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September 5, 2023 • 48 mins
Of all the shows in the "And Son" category, this show is one of them. Popeye and Son takes what could be a great concept and just kinda...well...it's not a TOTAL disaster. Unlike the release of ProGrain cereal. A cereal aimed at tweens that looked like a health-obsessed adult brand. I can't imagine why it failed.
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Episode Transcript

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(00:07):
It's time to PLoP down in frontof the TV and the way Back machine
with a bowl of your favorite cerealto relift the cartoons that made it worth
waking up early on the weekend.It's the Saturday Morning super Cast. Hello,

(00:41):
and welcome to the Saturday Morning SuperCat where it's always Saturday morning in
the cereal bowl is always full.I'm Jeff, I'm Cory, and I'm
Olivia, and we got a coupleof real winners for you today, folks.
We do. We're gonna talk alittle bit later about another in the
and Sun string of animated cartoon seriesfrom the eighties. We're gonna be talking

(01:03):
about Popeye and Son, which Ihad no knowledge of, no recollection of,
no memory of, no nothing.Oh good, So I wasn't the
only one excellent. But before wejump into that, I wanted to talk
to you guys a little bit aboutpro grain, which sounds like something to
you know, heal your headache,but is not. It's actually I don't

(01:29):
know if this is true. Ihave not been able to verify this,
but I've seen it mentioned several placesthat prograin was basically left over C three
po serial. I don't think that'sthe case, but that it is what
it looks like. We haven't talkedabout C three pos yet because we haven't
discussed the Droids and Ewalks cartoons.We're saving those for a later date.
But yeah, Pro Grain came outin nineteen eighty seven, same time as

(01:52):
our cartoon that we're going to bediscussing, and it was marketed as it
was the first serial specifically marketed forthe dietary needs of young adults, meaning
like adolescence to you know, midtwenties young people. And it was they
were especially trying to key in onathletes because it was called they called it

(02:15):
iron Man Food, and they putthe seal of the Hawaiian Triathlon Corporation on
the box to make it look seemmore legit. But this iron Man food
contained thirty nine percent sugar. Ohyeah, so yeah it's an iron Man
food if by iron you mean youknow I I or not dine, all

(02:38):
right, But it was a puffedwheat corn and oat cereal. On race
day, you do need quick,you know, simple carbs, and so
people that do a lot of distancerunning planned their air quotes meals with like
those like carbo, like those carblike gels or juice pouch, you know

(03:00):
where they just need quick turnover carbsto keep their energy consistent through their event.
I don't think though, that there'sgonna be like a Cereal station along
along of an iron Man route andthat is could you imagine that though?

(03:21):
People just like dumping balls on theirhead as they run through? Yeah,
you guys, Have you guys everwatched a triathlon? No? Yes,
Okay, it's amazing. So it'sit's what it's it's running, biking and
swimming. Yes, right. Theonly reason I've seen one as it was
playing on the TV at work onetime. They used to have these these
they used to have televisions at myjob in the office and they would just

(03:43):
randomly have like ESPN on, youknow, on mute or whatever. And
I was watching a triathlon and they'reswimming in like a river or like a
lake. I think it was alake actually, And I was like,
I hope that water's clean. Areyou sure sanitary? But yeah, I
could, I cannot. I couldnot imagine and doing that. But a
program, do you guys remember Prograin? I vaguely remembered it when I watched

(04:03):
one of the commercials which I don'tknow if you guys saw any of the
commercials on YouTube, but they usedthat guy with that big booming voice,
you know that radio guy that yeBilly West talks about those guys that used
to carry their their testicles around ina wheelbarrow. Right exactly, their voice
came out of their feet. That'show deep it was. Uh So,

(04:25):
did you guys remember the commercials atall? Not a bit? No?
No, yeah, I mean eitherthis this did not stay on shelves very
long. And I remember the box, the pro Grain box, that red
background with the blue bright blue proGrain on top of the white background,
with the Kellogg's logo going around,and I love the iron Man food the

(04:46):
symbol that they've got stamped on.There is a guy in like speedos running
with his arms outstretched like and likehe's just crossing the tape. Yes,
that's exactly. Probably that's probably morelike what it is that it's a lot
more sense. That's why we keepOlivia around, sure, one of many
reasons, but yeah, it's thisone person on in the eighties dot com.

(05:14):
I loved reading the comments because thesewere the big fans. When I
go to in the eighties dot com, I remember being a fan of certain
cereals, and it's like when Igo to see a concert of a band
that I'm a fan of, Ialways think I'm a big fan of the
band until I go to a concertand I see several people who have apparently
patterned their entire life after the lyricmusic and lyrics of the music artists that
we're recording artists where they're to see. I find this to be the case

(05:36):
within the eighties dot com because oneperson says, I am I ate Programmed
cereal every morning, even at myfuture mother in law buying it and sending
it to me at school. Wow. Yeah, these people were committed.
They need to be committed. Jeez. Program was the best tasting cereal ever.
Another person says, maybe this shouldgive it another try. It was

(05:57):
the best serial around when it lasted, but apparently with perfectly sweetened crunchy figure
rates. Reminiscing about it recently,I searched the found it was renamed Prograined
after the original trilogy Star Wars Maniawaned even though the C three pos was
on the shelf in eighty three andeighty four and this didn't come out in
eighty seven, So I hope theyweren't left over C three pios, but
I would assume they probably are sayingmold. Yeah, you just never know.

