DONKEY
KONG JR.
(CBS, September 17-December 10, 1983)
Ruby-Spears Productions
MAIN CAST:
Frank Welker – Donkey Kong Jr., various
Bart Braverman - Bones
After the major success of the
arcade hit Donkey Kong, Nintendo was eager to
duplicate that success and commissioned the creation of a sequel. The game’s
creator, Shigeru
Miyamoto, went to work on the first of many entries into the
franchise: Donkey Kong Jr.
Jr.
was the culmination of ideas Miaymoto had for Donkey Kong, but was unable to incorporate due to graphical
limitations of the time. It was a departure from the previous game, as it
focused on Donkey
Kong’s
son, Junior, who had to rescue his captured father from Mario.
This marked the first and only time that Mario was a villain in a videogame. The
reason Junior was made the star was because Miyamoto wanted the player to be
able to play as Donkey Kong, but
again graphical limitations prohibited the use of such a large character in an
action game. The style of platforming was also different, as this time around
Junior had to climb a series of vines while knocking objects onto enemies to
destroy them in order to reach Donkey Kong’s cage at the top. Like its
predecessor, it featured four distinct levels repeated with increasing
difficulty. The game would end after the player lost all their lives or reached
the level 22 kill
screen.
Donkey
Kong Jr. was released to arcades in August 1982, just weeks apart in both
Japan and North America. The game proved as successful as the predecessor,
earning the 1984 Arcade
Award for “Best Videogame Audio-Visual Effects”. It was
selected among five arcade games for history’s first official videogame
world championship in January of 1983, filmed at Twin Galaxies
in Ottumwa, Iowa by ABC
reality program That’s Incredible! Like its
predecessor, Jr. was ported to the
home consoles, with the Coleco Adam
version gaining a bonus fifth
stage absent from the original game, and to the Game
& Watch series
of handheld games which reproduced the first
level. The third and fourth levels of the game were
reproduced in the follow-up, Donkey
Kong II.
Jr. also
had its own direct sequel in the form of educational game Donkey Kong Jr. Math for the Nintendo
Entertainment System. The game, however, was poorly received
and future entries in the series were quickly cancelled.
![]() |
1983 ad for the CBS line-up. |
In 1983, CBS was looking to get in on the video
game craze and to combat ABC’s Pac-Man produced by Hanna-Barbera. Figuring to hedge their bets, they
licensed several gaming properties and commissioned former Hanna-Barbera employees Joe
Ruby
and Ken Spears to handle it through their company Ruby-Spears
Productions.
![]() |
Junior and Bones. |
The resulting series was Saturday
Supercade. Making up the Supercade every week were segments based
on Frogger, Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Jr., while Q*Bert and Pitfall! rotated weekly. Donkey Kong Jr. aired concurrently to Donkey Kong and featured Junior (Frank
Welker) travelling from the jungle to see his father, Donkey Kong (Soupy Sales),
in the circus. Learning of his escape and desperate to find him, Junior
partnered with clumsy biker, Bones (Bart Braverman), and took off on Donkey
Kong’s trail. Ken
Boyer and Patrick A. Ventura
created the character models that adapted the cabinet artwork into cleaner
television stars. The theme music was created by Shuki Levy
and Haim Saban.
![]() |
Height comparison character model sheet. |
Always on
the trail of Donkey Kong, Junior and Bones would often end up following a false
lead and instead finding some kind of trouble they would get involved with; be
it foiling a robbery or protecting children from bullies. Junior was the most
headstrong of the pair, always charging forward into situations and even taking
over the operation of Bones’ own motorcycle. Bones generally stood to be the
voice of reason in situations, and usually ended up taking the fall when
Junior’s schemes went awry. Junior’s battle cry was “Monkey Muscle!”, which he
exclaimed whenever they were about to encounter a problem or felt Bones needed
a bit of encouragement.
![]() |
Bones' motorcycle. |
Although
the Supercade ran for two seasons, Jr. wasn’t carried over and ended after
its 13-episode run. It, along with Frogger
and Pitfall!!, were removed and
replaced with Space Ace and Kangaroo. Like most of the Supercade,
rights issues regarding the various properties have prohibited much in the
way of home media releases, although Warner
Archive had reportedly begun investigating the possibility of doing so back
in 2010. While Junior in his established form wouldn’t be a starring character
again, he was continually featured as a character in compilations and re-releases
of Donkey Kong and other Nintendo
games, such as Super Mario Kart. However, it has been heavily implied that the Donkey Kong that
debuted in the Donkey Kong Country series of games was a grown-up Junior
or the son of Junior.
EPISODE GUIDE:
“Trucknapper
Caper” (9/17/83) – NO SYNOPSIS AVAILABLE.
“Sheep
Rustle Hustle” (9/24/83) – Junior and Bones help protect a ranch from sheep
rustlers.
“Rocky
Mountain Monkey Business” (10/1/83) – An escaped convict and his pet bear sets
their sights on a park ranger to help them find stolen loot they buried
somewhere in the forest.
“Magnificent
7-Year-Olds” (10/8/83) – Junior and Bones end up in a conflict with bullies
stealing bikes from all the local kids.
“The
Ventriloquist Caper” (10/15/83) – NO SYNOPSIS AVAILABLE.
“The
Great Seal Steal” (10/22/83) – NO SYNOPSIS AVAILABLE.
“The
Jungle Boy Ploy” (10/29/83) – NO SYNOPSIS AVAILABLE.
“Junior
Meets Kid Dynamo” (11/5/83) – Trying to stop a robbery leads Junior and Bones to
encounter real-life superhero, Kid Dynamo.
“Amazing
Rollerskate Race” (11/12/83) – Crooks hide stolen gold as roller skate wheels
on skates accidentally given to a team of kids.
“A
Christmas Story” (11/19/83) – NO SYNOPSIS AVAILABLE.
“Gorilla
Ghost” (11/26/83) – A gorilla ghost kidnaps animals from the zoo where Junior’s
uncle lives in a plot to use them to steal some gold.
“Teddy
Bear Scare” (12/3/83) – Babysitting at a carnival leads to Junior winning a
teddy bear stuffed with stolen loot.
“Double
or Nothing” (12/10/83) – When his cousin Lucy Belle ends up abducted, Bones
disguises himself as her to attend the reading of a will.
Originally posted in 2017. Updated in 2020.
Originally posted in 2017. Updated in 2020.
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