outside of Japan, but when it first came along it had plenty of competition, the most prominent of which was GoBots. And GoBots had its own cartoon, debuting just a few weeks after the Transformers cartoon! Let's see what it has to offer.
Little trivia digression: GoBots was made by Tonka, which has since been bought by Hasbro, so Transformers media in later years has been able to work in a bunch of GoBots references.
How familiar with the show am I?: I am pretty sure I saw some of it when I was younger. It's definitely familiar.
Pepper Ann Pearson is a seventh-grade girl with a red ponytail and glasses and typical middle-schooler problems. She also has a very big imagination, leading to cutaway gags galore.
How familiar with the show am I?: I had heard of it a lot but somehow never watched any of it.
Donald Duck famously has three nephews: Huey, Dewey, and Louie. But he also has an uncle named Scrooge McDuck. And this show is barely about Donald but is very much about his relatives, in stories based on the comic book works of Carl Barks.
How familiar with the show am I?: I hadn't heard of it before.
Is this the first episode?: I couldn't find a definitive episode listing for this show, but at least one website calls this episode 1 and that's good enough for me depending on my mood.
Aubrey is some kind of orange thing that reminds me of the Mr. Men and Little Miss, having simple adventures in a simple world. This show has no dialogue at all, which is a situation we haven't encountered yet in Debutniverse!
How familiar with the show am I?: I hadn't heard of it before.
Based on a 1990 film that I also hadn't heard of, Problem Child looks to be about a Dennis the Menace-like pointy-haired kid called Junior, but without the beloved childhood memories I have attached to Dennis. So let's see how well that works out for it.
How familiar with the show am I?: I definitely watched some of this as a kid, although I can't remember which episodes.
Is this the first episode?: Two things to consider here. In some places, the Little Miss show was combined with the Mr. Men show, which began in 1974 and so is out of range for Debutniverse. But they are definitely different shows, so I am counting Little Miss on its own. The other thing is that different sources disagree on the order of the episodes - I've ended up following Wikipedia's lead on this one.
We have covered a Roger Hargreaves adaptation before in Timbuctoo, but now we're on to his best known work - the Mr. Men and Little Miss. As I said above, though, the Mr. Men had already had their own adaptation before the Little Miss books existed, so this one focuses on the Little Miss characters. Regardless, the show is about simplistic-looking characters of different colours and shapes who are each named after a major trait of theirs.
How familiar with the show am I?: I know of the books but I'd never seen this show.
As beloved a British children's character as Winnie the Pooh and Paddington Bear, here it's the turn of Peter Rabbit, created by Beatrix Potter, to get his own animated adaptation. This episode is based on the first and fourth books in the series, "The Tale of Peter Rabbit" and "The Tale of Benjamin Bunny".
How familiar with the show am I?: I know what Oliver Twist is of course, and I know who Saban are, but not this particular show.
It's Dickens's Oliver Twist but with animal characters! But it's not the 1988 Disney film "Oliver & Company". Oliver is a dog here, not a cat. But I don't think it's too much of a stretch to guess that this show might exist in some kind of attempt to cash in on the existence of that film.
How familiar with the show am I?: I was aware of the franchise in general.
The whole Shazam / Captain Marvel situation is a little bit confusing so I'll start with the brief timeline overview:
1939: Fawcett Comics debuts the superhero character Captain Marvel, who quickly becomes a very popular character
1951: DC Comics sues Fawcett Comics for the similarity of Captain Marvel to their character, Superman, and Fawcett Comics cancels all its superhero comics as a result
1967: Marvel Comics debuts their own, unrelated Captain Marvel character, and acquires the trademark on the name "Captain Marvel" as a comic book title
1972: DC Comics acquires the rights to the original Captain Marvel from Fawcett and begins publishing new comics based on the character; due to Marvel now owning the trademark on the name, the comic book is renamed "Shazam!" after the character's catchphrase, but the character is still called Captain Marvel within its pages as this is not affected by trademark
1972-2012: The "I am not Shazam" era, during which time there is often confusion over the character's name due to it not matching the title of the comic
2012: As part of a major reboot of DC Comics continuity, DC takes the opportunity to rename the character to Shazam, so that the confusion will no longer be a problem
2019: Marvel's Captain Marvel and DC's Shazam! coincidentally get live-action movies in the same year as each other. This doesn't have much to do with understanding the situation but it's funny
You've seen the page title - this show is from 1981, so we are in the "I am not Shazam" era. Let's meet Captain Marvel!
