Nowadays, when I watch a cartoon, I think, “There’s a 30min commercial for toys…or a video game.” But back when I was a kid, things seemed different. They may not have been different, but it seems to me that I had a larger variety of cartoons to watch. It wasn’t just toy lines and video game sales that seemed to drive the creation of a Saturday morning cartoon, it was how popular the property was. Not just in toy aisles, but on TV or at the movies. The ’70s and ’80s were a boon for TV and movie properties to be translated into cartoon format. Not only that, but popular music groups would be translated into cartoons for kids. Some made the transition naturally, some turned out like, “Wha-huh?”. Regardless of quality, these types of cartoons fascinate me.
Let’s take a look at some of the cartoons that were created from a live-action tv show or movie. This is by no means a comprehensive list, these are just the ones I can remember, but if you have any others that you remember, leave a comment about them.
The Dukes – Based on Dukes of Hazard, this cartoon featured the voices of the entire live action show’s cast. In the first season, however, Vance and Coy, two other Duke cousins, were used. Bo and Luke would arrive for the second season (yes, there was a second season). The premise was very similar to Wacky Races in that the Duke Boys were participating in a big car race against their arch foes Boss Hogg and Roscoe P Coltrane for the mortgage on the farm. Check out the intro on YouTube.
The Brady Kids – Based on the Brady Bunch, this featured the kids (no Mike or Carol) as a touring band a la The Beatles. All the kids lent their voices in season 1 but Barry Williams (Greg) dropped out in season 2. Suprisingly, there was an appearance by Superman, Lois Lane and Wonder Woman in one of the episodes making this series a copyright nightmare for release on DVD.
Gilligan’s Planet – There were actually two Gilligan’s Island cartoons. The first was in 1973, and then this one, in 1982. The Professor managed to build an interstellar rocket that propels our castaways into space to crash land on an uncharted planet. In essence, perpetuating the cycle (Professor, just fix the damn boat!). All the show’s cast lent voices except Tina Louise (Ginger) who was replaced by Dawn Wells (Mary-Ann). Check out the intro on YouTube.
The Robonic Stooges – There was a 3 Stooges cartoon in the ’60s, but the Stooges were re-imagined as bumbling superheroes in this 1978 cartoon. The three stooges all have various bionic enhancements that they use to varying degrees of success to solve crimes. Scripts for this cartoon were written by Moe Howard’s son-in-law.
The Super Globetrotters – A lot of people know about the Globetrotters’ appearances on Scooby-Doo, and that they had their own show called the Go-Go-Globetrotters. But this beauty debuted in 1979 and was another take on bumbling superheroes like the Robonic Stooges above. Each globetrotter had a weird superpower that helped them solve crimes and rescue people. This was one of my favorites. Check out the intro on YouTube here.
New Kids on the Block – Yes, in 1990, at the height of their popularity, there was a New Kids on the Block cartoon. I remember catching it on tv a few times. Pretty standard stuff. None of the New Kids did the cartoon voices, however they filmed live action intro scenes to be cut into the show. Check out the cheezy ’80s-like intro on YouTube.
Teen Wolf – 1986. This was one of my absolute favorite cartoons while growing up. I loved the original movie this was based on and the cartoon was a lot of fun. None of the movie cast returned for the cartoon but the stories were a lot of fun. It helps that I love almost anything to do with werewolves. Check out the intro on YouTube where Teen Wolf jams to a cassette Walkman!!.
Alf – The voice behind Alf returned for the Animated Series which was a prequel to the tv show. It followed Alf and his friends on Melmac before he would crash land on Earth in the tv series.
Back to the Future: The Animated Series – 1991. Everyone who reads this blog knows I love Back to the Future. However, I never really could get into this cartoon. I think because the stories/scripts were all over the place made it tough to like. It could also be that I was going to graduate high school right when this came out and I didn’t watch as much cartoons. Christopher Lloyd, Mary Steenburgen and Tom Wilson all returned to their roles of Doc, Clara and Biff, respectively.
