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.
Patti Deutsch was an actor and comedian best known as being a featured performer on Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In and a panelist on 70s game shows. She would go on to provide the voices for Trixie, the Beaver Squadron, an operator and Raccoon Walla in several episodes of The Angry Beavers and Matta the Lunch Lady in The Emperor's New School. She also provided voices for episodes of The Smurfs, Darkwing Duck, Life with Louie and The Spooktacular New Adventures of Casper.
For the history of Casper, check out the post here.
In 1995, Casper made
a big return to the public consciousness with the release of his first
full-length feature film by Amblin
Entertainment and the Harvey
Entertainment Company, featuring live-action mixed with computer animated
ghosts.
Directed by Brad Silberling
from a script by Sherri Stoner
and Deanna Oliver, Casper followed greedy heiress Carrigan
Crittenden (Cathy Moriarty)
and her sniveling sidekick Paul “Dibs” Plutzker (Eric
Idle) as they attempted to find a treasure in the run-down Whipstaff Manor
she had inherited from her father. The only thing blocking her way was that the
house was haunted by The Ghostly Trio: elongated leader Stretch (Joe Nipolte),
foul-smelling Stinky (Joe Alaskey) and the aptly-named Fatso (Brad Garrett). The
trio had been a staple of Casper cartoons and comics since first
appearing in the short “Fright
from Wrong” in 1956; however, their appearances and names have undergone
several revisions.
Serving up a heaping helping of Casper.
After several failed attempts to remove the ghosts--including an exorcism
by Father Guido
Sarducci (Don Novello)
and paranormal extermination by Dr. Ray Stantz (Dan Aykroyd, reprising his role
from Ghostbusters, which was ironic considering Harvey once sued Columbia Pictures claiming
their logo was too
reminiscent of Fatso)--Crittenden was turned on to the services of one Dr.
James Harvey (named after Harvey
Comics and played by Bill Pullman),
a ghost therapist, through the machinations of the fourth Whipstaff ghost:
Casper (Malachi Pearson). Casper, having seen a news report about Harvey,
immediately fell for his daughter, “Kat” (Christina Ricci), and figured
Crittenden’s greed was his best chance to meet her. The film also served as an
origin story for Casper, providing him with a pre-ghostly background as the son
of an inventor.
Kat and Casper.
Releasing on May 25, 1995 by Universal
Pictures, the film proved a box-office success despite mixed reviews;
although not as much of one as was projected. A sequel movie was planned, but
with Pullman and Ricci’s commitments to other projects, the sequel was
ultimately scrapped. Fortunately, the producers had already decided to continue
the franchise in the form of a new animated series based on the movie, which was announced by Fox Kids head Margaret Loesch months before
the film came out. It would be Casper’s third on Saturday mornings and the
second based on a movie starring Ricci (the first being 1992’s The Addams Family).
Some...radical therapy by Dr. Harvey.
Casper debuted on FOX on February 24, 1996 as part of the Fox Kids
programming block. The series featured most of the movie’s cast returning to
voice their respective characters, with Dan Castellaneta and Kath Soucie
replacing Pullman and Ricci in their roles. Even Ben Stein, who played
Crittenden’s father’s attorney in the film, made an appearance in an episode as
a teacher at Kat’s school. Casper hit
the top of the ratings and remained there for its first two seasons. The series
also earned an Emmy for Bruce Babcock’s
score during the second season. Other music was provided by Charles Frenandez, Harvey Cohen, Ron Grant, Michael Tavera and Thomas Richard Sharp. The
series’ animation was handled by Akom
Production Company.
The Ghostly Trio: Stinky, Stretch and Fatso.
Changes were naturally made to better transition the movie to the series.
