Remember that one day when you could wake up without an alarm? When you would get your favorite bowl of cereal and sit between the hours of 8 and 12? This is a blog dedicated to the greatest time of our childhood: Saturday mornings. The television programs you watched, the memories attached to them, and maybe introducing you to something you didn't realize existed. Updated every weekend.
MEATBALLS & SPAGHETTI (CBS, September 18-December
11, 1982) InterMedia
Entertainment Company, Marvel Productions, MGM/UA Television, Pan Sang East Co.
Ltd.
Clyde, Meatball, Spaghetti and Woofer rocking out on stage.
One of the
first results of that partnership was Meatballs and Spaghetti, whose
name was a play on the dish spaghetti and
meatballs, created by Silverman and Jerry Eisenberg. But this wasn’t
a show about food; rather, that was the name of the featured rock band (and
also the names of two of its members). Meatball (no “s” in the name as spoken
by the other characters, voiced by Ron Masak) was the heavyset lead singer and
guitarist. Spaghetti (Sally Julian) was the super thin, slightly ditzy keytarist,
singer and Meatball’s wife. The pair took inspiration from Sonny & Cher,
while Meatball was inspired by musician Meatloaf (however his overall look was
taken from Eisenberg’s cousin that frequented the studio offices). Their friend
Clyde (Barry Gordon) was the bassist that often teetered the line between being
a book smart inventor and dim-witted screw-up. Their dog, Woofer (Frank
Welker), was semi-anthropomorphized and served as their drummer, when not
testing Meatball’s patience. Additionally, they had a pet piranha that could
eat almost as much as Meatball. The band travelled around the country in mobile
home either going to or looking for their next gig, or some money to tide them
over in the meantime.
A gorilla plays the band's bus like an accordion.
Each
episode was broken up into two segments. Many stories typically revolved around
Meatball attempting some kind of get-rich-quick scheme, or trying to drum up
publicity to increase attendance for one of their gigs. Ala The Honeymooners or The
Flintstones, Clyde was usually along for the ride as his hapless
accomplice. Between the story segments a musical number would air that
thematically tied into the second story. They were done in a music video style
comprised of a series of visual gags set to music. The lyrics, however, were
sparse and generally consisted of conversation between the characters in
sing-song.
Meatballs & Spaghetti sing a tribute to Mexico and their food.
Meatballs
& Spaghetti debuted on CBS on September 18, 1982 as part of their
Starcade programming block. Jack
Mendelsohn was the credited writer for every episode, while Steven DePatie handled the
music and lyrics in his final project. Animation duties were handled by Pan Sang East Co.
Ltd. Unfortunately, neither of InterMedia and Marvel’s inaugural offerings
were met with much praise from audiences or reviewers; with Variety stating “No try at music here,
or even much comedy either. It’s without any socially redeeming value.” It was
cancelled at the end of its single season.
CBS Saturday morning Starcade ad.
With Amazon’s acquisition
of MGM, they had also gained ownership of the show. In 2025, it was finally
released for streaming on Amazon’s Cartoon Rewind after having
not been seen since it originally aired. It was also made available for
streaming on Tubi.
EPISODE GUIDE:
“Woofer the Wonder Dog / Jazz Meets Jaws” (9/18/82) – Meatball
decides to get rid of the annoying Woofer by giving him to a circus. / Coming
across a mechanical shark for a movie gives Meatball the idea to stage a shark
attack to drum up attendance for their next show.
“Mixed up Medical Reports / The Werewolf Story” (9/25/82) – Meatball’s
x-rays get mixed-up with those of a 200-year-old parrot with only two weeks to
live. / Playing up to the town’s history of werewolves for their next gig gets
the band invited to dinner by actual werewolves.
“Once Upon a Farm / The Big Shrink” (10/2/82) – Meatball is
tricked into trading their bus for a rundown farm. / Clyde accidentally creates
a shrink ray that ends up shrinking him and Meatball to the size of insects.
“Spaghetti’s Old Boyfriend / Watch the Birdie” (10/9/82) – Meatball
finds himself feeling inferior to Spaghetti’s handsome and athletic old
boyfriend. / Meatball and Clyde plot to get a photo of a rare bird being born
in order to win a $500 competition.
