Let's Watch This: An Episode of "The Wizard of Oz"

NOTE: Please do not take any of the little nitpicks in this review (or any of my other reviews, for that matter) seriously. I write these reviews in the hopes of making people laugh. Those nitpicks are really just dumb little observations that I'm attempting to make jokes out of, not complaints that add to whether or not I like something.

I think the first time I ever watched The Wizard of Oz was on Halloween. My sister, my cousins and I had finished trick-or-treating and we found The Wizard of Oz airing on TV for some reason. I think it was on TBS, and recall during the ads there were fun facts about the film. Yes, I remember that, but I don't remember anything I learned about algebra in math class. Go figure.

So, for that reason, I tend to associate The Wizard of Oz with Halloween, though recently my family has also found it airing around Thanksgiving. I think the presence of a witch helps with that. So this qualifies as a Halloween review. Sort of. Look, it's MY blog.

I briefly mentioned this 1990s Wizard of Oz cartoon in a previous blog post. First airing in September 1990, a year after the film's 50th anniversary, the show was produced by DiC Entertainment. Unlike Journey Back to Oz, the show was based entirely on the movie, so don't expect much in the way of elements from the books.

One thing this show did have in common with the books as opposed to the movie is that Oz was a real place this time. Dorothy (voiced by Liz Georges) and Toto (voiced by Frank Welker) are whisked back to Oz by the ruby slippers because somehow the Wicked Witch of the West (Tress MacNeille) returned. Maybe they put her melted remains in a freezer and she resolidified, I dunno (if the show ever actually explained how she returned, please let me know). She steals the Scarecrow (David Lodge)'s diploma, the Tin Man (Hal Rayle)'s clock heart, and the Cowardly Lion (Charlie Adler)'s medal of courage, traps the Wizard (Alan Oppenheimer) in an evil wind, and takes over the Emerald City. Though the good guys succeed in saving the Emerald City in the show's two-part pilot, the Wicked Witch is still around, and they need the help of the Wizard to defeat her. So the four friends travel across Oz to bring the Wizard back, traveling to such strange locations as Mechanica, where everything is mechanical, and Pop Land, full of jack-in-the-boxes.

Andy Heyward, DiC's then-president and the executive producer of the show, said in an interview, "We all felt a great sense of responsibility. We felt that we were dealing with something that was almost sacred - not based on toy products or something transitory, but one of the treasures of American film." Mike Maliani, DiC's vice president of development, also said, "I think we kept the integrity of the classic and mixed in enough new for today's audience." Apparently, it wasn't enough new after all - after premiering on ABC, the show only got thirteen episodes.

So, should you follow the Yellow Brick Road to DiC's Land of Oz, or should somebody drop a house on this show? Let's find out, shall we? We're going to watch the nineth episode of the show (or the eighth, if you consider the two-parter pilot to be one episode), "Time Town". This is The Wizard of Oz.

The episode starts off with Dorothy, Toto, the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, and the Cowardly Lion making their way through a spooky-looking area with rotting trees and babbling brooks. Oddly, while the Cowardly Lion is an obvious Bert Lahr impression and Dorothy's voice is at least sort of similar to Judy Garland's, the Scarecrow and the Tin Man don't sound like Ray Bolger or Jack Haley at all. Their voices both sound a bit like Ed Wynn.

"Hey, did you know that in the background of this scene, there's a hanging-"

"No, there's not! That's just an urban legend!"

Suddenly, they hear what is clearly the caw of a crow. But apparently they don't know what a crow sounds like, because the Cowardly Lion says it sounds like a roar or a growl, and Dorothy "identifies" the sound as being from an approaching pigeon. You'd think that the Scarecrow, a being who spends most of his time around crows (there's a reason why he's called a scareCROW, after all) would know what a crow sounds like, but he doesn't say anything.

Fun fact: according to Mike Maliani, this show's version of Dorothy was designed to
resemble Ariel from The Little Mermaid. I'm not sure I see the resemblance.

The pigeon, much like the ones in Valiant, is a messenger pigeon with a singing telegram for Dorothy. It sings an awful but fortunately short song about how the Wizard of Oz is in the Emerald City. I guess he got out of that evil wind himself. Odd, seeing as there were five more episodes after this and TV Tropes claims that the show didn't have a proper ending.

So the good guys dance awkwardly to the Emerald City singing "We're Off to See the Wizard".

Had to make a GIF of this, just to show you guys how awkward-looking their dancing is.

They arrive at the Emerald City... which looks more like a fortress from Star Wars or something...

