50TH ANNIVERSARIES

 Wow! Half a century! Our anniversary celebration continues with these shows turning

*Everything's Archie (actual intro not available)

SATURDAY MORNING MASTERS: PAUL WINCHELL

PAUL WINCHELL

(December 21, 1922-June 24, 2005)

Notable Roles: Dick Dastardly, Clyde, Softie, Fleegle, Tigger, Gargamel, Baby Smurf, Goober, Woofer, Moe Howard, Marmaduke, Zummi Gummi

Winchell had ambitions to become a doctor, but the Great Depression eliminated any possibility of his family affording medical school. While sick with polio, he saw an ad for a ventriloquism kit and created his first dummy: Jerry Mahoney. He worked on his act and took it to the Major Bowes Amateur Hour in 1938, which he won. The prize included touring and playing with the Major Bowes Review. Bandleader Ted Weems saw Winchell and offered him employment, which Winchell accepted. He refined Jerry’s design and created a second dummy, Knucklehead Smiff. He also created Ozwald, a character rendered by drawing a face on his chin and filming himself upside-down. He and Jerry first appeared on radio in 1943, but was overshadowed by Edgar Bergen. They found success in the 1950s on television with The Paul Winchell Show, which aired in various timeslots under various names and formats for its duration. Following that, Winchell and his dummies appeared on various programs, with his last regular on-screen role being in the children’s game show Runaround. Beginning in 1968, Winchell became a voice actor, notably as the voice of Dick Dastardly for Hanna-Barbera and Tigger in Disney’s Winnie the Pooh franchise, and later on as Gargamel in The Smurfs franchise. In between, Winchell realized his medical ambitions by becoming a pre-med student at Columbia University, a graduate of The Acupuncture Research College of Los Angeles, working as a medical hypnotist at the Gibbs Institute in Hollywood, invented an artificial heart with Dr. Henry Heimlich, and developed over 30 patents. In the 1980s, he attempted to aid starvation in Africa by coming up with a way to cultivate tilapia fish in tribal villages, but was denied Congressional support. Winchell retired from acting in 1999 and died of natural causes in 2005.

Saturday Credits:

The Paul Winchell Show

Paul Winchell’s Cartoonies

The Lone Ranger (1966)

Wacky Races (1968)

The Pink Panther Show

Dastardly and Muttley in Their Flying Machines

The Perils of Penelope Pitstop

Storybook Squares

The Banana Splits Adventure Hour

Help!...It’s the Hair Bear Bunch!

The New Scooby-Doo Movies

Runaround

The ABC Saturday Superstar Movie

Yogi’s Gang

Goober and the Ghost Chasers

Wheelie and the Chopper Bunch

Hong Kong Phooey
These Are the Days

The Oddball Couple

Clue Club

The Skatebirds

CB Bears

Fred Flintstone and Friends

The Robonic Stooges

Casper and the Angels

The Super Globetrotters

Trolkins

Heathcliff (1980)

The Smurfs

Spider-Man (1981)

Meatballs and Spaghetti

Yogi’s Treasure Hunt

Disney’s Adventures of the Gummi Bears

The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh

Garfield and Friends

45TH ANNIVERSARIES

*Note: Intros for Everthing's Archie and Go! are unavailable.

GOOBER AND THE GHOST CHASERS

GOOBER AND THE GHOST CHASERS

(ABC, September 8-December 22, 1973)

Hanna-Barbera Productions

MAIN CAST:

Jerry Dexter – Ted

Jo Ann Harris – Tina

Ronnie Schell – Gillie

Paul Winchell - Goober

            The success of the Scooby-Doo franchise led to the creation of many imitators looking to cash in; both from Hanna-Barbera and other studios. Some of these attempts to clone the series were more overt than others. At the behest of ABC for another Scooby, Hanna-Barbera gave them Goober and the Ghost Chasers.

Goober with Ted, Tina and Gillie.

            The series followed the titular dog, Goober (Paul Winchell), and his teenaged humans, Ted (Jerry Dexter), Tina (Jo Ann Harris) and Gillie (Ronnie Schell), as they traveled around the world seeking out the supernatural for their Ghost Chasers magazine. Key differences in the shows were that the Ghost Chasers would actively go looking for the entities they encountered, and sometimes those entities were actually real rather than just someone in an elaborate costume (something the Scooby franchise itself wouldn’t encounter until Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo). They often employed ghost-tracking devices, such as the Specter Detector, to determine if an entity was real or not. Goober, while as cowardly as Scooby, had the ability to turn himself invisible whenever he was frightened--save for his cap and collar. He also spoke clear English unlike Scooby, although he seemed to be talking more to the audience than any of his co-stars.