How familiar with the show am I?: I hadn't heard of it before.
Rude Dog is a cool, white-with-neon-bits dog of indeterminate breed, who drives a Cadillac and lives in a sort of converted garage looking place with seven less-than-cool dogs called the Dweebs. It looks like it's his job to keep them out of trouble, whether it's from an evil dog catcher, from cats, or from their own stupidity.
How familiar with the show am I?: I watched this all the time as a kid!
Is there anyone reading this who wouldn't know what Recess is? It's about a group of kids led by troublemaker T.J. in a school full of quirky characters, most of whom are only referred to by their nicknames.
How familiar with the show am I?: I'm generally aware of the toyline that it's based on, but nothing more specific.
Is this the first episode?: Not only do different sources disagree on the order of the episodes, they disagree on which segments were paired up to make the episodes. Since the copies I found match up with Wikipedia on the latter point, I've gone with Wikipedia's ordering too.
Sylvanian Families is a line of toys of adorable little anthropomorphic animals in rural clothing. Like many toys for children, it has received several animated adaptations - something we should be used to by now!
How familiar with the show am I?: I hadn't heard of it before.
Based on a series of children's books from the 70s, George and Martha is about two anthropomorphic hippopotamuses who are best friends!
How familiar with the show am I?: I've seen the film and I knew there was a TV show, but I can't remember if I've ever seen any of it before.
OK, it's one week after TigerSharks and I certainly didn't intend to do two water-themed shows in a row. But of course, this is very different! It's the prequel series to Disney's film of The Little Mermaid, focusing on Ariel's adventures in her father's undersea kingdom, long before (spoilers!) she joins the human world in the movie.
How familiar with the show am I?: I hadn't heard of it before.
Don't confuse this with Street Sharks - yes, we've got people turning into underwater creatures and fighting evil, but the vibe is very different! This time we've got space travel, alien races, and even a dragon!
How familiar with the show am I?: I have fond memories of this show from when I was a kid.
Don't be fooled by the title - this isn't a religious thing, although the similarities are obvious. In the case of this show, Noah is a polar bear, and he has his own island. To be any more specific would be telling, as the premise of the show is gradually set up over the course of this first episode.
How familiar with the show am I?: I was only vaguely aware of it.
It's a world where helicopters and other vehicles are living, talking beings! And our star is a young helicopter named Budgie! I could already tell this one was going to be sweet.
How familiar with the show am I?: I know what the Pink Panther is, but not this particular show.
Is this the first episode?: Wikipedia indicates that this show was shown in "two shorts" format, but IMDb lists each segment as its own episode. I found it in the latter format so that's what I'm going with.
The Pink Panther was a series of comedy films about a detective called Clouseau, but then the literal pink panther from the opening credits got his own cartoon show. His cartoons are surreal pieces where he torments a white egg-shaped character for his own amusement, with little or no dialogue. This show, which introduces his two sons as its main characters, for some reason ditches all that and is a standard cartoon sitcom instead.
How familiar with the show am I?: I'd never heard of it before!
British English lesson: Tube = London Underground, i.e. the London subway system. So a show called Tube Mice is about mice that live in the Underground. Probably the only one, to be fair.
How familiar with the show am I?: I'd never heard of it before!
I didn't mean to do two Hanna-Barbera shows in a row, honest! This one's completely different from Scooby-Doo, though, because it's about a group of kids and their talking dog. Wait, what? Um, anyway, the kids in this show look to be ordinary kids in their waking life, but in their dreams they form the "Midnight Patrol" who protect the Dream Zone from the evil Nightmare Prince. Potsworth is their dog, who is just a dog in real life but can talk in the Dream Zone.
