40TH ANNIVERSARIES

 Where does the time go? These are the shows turning

SATURDAY SUPERCADE

 

SATURDAY SUPERCADE

(CBS, September 17, 1983-December 1, 1984)

 

Ruby-Spears Enterprises

 

 

MAIN CAST:

Soupy Sales – Donkey Kong

Peter Cullen – Mario

Judy Strangis – Pauline

Billy Bowles – Q*bert

Robbie Lee – Q*tee, Q*val

Dick Beals – Q*bit

Frank Welker – Q*ball, Q*mungus, Coily, Ugg, Wrongway, Slick, Sam, Donkey Kong Jr. (season 1), Bongo, Fred (both season 2), various

Julie McWhirter – Viper

Bart Braverman – Bones (season 1)

Bob Sarlatte – Frogger (season 1)

Marvin Kaplan – Shellshock “Shelly” Turtle (season 1), Sidney Squirrel (season 2)

B.J. Ward – Fanny Frog (season 1)

Ted Field, Sr. – Tex Toadwalker (season 1)

Robert Ridgely – Pitfall Harry (season 1)

Noelle North – Rhonda (season 1)

Kenneth Mars – Quickclaw (season 1)

Jim Piper – Space Ace (season 2)

Sparky Marcus – Dexter (season 2)

Nancy Cartwright – Kimberly (season 2)

Peter Renaday – Space Marshall Vaughn (season 2)

Arthur Burghardt – Borf, Mr. Friendly (both season 2)

David Mendenhall – Joey Kangaroo (season 2)

Mea Martineau – Katy “K.O.” Kangaroo (season 2)

 

 

            By the time the 1980s rolled around, the American video game market was booming. Arcades were experiencing a Golden Age with rapid advancement in technology and growing cultural impact beginning with the release of Space Invaders in 1978. Likewise, home consoles were entering their second generation thanks to the affordability of new microprocessor technology, with the Atari 2600 leading the charge. This resulted in a combined revenue of $11.8 billion for the video game industry by 1982.

Hanging out at the arcade.

            Television and studio executives were not ones to let a popular trend go by without finding a way to capitalize on it. ABC and Hanna-Barbera struck first: adapting the highly successful arcade game Pac-Man into a hit animated series. TBS was next with a game show that utilized arcade games, Starcade. CBS, looking to compete, decided to hedge their bets by not just licensing one hit game, but several from both the arcades and home consoles.

The stars of Supercade: Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr., Q*bert, Pitfall Harry and Frogger.

            Among the chosen properties was the game that saved Nintendo of America from bankruptcy, Donkey Kong, and its sequel, Donkey Kong Jr.; Gottlieb’s most successful game, Q*bert; Konami’s hit Frogger; and Activision’s home console smash, Pitfall! These five entries were combined under the banner Saturday Supercade where they would air four segments over the course of an hour every Saturday (Q*bert and Pitfall! would alternate weeks). Naturally, as video games at the time were a bit limited in their story and presentation, some liberties were taken in adapting them for the small screen; such as making Frogger (Bob Sarlatte) an investigative reporter or setting Q*bert in a pastiche of the 1950s in a town dominated by cube shapes.

Character models for Donkey Kong's Pauline and Mario.

            Saturday Supercade debuted on CBS on September 17, 1983. The series was produced by former Hanna-Barbera employees Joe Ruby and Ken Spears through their company, Ruby-Spears Productions. Despite sharing screen time in the intro and during commercial bumpers, and that both Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Jr. were set in the same universe, none of the shows or characters crossed over or interacted with each other. Jack Enyart, Gary Greenfield, Gordon Kent and Michael Maurer served as story editors, while Haim Saban and Shuky Levi composed the series’ theme. Dean Elliott handled the rest of the series’ music.

            Supercade was renewed for a second season; however, there were some changes. Donkey Kong Jr., Frogger and Pitfall! were dropped from the line-up. In their place came Sun Electronics’ (aka Sunsoft) hit arcade Kangaroo, and the second game from notable Disney animator Don Bluth, Space Ace. Richard Merwin, Cliff Roberts and David Villaire served as story editors this season. CBS also expanded their video game offerings with a series based on the racing game Pole Position, but as it was by DiC Entertainment it was kept separate from Supercade. Supercade continued on until December of 1984, and then left the airwaves forever. 

Article published during Atari's decline.

One of the contributing factors to its cancellation was that it was unable to compete with the powerhouse Smurfs over on NBC. The other factor was that during the show’s production, the video game industry was hit by the crash of 1983: too many consoles, too many similar games of questionable quality through the establishment of third-party publishers, plus the rise of the home computer meant that there was a lot more product than consumers. Arcades fared no better as there really hadn’t been any major innovation in game design and they were blamed for instances of delinquency in their vicinity. Video games had lost their luster for Americans and wouldn’t begin to rebound until Nintendo imported their revamped Famicom as the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1986. The console wars began anew when Sega entered the fray, challenging the 8-bit Nintendo console with its high-speed 16-bit Genesis. With this new era in gaming came new attempts to adapt them for the screen, but those are stories told in their own entries.