“The Space Aliens / Big Bad Bigfoot” (10/16/82) – Aliens
lure the band onto their ship to run experiments on them. / A camping vacation
puts the band right in Bigfoot’s backyard.
“Come Back Little Woofer / Sunken Treasure Cruise”
(10/23/82) – Woofer falls on his head and develops amnesia after Meatball
enters him into a dog show. / Finding a treasure map in an old chest that Spaghetti
buys causes Meatball to spend all their money to go on a treasure hunt.
“Monkey Doodle Dandies / Throwing the Bull” (10/30/82) – After
discovering a chimpanzee’s paintings sell for big bucks, Meatball decides to
teach a chimp of their own to paint. / The band comes up with plans to replace
the bull they had accidentally knocked out in an upcoming bullfight.
“Going to the Dogs / The Caveman Story” (11/6/82) – Meatball
plans to rent out Woofer as a guard dog for extra money. / Clyde builds
Spaghetti an arcade machine for her birthday he accidentally made with a part
from an experimental time machine.
“Piracy on the High C’s / Robot Roadie” (11/13/82) – Meatball
and Clyde end up with jobs as night watchmen at a record company the night
record pirates decide to rob the place. / Meatball tasks Clyde with building
the band a robot roadie to handle their equipment for them.
“The Kid Sitters / Doubles or Nothing” (11/20/82) – Meatball
and Clyde babysit the pet goat of a famous record producer to get him to listen
to their demo. / Meatball and Clyde get jobs as extras in a movie just as a
thief robs the studio payroll.
“Foreign Legion Air-Heads / Magical Moments” (11/27/82) – Meatball
and Clyde accidentally enlist in the French Foreign Legion and are shipped off
to a desert outpost. / Jealous Meatball thinks Spaghetti is leaving him for a
man with more money.
“Woofer Meets Tweeter / Flying Carpet Caper” (12/4/82) – The
band is talked into taking over Spaghetti’s cousin Debbie’s pizza stand so that
she and her friends can go to a rock concert. / Spaghetti buys a chest at an
auction that ends up containing a magic flying carpet that a couple of strange characters
want to get their hands on.
“A Christmas Tale / The Beach Peaches” (12/11/82) – Meatball
and Clyde must deliver presents after they end up getting the real Santa
arrested for chaos they caused in their department store jobs. / Debbie and her
friends enter a boat race against their rival, and if she wins they must leave
the beach…for good.
Dungeons
& Dragons is a fantasy role-playing game created by Gary Gygax
and Dave Arneson. By
the late 1960s, miniature wargaming had grown as a significant hobby and there
was a demand for rulebooks dedicated to singular historical periods. One of the
earliest sets of these rules was 1967’s Siege of
Bodenburg created by Henry Bodenstedt, which Gygax first encountered
and played the following year at gaming convention Gen Con I. Jeff Perren would develop
his own set of medieval rules inspired by the ones for Siege and shared
them with Gygax. Originally just four-pages long, Gygax edited and expanded
upon them where they were published as “Geneva Medieval Miniatures” in Panzerfaust
magazine. They would be again revised several times over. Wargaming
businessman Don Lowry
founded Guidon Games
and brought Gygax on as an editor. They would publish a further expansion of
the medieval rules as Chainmail
in 1971, which quickly became a tremendous hit for Guidon.
The original Dungeons & Dragons rules.
When Lowry failed to see the potential of D&D,
Gygax struck out in 1973 to found Tactical Studies Rules, Inc.
(TSR) with Don Kaye, and
brought on Brian Blume
as an equal partner for financial backing. After releasing Cavaliers
and Roundheads to generate some income for TSR, they produced 1,000
copies of D&D and sold out of it within 10 months; with a second run
only taking 5-6 months. The basis of the game sees each of the players create a
character to play as determining their background, race (species), class (such as thief or cavalier),
personality alignment (moral and ethical outlook), skills, powers, and
statistics. Together, the players form a team known as a “party” that play
through an adventure, which is usually a single story or quest, or a series of
adventures which comprises a campaign. A Dungeon Master serves as referee
and storyteller, as well as filling the roles of the inhabitants the party
encounters along the way. They can use either one of the premade adventures, known
as “modules”, which include established goals players needed to achieve, maps,
background story and illustrations, or the Dungeon Master could cobble together
a completely original one. Together, the party must solve problems, fight
through foes, gather treasure and acquire knowledge by rolling polyhedral dice
after stating their character’s desired reaction to a scenario. As they
progress, each character earns experience points that allow them to become more
powerful. The Dungeon Master decides the results of the party’s choices
according to their interpretation of the game’s rules. As with its
predecessors, D&D would receive a number of revisions and updates
over the years that expanded and tightened the rules and lore, removed some
copyright-infringing material from the works of J.R.R. Tolkien
and H.P. Lovecraft,
offered new campaigns, and addressed public concerns over their content.