The Partridge kids get in on the action.

            Since selling an all-new property, no matter its influence, was becoming increasingly difficult, it was decided to try and increase Goober’s profile by adopting the format of featuring real-life guest-stars used by The New Scooby-Doo Movies. As a result, half of the episodes had most of the kids from ABC’s hit series The Partridge Family appear, including Laurie (Susan Dey), Danny (Danny Bonaduce), Chris (Brian Forster) and Tracy (Suzanne Crough). Basketball legend Wilt Chamberlain and actor Michael Gray also made appearances on the show.

I guess that's a "wrap".

            Goober and the Ghost Chasers debuted on September 8, 1973 on ABC. The series was written by Barry E. Blitzer, Tom Dagenais, Jack Kaplan, Warren S. Murray, Dick Robbins, Martin Roth, Dick Wesson and Steve White, with Hoyt Curtin composing the music. Despite the familiar formula and guest-stars, Goober failed to catch on with audiences and only lasted a single season; although its reruns aired for an additional year. The series did serve to create a renewed interest in the Partridges, resulting in Hanna-Barbera producing Patridge Family 2200 A.D. the following year for CBS. In 1977, Goober reruns became one of the features of the weekly syndicated series Fred Flintstone and Friends. Later reruns on Cartoon Network and Boomerang removed the studio laugh track present in the original airings.

Goober on DVD.

Not much was produced in the way of merchandise beyond a lunchbox by King-Seeley that was shared with Inch High. Private Eye, a series of puzzles by Hope, and a magic trading card set offered by Wonder Bread. In 1986, Worldvision Home Video released a VHS sharing the show’s title containing the first two episodes. Two years later, Hanna-Barbera Home Video released four of the episodes featuring the Partridge kids to a VHS called The Chase is On! In 2009, the first episode was included on the compilation DVD Saturday Morning Cartoons: 1970s Volume 1 and the 2018 full-collection compilation from Warner Home Video. The following year, Warner Archive released the complete series on DVD as part of their Hanna-Barbera Classics Collection. It was also made available for streaming on Amazon Prime Video.

EPISODE GUIDE:

“Assignment: The Ahab Apparition” (9/8/73) – The Partridge kids are vacationing near a haunted mansion where the Ghost Chasers must get an interview with Captain Ahab and Moby Dick.

“Brush Up Your Shakespeare” (9/15/73) – Macbeth’s ghost prevents the Partridge kids from performing their concert.

“The Galloping Ghost” (9/22/73) – The Ghost Chasers investigate Wilt Chamberlain’s ranch to get the scoop on a galloping ghost.

“The Singing Ghost” (9/29/73) – Frankenstein’s Monster the Third invites the Partridge kids to his castle to discuss a gig in an attempt to steal Danny’s voice for his own.

“The Ghost Ship” (10/6/73) – The Ghost Chasers are set adrift on an old pirate ship by ghosts led by Captain Dunk.

“Mummy Knows Best” (10/13/73) – The Ghost Chasers and Partridge kids spend their vacation in Kahrobi where they learn the ghost of King Osiris and his mummies are haunting the city.

“The Haunted Wax Museum” (10/20/73) – The Partridge kids visit an old wax museum where ghosts possess the wax mannequins.

“Aloha Ghost” (10/27/73) – The Ghost Chasers head to Hawaii to investigate a ghost sighting at the plantation where Michael Gray works.

“The Wicked Witch Dog” (11/3/73) – The Ghost Chasers investigate the lighthouse of MacBurn’s Point in Scotland where a Wicked Witch Dog reportedly haunts.

“Venice Anyone?” (11/10/73) – The ghost of Don Giovanni wants to prevent Carlo from marrying Julia from a rival family in Venice.

“Go West Young Ghost” (11/17/73) – The Ghost Chasers and Partridge kids discover the amusement park’s haunted house is really haunted by the ghost of Ichabod Ipswich.

“A Hard Day’s Knight” (11/24/73) – The first manned flight to Mars is interrupted by the ghost of Spanish knight Don Miguel.

“Is Sherlock Holme?” (12/1/73) – A relative of Sherlock Holmes assists the Ghost Chaser on their latest mystery in London.

“The Snow Ghost” (12/8/73) – A ski resort hires the Ghost Chasers to investigate a snow ghost.

“Inca Dinka Doo” (12/15/73) – The Ghost Chasers investigate the ghost of an ancient Incan chief who haunts the nearby town and forest.

“Old McDonald Had a Ghost – EI EI EEYOW” (12/22/73) – George McDonald has the Ghost Chasers investigate a farm haunted by the ghost of Old McDonald and a scarecrow.

Originally posted in 2016. Updated in 2020.