(06:19):
Yeah, I was gonna say they'rethey're injection tools, you know,
right, But yeah. It waswheat oats, corn puffed up and resembling
cheerios joined at the waist is howthe New York Times described it. Well,
because nothing makes you feel fit andfrisky like cereal shape, like snowmen,

(06:40):
exactly right, Well, it makesyou feel better like at least I
don't look like that. Sure,that's what you say. I don't know,
so so yeah, so so.Neither one of you have any recollection
of it. None of you evertried it. My guess is is it
tastes a bit like what Olivia?What is the one that you like so

(07:00):
much, crack cracklin Oat brand crackOh no, no, this like that,
but a much lighter version like that, mixed with cheerios. Well,
because cracklin O brand has that reallygreat granola finish, right, and this
is very process looking. Yes,and like I said, this is more

(07:23):
like a this. I imagine ittasted like a cross between that and of
Captain Crunch. I figure it waslike the flavor of Crackling Oat brand with
the texture of Captain Crunch or MisterT Cereal, which was just Captain Crunch.
Yeah maybe. Yeah. See,like I'm in terms of texture and
flavor, my brain just wants tokind of associate with this, associate this

(07:46):
with like a beefier cheerio. Okay, that makes sense. Corey. Is
this something like if this was stillon shelves, this is something you would
have any interest in? Or areyou just over it? You know?
I would, I would probably tryit at least once, but I would
not have high hopes for it.I think that's kind of the same for

(08:09):
me. I feel like it's interestingthat they chose this and chose this to
market it to young adults because it'ssort of the box sort of skirts that
line between kid cereal and adult cerealbecause you know, you don't have a
mascot on it, but you've gotthese bright colors, right. And then
the commercials, if you guys watchedthe any of the commercials, they were

(08:31):
all they were all adults. Theywere all young adults, like I said,
probably in their mid twenties, andthey were all in very very good
shape. Did the commercials make eitherone of you want to try the cereal
at all? No? Oh no. The only thing I said out loud

(08:52):
watching the commercial was like, thisjust makes this kid look like a douche.
And I think I think that's probablyhow most people react to it,
which is why it didn't last.But it's odd that again, there's sort
of we've seen situations before where theywere sort of trying to play to too
many crowds and ended up not playingto any and I kind of feel like

(09:13):
that's what happened here, because youwould think if you were marketing, Yeah,
you would think if you were marketingsomething to that particular demographic, since
they haven't had anything marketed to thembefore, that it would at least be
a modest hit for a little whileuntil people tried it. But this one,
it sounds like nobody really cared.And it's interesting that it just kind
of came in the mint and nobodyever really talks about it. So what

(09:39):
do we what do we think theycould have done differently? If anything?
Yeah, I don't know. Maybeit's that the adults didn't really care for
the as you said, the brightcolors. Maybe they could have kind of
gone a more toned down cheerios routeor something that I'm not I'm not really
sure. Probably could have also gonea more toned down sugar route. Yeah,

(10:03):
I mean a deterrent for me nowis that the fact that it's got
pro stuck at the beginning of itjust makes me think of of animals and
journey with me here for just asecond. Yeah, with having pro stuck
in it again, I just trigfor me, it just triggers like outdoor

(10:28):
sportsmen animals. So bass pro instantlyclicks in my brain because that was a
core store and my family history,good old bass pro orreas my grandfather would
call it pro bass. I don'tknow why, but he just always flipped
those two words. He thought hethought the fish should be paid for their

(10:48):
for their work. He was justreally into the fish. And honestly,
having the pro stuck at the beginningit reminds me too much of my cat's
bag of pro plan chicken in theother room. So thank you, thank
you, Purina. So yeah,there's just the pro makes it feel here's

(11:16):
my cynicism, but just makes itfeel like it's pandering. Okay, I
can see that. Yeah, Sohad they called it sports green. Would
that have been No, that wouldn'thave been any better, would it?
No, that's that's just as bad. What if it was go ahead?
No? Okay, let's see,if you're lifters on the front, if

(11:46):
you're going with the grain thing,why not waves of grain? Then you
get the patriotic and that's all youneed, all the tropes, all the
cliche. That's not a bad ideaactually, But the problem is waves of
grain sounds something for your grandparents.They had to put the pro in there
to let the kids know, hey, this is for you, right,