1985 article about the moral panic caused by D&D.
Along with its popularity came a
number of criticisms. D&D was swept up in the growing “Satanic Panic” and “moral panic” of the 1980s
with accusations that the game promoted Satanism, witchcraft, sorcery, suicide,
pornography and murder (other RPGs received the same concerns, but many critics
tended to group them all together under the D&D name; kind of like
all cartoons being unilaterally described as “Saturday morning cartoons”). While
this did lead to a boost in sales—jumping from $2.3 million in 1979 to $8.7
million in 1980—TSR ultimately removed references to various supernatural
creatures in favor of more generic classifications as well as altered some
artwork to remove minor instances of nudity. Hand-in-hand with all that were of
course objections from religious leaders and devout believers. Another
criticism was the lack
of diversity in the game’s characters; with the original selection of
adventurers being depicted as or inferred to being White. When supplements were
added that introduced characters from other cultures, they were found to
contain problematic stereotypes of various ethnic groups, as well as racially-charged
language when it came to describing some of the fictional creatures. Wizards of the Coast, the current
manufacturer of D&D and successor to TSR, have taken
steps to address those concerns in recent years (how effectively, however,
is up for
debate). Additionally, early in the game’s lifespan, players were often
ostracized socially and looked at upon as nerds or geeks; losers playing pretend
in their parents’ basements. That perception has
lessened as more and more people have discovered and gotten into the game
around the world.
Promotional poster advertising the series.
A power struggled within TSR
management resulted in the company being restructured into four divisions, with
Gygax heading up TSR
Entertainment, later Dungeons & Dragons Entertainment Corp., in order
to develop media projects related to the game to capitalize its growing
popularity in the 80s. Marvel Productions
acquired the rights from TSR to produce a
cartoon based on the game with CBS interested
in airing it, but some things needed to be hammered out first.
Namely: how does one take a game centered around players essentially weaving
their own adventure story together (mostly verbally) and turn it into an
interesting action show? Initially, the concept was to have the characters
playing the game—with their adventure being show on screen as an elaborate
fantasy sequence—and then breaking off at the end of each episode to return to
their respective homes. CBS executives Ted Field II and Judy Price realized
that the audience wouldn’t care about any of that because they knew the
characters weren’t in any real jeopardy.
Entering the roller coaster tunnel portal.
After several failed attempts by
other writers to conceptualize the show, Dennis Marks, who created the
series alongside Kevin Paul
Coates, reached out to Mark Evanier
to write the pilot episode and series bible to help Marvel sell the series to
CBS. Evanier, who was busy on other projects at the time, initially refused.
With additional prodding from Marvel co-founder Lee Gunther and Price, Evanier
relented and hammered both out in a couple of days. What Evanier did was
simplify everything the other writers had contributed, reduce the number of
characters to a manageable amount, and focus on their traits and relationships
to each other.
The Dungeon Master.
Dungeons & Dragons
centered on a group of kids who ended up transported to the world of D&D
when they went for a ride on a roller coaster. There they encountered Dungeon
Master (Sidney Miller), who served as their mentor and provided important
advice and help in a cryptic manner that often wouldn’t make sense until the
appropriate time. He helped guide them towards possible paths back home, which
often led them to face countless perils and coming to the aid of others in need
along the way. He also supplied the party of kids with magical weapons that fit
the various roles they had assumed upon entering the world.
The party: Hank, Presto, Eric, Sheila, Bobby, Uni and Diana.
