Country singer Ray Stevens has issued several limited animation music videos down through the years. His initial step into that sort of product came along with the release of a project called Cartoon Video Collection which features 8 music videos where live-action Ray is shown with an animated back-drop. Several years later Ray began issuing music videos that were completely animated...including animated versions of his own image on screen. The results shown up on a couple of DVD releases in 2006.
Those music videos, coupled with brand new additions and some other previously released videos, shown up on Cartoon Carnival, Volume One, a DVD release of 10 animated music videos. That DVD collection was released along side Cartoon Carnival, Volume Two. Keep in mind the years that these individual music videos were released doesn't necessarily reflect the year they were originally recorded. Ray has made a lot of music videos, both live action and animation, of previous recordings that otherwise had no music video counterpart.
The 20 limited animation music videos that a person gets on the two Cartoon Carnival DVD's are as follows...
The Moonlight Special (2009)
Gone For Good (2003)
Along Came Jones (2006)
Barbeque (2006)
Smokey Mountain Rattlesnake Retreat (2009)
The Ballad Of Cactus Pete And Lefty (2006)
Power Tools (2003)
Can He Love You Half As Much As I (2006)
Deerslayer (2003)
Gourmet Restaurant (2006)
Hugo, The Human Cannonball (2009)
Hang Up And Drive (2003)
This Ain’t Exactly What I Had In Mind (2006)
Teenage Mutant Kung Fu Chickens (2006)
Bridget The Midget the Queen of the Blues (2003)
The Camping Trip (2009)
Harry The Hairy Ape (2006)
Erik The Awful (2003)
Jeremiah Peabody's Green and Purple Pills (2006)
Misty (2006)
I highlighted the four exclusive music videos that were added to the collection. This was one of the last projects released by Ray Stevens prior to his change in direction to releasing topical/politically-humorous music videos...which have been seen by millions on You Tube.
Showing posts with label limited animation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label limited animation. Show all posts
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Monday, August 10, 2009
June Foray: The Autobiography
A lot of the book is broken up into chapters that follow a theme. Near the end of the book there's a chapter dedicated to a few people June knew that are no longer living. Bill Scott, Jay Ward, Paul Frees, and a few others. She tells the intricate details of what "looping" means and she explains that it's wise to be punctual because it pays by the hour. Chapter Eight, called "My Rocky Life" is dedicated to her being cast in the Bullwinkle series, once known as Rocky and His Friends. This is where she remembers much of the Jay Ward era and offers pictures that were taken in the studio with her and Bill Scott and there's a picture of her, Bill, and Jay Ward; and a picture of her and Paul Frees. There are cartoon stills of the characters. In Chapter seven, called "Chuck Who?" for comical purposes, is about her association with Warner Brothers director, Chuck Jones. The chapter was called that because June didn't know who Chuck Jones was. In a lot of her interviews she admits to not being much of a cartoon watcher so she didn't really know who made the cartoons. Chuck cast her as Witch Hazel, the name of another witch that the Disney studio cast her as.
Legal acrobatics enabled Warner Brothers to continue using the Witch Hazel name. Bea Benaderet, the prominent female voice on mostly all of the Warner Brothers cartoons before June came along, was the original voice of Witch Hazel and was the original voice of Granny...Bea had did the Granny voice for almost 15 years before June took over the role in 1955...off the top of my head I believe Bea started voicing Granny somewhere around 1943 or 1944. It was Bea's on-camera work in Burns and Allen plus her other on-camera assignments that led to her cartoon roles being re-cast in the mid 1950's. Her workload had become too hectic to continue and so she concentrated more on the TV sitcom's she appeared in.
June's been the voice of both characters, Witch Hazel and Granny, ever since...her most recent assignment as Granny was the Baby Looney Tunes series a few years back. There is an interesting story that June talks about when it came time to cast the voice actors for the Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries series in 1994/1995. According to June, the producers were wanting her to come in an audition for the role of Granny...whoever was in charge apparently wanted the Granny voice to resemble the one provided by Bea Benaderet. June recalls how outraged she felt but then lets us in on how she came about being cast as Granny on the Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries after all.
This brings me to a small little rant that I have about such things. When a voice actor or actress plays a role for a good number of years, he or she pretty much know the in's and out's of the character{s} they voice and the producers or casting directors should give the voice actors and actresses associated with the role automatic casting because of the proven track record. I feel the only time a character's voice should be re-cast is if the voice actor/actress can no longer do an adequate job...meaning they've lost their voice. I don't think a voice artist loses their natural talent...so whether someone is 21, 41, 61, 81, or 91, if he or she is still capable of doing their job they should be given the first shot and THEN if the producer isn't satisfied then a re-cast should happen. This notion that you have to audition voice actors for roles they've played for decades is ludicrous and offensive to the voice artist, as you'll see when you read June's thoughts about it.