(12:07):
Maybe they could have just called it. What if they called it grain?
No grain pro sound like a likea feed company or something. Yeah,
exactly. Yeah, And now we'reback at outdoor outdoor livestock. You know
what they should have done. Theyshould have called it my grains. If
you let you get the double meaningthere, No, right, the crickets,

(12:31):
I didn't hear anything. That's okay. They're going to be putting in
a post. Okay. Good.Someplace somewhere is a board or boardroom of
advertising execs glancing, no, glancingat each other out of the corner of
their eye and shifting nervously as theythink my god, like, we've paid

(12:52):
all this money and this is whatthey came up with. Seriously, you're
probably right, Yeah, you're absolutelyright. So okay, so we don't
think there's any saving Prograins in anyin any shape, shape or form.
Right, No, nope, okay, fine, so and we do we
don't think it deserves any kind ofa kind of a revival or another chance,

(13:15):
maybe even in a in a differentin a different shape or with a
different advertising behind it. Okay,I do to be honest with the percent
sugar is is pretty bad, Iwill say. All right, so there
you have not much to say aboutPrograins because there's really not much to it.
But I did want to hit onit because I wanted to find out

(13:37):
if you guys had had heard aboutit before or if if I was the
only one. It sounds like itwas just a failure all around it on
every front, say so, fromconcept through execution through delivery. Wow,
okay, Well, we'll take ashort break and we'll move back to discuss
Popeye and Sun, which I'm surewe'll have much better things to say about.

(13:58):
Absolutely right, sure, all right, we're back. Let's talk about
Popeye and sona kick I cannot doa Popeye in first All right, here's

(14:26):
an interesting story. Well it's interestingto me. Years ago, I got
to ask Billy West a question ata convention here in town. And for
those of you listening who don't knowwho Billy West is, shame on you.
Billy West is kind I want tosay, almost our generations mel blank

(14:46):
because she does voices all over theplace. If you ever want treat your
ama. He does a voice ofFry, Professor Farnsworth, and doctor Zoidberg,
as well as Zach Brannigan. Fora while, he was a voice
of the Honeynut Serios b he maystill be. He also did the voice
of Stimpy I think Stimpy, Yes, yeah, stimpye he was. Also

(15:09):
he started up on the Howard SternsShow. Right, that's kind of how
he got his starts. Yeah,doing a ball yeah, and Marge Shot
and a few others. Yeah.So the question I got to ask him,
I said, what voice that you'vedone in the past was the hardest
on your vocal chords? And hesaid it was Popeye? Right, he
did, like one gig is Popeye, And he said he kept trying to

(15:31):
figure out what is it about you? Listen to these old cartoons and he
couldn't figure out what it was.And he figured he realized what it is
is if you go back and listento Popeye or he old cartoons, there
are two tones there. Yeah,it's almost two bole it is. It's
he's doing the same the thing likethe Maori throat singers do. So he
said he had to learn how todo that, and then by the time
they finished, he did like asix hour session. By the time they

(15:52):
were done, he said, Icould not make a sound. Yeah,
so I believe if you ever hearPoppy, which is interesting because that's not
what Popeye sounded like on this show. And in this show he was voiced
by the great Maurice la Marsh,and if you don't know who he is,
shame on you again. Maurice LaMarshdoes the voice of the Brain.
I'm Pinky in the Brain. Ifyou ever hear Orson Wells in a cartoon,
it's Maurice la Marsh. Oh.Yeah. He did several voices on

(16:17):
Futurama as well. Ye. So, Popeye's Son premiered in nineteen eighty seven
and it ran from September nineteenth ofnineteen eighty seven till December twelfth of nineteen
eighty seven, and then it ranon the USA Now Or from eighty nine
to ninety and on the Family Channelwe all remember the Family Channel from nineteen

(16:38):
ninety four to the end of ninetyfive. It was based on the Popeye
comic strip created by Eccgar and waspublished by King Feature Syndicate. This cartoon
was jointly produced by Hannah Barbara andKeen Features subsidiary Keen Features Entertainment, and
it consisted of thirteen episodes. Eachepisode has two segments, so a total
of twenty six segments, and it'sa follow up to the All New Pop

(17:00):
Hour, which we may have todiscuss at some point in the future or
not, depending on how we feelabout it right, but it is something
we might talk about. Jack Mercerdied in nineteen eighty four, who was
the original voice of Popeye, andso Maurice LaMarsh took over from for that
or actually Jack Mercer voice Popeye inthe All New Pop Hour, I don't
know if he was the first oneor not, but Maurice LaMarsh took over

(17:22):
and they brought most of the castfrom the All New Pop out Our Hour
over with the exception of DAWs Butlerand DAWs Butler voiced Fred Flintstone. Yeah,
with Don Messic, I think itwas domestic. DAWs Butler was Huckleberry
Hound. I get that refused allthe time. Sorry, he was King
Yogi Bear and Huckleberry Hound. Apologiesto Don Messic. A. Nancy Cartwright