A revived console war meant a new lease on life for video games--and new shows based on them.

        Because Sony owned Q*bert through Columbia Pictures’ previous ownership of Gottlieb, it remains the only entry in Supercade to have seen a home video release. The Best of Q*bert came out in 2015 to coincide with the release of their film Pixels, which featured the character. Warner Archive announced via their Facebook page in 2010 that plans were underway to release Supercade to DVD since they currently own the Ruby-Spears library, but because of rights issues with the various game properties the project needed extensive research before it could happen. Segments from Space Ace have appeared as filler between programs on Boomerang and Toonami, but otherwise the various segments have only become viewable through recorded uploads on sites like YouTube.

SATURDAY SUPERCADE: KANGAROO

KANGAROO

(CBS, September 8-December 1, 1984)

Ruby-Spears Productions

MAIN CAST:

David Mendenhall – Joey Kangaroo

Mea Martineau – Katy Kangaroo

Marvin Kaplan – Sidney Squirrel

Arthur Burghardt – Mr. Friendly

Pat Fraley – Bingo, Bango

Frank Welker – Bongo, Fred, various

Kangaroo was an arcade platform game developed by Sun Electronics (aka Sunsoft) in 1982. It was one of the first games similar to Donkey Kong without being a direct knock-off. The game was licensed for release by Atari, who later ported it to their home consoles after the arcade proved to be a success. 

In the game, the player was a mother kangaroo with boxing gloves that had to rescue her joey from a gang of monkeys. Consisting of four levels, the player had to navigate the kangaroo up to the top section of the level to progress to the next one. On each level, the monkeys would throw apples at her which she either had to jump over, duck under or hit with her gloves. If she came face-to-face with one of the monkeys she could punch them out; which was necessary on the third level to prevent five from climbing up a tree and unleashing a horde of apples. However, a big ape would appear and attempt to take her gloves from her. The object was to complete the level within the time allotted. Like Donkey Kong, once the four levels are played through they repeated with increased difficulty. Adding to that difficulty was the lack of a jump button. Instead, players pushed “up” on the joystick to make the kangaroo jump.

The arcade flyer for Kangaroo.

Around the time of the game’s release, 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. 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. The series performed well enough for a second season, however some changes were made. Donkey Kong and Q*bert, now weekly, remained while two new features were added to the line-up: Space Ace and Kangaroo.

Katy and Joey.

Kangaroo was a loose adaptation of the arcade’s premise. A mother kangaroo named Katy (Mea Martineau), her son, Joey (David Mendenhall), and their squirrel friend, Sidney (Marvin Kaplan) all resided in zoo run by Mr. Friendly (Arthur Burghardt). However, life there was often complicated by the Monkeybiz Gang (a play on “monkey business”) comprised of Bingo, Bango (both Pat Fraley), Bongo and Fred (both Frank Welker) who liked to cause trouble and escape from the zoo (Bingo, Bango, Bongo is also the name of a golf game). Katy, Joey and Sidney often had to put a stop to their schemes and keep them in line. As in the game, Katy had a pair of boxing gloves she kept in her pouch that could repel objects (mostly fruit) thrown her way. Also, Joey was more the focus of the show, often ending up in some kind of trouble necessitating Katy’s rescue of him.

The Monkeybiz Gang.

Kangaroo debuted on the Supercade on September 8, 1984 and ran for a total of 13 episodes. With the videogame industry suffering the effects of the 1983 bust, and the new Supercade unable to stop the ratings decline caused by The Smurfs on NBC, CBS cancelled the show. To date, Kangaroo has yet to see any form of home video release, as has most of the Supercade segments. Warner Archive announced via their Facebook page in 2010 that plans were underway to release Supercade to DVD, but because of rights issues with the various game properties the project needed extensive research before it could happen.

EPISODE GUIDE:

“Trunkfull of Trouble” (9/8/84) – NO SYNOPSIS AVAILABLE.

“Zoo for Hire” (9/15/84) – NO SYNOPSIS AVAILABLE.

“Bat’s Incredible” (9/22/84) – NO SYNOPSIS AVAILABLE.

“The White Squirrel of Dover” (9/29/84) – When Sidney gets covered in white wash, he’s mistaken for a magician’s escaped assistant.

“The Birthday Party” (10/6/84) – NO SYNOPSIS AVAILABLE.

“Having a Ball” (10/13/84) – NO SYNOPSIS AVAILABLE.

“The Trail of the Cowardly Lion” (10/20/84) – The monkeys discover the zoo’s lion is easily terrified and scare him right out of the zoo.

“It’s Carnival Time” (10/27/84) – NO SYNOPSIS AVAILABLE.

“Lost and Found” (11/3/84) – NO SYNOPSIS AVAILABLE.

“Joey and the Beanstalk” (11/10/84) – NO SYNOPSIS AVAILABLE.

“Zoo’s Who” (11/17/84) – NO SYNOPSIS AVAILABLE.

“The Egg and Us” (11/24/84) – NO SYNOPSIS AVAILABLE.

“The Runaway Panda” (12/1/84) – NO SYNOPSIS AVAILABLE.