The show was called "Potsworth & Co." in the UK and "Midnight Patrol: Adventures in the Dream Zone" in the US. Normally I'd go with the title used in the country of origin, but awkwardly this one was a UK/US co-production. So, I'm defaulting to the UK as that's where I'm from.
How familiar with the show am I?: I watched this show as a kid. And of course, I know of other versions of Scooby-Doo!
Is this the first episode?: Some sources (e.g. IMDb) count the 1979 version of Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo as the same TV show as the 1980 version, whereas Wikipedia counts them separately. It looks to me like there are enough differences to count this as a separate show. Plus, I wouldn't get to cover it otherwise!
I'm sure I don't need to explain what Scooby-Doo is, so let's start with what distinguishes this version of the show. The previous series had introduced Scooby's nephew Scrappy-Doo, but this one made a lot more changes: the format changed from full half-hour episodes to three shorts per episode; Fred, Daphne, and Velma were dropped; and a lot more actual supernatural villains were used in place of the typical humans in costumes. Oh, and 1980 is also the point at which Hanna-Barbera stopped putting laugh tracks in animated shows, so there's none of that in this series.
For some reason, people hate Scrappy. After having watched this episode, I don't agree with those people.
How familiar with the show am I?: I've never seen it before, but I was vaguely aware of it.
Is this the first episode?: Multiple sources seem to disagree on this one. There was a pilot episode that was later remade as an episode of the actual series, so that at least definitely doesn't count. Outside of that, I've gone with the one that Wikipedia says is first.
Rocko is a wallaby (you know, like a small kangaroo) from Australia who now lives in America - one of those cartoon animal types who wears a shirt but no trousers. He has a pet dog called Spunky and his best friend is a bull called Heffer, and they all get up to all kinds of surreal antics. In fact, a lot of the people involved here went on to work on SpongeBob SquarePants, and it shows.
How familiar with the show am I?: I watched it as a kid, and I remember this episode specifically.
Oakie Doke is some kind of acorn-man thing who lives in a tree, and his neighbours are all small animals whose problems he helps with. It seems strange, but when this thing has been part of your psyche since you were a small child, you don't question these things. And this show is so adorable! This is the second Cosgrove Hall production I'm covering, after Danger Mouse, and it's the first stop-motion series I'm looking at - whether that qualifies as a "cartoon" might be a matter of opinion, but it's definitely animated.
How familiar with the show am I?: I hadn't heard of this show.
We had quite a calm and friendly show last time and there's another one next time, so how about some action this week? This show has four brothers that all become half-human mutant animals, and it probably wants to be Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, but instead of turtles it's sharks!
How familiar with the show am I?: I hadn't heard of this show.
It's about a mouse and a mole named Mouse and Mole - you can probably picture the sort of thing already. It's a calm little show about two animal friends who live together.
How familiar with the show am I?: I hadn't heard of this show.
Based on a comic book, Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot is a show about a big, mechanical-looking robot, and a small robot that looks like a human boy, who fight alien threats together. At least, that's what you can tell from the opening sequence. I won't spoil anything yet, but once I learned what the twist on that formula was, I became very enthusiastic about this one.
How familiar with the show am I?: I knew of the Archie characters but didn't know about this specific cartoon.
I get the impression that Americans have all heard of Archie Comics, but it's not as well known over here in the UK. Archie Andrews is a comic book character from 1941 who has been consistently appearing in comics ever since, and the franchise has several animated adaptations. The comic is best known for the love triangle between Archie, Betty, and Veronica. It got some more attention recently because of the live-action TV adaptation "Riverdale". Anyway, this particular adaptation didn't last long.
How familiar with the show am I?: I didn't recognise it from the title of the series, but I have actually seen this particular episode before, in school!
By complete coincidence, we have two shows in a row that are a completely different story each episode, but this one is a lot more specific. Yes, it's a series based entirely on Shakespeare plays. I hadn't known that the animated adaptation of A Midsummer Night's Dream they showed us in school was part of a TV series, but now I've re-discovered it after all these years!