(17:47):
was trained by Butler voiced Woody inthe series. So the premise of the
show is that Popeye and Olive Oilhave gotten married and then all of a
sudden named Popeye Junior or simply Junior, who has inherited Popeye's ability to get
superhuman strength from eating spinach, exceptJunior hates the taste of spinach, which
I personally loved that wrinkle in theshow because what kid likes spinach? Right,
right? He propersonally especially out ofa can, out of a can,

(18:12):
right, Dan spinach, But hewill eat the spinach when he has
to to help somebody else, right. And So Blueto has a wife named
Lizzie and also has a son namedTank, and Popeye and Blueto still hate
one another, and Junior and TankI feel like their antagonism is more based

(18:33):
on their father's antagonism I don't knowthat they necessarily have much between them other
than Tank is kind of a bully. So I mentioned that Maurice LaMarsh.
Maurice LaMarsh voiced Popeye as well asPoop Deck, Pappy Ellen Melvin voiced Blueto,
j Wellington Bluto and Jay Wellington,Wimpy. Don Messick voiced Eugene the
Jeep. Josh Rodin voiced Popeye,Jr. Maryland Trifler voiced Olive Oil,

(19:02):
Lizzie, Bluto, Puggy, andthe Seahacks. So she did basically all
of the adult women, and thenthe kids were voiced by other voice actors.
Frank Welker voiced Shelley's father in TheGirl from down Under, which is
one of the two episodes that Iwatched, or one of the one and
a half episodes that I watched,and I also saw in the in the

(19:22):
credits. I don't know if youguys noticed these names, but Jeff Cohen
is Wimpy's son, And if youdon't know who Jeff Cohen is, Jeff
Cohen was Chunk in the Goonies,yes and is now a lawyer. And
again Nancy Cartwright, who we knowas the voice of Bart Simpson voiced Woody,
and Scott Grimes was one of thevoice actors. Scott Grimes was on

(19:44):
The Orvil or is on the Orvilif it's still on, but he was
also when he was a kid,he was in Critters, A Party of
Five Games and Critters, and hewas also on a sitcom that I can't
ever remember the name of it inthe early eighties as well. So that's
most of the main cast. DavidMarcus voice Tank Blueto. So a lot
of these people we don't are notreally names that we know, but we

(20:06):
also saw names like Jeffrey Tambor andRip Taylor in the cast, and we
come on to do like one offcharacters here and there. So those are
some some voices that you would definitelyrecognize. So, first off, were
either of you familiar with this showat all before we I sent you the
links for this episode. I wasfamiliar with it, but I could not

(20:27):
remember anything about it. But thename sparked something in my memory, so
I think I probably watched it atsome point, right, Olivia, what
about you? I am not supersuper close to it, but I do

(20:48):
have a memory of it, specifically, probably from its there's a chance I
might have caught its original run onCBS. More than likely I probably caught
the eighty nine ninety reruns on USA, right, because we all know you

(21:08):
were a big fan of the cartoonExpress, right, damn straight, as
was I? As was I.Okay, So how many episodes, Corey?
How I said I made it throughone and a half? How many
episodes did you make it through?Made it through the first one? And
that was it? And that wasit? All right, Olivia? What
about you? I also watched oneepisode or two segments? Was it?

(21:33):
The first one was the Attack ofthe Seahag episode? Uh, have you
forgotten? I watched? No,I I watched a Sea Monster and then
Poop Deck Pappy and the Family Tree. Okay, great, so that's not
one that I saw, so wecan discuss that as well. All right,
So, Corey, you watched Attackof the Seahag and Happy Anniversary?

(21:56):
I did, Okay, that's theone that I watched in Toto, and
I also watched the first segment ofThe Girl from down Under, which is
episode eight, and the second episodesegment of that Olives Olive's Dinosaur Dilemma.
I just ran out of time beforeI was able to get through it,
so I skimmed through it. ButI'll be honest, an Olive Oil centric

(22:18):
episode is kind of like a PeggyHill centric episode on King of the Hill.
I don't know that I can handlethem, I get it, so,
yeah, all right. So thefirst thing I noticed when I popped
my first episode on is before weeven get a credit sequence, we get
what I call a precap, yes, which is telling us what's about to

(22:38):
happen on the episode, but notrealizing when when the episode started that we
got two segments instead of just oneepisode when it started. I don't know
if you guys noticed this, butthe precap makes no delineation when it's skipping
from one segment to the next.So all of a sudden, I'm watching
the segment for the Sea Hag andit switches to Olive Oil and Popeye dressed

(23:03):
in wedding regalia, and I thoughtthey were both the same episode. I
was like, what is happening here? Yeah, this is kind of like
they threw it together. Now,what I watched did have title cards for
the lack of a better word,at the beginning of each segment. Yes,
they did have that. Yeah,but again, there was no no

(23:26):
indication that there were two segments,and then of course then the credits start,
which are a full minute, sothat's ninety seconds of show they didn't
have to produce each week. Sowe've talked about, you know, them
patting it. None of the episodesthat I watched had the closing credits on
there. Did either of you seeclosing credits? Not only YouTube one that
I watched? Yeah, same,yeah, yeah, I mean either.