In the "Chuck Who?" section she talks about how she was called on to do the voice of an Irish lady from the waist down on Chuck's version of Tom and Jerry plus she talks about the various witch characters she has performed. It is also in this chapter where she relates a story about cigarette smoking and how it was a big advertising sponsor at one time. There's a priceless story about how she gave up smoking but a lot of others didn't and she tells about a recording session in the mid 1980's during the revival of The Jetsons and it involves Mel Blanc. It's a cute little story about Mel's smoking in the studio. There's a picture of June and Mel in the studio, too.
As I mentioned earlier, there are quite a few pictures...and there's one on page 129 of June and some friends at the 1974 Annie Awards. Before any can ask, the Annie Awards is short for the Animation Awards...a gala where animation big-wigs and voice actors and actresses gather. It's much like the typical awards programs you see but cartoons are being honored and celebrated instead of live-action.
One of the things you may or may not notice is that the chapter's are short...well, a lot of them are. "Chuck Who?" is a rather lengthy chapter as is "My Rocky Life". There's a section called "The War Years" where she talks about her career doing radio shows and offers a picture of her as part of a dance group. She makes a lot of jokes about her short stature and reflects that her short stature must have been a good reason she clicked so well with Daws Butler in the recording studio.
It's really a great look at June's life and career.
If you do much You Tube searching, be sure to look up some clips of Ma and Pa Kettle. The clips will feature an actress, Marjorie Main, in the role of Ma Kettle. This is the voice that June based a lot of the older lady types on...the voice is heard prominently in Fractured Fairy Tales, a segment in the Rocky and Bullwinkle series. June usually gave fairy godmothers or witches that voice. In the Disney cartoons, Duck Tales and Gummi Bears, June gave the Ma Beagle and Grammi Gummi characters the Marjorie Main vocal characterization.
Thursday, July 2, 2009
All this and Wally Gator
During the late 1980's into the early 1990's part of my daily habit was watching the USA Cartoon Express. The marathon cartoon series at one time was a once a week program, airing on Sunday mornings beginning usually at 7am and going until noon. 5 or 6 hours of back-to-back cartoons which were mostly Hanna-Barbera or Ruby-Spears productions. Later, the Cartoon Express became a daily program...airing at first during the 6-7pm hour but then shifting to a 6-7am hour. The daily version being only an hour meant just two half-hour cartoons were aired. All of these shifts in schedule and cartoon line-up changes ultimately ended that show's run in 1996. The program had began in 1982...reaching it's peak in the late '80s and early '90s prior to Ted Turner buying the Hanna-Barbera library and shifting 90% of the cartoons to his new Cartoon Network. One of those Hanna-Barbera cartoons was a series called Wally Gator. This cartoon originally aired in 1962-1963 and 52 episodes were produced. Daws Butler provided the voice of Wally, doing an impression of Ed Wynn. The zoo keeper, Mr Twiddle, was voiced by Don Messick. The other one-shot characters were voiced by Daws and Don, too. Wally was depicted as a pampered alligator who loved life in the zoo but boredom usually sets in and he escapes...by episode's end he's running back to the zoo. It aired under the umbrella title The Hanna-Barbera New Cartoon Series. Each episode consisted of three short segments which was a trademark of Hanna-Barbera made for TV cartoons.Along side the Wally cartoons you had a self-titled cartoon starring two characters named Lippy the Lion and Hardy Har Har. The voice for Lippy was Daws Butler, doing an impression of Joe E. Brown. Lippy was a con-artist, always looking for quick way to make money at almost any cost. Daws would use this voice again for a different character, Peter Potamus. Mel Blanc was the voice of Hardy Har Har, a pessimistic hyena in spite of his name. Daws and Mel would voice any other character written into the episode...or sometimes, Don Messick would play a role. A lot of the female characters in many of the Hanna-Barbera cartoons during this era were voiced by either Jean Vanderpyl or Janet Waldo.
The third segment featured in the series featured two swashbucklers by the name of Touché Turtle and Dum-Dum. They fought on the same side of the law, though. Touché Turtle was up-standing, well-meaning, and heroic while his partner, Dum-Dum, was as his name implied: dumb. Bill Thompson gave this turtle character the same voice he gave Droopy. Alan Reed was on hand as Dum-Dum. It was never really explained why this series didn't feature Daws Butler or Don Messick in the lead roles. Each segment contained 52 episodes. So, in the years/decades to come, there were plenty of short-subject cartoons to fill Saturday mornings with. Doing the math that's 52 + 52 + 52 and that equals 156 short-subject cartoons produced in a season's time.