How familiar with the show am I?: I wasn't aware of it at all.
This is a type of show Debutniverse hasn't covered before - one where each episode is something completely different with no connection. If you think about it, you shouldn't really expect anything to stand out about the first episode in these cases, since it's not like they're introducing the show's characters or anything like that. This show adapts a different children's book each time.
How familiar with the show am I?: I'm familiar with the franchise, but not this specific show - it was the 70s stop-motion series "Paddington" that was always on when I was a kid.
Just one particular incarnation of a talking animal franchise that started in 1958 and continues to this day, including a CGI/live-action movie series in the 21st century. No, this isn't a repeat of Alvin and the Chipmunks from our last entry, and the similarity is coincidental! Regardless of the version you're reading or watching, Paddington is a polite little bear from Peru who gets adopted by a family in London and is named after the train station where they find him.
How familiar with the show am I?: I watched some as a kid, but I wouldn't remember any specific episodes.
Alvin the chipmunk and his brothers Simon and Theodore are a famous singing trio who live with their foster father / manager, Dave (a human). If you're a bit younger than me, the version of Alvin and the Chipmunks that you're familiar with might well be the live-action movies that began in the 2000s. But the Alvin franchise started in 1958 as a series of novelty records with high-pitched vocals, and they got their first cartoon in 1961! This 80s version of the cartoon was the one I grew up with, and although I don't remember anything too specific about it, I've never been able to get the theme song out of my head to this day! Alvin, Simon... Theodore! Do, do, do-do-do-do! (And they even note in the theme song that "it's been a while", since this is their first series since the 60s one.)
How familiar with the show am I?: I've never seen the film but I think I've seen this episode a long time ago. Some parts just seemed oddly familiar.
The Mask was one of three Jim Carrey movies released in 1994 to get their own animated series (the other two being Ace Ventura, and Dumb and Dumber). He didn't voice his character in any of them, though. The Mask is about a man called Stanley Ipkiss who has a magic mask that can turn him into a cartoonish, green-faced superhero with amazing superpowers but no self-control, known for his catchphrases "Smokin'!" and "Somebody stop me!". Stanley is voiced here by Rob Paulsen, best known as Yakko and Pinky in Animaniacs, and Raphael in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
How familiar with the show am I?: I was aware that it existed, and I am of course familiar with some of the franchises involved, but not much beyond that.
Is this the first episode?: There seems to be some disagreement about which segments were in each episode, but the upload I'm using claims to be the full first episode.
In 1983, Ruby-Spears somehow got the rights to make cartoon adaptations of multiple different arcade games and package them all together as one TV show called Saturday Supercade. In this episode alone, we have segments based on Frogger, Donkey Kong, Pitfall, and Donkey Kong Jr. Yes, it has Mario in a cartoon, years before he got his own one!
How familiar with the show am I?: I watched it a lot as a kid, but mainly the handful of episodes I had on VHS - I wasn't sure if I'd seen this one before, but I might have. I used to read the comics a lot more.
Dennis the Menace is a character from the Beano, a British comic book, and he's unrelated to the American character of the same name (who coincidentally debuted on the same day!). He has spiky black hair and a red and black striped jumper, and he causes as much trouble as he can for everyone around him. He also has a similarly spiky dog called Gnasher, who gets to share title billing in this particular incarnation.
Some of my favourite interactions I've had on Cohost:
How familiar with the show am I?: I watched some of it as a kid, including this specific episode (or at least the first segment), but I don't remember much of it.
Is this the first episode?: There was a separate pilot episode, but it was later remade as an episode of the actual show, which is a clear indication that the pilot doesn't count.
Arnold is a kind young boy with a very weirdly shaped head, nicknamed "football head" by those who like to insult him. He has a best friend called Gerald, and there's this girl called Helga who bullies Arnold but is secretly in love with him. Also this is one of those shows where all the children are voiced by actual children, which is nice.