(23:48):
I have to imagine that the closingcredits are at least thirty seconds, so
we've got a good two minutes outof a twenty three minute cartoon that they
don't have to animate. And theystill felt I don't think these felt quite
as padded as the ones we've seenin the past, but I will say
it definitely felt like the one segmentof the episode was more well thought out

(24:15):
than the second. To me,yeah, I can, I can go
along with that. But but inthe the the credit sequence, we see
basically everything that gets set up.We see you know, olive oil and
Popeye having a baby, Blueto havinga baby at the same time, and
an episode the first episode. Thefirst thing I noticed is is that olive
oil sounds like a typical shrill fiftieshousewife from somewhere in Queens. Right,

(24:41):
Yeah, I don't remember. Now, okay, so what is our history
with Popeye? That's the first thingI should have asked, Olivia. I
will start with you this time.What is your history with Popeye? Have
you have you been a fan oris it something that you just watched when
it was on He's just out therein the in the cartoon ether again as

(25:03):
a kid, not something I wasactively a fan of. If that's what
came on, cool, we canwatch. Sure, we'll watch this,
why not? But like, notsomething that I was that I was a
fan of. And it come tothink of it in like my grouping of
friends or remembering like the kids Iwould go to school with and stuff.

(25:26):
I don't remember seeing kids that werePopeye like followers or Popeye fans, not
in the same way that you seekids that are really into like you know,
Peanuts or Calvin and Hobbes or especiallyin the eighties, Garfield or you
know, not the same way thatyou would have kids that were kind of

(25:48):
like active followers of a particular youknow, cartoon family, franchise, whatever.
Yeah, I don't remember Popeye beinga big thing for my region.
Well, okay, so it wasa little different from me, but it
may have been because I am afew a little bit older than you and
I'm a boy, which Popeye wasdefinitely aim more boys. Corey. What

(26:11):
about you? We grew up inkind of the same area and kind of
the same at the same time,So what is your experience with it.
I always enjoyed Popeye. I'd like, I loved the movie with Robin Williams,
probably one of the few people whoactually does yes, you are,
which is okay, But yeah,I always I always dug Popeye, but

(26:33):
I wouldn't say like he was inmy top ten. And see, I
have realized, like I always watchedPopeye when I was a kid, because
you know, my mom would say, hey, here's here's Popeye is on
TV and everything. But as Igot older, I realized, I don't
think I really like Popeye. Okay, I think I just watched it.
But you know, back then,you know, Kevin Smith always talks about
the fact that in the seventies,you know, you may not like a

(26:53):
show, but you watched it becauseit was on and that was the only
thing that was on, and itwas kind of the same way with Popeye.
For me, I yeah, Ilike Olivia. I don't know anybody
who just had, you know,Popeye was their favorite. I just think
ID the movie certainly didn't do itany favors. Incidentally, though, here's

(27:15):
a humble brag for Corey and I. We have actually done a workshop with
the gentleman who choreographed all the circusstuff and all the stunts and everything in
Popeye the movie. That's very true. Yep, twenty two years ago.
Yeah, wouldn't try. Hubby Burgess. He tried to teach me how to
juggle and I couldn't do it.Couldn't do it, still can't do it.

(27:37):
But so yeah, so it's it'skind of like Olivia. It's not
that I'm a verse to Popeye.There are some things that I think are
funny, but if you if Itry to go back and watch the old
cartoons, it's really weird because theydidn't bother to animate the mouth to match
anything. It's almost like this,these disembodied voices, which to me is
kind of creepy. So luckily that'snot we had here. It was,

(28:00):
you know, your typical eighties animation. But let me ask you as this.
The one thing I noticed is thatall of the adults carry the Popeye
design where they're sort of heightened.You know. Olive Oil is is very
skinny. Popeye is very short,but he's got the big arms and everything.
Blueto is a brute wimpy. He'skind of kind of shaped like an
accordion to me, if you knowwhat I mean. Yeah, yeah,

(28:22):
but the kids all look like normaleighties animation kids, right, sure.
Did you notice that? Oh?Yeah, yeah, it kind of It
kind of threw me for a loop. Do we think they did that because
they wanted the kids to be ableto identify with the kids. Oh,
I don't know that. I thoughtthat'd far through it. Does that does

(28:47):
give me very like Blondie and Dagwoodkind of vibes. Okay, these those
two were so specifically drawn. Yeah, the Blondie looked more like a human
being than Agwood to me, that'strue. But even then, there was
a there was a contrast between Blondiehaving a lot more kind of over the

(29:08):
top voluptuous features a law a DollyPardon compared to their children. M Okay,
I thought that makes sense. Yeah, I don't think you're wrong on
that I had not even really consideredit. Huh. Yeah, that's the
first thing I noticed. I waslike, this is weird because I don't
know why. I don't know whythey would would do that other than,

(29:33):
like I said, other than ifthey wanted to make sure that the kids
felt like they were represented. Yeah. Maybe so, I don't know,
but but it was odd to mebecause the kids all looked and it's interesting
because Tank Blueto's kid was shaped abig rounder was a bigger kid like Blueto
is right, and then Popeye's kidswere more you know, normal sized kids.