Beetlejuice – This was actually a very good adaptation of the 1988 Michael Keaton Beetlejuice movie. Premiering in 1989, it followed the many misadventures of Beetlejuice and Lydia Deetz. The premise of the movie was changed slightly as Lydia and Beetlejuice are best friends in the cartoon and the main characters of the Maitlands in the movie don’t even appear. Very funny and very cool character design. Check out the intro on YouTube.
Hulk Hogan’s Rock ‘n Wrestling – Awesome 1985 cartoon featuring many popular WWF wrestling characters. Very good cartoon, with lots of rock, but, ironically, very little (if any) wrestling. None of the wrestlers provided their own voices, but there were live-action segments which featured the real guys. As a matter of fact, Brad Garrett (Robert on Everybody Loves Raymond) would provide the voice for Hulk Hogan. Check out the rockin’ intro with Hulk Hogan walking down the streets of Manhattan.
Mr. T – 1983. Seeing Mr. T as the coach of a high school gymnastics team seems perfectly—-wait, Wha-?! See the intro on YouTube.
The Real Ghostbusters – I talked about this cartoon in an earlier article. Based on the hit 1984 movie, this cartoon, debuting in 1986, would follow the further adventures of the four ghostbusters and would add the help of Slimer, a ghost. None of the movie cast provided voices, however Winston Zedmore was voiced by Arsenio Hall. Going hand-in-hand with this is the Ghost Busters cartoon which was based on the 1960’s tv series.
Did you guys know that, Happy Days, being one of the most popular tv series ever, spun off at least three different shows; Joannie Loves Chachi, Laverne & Shirley and Mork & Mindy. Those are just the live-action shows. It also gave birth to three cartoon shows. Here they are.
The Fonz and the Happy Days Gang – 1980. Henry Winkler (Fonz), Ron Howard (Ritchie) and Donny Most (Ralph) all provided their voices for this show. It had a great premise where our 3 heroes were stranded in a time machine with a futuristic chick named Cupcake (really?!) trying to find their way back to 1957. Check out the intro on YouTube.
Laverne and Shirley in the Army- Penny Marshall and Cindy Williams lended their voices to this 1981 cartoon featuring titular characters Laverne & Shirley and their adventures after having joined the Army. Ron Palillo (Horseshack) provided the voice of their pet pig, Sgt Squealy. They would later be joined by Fonzie and his dog, Mr. Cool, as motor pool mechanics. Check out the intro on YouTube.
Mork & Mindy – In 1982 Robin Williams and Pam Dawber lent their voices to this cartoon about Mork enrolling in high school under orders from Orson.
These are all cartoons I was able to catch on TV a few times while flipping the channels oh those many Saturday mornings ago. Can you imagine studios doing this today? What shows could be made into cartoons? Could 24 or Alias be made into a cartoon? How about Friends or The Office? Seems crazy now, but back then it was commonplace.
There are many other live action shows that were turned into cartoons, can you name a few?
Have a good weekend, everyone.
Some sites that were indispensable to me for research were Wikipedia, IMDb, Big Cartoon Database and Toon Tracker. Check them out for some really cool images and history to some really great cartoon shows.
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Well, the remodeled 7-Eleven/Kwik-E-Mart promotion is supposed to be over. There are still some holdouts here and there, and there’s still plenty of Simpsons products within the 7-Elevens themselves, but I think the remodels are coming down. I never got to go to one, but my in-laws and a good friend of mine went to remodeled 7-Elevens in Texas and Nevada for me then sent me pictures and a few other surprises.
A big pile of the awesome, awesome stuff that my in-laws sent me from Texas. Cookies, books, comics, etc, etc. Lots of awesome here. Too much awesome, actually. I almost don’t deserve it……I take that back, yes I do. 
On the Simpsons, the Kwik-E-Mart sells their version of the Slushee called a Squishee. For the promotion, 7-11 rebranded their Slushee drinks, Squishee, and offered drinks in these cool collector cups.
Bart Simpson cookie. I also got a cookie of Homer Simpson’s head. You can see it in the first picture up top.