Moving on...in the 1970's Hanna-Barbera ended this practice and focused on half-hour programs, 22 minutes minus commercials. Often, these half-hour's would contain at least 16 separate episodes airing once a week...and that would be the norm throughout the decade. A lot of their late 1960's and 1970's cartoon shows featured no more than the standard 16 episodes a piece and those were re-ran continuously for at least a decade. Everyone whose a fan of older cartoons knows how Speed Buggy, for example, only consisted of 16 episodes. The original network, CBS, aired the show for two years, 1973-1975. 16 episodes...plus the re-run cycle...that's 32 air-dates for the show. What happened is, CBS aired the series but then kept repeating the same episodes for an additional season. It was on the CBS line-up from September 1973 until August 1975. Then ABC and NBC aired the 16 episodes. According to research, ABC aired the cartoon for a few months in early 1976 and then NBC picked it up and aired it on their schedule during 1976-1977. In the 1980's it moved to the USA Network's Cartoon Express, the show that I started this blog entry writing about.
I know it sounds mind-boggling...but those 16 episodes of Speed Buggy got a lot of mileage.
The Jetsons hold the record, though, for longest running cartoon series with the fewest episodes. That series by Hanna-Barbera began in prime-time in 1962 on ABC and originally 24 episodes were produced. These 24 episodes would be re-ran continuously on Saturday morning...up until 1985 when all-new episodes started airing. 23 years worth of repeats of the same 24 episodes {1962-1985}. Amazingly, 23 years later, all of the original voice actors/actresses were on hand to reprise their roles. Original voice cast: George O'Hanlon, Penny Singleton, Daws Butler, Janet Waldo, Don Messick, Mel Blanc, and Jean Vanderpyl were joined by other voice actors like John Stephenson, Frank Welker, Julie McWhirter, Hamilton Camp, and others.
There were 21 additional episodes produced in 1985...bringing the total of episodes altogether: 65. These episodes aired along side the 1960's version...and then 10 more new episodes were produced in 1987...bringing the grand total to 75 episodes...a much better total than 24.
I want to touch upon, just briefly, the huge celebrities and famous people who passed away during the month of June. David Carradine's mysterious death happened on June 3rd. Later in the month long-time TV personality Ed McMahon passed away on June 23rd. Now, what happened afterward is something I've never witnessed before and I'll probably never witness it again. On June 25th two legendary figures passed away on the same day. Early in the day Farrah Fawcett was reported to have died. The media and news programs aired their tribute's to her and then the news broke that Michael Jackson had died...and he was 50. This isn't all...on June 27th news breaks that 1950's sitcom star, Gale Storm, died...and then a day later, on June 28th, news breaks that commercial pitchmen Billy Mays has died at the age of 50 and on the same day news breaks that impersonator/voice actor, Fred Travalena, died after a battle with cancer.
Gale Storm was a weekly fixture on TV for eight years, 1952-1960, starring in two back-to-back comedy shows: My Little Margie and The Gale Storm Show. Obviously, a lot of female comics during this era are over-shadowed by Lucille Ball but Gale Storm was one of the few, along with Eve Arden and Gracie Allen, to enjoy popular careers along side Lucy. Unfortunately, Gale's two sitcom's weren't heavily syndicated in their repeat cycle as other programs were and this caused less familiarity as the years went by.
Fred Travalena had a career that paralleled Rich Little. The two of them were known for their impressions. Fred often used heavier make-up to visually look like the character he was impersonating. As with Rich Little, the two impressionists couldn't break out into the contemporary scene...their impressions were of celebrities and singer's of a different time period enjoyed more by those like myself who have interest in the past. Also, their impressions were enjoyed more by those who are old enough to remember the celebrities that either Fred or Rich were impersonating. Fred did a brilliant Humphrey Bogart impression and he used this on the cartoon series, Shirt Tales, in the 1980's. The character he gave voice to was Bogey, obviously named after Bogart. Fred also voiced several characters on the Smurfs and other 1980's cartoons. His legacy, aside from his impressions, was his many appearances on TV game shows and talk-shows showcasing his impressions. I saw him numerous times on game shows...also, he sang...but it's the impressions and voice-over work that brought him fame. In 1972 he was part of a group called the Kopycats on The ABC Comedy Hour. Among the other impressionists in this group were Rich Little, Frank Gorshin, George Kirby, and others.