(30:00):
Yeah, I got you. SoI don't know. So. But
as far as the episode goes,Corey, was there anything that stood out
to you the episode that worked reallywell? I enjoyed outside of Olive Oil
being quite shrill, I enjoyed thevoice over work. I thought that I

(30:21):
think it flowed fine. There werequick segments, but yeah, watching that
first episode of those those two segments, there was just nothing that stood out
to me, which is okay becauseI don't think that this was a show
that was going to try and makeways and be a big social commentary.

(30:41):
But yeah, I think it was. It was fine. And it as
a lot of shows have before withme, it scratched that nostalgic itch that
I had for Popeye. But it'snot one that I think really as we
obviously saw it, it didn't stickaround for a long time, and so

(31:02):
I don't think it really held muchmerit for a lot of people. Okay,
m Olivia, what about you inthe episode that you watched, was
there anything that stuck out to youthat worked particularly well? Hm hmm.
I would say just as a wholeanimation style did not bother me. I
feel like it was animated perhaps anotch nicer than a lot of typical Hannah

(31:27):
Barbera products. Well, maybe thatwas the influence of the other uh,
the other involved party was that Kingthose people, So you know, maybe
that had a positive impact on thekind of overall visual production values. I

(31:52):
do feel like there was some pacingissues. I think that the two separate
segments helped a lot, but kidsstill have tightened down a little bit.
Now. The is this, byany stretch like the worst we've seen?
Oh God no, no, We'vethe three of us have all sat and

(32:13):
suffered through much slower slogs than thanPopeye. I thought the music was pretty
good. I thought it was kindof interesting that the I mean musically that
makes sense because this is Hoyt Curtin. We've talked about my mention hoy Curtain.
When I saw his name in thecredits, yes, which again like

(32:35):
if you go through and listen tothat incidental music, you hear a big,
full kind of brass band a sortof sound, which is typical typical
hoy The opening credit music I thoughtwas interesting because they're very much going for
like a beach Boys or Jan andDean kind of feeling to it. Sure,

(33:01):
but then like the whole series,they're very much playing up kind of
the beach ocean side locale of ofwhere all the actions taking place. Uh
and yeah, in general, Iagree. I liked the voiceover work.
So like with the episodes I watched, the Sea Monster was a oh equal

(33:30):
parts Harry and the Henderson's with Pete'sdragon. It sounded like the Sea Monsters
to me. So in this case, uh, Junior's friend, uh Lizzie.
Uh No, not Lizzie, uhNo, that was no, that

(33:53):
was Blueto's wife. I can't evenremember who that was. Okay, anyway,
one, yes, one of hisfriends, beaty, thank you who
who? I'm not exactly sure why, Like it almost seems like they were

(34:13):
kind of visually with d D andJunior's appearances, almost like they were pairing
them up in some kind of way, because like when you when they would
show classroom scenes of like the othertheir peers and their other children in the
area that would go to their highschool, like they would group them visually,

(34:36):
and so like the Blue Doos hada very specific kind of look to
them, or other kind of thugredneck came from the hills, uh,
you know, kind of Neanderthal peoplehad a very very specific, unflattering appearance,

(35:00):
so you could visually group them intheir social uh and their social groupings.
But so in that one you hadd D befriends. Uh. This
the sea Monster, which looks verymuch like a little bit of lockneest monster

(35:20):
again with some pete pete dragon whokind of develops like a crush on her
and follows her around like a puppydog if you could have a policeosaurus sized
puppy dog following you around on thebeach everywhere. And so at one point
she tries to do like the Harryand the Henderson's go go away, I

(35:44):
don't need you, we're not friends, get lost because she's concerned for his
safety that if he's following her aroundeverywhere, the Blue Doos might try and
snag him, or he's going toget into some kind of trouble, so

(36:05):
she she kind of tries the toughlove chase away trope that we've seen before
and many other things. Eventually,the sea monster moves on when he finds
a female of his species and thendrops d D like a hot potato and
then a poop deck Pappy. Sucha pretty phrase. So poop deck Pappy

(36:30):
is uh Junior's grandfather, uh Popeye'sdad. And it's an episode where they're
discussing family trees in Junior's class andand uh, I think this is the
episode where I was thinking about howvisually the students seem to be grouped into