All references of Crittenden and how the Harveys arrived to Whipstaff were
removed; however Dr. Harvey remained The Ghostly Trio’s therapist. Casper’s
attraction to Kat was downgraded to simply being her best friend. Casper was also
made a student at a ghost school, which opened up a new set of supporting
characters and plot lines. The series was able to reintroduce characters from
the Harvey books such
as Spooky (Rob Paulsen), a black-nosed ghost who spoke with a Brooklyn accent
and wore a derby hat, and Poil (Miriam Flynn), originally introduced as Pearl,
Spooky’s blonde-haired dim-witted girlfriend. A new character for the show was
Ms. Banshee (Tress MacNeille), a teacher at Casper’s school who often lived up
to her name. Kat’s nemesis from the film, Amber Whitmire (Debi Derryberry) was given new
sidekicks in the form of three girls all named Jennifer (and all voiced by Sherry Lynn). They were portrayed
as rich, spoiled Valley
girl types despite the setting of the show being Maine and not California.
Interestingly enough, while the movie pointed out that the four-fingered Casper
once had five when he was alive, the cartoon chose to give its human characters
the traditional four fingers cartoon characters are often depicted as having.
Poil and Spooky.
Many of the people involved with the show had worked on Animaniacsand Pinky and the Brain(including the film’s writers, who also
worked on the series), resulting in the show having a very similar style. Set
in a sitcom atmosphere, the show featured quick deliveries, pop-culture
references, songs and fourth-wall breaking gags. Also like the previous shows,
each episode consisted typically of three segments of varying lengths. Additional
writers for the show included Michael
Merton, Sean Hogan, Alex Borstein, Bob Claster, Ken Koonce, Scott Kreamer, Chris Otsuki and Mark York. When shows ran
short, the end credits were often filled with shots of a cemetery with humorous
inscriptions on the tombstones and the movie version of
Casper’s theme song by Mack David and Jerry Livingston
playing over it. The opening titles were simply the Casper logo materializing like a ghost on the screen, typically
with a few chords of the theme.
The show was marketed as The
Spooktacular New Adventures of Casper during its second season (although
only Casper ever appeared on the
title screen). For the third season, Jess Harnell would replace Garrett as the
voice of Fatso for the remainder of the series and the subsequent live-action
direct-to-video movies as Garrett went on to star in the hit sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond. It also aired concurrently on Monday
afternoons before eventually being removed from its Saturday timeslot to make
way for reruns of Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutationafter its original replacement, Ned’s Newt, was delayed.
Stretch sending Casper to his new network via air mail.
In February of 1998, the show aired on Fridays in both the morning and
afternoon timeslots before being completely removed from the line-up. It ended
up on sister channel FOX
Family Channel where it played out in both reruns and the final six-episode
fourth season. Although Casper was
still getting respectable ratings, Saban
Entertainment, who took over Fox Kids in 1996, and 20th Century Fox, who had
acquired distribution rights, wanted to focus on the live-action sequel films.
From 1996 through 1998, Universal Studios
Home Video would release various episodes from the first three seasons onto
VHS. In 2007 and 2008, Universal Studios Home Entertainment released two
DVDs containing the first and last five episodes of the first season. In
1997, Trendmasters
produced a small line of action figures for the show. The first wave featured
all four ghosts disguised
as humans at various jobs. The next wave, “Hide & Seek Friends”,
had the ghosts able to hide inside an included accessory. Finally, there was a Whipstaff Manor playset
which featured miniature figures of the ghosts, Dr. Harvey and Kat.
The future of Casper.
This would be Casper’s last foray into Saturday morning television. Casper
would eventually return to film beginning with 1997’s live-action/CGI
direct-to-video film Casper: A Spirited Beginningwith two others following. In 2006, the
completely CGI film Casper’s Scare School
was spun-off into a new computer animated series.
EPISODE GUIDE:
Season 1:
“Spooking Bee / Fugedaboudit / The Flew” (2/24/96) – Casper and Spooky
try to outdo each other in a spooking bee. / Fatso explores his depths in a
musical number. / The trio pass their ghost flu to the Harveys, making them
think they’re ghosts.
“Paws / The Alphabet Song / Is So Too” (3/2/96) – A ghost puppy
follows Casper home, but the trio hate dogs. / Stinkie keeps messing up Stretch
and Fatso’s educational song. / Casper follows Kat on a study session with a boy,
constantly ribbing her that it’s a date.