Friday, November 28, 2008
It's all relative...The Scooby influence...
Hanna-Barbera exploded in popularity with their made-for-TV cartoons. The foundation was layed in the late 1950's and it continued to grow through the 1960's. Although it would be fashionable to jump on the bandwagon with others and criticize the cartoons for their lack of animation but that isn't my style. Also, the mid 1960's out-put from Hanna-Barbera was often cited as not being as "good" as the cartoons in the late '50s and early '60s. I've seen plenty of the cartoons and while there are cartoons from this period that I'm not particularly a fan of, they do not fall into the category of "awful non-watchable" as some are quick to label them. After a flirtation in the mid 1960's with outer space cartoons and adventure dominated cartoons, the company hit the air with Scooby-Doo in 1969. This cartoon as I touched upon in another blog became a long-running series. The series was in first-run production from 1969-1971 and again during 1972-1973, as Scooby Doo, Where Are You? and The New Scooby-Doo Movies. When the series became a bonafide hit, Hanna-Barbera began to base a good amount of cartoons on the kids solving mysteries concept. There were many short-lived cartoons based upon this concept and many of the cartoons only ran one TV season, which for a Saturday morning cartoon, seemed to require no fewer than 16 episodes.
In a moment of speculation, this I assume would translate into 16 air-dates, then 16 repeats, which totals to 32 air-dates. After the repeat cycle ended the network would usually just repeat the cartoons again...and again...or cancel the series and replace it with something else from Hanna-Barbera. It would probably shock some to realize that cartoons usually do not have a lot of episodes...in spite of how iconic or popular a series may have been. The cartoons to follow in Scooby's mysterious path as mentioned were many. If i had lots and lots of extra time I could look them all up but i'll summarize things and hit a couple of cartoons that follow the Scooby formula and point out which Scooby character matches which character on the knock-off.
1. Clue Club, 1976-1977: This series is one of my favorites. I watched this cartoon in the mid 1980's when it was a part of the USA cable program, Cartoon Express. The series involved four teenagers: Larry, Pepper, D.D., and Dotty and their two dogs Wolfer and Wimper. Larry is the Fred prototype while Pepper is the Daphne of the group. D.D. is the comical one with some cowardly traits shared with Shaggy. Dotty is the brains, the Velma equivalent. This time around, two dogs are spotlighted. Wolfer is the older dog who always thinks he has the mystery solved and proudly explains his theories to Wimper, only to be proven half-right or all wrong by the humans in the show as the story plays out. Wimper is the smaller dog with a southern drawl who often doubts Wolfer's assumptions but goes along with the latest theory Wolfer's dreamed up. The dogs spoke to each other but not to the four kids. Sheriff Bagley was often on-hand to apprehend the latest crook that the Clue Club exposed...recounting clues that had mounted...in another style similar to Scooby-Doo. The voice cast for this series included David Joliffe as Larry; face actor Bob Hastings as D.D.; Patricia Stitch as Pepper; Tara Talboy as Dotty; Paul Winchell as Wolfer; Jim McGeorge as Wimper; and John Stephenson as Sheriff Bagley. The series didn't have a long life in syndication repeats. After it's network run, it vanished from the airwaves until it became a segment on USA's Cartoon Express in the late 1980's. After it left that program it remained in animation exile until the Cartoon Network and then Boomerang came along in the late 1990's. Even today, it doesn't air that often but sometimes it will pop up on Boomerang.
2. Jabberjaw, 1976-1978: This cartoon series focused on four teenagers and a talking shark. In a lot of ways it was a comedic parody of Jaws, using a shark as a comedic foil. In addition to this, the four teenagers were rock stars in a concept close to Josie and the Pussycats and the teens in Jabberjaw toured the oceans and dry-land at times stumbling into mysteries in between their concerts. It's also interesting to note that this concept was the original basis for Mystery's Five, the series that became Scooby-Doo in 1969 and it was the concept used for the Josie and the Pussycats series. Jabberjaw had a voice like Curly from The Three Stooges. He acted as the band's mascott and often reacted comically to whatever situation...often feeling that he didn't get any respect, a routine close to comedian Rodney Dangerfield. The four kids on the show and Jabberjaw headlined The Neptunes band. Biff was the Fred prototype while Shelly had the sour, bossy personality of Veronica from the Josie cartoons but Shelly also had a weakness for her own appearance, a character trait associated with Daphne from Scooby-Doo. Bubbles was the dumb bell of the group...this character was patterned after Melody from the Josie series. The comedy came from Jabberjaw and Clamhead. The Clamhead character looked similar to Shaggy and Alexander Cabot, two characters from Scooby-Doo and Josie and the Pussycats respectively, all three characters noted for their cowardly stance on things. Clamhead was a bundle of nerves and was prone to stammering "abba-abba-abba". I do not know if this was an intentional reference to a rock band known as ABBA or if it was a play on Fred Flintstone's catch-phrase Yabba-Dabba-Doo. Jabberjaw often jumped into Clamhead's arms in a pose similar to how Scooby would hop into Shaggy's arms in times of fright. The voice cast for this series included Tommy Cook as Biff; Pat Parris as Shelly; Julie McWhirter as Bubbles; Barry Gordon as Clamhead; and Frank Welker as Jabberjaw. The series ran during 1976-1977 for 16 episodes and they repeated for another year, 1977-1978.