How familiar with the show am I?: I've seen the first film but nothing of the show.
Ghostbusters is this 80s Bill Murray film about a team that fights ghosts and... oh I'm going to have to explain why the cartoon is The "Real" Ghostbusters aren't I. OK, here's the short version:
There was a 70s live action TV show called The Ghost Busters, by Filmation, completely unrelated to the more well-known franchise. When the Ghostbusters film was made, by Columbia Pictures, the similarity of the titles was noticed, and Columbia had to pay Filmation for the use of the name. Then the film came out and got popular, and Filmation decided to take advantage of the similar names by releasing a cartoon adaptation of their TV show, called Ghostbusters (which I hope to someday cover on this blog). As a result, Columbia couldn't call the cartoon of the film "Ghostbusters" without a naming conflict, so they added "The Real" to distinguish it.
So, they're not lying - this is the Ghostbusters you've heard of, and therefore, for all intents and purposes, it's the real one.
How familiar with the show am I?: I was vaguely aware of it.
So I may or may not have already mentioned why I started doing Debutniverse. The inspiration came while having compilations of old cartoon TV theme songs (like these) playing while I worked. I loved the nostalgia hit I was getting, even from the shows I didn't already know about just because of the styles, and decided I wanted more of that. So, even though I only vaguely knew about Babar, I've seen the opening a couple of times already, and I made some assumptions about what the show might be like as a result.
This show... is not what I was expecting.
How familiar with the show am I?: I hadn't heard of it before.
Is this the first episode?: The show was preceded by a TV special called "The Country Mouse and the City Mouse: A Christmas Tale", but it looks like it's a bit different and not part of the actual show.
Here's another cute little cartoon! The titular Country Mouse and City Mouse are two cousins, Emily and Alexander. They are mice in little outfits reflecting their statuses - it seems that in this world there is a whole little mouse society, unknown to most humans. And these two, despite their different upbringings, go on adventures around the world together!
How familiar with the show am I?: I had, of course, heard of Tom and Jerry, but I wasn't aware of this specific version.
Tom and Jerry is one of those franchises where it's hard to imagine you're reading a cartoon blog if you don't know what it is, but to summarise: Tom is a cat. Jerry is a mouse. Tom chases Jerry, usually with the goal of eating him. Got it? In this one they're joined by some of their fellow classic MGM cartoon characters like Droopy and Slick Wolf (a newly-renamed Big Bad Wolf).
How familiar with the show am I?: I hadn't heard of it before.
What happens when four teenage boys discover the only known living dinosaur in the present day? This show both asks and answers that question. In quite a lot of detail, since this first episode is over 45 minutes long!
How familiar with the show am I?: I was aware of the concept, but I'd never seen any of it.
This show is about a team of kids fighting to save the planet from pollution, and the superhero Captain Planet that they are able to summon. In other words, it is no surprise that a whole generation of us who grew up on media like this turned into environmentalists as adults! I don't remember what specific shows it would have been for me - certainly not this one - but there was a trend.
How familiar with the show am I?: I've seen little bits of the live-action Muppet Show before, but never any of this.
It's the Muppets, but they're babies! I am assuming everyone here knows what a Muppet is. This show basically invented the concept of giving a franchise a spin-off where everyone is a kid - so, let's see what the Muppets were like as babies!
How familiar with the show am I?: I hadn't heard of it before, nor the show it's based on.
It seems that in the 80s there was a popular live-action American sitcom called Punky Brewster. Don't ask me, I'm not American and I wasn't alive in the 80s. Anyway, it was about a girl called Punky (cool name!) who had lost her parents and was taken in by a man named Henry.
This cartoon is the same thing, except Punky has an adorable furry creature called Glomer with magical powers, whose existence she has to hide from Henry. Well, I suppose it would be redundant to have both the live-action show and the cartoon if you didn't make use of the medium!
How familiar with the show am I?: I hadn't heard of it before.
