Production
The All-New Popeye Hour was an animated series produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions, which tried its best to retain the style of the original Thimble Theatre comic strip while complying with the prevailing content restrictions on violence. Featured characters, aside from Popeye, Bluto, Olive Oyl and Wimpy, were Swee'Pea, Poopdeck Pappy, Eugene the Jeep and Popeye's quadruplet nephews. Popeye's outfit reverted back to his sailor's uniform, except for his cap, which was retained as the white Navy had. Bluto's name was restored, as it had erroneously been changed to "Brutus" for the 1960-1962 made-for-television series. Olvie Oyl also reverted back to her 1930s look.
Because of restrictions on violence on TV cartoons for children at the time, Popeye did not throw punches in retaliation to Bluto; he often lifted him, with his own hands or with machinery, and hurled him away. The series marked the last time Jack Mercer would voice Popeye; he died on December 4, 1984, fifteen months after the show's cancellation.
The All-New Popeye Hour ran on CBS until September 1981, when it was cut to a half-hour and retitled The Popeye and Olive Show. It was removed from the CBS lineup in September 1983, the cartoons were immediately sold to local stations in nationwide syndication.
They have also been released on VHS and DVD. During the time these cartoons were in production, CBS aired The Popeye Valentine's Day Special - Sweethearts at Sea on February 14, 1979 at 8:30 PM (Eastern). In the UK, the BBC aired a half-hour version of The All-New Popeye Show, from the early-1980s to 2004.
The middle feature of the 1978-81 series was Dinky Dog, the misadventures of a humongous sheepdog and his mistresses, Monica and Sandy.
In 1981, a new feature in the series was Private Olive Oyl, where Olive and Alice the Goon join the Army, then proceed to drive their drill sergeant, Sgt. Bertha Blast (voiced by Jo Anne Worley) nuts, yet appease the base commander, Col. Crumb (voiced by Hal Smith). This cartoon is based on the idea of Private Benjamin; Hanna-Barbera was also concurrently producing a virtually identical concept with sitcom characters Laverne and Shirley called Laverne and Shirley in the Army for rival network ABC at the time.
Read more about this topic: The All-New Popeye Hour
Famous quotes containing the word production:
“The myth of unlimited production brings war in its train as inevitably as clouds announce a storm.”
—Albert Camus (1913–1960)
“... this dream that men shall cease to waste strength in competition and shall come to pool their powers of production is coming to pass all over the earth.”
—Jane Addams (1860–1935)
“An art whose limits depend on a moving image, mass audience, and industrial production is bound to differ from an art whose limits depend on language, a limited audience, and individual creation. In short, the filmed novel, in spite of certain resemblances, will inevitably become a different artistic entity from the novel on which it is based.”
—George Bluestone, U.S. educator, critic. “The Limits of the Novel and the Limits of the Film,” Novels Into Film, Johns Hopkins Press (1957)