3. Speed Buggy, 1973-1975: This is one of the examples of a huge success that only lasted 16 total episodes but ran, and ran, and ran, and ran. The show is about three teenagers who drive a race car/dune buggy. The car is referred to in the show's title...the teenagers refer to the car as Speedy. Speed Buggy could talk...and the driver of the car was a mechanic named Tinker. Mark and Debby were the two other teens that accompanied Tinker. The series was built around the concept of sabotage at race track's across the country...often, Speed Buggy and company would arrive at a race track to enter in a race. While there they'd stumble onto some sort of mystery centering around the goings-on at the track or by competitors wanting to win a race. The program aired on all three of the TV networks...meaning all 16 episodes ran and repeated on CBS, NBC, and ABC...then the series went into syndication...airing the same 16 episodes repeatedly. It's often baffling to me how a series can continually air with only a short number of episodes. The series remained on the network until 1979...airing the same 16 episodes that had first aired in 1973. The character of Mark was depicted as being of Indian heritage and was easily the Fred prototype. Debby featured the combined characteristics of Daphne and Velma while Tinker resembled Shaggy and often depended on Speed Buggy to protect everyone from any potential danger. Speed Buggy was often eager to run from trouble...often coaxed into being brave by Debby's flirtations to which Speedy would exclaim: "Vroom-a-Zoom, Zoom!!". The voice cast for this series included Mel Blanc as Speed Buggy; Phil Luther, Jr as Tinker; Michael Bell as Mark; and Arlene Golonka as Debby. As with other Hanna-Barbera cartoons, Don Messick and John Stephenson often played bit parts and villains.
4. Captain Caveman, 1977-1980: This series had a much longer episode life than the previous three I mentioned in this list. This cartoon boasts 40 episodes, instead of the standard 16. The cartoon centers around three young women, mostly late teen/early 20's, and a prehistoric, powerful, yet klutzy caveman. The plot of the show centers around the three girls and Cavey as he's called travelling all over the country solving mysteries. The girls use the name "The Teen Angels" and drive around in a van. On top of the van is a playground of sorts for Cavey...he doesn't get to ride in the van with the girls. The design for Captain Caveman can be traced back to the series Wacky Races and the Slag Brothers who drove the Boulder Mobile in that series. The brothers on that series were two thick haired cavemen resembling pint-sized versions of Cousin Itt from The Addams Family. Captain Caveman resembled a Slag brother but a big difference being that the Captain carried a wooden club and wore a super-small leopard skin cape. Due to Cavey being of prehistoric origin, his feet and hands were drawn in a Flintstones design while the girls were drawn modern. The full title of the segment was Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels, a parody on the title of the ABC-TV show Charlie's Angels. The episodes ran 10 minutes in length and appeared as part of two Scooby-Doo programs. 1977-1978 as part of Scooby's All-Star Laff-a-Lympics and 1978-1979 as part of Scooby's All-Stars. In both programs, the Caveman appeared as one of the rotating segments. 16 episodes were made in 1977, 8 were made in 1978. There were 16 more episodes made of the character in 1980, giving the series it's grand total of 40 episodes. It was the 1980 series that allowed the characters to star in their own program, instead of the cast being a part of a Scooby ensemble show. Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels was the official name of a separate series in 1980. In addition to this, Captain Caveman would appear on another series in 1980, The Flintstone Comedy Show. On that series, the Captain played a Superman-type character, who wore a mild-mannered disguise during his day job. His secret identity was Chester and he worked with Wilma and Betty at a newspaper for Lou Granite. The main voice cast for Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels included Mel Blanc as Captain Caveman; Vernee Watson as Dee Dee; Marilyn Schreffler as Brenda; and Laurel Page as Taffy. The leader of the trio of girls is Dee Dee while the cowardly traits of Shaggy are found in Brenda. The stunts dreamed up to catch the villains are usually supplied by Taffy, who often sweet-talks Captain Caveman into being brave. The catch-phrase of the series was Unga-Bunga...the nonsense phrase uttered by Captain Caveman as his version of "Uh oh!" or "holy cow!". The character returned to TV as part of The Flintstone Kids in 1986.