From Roger Hargreaves, creator of Mr. Men and Little Miss, comes a show in a very similar style, except the characters are animals. They're only slightly more animal-shaped than the Mr. Men are human-shaped. And this "Timbuctoo" is an island, unlike the real Timbuktu in Mali.
How familiar with the show am I?: I've watched plenty of Spider-Man things, including the 1994 cartoon, but not this particular show.
Well if this isn't the cheesiest version of Spider-Man I've ever seen. (Then again, I've never watched the 60s cartoon version.) Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed it - "cheesy" is far from an insult, coming from me! Anyway, I probably don't need to tell you that Spider-Man is a superhero character with the powers of a spider, including wall-crawling, the relative strength of a spider, and the (self-made) ability to shoot webbing, which he uses to swing around New York City and fight crime. And that he's also Peter Parker, a university student and newspaper photographer who's suspiciously good at getting pictures of Spider-Man. But some of you might have been missing at least one of those pieces of information, who knows.
How familiar with the show am I?: I hadn't heard of it before.
I've had a look at The Transformers and My Little Pony already, but now it's time for a more obscure Hasbro-toyline-based cartoon. COPS, or Central Organization of Police Specialists, is a group of heroes dedicated to fighting the criminals that run rampant in Empire City in the far-off futuristic year of 2020. The show was later re-run as "CyberCOPS".
Yes, I know exactly what you're thinking. But in Debutniverse so far, we've encountered superheroes, magical flying ponies, and a boy who can turn into a car - I think we can suspend our disbelief enough to imagine a world where cops can be good guys.
How familiar with the show am I?: I was aware of the franchise, but I hadn't seen any of it, and I didn't know this specific cartoon.
Little Shop is a 1991 TV cartoon, based on the 1986 film Little Shop of Horrors, based on the 1982 stage musical Little Shop of Horrors, based on the 1960 film The Little Shop of Horrors. Phew. It's about a big talking plant.
How familiar with the show am I?: I don't think I had heard of it before.
Eek seems to be the unluckiest cat in the world. In the title sequence alone, his superheroic attempt at saving a girl cat from a burning building turns out to be a dream, and he proceeds to get blown up, hit by a plane, and electroshocked, before finally falling and hitting the title itself. If the first episode is any indication, the title sequence is very accurate!
How familiar with the show am I?: I certainly watched it when I was young, but I remember little of it.
Kipper is a dog. A dog with a slipper, the opening informs us, and he demonstrates how well he can twirl it. It also feels the need to clarify the difference between a toad and a frog, perhaps for a lack of rhymes. But I don't care about that. You know why?
This show is adorable.
How familiar with the show am I?: I hadn't heard of it before.
Is this the first episode?: There seems to be some confusion about which individual segments of the shows that make up The Kwicky Koala Show were aired together. Both Wikipedia and IMDb place "Sink or Swim" as the first instalment of Kwicky Koala himself, but put it together with different shorts of the other characters from the ones that were actually there when I went and sought out the episode myself. I don't know whether this means the episodes were constructed differently in different markets, or if the internet is just wrong about this.
Tex Avery. If you haven't heard his name, you've almost certainly experienced his work. He created Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, then moved from Warner Brothers to MGM where he created Droopy. For the last few years of his life, he was working at Hanna-Barbera, and this show, The Kwicky Koala Show, was one of his final works. I can tell you now, the show doesn't hide its inspirations, but that doesn't mean it's not fun in itself!
How familiar with the show am I?: I was aware of it, but I had never watched any of it, or of any My Little Pony show.
Is this the first episode?: There had previously been a couple of TV specials and a movie based on the toyline, but this is the first episode of the actual series. That does mean I'm missing some context, because it evidently continues from the movie.
It's been a few months since I last looked at a show created to advertise a Hasbro toyline, and now we're on another! This time, it's the sweet little multicoloured horses known as My Little Pony - the original incarnation, not the mega-popular Friendship is Magic version from over 20 years later, which I gather is quite different.
How familiar with the show am I?: I knew it existed from that one gif of the transformation, but I didn't know anything else about it.