Homer’s favorite food, donuts with pink frosting. I can see why he loves these things. They are like tiny baked circles of Heaven. Instead of the usual glazed donuts that Homer eats, these were actually cake donuts. I think they may have been better than the glazed. They were deeeeeeelicious….uuuuuuummmmmmmmm……………dooooooonuuuuuuuts.
Well, the new fall season is upon us. All the summer shows are ending (Closer, Dead Zone, Psych, etc) and all of our favorite fall shows are getting ready to begin again (and new shows getting ready to vie for our attentions). 
People not returning their carts to the cart corral. OMG this absolutely drives me nuts. Supermarkets, Wal-Mart, Target, you name it, and people will leave their carts in the middle of a parking spot. I’ve actually returned 5 or 6 abandoned carts to the corral before even walking into the store. I’ve seen abandoned carts in parking spots that actually sit RIGHT NEXT to the cart corral. That’s just f’n lazy, people. God forbid you walk your cart 10-15 ft to the nearest cart corral. Yes, I have been in the situation where the nearest cart return is on another aisle (usually when you park close to the front of the store). In that case, I take the cart back to the store. It’s a cop-out to say they have people to put the carts away. Yeah, nevermind the fact that it makes the parking lot an obstacle course when you are trying to park with all of these abandoned shopping carts littering the landscape like dead bodies. RETURN YOUR CARTS PEOPLE!!!
Leaving your movie seat looking like a popcorn/soda bomb exploded. Goes along with the first one. It’s a cop-out to say they have people to clean it up. How hard is it to take the leftover bag and cup and drop it in the trashcan on the way out of the movie? I’m not saying you have to sweep up, but damn, people, throw away your trash.
Why when you go to restaurants can you only get Coke or Pepsi? When you order a beer, can you only get Budweiser? How about wine? Can you only buy Robert Mondavi’s labels? It’s absurd. I’m mainly a Pepsi drinker, so when I go to a restaurant and they only have Coke products, I’m screwed. The only Coke drink I like is Coke Zero, which is usually never available (another pet peeve). And the only diet drink they usually offer is Diet Coke, which I hate with a fiery passion. For me, it’s really hard to justify the 150 calories you’ll be drinking if you get regular non-diet sodas. Why must soda companies divide their markets like this? It’s so unbelievably frustrating. This also happens in fast food joints and movie theaters. It’s either Coke or Pepsi, but never both. WHY?!
The lack of diet soda options in soda machines and/or restaurants. I prefer mostly Diet Pepsi, Diet Mountain Dew or Diet Dr. Pepper. If I’m lucky, I can get one of these, rarely two, but NEVER all three. And if the place only sells Coke, my choice is Diet Coke and that’s it. I HATE DIET COKE. The soda machines here at work have Coke and Pepsi. My diet options? Diet Pepsi or Diet Coke. There are at least 20 soda options between the Coke and Pepsi machine and I have TWO diet options. WTF?! That’s right, I get no Diet Mountain Dew, Diet Dr Pepper, Sprite Zero or Coke Zero? If I want those, I’m SOL. Do people really drink that much full strength Pepsi and Coke products? Yikes. I go to Subway right by work for lunch. Subway is a fairly good, healthy place (in comparison to others) and they offer only Diet Coke as a diet soda option. Every once in a while, they stock Sprite Zero 20oz bottles in the cooler, but you pay extra for that. Hell, I would pay extra for a Coke Zero, but they don’t even stock THAT!! The fountain? Diet Coke only. That’s just sorry, and it drives me bananas.
Coke Zero. I really like Coke Zero. However, why doesn’t Coke offer it anywhere? Restaurants and movie theaters that carry Coke have yet to stock Coke Zero in the fountain (a few have, but not many) and most soda machines do not have it. Steph and I went to the movies Monday afternoon and saw an ad for Coke Zero before the movie. Intersting considering AMC does not serve Coke Zero. I personally think Diet Coke should be retired and fed to the dogs and Coke Zero should replace it……for good. But that’s just me. Coke, you have these great ads for Coke Zero, how about offering it up at more places than the local gas station?
Cavalcade of Awesome 