“Legend of Duh Bigfoot / The Ghostly Day / Invasion of the UGFO’s”
(3/9/96) – A bonding camping trip with James and the trio leads to an encounter
with Bigfoot. / Kat recalls visits from scared scientists. / Dinosaur ghost
aliens visit Whipstaff.
“Rocket Booster / A Really Scary Casper Moment / Day of the Living
Casper” (3/16/96) – Casper tells Kat about the time he went into space. /
Casper proves that he can be scary if he wants. / Casper uses Kat’s make-up to
pretend he’s human for a day.
“Three Boos and a Babe / The Whipstaff Inmates / Elusive Exclusive”
(3/30/96) – A parent-teacher conference leads the trio to falling for Ms.
Banshee. / Introducing the primary cast. / A reporter tries to achieve fame by
broadcasting the Whipstaff ghosts.
“Paranormal Press / Another Spooky and Poil Moment / Deadstock”
(4/20/96) – A bored Casper helps Kat get revenge on Amber and the Jennifers in
the school paper. / Poil helps Spooky get into further trouble with Ms. Banshee.
/ Casper has to fill Whipstaff with ghosts to keep his family from being
evicted.
“Poil Jammed / The Who That I Am / A Picture Says 1000 Words”
(4/27/96) – Spooky refuses to take Poil to a big shindig. / Casper goes to Dr.
Harvey to better himself. / A picture-haunting ghost manages to annoy everyone
with his authoritative stance on everything.
“Spooks, Lies & Videotape / Ghostfather” (5/4/96) – Casper tries
to show he’s creative by filming a movie to send into a show. / The Trio tries
to scare out the Harveys before the Ghostfather pays them a visit.
“Rebel Without a Date / Don’t Bank on It” (5/11/96) – Casper turns to
James Dean for help in winning the new exchange student from Spooky. / A new
bank puts James in deep debt.
“Casper vs. the Ultimate Fan Boy / Field of Screams” (5/18/96) – Casper
and Kat meet an overly-obsessed fan at a comic convention. / The ghosts help
Kat’s softball team win.
Season 2:
“Grim and Bear It / Fatso of the Opera” (9/7/96) – Casper tries to
stall the Grim Reaper from taking James. / Fatso gets the chance to be a famous
opera singer.
“Dead of the Class / A Spooky and Poil Moment / Y-Files” (9/14/96) – The
Trio’s 150th High Ghoul reunion reveals Stretch never graduated. /
Spooky tries to find out what Poil wants to see on TV. / Skully and Moldy try
to figure out why everyone but Casper disappeared.
“Losing Face /
Galloping Ghost” (9/21/96) – Doc’s old school rival is coming to visit after he
lied and told him he had reformed The Ghostly Trio. / Casper befriends a ghost
horse.
“Aunt Misbehavin’ / Split Personalities” (9/28/96) – The trio change
themselves into women to prevent Casper from being taken away. / NO SYNOPSIS
AVAILABLE.
“Something to Stink About / Pulp Friction” (10/5/96) – NO SYNOPSIS
AVAILABLE.
“Ectoplasms / Stink of the Road / Doc’s Depression” (10/12/96) – NO
SYNOPSIS AVAILABLE. / Stinkie sings about himself. / NO SYNOPSIS AVAILABLE.
“Boo to the Future / All That Falderal” (10/19/96) – NO SYNOPSIS
AVAILABLE.
“Spooky and Poil Meet the Monsters / You Know You’re Alive When… / 13
Ways to Scare a Fleshie / The Trick’s a Treat” (10/26/96) – Spooky wants to
haunt a house, but encounters monsters instead. / How to tell the difference
between being alive and dead. / The trio responds to fan mail about how to
scare a fleshie. / Casper promotes Kat’s party with the promise of real ghosts,
but the union forbids scaring on Halloween.
“Frightening Storm / The Ghostly Trio / The Legend of Whitebeard”
(11/2/96) – / The trio decides to leave when they feel ignored. / NO SYNOPSIS
AVAILABLE.
“Three Ghosts and a Baby / I Wanna Be Rude / Leave it to Casper” (11/9/96)
– Casper changes into a baby on James’ suggestion and is in danger of being
stuck that way. / Spooky tries to prove he’s rude after sparing Poil’s
feelings. / The ghosts pose as fleshies to escape a ghost hunter.