This show is insane right from the first seconds of the opening sequence, so let's dive straight in. Brett Matthews tells us "I'm Brett Matthews" and explains his backstory - he was driving his flashy sports car during a storm when a bolt of lightning hit a tree, and when he swerved to avoid it, his car flew off the road into a laboratory that was in the middle of an experiment. Specifically, a "molecular transfer ray" was involved. Whatever kind of effect it was supposed to achieve, what it did was merge Brett with his car, making him capable of transforming between human and car. That's what makes him "Turbo Teen"!
(Going entirely unmentioned in the show's own intro are the other main characters - Brett's girlfriend Pattie, his friend Alex, and his dog Rusty.)
How familiar with the show am I?: I hadn't heard of it before.
Ovide Video is a platypus living on a South Sea island. His friends include chef platypus Saphron, joke-telling toucan Groaner, and janitor lizard Polo, while his enemies, a snake called Cy Sly and another toucan called Bobo, try to ruin everyone's fun. That seems to be about the gist of it!
How familiar with the show am I?: I remember watching it as a kid, but I don't really remember the specifics.
SuperTed is a teddy bear who can become a superhero. Accompanied by his alien sidekick, the Spotty Man, they fight the forces of evil in the world - that is, the greedy cowboy Texas Pete and his goons.
How familiar with the show am I?: I hadn't heard of it before.
The 2 Stupid Dogs are two dogs, referred to only as the Big Dog and the Little Dog, whose stupidity leads them into all sorts of adventures. Also, one segment in the episode is instead dedicated to Super Secret Secret Squirrel, a revival of the Secret Squirrel cartoon from the 60s.
How familiar with the show am I?: I hadn't heard of it before.
Heard of Captain Underpants? The author of those books, Dav Pilkey, had previously written another book series called Dumb Bunnies, and this is the animated series of it. It's about a family - Momma, Poppa, and Baby Bunny - who are as silly as the title suggests.
How familiar with the show am I?: I was aware of the show, and of course aware of DC Comics in general, but I had never watched any of it.
Is this the first episode?: There seems to be some disagreement about whether each new incarnation of Super Friends is its own new show (e.g. according to Wikipedia), or merely a new season of the same original Super Friends series from 1973 (e.g. according to IMDb). I am going with the former interpretation and covering each show separately.
Super Friends is a franchise of cartoons based on DC's superhero characters such as Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman. This particular TV series is the fifth incarnation of the show (although see above), and switches to a three-shorts format after all the previous shows had used full half-hour episodes.
How familiar with the show am I?: I hadn't heard of it before.
Victor is the baby of the Why Why family, and he has a lot of questions about how the world works - luckily, all his relatives are very knowledgeable about all sorts of things!
How familiar with the show am I?: I hadn't heard of it before.
Little Lulu is a mischievous little girl from an old newspaper comic strip, who was given her own cartoon series in the 90s, starring British comedian Tracey Ullman (best known these days for the fact that her sketch show was the first appearance of The Simpsons).
How familiar with the show am I?: I haven't seen it before, but I was generally aware of it.
So you've heard of Looney Tunes, right? I mean, you're reading a blog about cartoons. If you don't know what Looney Tunes is then I don't know how you got here. The idea behind Tiny Toon Adventures is that it's about the next generation of Looney Tunes, being trained up by the classic stars to become new icons of comedy.
How familiar with the show am I?: I haven't seen it before, but I was generally aware of it.
Danger Mouse is a miniature spy taking on the most evil criminals in London, accompanied by his hamster sidekick Penfold.
How familiar with the show am I?: I've watched the whole show before, and many other Transformers series.
The Transformers! The concept, if you've somehow avoided it until now, is that there are two factions of alien robots - the peace-loving Autobots and the conquest-hungry Decepticons - who have each come from their dying planet of Cybertron to search for fuel sources that can keep them operational, and hopefully help them win their war. Both sides have landed on Earth and are using Earth vehicles and other machines as disguises, hence "Transform"-ers. Oh, and you can go and buy toys of them right now!
