Children's cartoons are like every other show on TV, they tend to go in cycles. Like how everybody's trying to make a Lost clone this year? And every children's cartoon these days is trying to copy Pokemon? It's like Japan took over American television.
Anyway, back in the eighties, there was a bizarre trend of making shows about popular cartoon characters and their sons. Like Popeye and Son, Pink Panther and Sons, Captain Caveman and Son, etc. I'm not sure which show started it - maybe it was an offshoot of the rush to create a clone of Muppet Babies. There were many strange things about this trend. First of all, they had to figure out how to give the character a son. Oddly enough, I only remember Popeye having a family. The rest of them just got a son out of nowhere. Second, there was no daughter. Like I don't remember Barbie and Daughter. I guess that didn't have the same ring to it.
Fun Facts
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* Even though Pink Panther's son talked, his father didn't. In the old cartoons, this was explained by the fact that no one talked, but I guess the new show confirmed that the Pink Panther is a mute.
* Popeye's son was named Popeye Junior. Real original.
* Popeye Junior didn't look like Popeye. And he hated spinach. He would only eat spinach to get out of a jam, and when he did, his forearms and jaw bulged up, and his eye got squinty. No wonder he didn't like spinach.
* Captain Caveman and Son appeared on the Flintstone Kids cartoon show.
* Captain Caveman's son was named Cavey Junior. And he was useless.
* Bluto's son wasn't named Bluto Junior. It was Tank, confirming that Bluto was the last name. So what's Bluto's first name?
* The Pink Panther's sons were named Pinky and Panky. Wonder how long it took them to come up with those? Imagine going through life with the name "Panky."
* Given the rumors about the Pink Panther, I'm not surprised he didn't have a wife. Maybe he used a surrogate mother like Michael Jackson. Or he adopted.
* Pink Panther's life partner never appeared on the show.
* I thought there were more "and son" shows, but can't find or remember them. Maybe it just felt like more.
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2 comments:
I remember those days very well. Some of them strained the bounds of credibility. So much to talk about I'll just announce that I'm starting a new blog "Maurice's Blog & son"
Those were travesties of cartooning. So was "the Great Gazoo" in the Flintstones and I'd say "Bubba" from Ducktales would fall into this category as well.
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