(36:51):
social clusters and I didn't notice that, So that's interesting. So there are
some of their relatives come in anddo presentations on like their family lineage and
stuff. Blueto comes in and doesthis like really bloated, pompous speech about

(37:15):
all of the great Blueto's of agespast and all of the amazing things they've
done. Anyway, so Junior hasPoppy come in, and Poppy tells kind
of like silly, goofy, embarrassingstories, so not like you know,
oh, they were great sea captainsand sailors, and now it was things

(37:39):
like this, this Popeye was thefastest chicken plucker in the West, and
this, Yeah, it was stufflike that where they showed little chickens going
downe an assembly line where all ofa sudden, like all their feathers are
gone and they're standing there in likelittle boxer shorts. And so anyway,

(38:01):
Junior felt kind of embarrassed about thetypes of stories that Pappy told, and
that Pappy felt bad because Junior wasembarrassed. And and then the kids teased,
as they always do in these showsbecause of you know, Pappy stories,
implying that the Popeye bloodline is isgoofy or silly or not yet not

(38:28):
brave and heroic and all that stuff. So anyway, Pappy ends up saving
the students and Olive Oil out ona family or out on a school field
trip to the nature area where likethe bus loses control and call it what

(38:52):
it will, Olive Oil loses controland anyway, Poppy Pappy ends up coming
in and rescuing everybody and saving theday, and that's just sort of flips
the narrative on everybody's opinions about,you know, how cool the Popeyes are,
and so, in true Rudolf fashion, nobody appreciates him until he can

(39:15):
do something for them exactly, ye, thank you, yes, yeah,
it's what have you done for melately? Well, the one that that
Corey and I watched all the waythrough was again the first episode the Sea
Hag, Attack of the Sea Hagand Happy Anniversary and Attack of the Sea
Hag was the story that I thoughtworked the better of the two, or

(39:36):
that I was interested him. Yep, Because the kids they find some drift
a driftwood mermaid that Junior finds onthe beach. But of course, you
know, Blueto's kid claims it ashis own, and Bluto, you know,
his dad takes it from him andputs it on a boat with the
mayor, and Junior has to saythe day when the mermaid they found out
belongs to Popeye's old hope the SeaHag, and the Sea Hag is actually

(39:59):
has always been of a creepy characterto me and in the show that I
thought they made her just as creepy. I don't know, what did you
think, Corey, Yeah, Iguess she was. She was as creepy
as she needed to be. Idon't know that i'd share the same cinement
that she was always creepy to mebecause I always had an affinity for the

(40:19):
witches and the sea hags like brimHildan a few others from Libby Tunes,
right, But I enjoyed her,No, it was it was cool,
and I like, this is thefirst time that we see Junior having to
eat spinish because he has to savethese people. He hates it, but
he's like, I gotta do itbecause I gotta save the day, which
made me like the character. Youknow, he's kind of taken one for
the team, and it apparently thathappens in every episode. One thing that

(40:43):
I noticed, and I'll see ifeither one of you did, but it
seemed to me that there is thesound design seems a bit more involved than
we normally see on a Saturday morningcartoon. I noticed a lot of fully
work going on, especially in thisepisode. Now, along with the score,
there's almost a constant music bed underthe episodes. Did either one of

(41:04):
you notice that as well? Idon't know that I did, but yeah,
I believe it. There's there isthere's a lot of music content there
again not shocked, quite curtain right, and it actually works, and that,
along with the fully worked to me, kept everything moving along a little
better than we normally get because itwasn't your typical Saturday morning, your boomch

(41:25):
you know, typical big noises.It was stuff that actually made sense in
the context of the story. SoI thought it was interesting that they had
put that much work into the sounddesign of it. And I wonder if
we go back and watch the allNew Popeye hour, if we're going to
find the same thing. But whatdo we think of Maurice la Marsh as
Popeye? Now, granted he's asupporting character in the show. Junior is

(41:49):
the lead of the show, Butwhat do we think about Maurice la Marsh's
work as Popeye? I like it. I think I think it was fun.
It was it was an interesting takeon it. It didn't distract.
I think it was fine. Whatwrote you, Olivia? Vocally? I
felt it was a lot smoother inprevious older versions of a Popeye cartoon.