Leading the party was 15-year-old
Hank (Willie Aames), a Ranger with a bow that fired arrows of energy that could
do a variety of functions (such as ensnare enemies in an energy cage). He was
brave and noble, and kept his head during dangerous situations. 15-year-old
Eric (Don Most) was a Cavalier with a shield that projected a force field. He
was a rich spoiled brat and a big-mouthed coward that often masked his heroic
side buried deep inside. 14-year-old Diana (Tonia Gayle Smith) was an Acrobat
with a javelin quarterstaff that can change to any height she needs and be
easily repaired if broken. She was the support center of the party, often providing
inspiration or guidance to the others in stressful times. 14-year-old Presto
(Adam Rich) was a Wizard whose hat provided his magical powers. Though always
well-meaning, his spells tended to frequently fail or create undesired effects.
13-year-old Sheila (Katie Leigh) was a Thief whose cloak could make her
invisible when she donned its hood. Her greatest fear was being left alone in
the realm, but never hesitated to put herself into peril for the benefit of the
party. 8-year-old Bobby (Teddy Field III) was Sheila’s younger brother and a
Barbarian equipped with an earthquake-causing cudgel. Though brave and
selfless, his impulsiveness often put the party in danger. They were joined by
Uni (Frank Welker), a baby unicorn Bobby adopted who was highly intelligent and
could teleport once a day.
Venger on Night-Mare.
Along with an assortment of
monsters, wizards, dragons, and other fantastical beings inspired directly from
the game’s source books, the primary foe the party had to content with was
Venger (Peter Cullen). The Dungeon Master’s corrupted son, he was an evil
wizard who sought to claim the party’s magical weapons to bolster his own power
and conquer the realm. He was aided by Shadow Demon (Bob Holt), who served as
Venger’s personal spy and informed him about the quests the party embarked onand Night-Mare, his trusty black steed.
Tiamat (Welker) was a five-headed dragon with different kinds of breath: her
white head breathed ice; her green head breathed toxic gas; her red head
breathed fire; her blue head breathed lightning; and her black head breathed
acid. She was the sole creature Venger feared in the realm, and was taken directly from a D&D supplement in 1975. Venger also had an
equally-corrupt sister, Kareena (Diane
Pershing), who had battled him for power and ended up imprisoned by him.
When it came to casting, Saroyan immediately thought of some lesser-known-yet-recognizable
actors in Aames, a friend of his, and Most, who to him seemed to be the only
one that grasped acting for animation during his time on The
Fonz and the Happy Days Gang. When Aames was cast in the soap opera The Edge of Night
that filmed across the country, Saroyan was determined to keep him by any means
and recorded all of his dialogue over the phone. Aames also recommended Rich,
leading to his being cast. Wanting to create a sense of reality surrounding the
characters, it was determined an actual kid should play young Bobby, rather
than the typical practice of an adult woman doing so. Field III was the son of
executive Field II and answered a general casting call with other kids. Field
II recused himself from the casting session once he learned his son was
auditioning, and Field III ended up being selected from anonymous audition
tapes. His father did have to intervene, however, when the younger Field
wouldn’t take his early recording sessions seriously sine he was, by all
accounts, a kid. Miller just embodied the role of Dungeon Master when he came
in to read for him, and helped the production turn the character into a more
benign Yoda-like one than
he may have otherwise been. Cullen, another friend of Saroyan, was recorded
separately from the other cast to minimize the need for retakes in case someone
else screwed up as the voice was very taxing on his throat. Smith was nominated for Outstanding
Young Actress in an Animation Voice-over at the 7th annual Youth
in Film Awards (now the Young Artist
Awards).
Sheila and Uni meet Kareena.
While rumors persisted that the show was cancelled due to the concerns
over hidden messages and satanic imagery that the actual game was subjected to,
or even the level of violence that prompted the National Coalition on Television
Violence to demand a
warning accompany each broadcast, it was cancelled simply because the
ratings had been in a steady decline after holding its timeslot for two years.
In a unique move, CBS had asked the production to produce
a script that would serve as either a satisfying conclusion to the series,
or allow it to journey into a new direction in case they ultimately decided to
renew it for another season. As we all know by now, that renewal never came and
the script, “Requiem” by Reaves, was never produced. Reaves would eventually
publish the script for “Requiem” on his website, inspiring a lot of fan mail
thanking him for bringing them long-awaited closure for the series. The script
was later turned into an audio drama
with only Leigh returning to reprise her role and assume that of Bobby (ironically
negating the producers’ original intentions with his casting). Daniel Roebuck took over as
Eric, Wally Wingert as Hank,
Dungeon Master, Uni and a Hydra, Laura
Leigh as Diana, Buster
Roebuck as Presto, and Neil
Kaplan as Venger, Bronze Dragon and the narrator.