“Luck of the Spookish / Day Care Nightmare” (11/16/96) – NO SYNOPSIS
AVAILABLE.
“Scream Card / You Know When Your Alive When / Lady Screams the Boos”
(11/23/96) – NO SYNOPSIS AVAILABLE.
“A Christmas Peril / Ms. Banshee’s Holiday Hits / Good Morning Dr.
Harvey / Fright Before Christmas” (12/21/96) – The trio fill in for the ghosts
of Christmas. / An ad for Ms. Banshee’s holiday album. / The trio interrupts
James and Casper’s singing session. / Kat tales the tell of how the trio
spooked Santa.
“A Midsummer’s Night Scream / Auntie Maimed” (2/1/97) – NO SYNOPSIS
AVAILABLE.
“Gargoils / Ms. Banshee’s Public Domain Hits / Boosom Buddies”
(2/15/97) – / An ad for Ms. Banshee’s new album. /
“What Goes Around / Scavenger Hunt” (2/22/97) – NO SYNOPSIS AVAILABLE.
Season 3:
“Columboo / All About ‘C’” (9/6/97) – NO SYNOPSIS AVAILABLE.
“Hat Sick / Cancion De Olor / The Boo-Muda Triangle” (9/13/97) – Spooky
bets Poil his hat Casper won’t make the scare team. / Stinkie sings to Kat
about smells to help with her project. / Casper tries to save the Harveys’
cruise ship from the Bermuda Triangle.
“Intensive Scare / F-A-T-S-O / Stench!” (9/20/97) – NO SYNOPSIS
AVAILABLE. / At a network executive’s request, the cast sings a song about
Fatso. / NO SYNOPSIS AVAILABLE.
“The Phantom of the Oprah / Stretch’s Information Tidbit / The Crying
Game” (9/27/97) – NO SYNOPSIS AVAILABLE.
“Free Goldie / I’d Pick Your Nose / Birthday Boos” (10/4/97) – The
trio decide to return Kat’s goldfish to the wild. / Poil sings about why she
likes Spooky. / James enters a midlife crisis.
“Rats! / Stinkie Time Theater / Great Ghouly Governess” (10/20/97) – A
bet of servitude has the trio taking jobs as exterminators. / Stinkie’s version
of Cinderella. / Scay Ploppins answers Casper’s ad for help minding the trio.
“Above the Law / Ten Little Fatsos / Haunt-A-Thon” (10/31/97) – NO
SYNOPSIS AVAILABLE. / A song about Fatso. / NO SYNOPSIS AVAILABLE.
“This Old Manor / Scareobicize” (11/3/97) – NO SYNOPSIS AVAILABLE.
“Gingersnap Out of It / Send a Good Stink Up Their Noses / Ghostly
Locks and the Three Scares” (11/10/97) –
“Booparty / Do You Like Me? / MacDeath!” (11/17/97) – / Poil sings her
wonder if Spooky likes her or not. / NO SYNOPSIS AVAILABLE.
“The Scummies / Three-Ring Whipstaff / It’s Best to be the Most”
(11/27/97) – NO SYNOPSIS AVAILABLE. / NO SYNOPSIS AVAILABLE. / Stretch and
Stinkie ruin Fatso’s magazine with him on the cover, prompting him to break
into song.
“The Son Also Rises / Stretching is Good For You / Ghostfinger”
(12/12/97) – NO SYNOPSIS AVAILABLE.
“Mom Always Likes Ghouls Best / Bury Maguire / Dare to Scare”
(12/19/97) – NO SYNOPSIS AVAILABLE. / NO SYNOPSIS AVAILABLE. / The trio sing
about why they love to scare.
“Four Funerals and a Wedding / I Can Be Anything / Family Reunion”
(2/6/98) – The trio try to ruin Ms. Banshee’s wedding. / Fatso tries to
convince Ms. Banshee to date him in song. / James convinces the trio to attend
the McFadden family reunion.