5. Jeannie, 1973-1975: Rounding out the Top-5 shows using a Scooby-Doo format is this series that revolved around two young men, the genie named Jeannie, and a male genie named Babu. The plots of the show were centered around the usual mystery solving but it didn't get into the details of solving mysteries as other series. This program was mainly an animated take-off on the 1965-1970 live action comedy show, I Dream of Jeannie, starring Barbara Eden and Larry Hagman. On this cartoon series, simply called Jeannie, her new master is named Corey. Jeannie is re-designed as a redhead who casts her spells by crossing her arms and twirling her pony-tail. Corey and Jeannie often pair off together in the mystery/who-done-it stories. Corey's friend, the cowardly Henry, is often paired with Babu, a bumbling genie who has severe nervousness and because of this often blunders his spells. Babu is slightly over-weight and hollers "Yabble Dabble" when excited or nervous. There are no military or NASA references in this cartoon. Corey and Henry are teenagers/young adults. Henry and Babu provide the comedy. The voice cast included Julie McWhirter as Jeannie; Joe Besser as Babu; Mark Hamill as Corey; Bob Hastings as Henry; and Janet Waldo as Mrs Anders. In this era, Waldo was heard on various cartoon series. Previously, Waldo was the voice of Penelope Pitstop, Nancy from the Shazzan series, Judy Jetson on The Jetsons, and Josie from Josie and the Pussycats. As an added note, the three male voice actors had impact as face actors, too. Joe Besser was a member of the Three Stooges during 1956-1957 in addition to being a comedic foil on Abbott and Costello's TV show and Joey Bishop's show. Besser appeared in a string of short comedy films for Columbia where his "whiny character" became part of the public culture. Besser brought his comically exaggerated voice to Babu. Bob Hastings had a major role on the TV series Captain Video in 1949 and years later in McHale's Navy as Carptener and would later become known to TV audiences as Kelcy on All In The Family and in the 1990's he became the voice of Commissioner Gordon on the various updated versions of Batman. Hastings was also the voice of Archie Andrews on radio in the mid 1940's. In a related note, Bob's brother, Don Hastings, is a legendary soap opera star from As The World Turns. Mark Hamill would go on to become world famous as Luke Skywalker in the Star Wars films...he continues to provide many cartoon voices, with The Joker being the most famous. The Jeannie series ran 16 episodes and they repeated countless times. Jeannie and company appeared in an episode of Scooby-Doo as part of The New Scooby-Doo Movies in 1973. Babu himself later appeared as a member of the Scooby team on Laff-a-Lympics.
In a moment of speculation, this I assume would translate into 16 air-dates, then 16 repeats, which totals to 32 air-dates. After the repeat cycle ended the network would usually just repeat the cartoons again...and again...or cancel the series and replace it with something else from Hanna-Barbera. It would probably shock some to realize that cartoons usually do not have a lot of episodes...in spite of how iconic or popular a series may have been. The cartoons to follow in Scooby's mysterious path as mentioned were many. If i had lots and lots of extra time I could look them all up but i'll summarize things and hit a couple of cartoons that follow the Scooby formula and point out which Scooby character matches which character on the knock-off.
1. Clue Club, 1976-1977: This series is one of my favorites. I watched this cartoon in the mid 1980's when it was a part of the USA cable program, Cartoon Express. The series involved four teenagers: Larry, Pepper, D.D., and Dotty and their two dogs Wolfer and Wimper. Larry is the Fred prototype while Pepper is the Daphne of the group. D.D. is the comical one with some cowardly traits shared with Shaggy. Dotty is the brains, the Velma equivalent. This time around, two dogs are spotlighted. Wolfer is the older dog who always thinks he has the mystery solved and proudly explains his theories to Wimper, only to be proven half-right or all wrong by the humans in the show as the story plays out. Wimper is the smaller dog with a southern drawl who often doubts Wolfer's assumptions but goes along with the latest theory Wolfer's dreamed up. The dogs spoke to each other but not to the four kids. Sheriff Bagley was often on-hand to apprehend the latest crook that the Clue Club exposed...recounting clues that had mounted...in another style similar to Scooby-Doo. The voice cast for this series included David Joliffe as Larry; face actor Bob Hastings as D.D.; Patricia Stitch as Pepper; Tara Talboy as Dotty; Paul Winchell as Wolfer; Jim McGeorge as Wimper; and John Stephenson as Sheriff Bagley. The series didn't have a long life in syndication repeats. After it's network run, it vanished from the airwaves until it became a segment on USA's Cartoon Express in the late 1980's. After it left that program it remained in animation exile until the Cartoon Network and then Boomerang came along in the late 1990's. Even today, it doesn't air that often but sometimes it will pop up on Boomerang.