Contender Entertainment Group
released the complete series across four DVDs in 2004 in the United Kingdom.
They were loaded with special features including the series bible, scripts,
character model sheets, promo artwork, a featurette on the title sequence, the
script for “Requiem” with an interview with Reaves and a featurette bout it,
and fan commentaries on two episodes. They had connecting covers featuring
artwork by Eamon O’Donoghue. In Region
1, BCI Eclipse
released The
Complete Animated Series in a similarly loaded package, with the
addition of the “Requiem” radio play and a handbook to play a campaign with the
series’ characters. The BCI release, however, featured some replacement music
due to rights issues. In 2009, Mill
Creek Entertainment released a collection of 9 episodes to DVD called Dungeons
& Dragons: The Animated Series – Beginnings, and re-released
it in 2015 as part of their Retro TV Toons label. They also re-released the
complete series without any special features, however with the original
music restored. The complete series was streamed on Twitch on July 9, 2021 as part of the Saturday Morning D&D
Secret Lair as part of the promotion for the Magic: The Gathering
cards. As of this writing, the series has its own streaming channel on Plex.
A full version of the series’ theme was released on Douglas’ album The
Johnny Douglas Strings from Dulcima
Records in 1991.
The Dungeons & Dragons
animated series continues to remain popular with its fans; especially in Brazil.
At the height of 80s nostalgia, car manufacturer Renault released a live-action commercial in
2019 inspired by the show in Brazil for their Kwid Outsider. The
characters appeared again in live-action cameos in
the 2023 film Dungeons
& Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, the 4th
film based on the franchise.
EPISODE
GUIDE: Season 1: “The Night of
No Tomorrow” (9/17/83) – Presto becomes Merlin’s apprentice and attempts to use
a spell to send the party home, but unleashes dragons on a village instead. “The Eye of the
Beholder” (9/24/83) – The party are sent against the deadly Beholder with the
cowardly Sir John, but John is blackmailed by Venger into betraying them. “The Hall of
Bones” (10/1/83) – When their weapons fail, the party must go to The Hall of
Bones in order to recharge their magic. “Valley of the
Unicorns” (10/8/83) – Kelek wants to steal the powers of the Unicorns and
kidnaps Uni for his horn. “In Search of
the Dungeon Master” (10/15/83) – The party must rescue Dungeon Master from
Warduke. “Beauty and the
Bogbeast” (10/22/83) – A transformed Eric must lead the enslaved Bogbeasts to
freedom. “Prison Without
Walls” (10/29/83) – Venger imprisons a gnome sorcerer in a prison with no
apparent escape that the party must free in order to save a village. “Servant of
Evil” (11/5/83) – Bobby must rescue the others from Venger’s dungeon by
befriending a person forced into becoming its guard. “Quest of the
Skeleton Warrior” (11/12/83) – An undead knight seeks the party’s help to
retrieve an ancient artifact. “The Garden of
Zinn” (11/19/83) – Bobby is poisoned and the only cure lies in Queen Zinn’s
Garden, which she’ll only give if Eric marries her. “The Box”
(11/26/83) – A sorceress possesses a chest that could send the party home, but
Venger wants to stop that from happening. “The Lost
Children” (12/3/83) – The party meet another group of trapped kids whose father
possesses a ship that could take them home. “P-R-E-S-T-O
Spells Disaster” (10/10/83) – It’s up to the bumbling Presto to save the others
from a giant’s castle. Season 2: “The Girl Who
Dreamed Tomorrow” (9/8/84) – The party meet Terri who has a necklace that can
predict the future and leads them to a portal home at the end of a deadly maze. “The Treasure
of Tardos” (9/15/84) – The Demodragon can destroy the realm unless the party
gets the Dragon Bane from Tardos Keep. “City at the
Edge of Midnight” (9/22/84) – Kids are taken into the realm to the City at the
Edge of Midnight, and Bobby is amongst them. “The Traitor”
(9/29/84) – Hank is seen planning to attack teddy bear-like creatures the party
befriended with the enemy, making the others suspect he’s a traitor. “Day of the
Dungeon Master” (10/6/84) – Dungeon Master takes a day off and leaves Eric to
fill his role while the party seek out a magical book that could send them
home. “The Last
Illusion” (10/13/84) – Illusionist Varla is forced to terrorize a village and
the party must save her in order to save them. “The Dragon’s