“Horrid Copy / I’m Nothing Without My Hat / Caspeer Pressure”
(2/13/98) – / Spooky loses his hat and finds out he’s useless without it. / NO
SYNOPSIS AVAILABLE.
“That Thing You Boo! / A Good Walk Poiled” (2/13/98) – NO SYNOPSIS
AVAILABLE.
“Jasper / It’s Great To Be a Ghost / The Boo-Bloods of Whipstaff”
(2/20/98) – NO SYNOPSIS AVAILABLE.
“Ghost Jam / Do the Spooky / Dr. Harvey and Mr. Gruesome” (2/20/98) – NO
SYNOPSIS AVAILABLE.
“Politically Co-Wrecked Casper / Three Little Letters / Pen and Tell
Her” (2/27/98) – / The trio sing to Casper after he fails his scaring test. /
Fatso’s pen pal is coming to visit, but Fatso lied about himself in his letters
to her.
“Jack and the Scream Stalk / Boo Bash a Bone Bag / Artistic? That’s a
Stretch!” (2/27/98) – NO SYNOPSIS AVAILABLE. / The trio sing about going
scaring. / NO SYNOPSIS AVAILABLE.
Season 4:
“Scaredy Boo Where Have You Got To? / Casper’s New Theme Song / The
Daunting Game” (9/12/98) – NO SYNOPSIS AVAILABLE.
“At the BOO-vies / Sing Yourself Happy / Snowball’s Chance” (9/19/98)
– NO SYNOPSIS AVAILABLE.
“NYPD BOO / Three Cool Ghouls / Working Ghouls” (9/26/98) – NO
SYNOPSIS AVAILABLE.
“Scream Test / Ms. Banshee’s Kid Songs / The Doctor is Out” (10/3/98)
– NO SYNOPSIS AVAILABLE. / An ad for Ms. Banshee’s new album. / NO SYNOPSIS
AVAILABLE.
“Miami Nice / If You’re Unhappy and You Know It / That Advice Stinks”
(10/10/98) – NO SYNOPSIS AVAILABLE.
We all know ghosts
are supposed to be scary. But, Seymour Reit and Joe Oriolo decided to test that
belief in the 1930s when together they created Casper, the friendly ghost.
Originally intended as a 1939 children’s storybook, there was little interest
in the idea until Oriolo sold the rights to Paramount
Pictures’ Famous
Studios animation division.
Casper as he appeared in the 1940s.
Released under their Noveltoon banner, the first
Casper short appeared in 1945 titled The
Friendly Ghost. For the short, Casper was altered to be more child-like and given a New York accent. He resided in a haunted house with a
community of adult ghosts who loved nothing more than to scare people. Casper,
however, would rather make friends and struck out on his own to find some. Unfortunately,
everyone he encountered was frightened off by the fact he was a ghost, a
running theme in Casper cartoons. Two more Noveltoons were released until
Casper gained his own series of shorts in 1950, again with a slight redesign to
be thinner. Until 1959, Casper’s shorts followed the same plot of his initially
scaring off people he wanted to befriend and later earning their acceptance
after saving his potential friend somehow. In 1955, Casper gained a theme by Mack David and Jerry Livingston.
Casper in comics.
With the immense
popularity of the shorts, Casper soon expanded into comic books. Initially, his adventures were
published by St.
John Publications in 1949, where he officially received his name, until moving
to Harvey Comics in
1952. The Harvey comics
presented a new version of Casper, one who resided in the Enchanted Forest with
friends Wendy
the Good Little Witch, Nightmare
the talking horse, derby-wearing tough guy ghost Spooky
and Spooky’s girlfriend Poil.
Casper was given antagonists in The Ghostly Trio; three mischievous ghosts who were Casper’s opposites in every way.
In 1959, Harvey founder Alfred Harvey purchased
the character rights outright, along with several other Famous properties. U.M. &M TV
Corp had already purchased the rights to the early Casper shorts, but the post
1950 shorts began airing on the Mattel-sponsored
Matty’s Funday Funnies on ABC on Sundays. In
the 1960s, Harvey contracted Paramount to bring new Casper cartoons to
television, however based on the Harvey version.