(42:15):
I remember, like we were talkingabout about the voice having that kind of
dual tone to it. It kindof gave me, and I've spoke about
this many times, the why doI suddenly feel like I need a lozenge
or that I'm constantly clearing my throateffect? And I didn't feel that with

(42:37):
this specific interpretation of it, thatyou got the Popeye voice, but it
was a little bit more pleasing andpalatable. Yeah. Yeah, And again
that's part of the problem I usedto have with Popeye when I was younger,
is that you, like I said, that the voice was it was.
He was hard to understand. Beit kind of hurt my years because

(43:00):
I was trying, I think asa kid, I was trying to figure
out why does he sound that waybecause we were hearing two tones, and
then again it wasn't matching any anymouth movement. So yeah, to me,
this was this was a better versionof Popeye than we've gotten before,
because again, like Olivia said,you could actually understand it. Same with
Bluto, I thought Bluto was fine. Same with Wimpy. It's just olive

(43:22):
oil. I'm trying to remember whatolive oil sounded like in the older cartoons.
She wasn't this shrill, was she? Cory. Ah, that's a
good question. No, I don'tthink that she was. I think this
was really hyped up. Okay,and Olivia, do you have the same
remembrance memory of that or I alwaysremember her having just a really high pitched,

(43:45):
squeaky kind of sound, So yeah, hyah, it's possible. I
can't say that like this occurred tome, is feeling more augmented, okay
than what I was expecting. Myreaction to her voice in this episode was
my reaction to Popeye's voice in everyother cartoon version of it. Uh just

(44:06):
just yeah, really really off putting. And maybe not like her as well,
because she seemed like kind of akind of a shrew. Okay,
yeah, I don't know, soall right. And then the second half
of the episode that I watch thatwe watched was Happy Anniversary. And there's

(44:27):
really not a lot of kids inthis episode because most of it is a
flashback to Olive Oil and Popeye gettingmarried. But the kids have set up
an anniversary party for them, andPopeye has he bought a gift for Olive,
but he can't find it now becausehe hit it somewhere too well.
And at the end of the episodewe see that it's a nut that you
like, you screw into something thathe's added a diamond on because when they

(44:49):
got married, he had lost thering and he had to use a nut
off of the garbage scout that theywere on. But here's the theme is
where we find out how Blueto endedup married to the woman that he's married
too, who he apparently does notcare for. He stumbled into the wedding
and they got married and apparently againsthis will. Like you do, yeah,
you know that's what happens, okay. And then the last episode that

(45:14):
I watched, I watched the firsthalf of episode eight, which was The
Girl from down Under, And againI noticed that the precap doesn't differentiate between
the two segments, so it looksinsane. And the girl that is quote
from down Under is obviously from underthe sea, but they're playing the long
game with it because she makes acomment about being from down Under and one

(45:34):
of the kids starts doing an Australianimpersonation and she has no idea what he's
talking about, right, and soyou know, lo and behold at the
end of it. First of all, her name is Shelley Shelley, and
then her dad shows up and herdad is voiced by Frank Welker, voiced
Shelley's father, the Great Frank Welker, So we actually had lines instead of

(45:57):
just you know, making animal noises. But but yeah, at the end
of the episode, she falls insome water and it's revealed that she's a
mermaid and they all live happily everafter. But again, this is one
of those where, you know,we talked about the fact that they sort
of, you know, they're theepisode seemed padded, so even at eleven
minutes, there's still a lot there. But I do feel like it works
a little better than some of theother cartoons and we watched of this era.

(46:17):
But what do you guys think?Is this something you would recommend or
is this is this just another inthe let's try to capture the youth market
of the eighties by rehashing something fromtheir parents childhood. Yeah, I'd just
watching the original Popeye cartoon over thisone. I don't think that there's a

(46:37):
lot of merit in this, andso I don't see much of a need
for it. Okay, Olivia,what about you? If you remember it
from your childhood. You want togive it another little test spin, go
for it. You could do alot worse, you could, you know.
I don't think that it's something thatif you didn't see it as a

(46:59):
kid, you're going to get muchout of now. But it is interesting
to go and watch again, tolisten to the fully work that we talked
about, and to see the characterdesign. I would like, I'll be
interest to see if you guys goback and watch anymore if you notice the
character design issue that I was talkingabout. But yeah, you know,
like Olivia said, it's it's notthe worst one we've watched. I think
this could have worked had it been, you know, ten or fifteen years

(47:22):
later. I think it could haveworked a little better had it had a
little bit more of a snarky senseof humor. But as it stands,
you know, you can watch most, if not all, of the episodes
on YouTube, so you know,go give it a shot, especially if
you're a fan of Popeye and you'venever seen it, or you're a fan
of Maurice la Marshin you want tohear his take on Popeye. You know,
go watch an episode or two,but don't expect anything, or it's

(47:43):
shattering or anything. It's going tochange your opinion of anything. Can we
talk about real quick the fact thatolive oil apparently lives in a tracksuit and
headband. I mean it's fashionable forthe time. All right, Well,
folks, we'd love to hear yourthoughts on either Prograin Cereal or Popeye and
Son, So hit the Facebook pageand let us know what you think.
Until next time for the Saturday MorningSupercast, I'm Jeff, I'm Cory Land,

(48:05):
I'm Olivia, and it is timefor college sports, so let's turn
off the TV and go outside.O. Thank you for listening, and
don't forget to follow the show onFacebook It's Saturday Morning Supercast and follow at
Marvin Dog Media on Twitter. M
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