2. Jabberjaw, 1976-1978: This cartoon series focused on four teenagers and a talking shark. In a lot of ways it was a comedic parody of Jaws, using a shark as a comedic foil. In addition to this, the four teenagers were rock stars in a concept close to Josie and the Pussycats and the teens in Jabberjaw toured the oceans and dry-land at times stumbling into mysteries in between their concerts. It's also interesting to note that this concept was the original basis for Mystery's Five, the series that became Scooby-Doo in 1969 and it was the concept used for the Josie and the Pussycats series. Jabberjaw had a voice like Curly from The Three Stooges. He acted as the band's mascott and often reacted comically to whatever situation...often feeling that he didn't get any respect, a routine close to comedian Rodney Dangerfield. The four kids on the show and Jabberjaw headlined The Neptunes band. Biff was the Fred prototype while Shelly had the sour, bossy personality of Veronica from the Josie cartoons but Shelly also had a weakness for her own appearance, a character trait associated with Daphne from Scooby-Doo. Bubbles was the dumb bell of the group...this character was patterned after Melody from the Josie series. The comedy came from Jabberjaw and Clamhead. The Clamhead character looked similar to Shaggy and Alexander Cabot, two characters from Scooby-Doo and Josie and the Pussycats respectively, all three characters noted for their cowardly stance on things. Clamhead was a bundle of nerves and was prone to stammering "abba-abba-abba". I do not know if this was an intentional reference to a rock band known as ABBA or if it was a play on Fred Flintstone's catch-phrase Yabba-Dabba-Doo. Jabberjaw often jumped into Clamhead's arms in a pose similar to how Scooby would hop into Shaggy's arms in times of fright. The voice cast for this series included Tommy Cook as Biff; Pat Parris as Shelly; Julie McWhirter as Bubbles; Barry Gordon as Clamhead; and Frank Welker as Jabberjaw. The series ran during 1976-1977 for 16 episodes and they repeated for another year, 1977-1978.
3. Speed Buggy, 1973-1975: This is one of the examples of a huge success that only lasted 16 total episodes but ran, and ran, and ran, and ran. The show is about three teenagers who drive a race car/dune buggy. The car is referred to in the show's title...the teenagers refer to the car as Speedy. Speed Buggy could talk...and the driver of the car was a mechanic named Tinker. Mark and Debby were the two other teens that accompanied Tinker. The series was built around the concept of sabotage at race track's across the country...often, Speed Buggy and company would arrive at a race track to enter in a race. While there they'd stumble onto some sort of mystery centering around the goings-on at the track or by competitors wanting to win a race. The program aired on all three of the TV networks...meaning all 16 episodes ran and repeated on CBS, NBC, and ABC...then the series went into syndication...airing the same 16 episodes repeatedly. It's often baffling to me how a series can continually air with only a short number of episodes. The series remained on the network until 1979...airing the same 16 episodes that had first aired in 1973. The character of Mark was depicted as being of Indian heritage and was easily the Fred prototype. Debby featured the combined characteristics of Daphne and Velma while Tinker resembled Shaggy and often depended on Speed Buggy to protect everyone from any potential danger. Speed Buggy was often eager to run from trouble...often coaxed into being brave by Debby's flirtations to which Speedy would exclaim: "Vroom-a-Zoom, Zoom!!". The voice cast for this series included Mel Blanc as Speed Buggy; Phil Luther, Jr as Tinker; Michael Bell as Mark; and Arlene Golonka as Debby. As with other Hanna-Barbera cartoons, Don Messick and John Stephenson often played bit parts and villains.