Graveyard” (10/20/84) – The party contemplate killing Venger and seek out
Tiamat to help. “Child of the
Stargazer” (10/27/84) – The party meet a boy believed to be part of a prophecy
to overthrow a sorceress and try to help him fulfill his role. Season 3: “The Dungeon at
the Heart of Dawn” (9/14/85) – Eric accidentally frees the Nameless One, and
the party races to recharge the energy spring in the Dungeon at the Heart of
Dawn. “Odyssey of the Twelfth Talisman” (9/21/85) –
The party befriends Lorne and seek the Stone of Astra, but the wizard Korlok follows
them to claim it for himself. “Citadel of
Shadow” (9/28/85) – Sheila tries to prove herself as a thief and befriends
Karena, which puts the party in the middle of a family feud. “The Time Lost”
(10/12/85) – Venger plans to use a WWII German pilot to alter the outcome of
the war and prevent the party from entering the realm. “Cave of the Fairie Dragons” (11/9/85) – The party
help dragon Amber rescue the queen dragon from the greedy King Varen. “The Winds of
Darkness” (12/7/85) – The Darkling kidnaps Hank and in order to save him and
the realm the party must convince Martha to help them. “Requiem” (N/A)
– The party is finally able to return home—if they so choose.
Spacecats
was an animated/live-action/puppet hybrid created by Paul Fusco, the man
behind the ALF
puppet and franchise. The series focused on a group of alien cats
(basically cats with antennae) who were created on the planet Trygliceride-7 to
solve all the problems of Earth; fighting for “truth, justice and a
better-quality cat food without a fishy aftertaste” (a play on Superman’s motto). They
took refuge in an underground lair so secret, not even the cats themselves knew
where they were.
D.O.R.C. addressing Captain Catgut.
Their leader was D.O.R.C. (the
Disembodied Omnipotent Ruler of Cats, performed in liv-action by Charles Nelson
Reilly), a former game show host with a low tolerance for cats due to his
inability to have a pet as a young head (because he needed to be able to carry
them in his mouth). He relayed missions directly to the less-than-intelligent
Captain Catgut (Fusco), who then selected the agents to carry out their
mission.Despite a large
assortment of Spacecats to choose from (seriously—he usually flipped through
film slides of several), Catgut generally chose the same three. The team leader
was always Thomas “Tom” Spacecat (Rob Paulsen), a weapons expert with excellent
spelling ability. Under him was disguise expert Scratch (Townsend Coleman), so
named because of a musical family of space fleas constantly making him itchy,
and Sniff (Pat Fraley), whose keen sense of smell was only rivaled by his
numerous allergies. It would be up to the Spacecats to foil the villains, save
the day, and try to discreetly blend in with Earth cats (well, two out of three
ain’t bad).
Captain Catgut's intro credit.
Spacecats debuted on NBC on September 14, 1991. The series was written
by Fusco with ALFwriters Howard Bendetson
and David Silverman,
animated ALF writerTerrie
Collins, ALF Tales writer Judy Rothman, Rogena Schuyler, Rowby Goren (who served as
story editor), George
Atkins and Ron
Friedman, with music by Shuki Levy,
orchestrated by Udi
Harpaz. Each episode followed a similar structure: after the intro and
theme by ALF veterans Leslie
Ann Podkin and Alf Clausen,
the narrator (Robert Ridgley) would introduce the Spacecats to the audience as
the camera went from space down into their lair via the garbage can entrance.
The lair and Captain Catgut would be represented by puppets on a set, typically
in stock footage showing the cats milling about looking busy-ish. D.O.R.C.
would then appear to fill Catgut in on the mission with some snide barbs before
departing with a comedic message appearing on his screen, such as “Deposit
$850” or “Want to lose weight? Ask me how!” The episode would then switch to
traditional animation by AKOM Productions
as Catgut would scroll through slides of agents before settling on our three
protagonists, with the narrator going over their qualities (usually a mix of
serious and comedic). After the trio bumbled their way through the assignment,
they would end the episode by addressing the audience with words of
not-quite-wisdom. A running gag also had them announcing themselves with a
poorly-harmonized vocal fanfare. This would be Marvel Productions’
second—and arguably more successful—attempt at an animation/puppet hybrid
series after the failed Little
Muppet Monsters.