4. Captain Caveman, 1977-1980: This series had a much longer episode life than the previous three I mentioned in this list. This cartoon boasts 40 episodes, instead of the standard 16. The cartoon centers around three young women, mostly late teen/early 20's, and a prehistoric, powerful, yet klutzy caveman. The plot of the show centers around the three girls and Cavey as he's called travelling all over the country solving mysteries. The girls use the name "The Teen Angels" and drive around in a van. On top of the van is a playground of sorts for Cavey...he doesn't get to ride in the van with the girls. The design for Captain Caveman can be traced back to the series Wacky Races and the Slag Brothers who drove the Boulder Mobile in that series. The brothers on that series were two thick haired cavemen resembling pint-sized versions of Cousin Itt from The Addams Family. Captain Caveman resembled a Slag brother but a big difference being that the Captain carried a wooden club and wore a super-small leopard skin cape. Due to Cavey being of prehistoric origin, his feet and hands were drawn in a Flintstones design while the girls were drawn modern. The full title of the segment was Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels, a parody on the title of the ABC-TV show Charlie's Angels. The episodes ran 10 minutes in length and appeared as part of two Scooby-Doo programs. 1977-1978 as part of Scooby's All-Star Laff-a-Lympics and 1978-1979 as part of Scooby's All-Stars. In both programs, the Caveman appeared as one of the rotating segments. 16 episodes were made in 1977, 8 were made in 1978. There were 16 more episodes made of the character in 1980, giving the series it's grand total of 40 episodes. It was the 1980 series that allowed the characters to star in their own program, instead of the cast being a part of a Scooby ensemble show. Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels was the official name of a separate series in 1980. In addition to this, Captain Caveman would appear on another series in 1980, The Flintstone Comedy Show. On that series, the Captain played a Superman-type character, who wore a mild-mannered disguise during his day job. His secret identity was Chester and he worked with Wilma and Betty at a newspaper for Lou Granite. The main voice cast for Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels included Mel Blanc as Captain Caveman; Vernee Watson as Dee Dee; Marilyn Schreffler as Brenda; and Laurel Page as Taffy. The leader of the trio of girls is Dee Dee while the cowardly traits of Shaggy are found in Brenda. The stunts dreamed up to catch the villains are usually supplied by Taffy, who often sweet-talks Captain Caveman into being brave. The catch-phrase of the series was Unga-Bunga...the nonsense phrase uttered by Captain Caveman as his version of "Uh oh!" or "holy cow!". The character returned to TV as part of The Flintstone Kids in 1986.
5. Jeannie, 1973-1975: Rounding out the Top-5 shows using a Scooby-Doo format is this series that revolved around two young men, the genie named Jeannie, and a male genie named Babu. The plots of the show were centered around the usual mystery solving but it didn't get into the details of solving mysteries as other series. This program was mainly an animated take-off on the 1965-1970 live action comedy show, I Dream of Jeannie, starring Barbara Eden and Larry Hagman. On this cartoon series, simply called Jeannie, her new master is named Corey. Jeannie is re-designed as a redhead who casts her spells by crossing her arms and twirling her pony-tail. Corey and Jeannie often pair off together in the mystery/who-done-it stories. Corey's friend, the cowardly Henry, is often paired with Babu, a bumbling genie who has severe nervousness and because of this often blunders his spells. Babu is slightly over-weight and hollers "Yabble Dabble" when excited or nervous. There are no military or NASA references in this cartoon. Corey and Henry are teenagers/young adults. Henry and Babu provide the comedy. The voice cast included Julie McWhirter as Jeannie; Joe Besser as Babu; Mark Hamill as Corey; Bob Hastings as Henry; and Janet Waldo as Mrs Anders. In this era, Waldo was heard on various cartoon series. Previously, Waldo was the voice of Penelope Pitstop, Nancy from the Shazzan series, Judy Jetson on The Jetsons, and Josie from Josie and the Pussycats. As an added note, the three male voice actors had impact as face actors, too. Joe Besser was a member of the Three Stooges during 1956-1957 in addition to being a comedic foil on Abbott and Costello's TV show and Joey Bishop's show. Besser appeared in a string of short comedy films for Columbia where his "whiny character" became part of the public culture. Besser brought his comically exaggerated voice to Babu. Bob Hastings had a major role on the TV series Captain Video in 1949 and years later in McHale's Navy as Carptener and would later become known to TV audiences as Kelcy on All In The Family and in the 1990's he became the voice of Commissioner Gordon on the various updated versions of Batman. Hastings was also the voice of Archie Andrews on radio in the mid 1940's. In a related note, Bob's brother, Don Hastings, is a legendary soap opera star from As The World Turns. Mark Hamill would go on to become world famous as Luke Skywalker in the Star Wars films...he continues to provide many cartoon voices, with The Joker being the most famous. The Jeannie series ran 16 episodes and they repeated countless times. Jeannie and company appeared in an episode of Scooby-Doo as part of The New Scooby-Doo Movies in 1973. Babu himself later appeared as a member of the Scooby team on Laff-a-Lympics.
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