The crack(ed) team of Tom, Sniff and Scratch.
Unfortunately
for all involved, the series came about right when NBC was considering a move
away from animation to produce more live-action teen-oriented fare in an
attempt to duplicate the success of Saved
by the Bell; which would take the form of TNBC the next season. As a
result, Spacecats was among the many animated shows cancelled by the network
after its sole season. To date, no home releases or merchandise have been
released outside of the partial adaptation of “Diamonds are Fur-Ever” featured
in the special NBC Saturday Morning Comicsfrom
Harvey Comics, which
previewed NBC’s 1991 Saturday morning line-up. However, 10 episodes have been uploaded
online in various places, with two only available in Persian dubs.
EPISODE GUIDE: (NOTE: Different sources list up to 26 different episode
titles and seem to disagree on what episode aired when. Therefore, the accuracy
of this guide cannot be verified at this time.) “Send in the Clones” (9/14/91) – Investigating why a
television clown has suddenly turned violent leads the Spacecats to discover a
sleazy executive has been replacing talent with robot clones. “Stinking Pollution” (9/21/91) – The Spacecats are pursued
by a shadowy figure as they investigate pollution that has been plaguing
communities. “Like Cats to Water” (9/28/91) – The Spacecats investigate a
thriving water park amidst the planet’s water supply rapidly drying up. “Thank You, Masked Man” (10/5/91) – An evil Hollywood
producer promises to revive a has-been superhero’s career as a ruse to have him
commit crimes. “A Recession is Depressin’” (10/21/91) – A government
employee robs the U.S. Treasury and manages to keep the money away from the
Spacecats by transmitting it through computers. “Diamonds are Fur-Ever” (10/19/91) – The Spacecats disguise
themselves as archaeologists to attempt to trap a diamond thief with the
“discovery” of a fake diamond. “Mirror, Mirror, on the Wall” (10/26/91) – Spacecat Yvette
Meow is assigned to the team to help investigate what’s turning beautiful women
into ugly hags. “The Incredible Shrinking Monuments” (11/2/91) – The
Spacecats investigate the connection between a miniature golf course and
disappearing national monuments. “Blintzcapades” (11/9/91) – NO SYNOPSIS AVAILABLE. “A Tale of Two Kitties” (11/23/91) – NO SYNOPSIS AVAILABLE. “Mysteriously Missing Guests” (11/30/91) – The Spacecats are
sent to investigate the mysterious disappearances of guests that attend an
actress’ dinner parties. “Operation Pine Crud” (12/7/91) – An air freshener company
may be responsible for some deforestation going on at Yellowbelly National
Park. “Y.I. Auto” (12/14/91) – NO SYNOPSIS AVAILABLE. “Professor VonSchtooker and the Temple of Gold” (???) – The
Spacecats are sent to find out what happened to an important scientist as he
discovered the means to turn anything into gold.
He co-founded studio DePatie-Freleng Enterprises with Friz
Freleng after having been the last executive in charge of the original Warner Bros.
Cartoons studio, of which he was the last surviving member. DePatie also helped the transition into the early years of
Marvel Productions when they sold their studio to Cadence Industries. The breakout property of his career was when DFE provided the opening
titles for The Pink Panther, leading to a series of cartoons based
around the popular character spawned from it and jobs in producing similar
title sequences for other productions.
Programs he had a hand in include The Pink Panther Show,
Here Comes the Grump, Doctor Dolittle (1970), The Barkleys, The Houndcats,
Bailey’s Comets, an episode of The ABC Saturday Superstar Movies, Return
to the Planet of the Apes, Baggy Pants and the Nitwits, What’s New Mr. Magoo?,
The Fantastic Four (1978), Spider-Woman, Spider-Man (1981), Spider-Man
and his Amazing Friends, Pandamonium, Meatballs and Spaghetti, The Incredible
Hulk (1982) and Pink Panther and Sons with Hanna-Barbera.