Is that a giant gun sticking out of the top? I guess this time they're not taking any chances
if the Wicked Witch flies overhead on her broomstick...

"What happened to the Emerald City?!" Dorothy exclaims. And why is the Wizard's hot air balloon crashed by the side of the Yellow Brick Road? And why is the Wizard standing next to the balloon, working in a garden and dressed like a farmer?

Tonight, the role of the Wizard of Oz will be played by Sam Elliot.

The Wizard doesn't even recognize Dorothy and her pals. Maybe Glinda, the Good Witch of the North (BJ Ward), can shed a little light on this situation. Maybe she can also explain why she now looks like a giant Barbie doll.

The Scarecrow seems oddly happy about the Wizard not recognizing them.

Unsuprisingly, the Wicked Witch is behind all this. You see, the entire history of Oz has been recorded in a book. That book has been safe for years inside a time capsule, but the Wicked Witch just walked up to it and stole it. Because apparently it wasn't being guarded at all?

And now that the Wicked Witch has it, she's been erasing the history of Oz page by page. I can't help but wonder if she plans to replace it by writing down a new version of events that paints her as the good guy and the Wizard as the bad guy, thus creating Wicked. By the way, no, I did not choose to do a review of this show simply because the second part of the Wicked movie is being released this year.

"With this, I can make myself look like Idina Menzel!"

"Now you must go to Time Town and stop the Wicked Witch before it's too late!" Glinda says. "Time Town is high in the Sawtooth Hills!" But before she can tell them where the secret entrance is, she suddenly turns into an Obi-Wan Kenobi cosplayer and forgets what her name is.

So, the Wizard is now a farmer, Glinda is now a Star Wars Celebration attendee... what's next,
is the Witch gonna turn the Scarecrow into Michael Jackson?

The Wizard leads the good guys up the Sawtooth Hills, and then he gets distracted by... a whirlpool of dirt? At least I'm ASSUMING that brown stuff is dirt. It could be chocolate pudding for all I know.

"Why, this is my lucky day! I've always wanted to go swimming in Nesquik!"

The Tin Man attempts to pull the Wizard out of the whirlpool with his axe, but the Wizard is too stupid to grab the axe, and down he goes. Toto, for some reason, jumps into the whirlpool too. Suddenly, they hear the ticking of clocks. "I do believe this is the secret entrance to Time Town!" the Scarecrow declares. Yes, the entrance to Time Town is a whirlpool. Maybe it's a reference to that spinning vortex you always see in cartoons when characters go back in time?

So into the whirlpool they jump. Meanwhile, the Wicked Witch is gloating to her right-hand flying monkey, Truckle (also Frank Welker), about how she's using her magic smoke and a giant pendelum to erase the history of Oz. Then she can make Oz into anything she wants! But her crystal ball tells her that Dorothy, the Tin Man, the Scarecrow, and the Cowardly Lion have found the secret entrance to Time Town. She'll just have to send them a welcoming surprise...

"Ugh, where's the remote control for this thing? I wanna see if Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
is on..."

The whirlpool empties out into a giant hourglass, and out of it slide the good guys. The Wizard and Toto are waiting for them. They're standing outside of Time Town, a city with more clocks than your local Hobby Lobby.

Nobody ever has to wonder what time it is in THIS town.

As the good guys walk over to the time capsule where the book usually is, Truckle attempts to clean their clocks (couldn't resist) with a giant bell. To get inside the time capsule, they just have to adjust the hands on the giant clock that hides the entrance, but before they can step inside, down the bell falls on top of them. "They'll never get out of there!" Truckle cackles as he flies off. Fortunately, the Wizard gives everyone the idea to just dig their way out from under the bell - good thing the ground in Time Town is dirt as opposed to cement or something.

I didn't know you could dig with an axe.

Eventually, the ground gives way and they fall into a tunnel filled with giant gears. They find another door, and when they push it open they discover these guys.

Oh, so THESE are the droids they were looking for...

...why am I making so many Star Wars references in this review?

The little robots have heard of Dorothy, it turns out, and they're very excited to see her. One of them explains that they're the "Minute Men", guardians of Time Town, and they're hiding from the Wicked Witch. Even though the show generally doesn't take much in the way of elements from L. Frank Baum's books that weren't in the movie, I can't help but notice that two of them look a lot like Tik-Tok, the robot who first appeared in Ozma of Oz (and who also appeared in Disney's 1980s film Return to Oz).

The Minute Men don't know where the Wicked Witch took the book, but perhaps Father Time, who lives in the Cuckoo Forest, does. The two Minute Men who look like Tik-Tok offer to take them there, armed with an alarm clock that will warn them of danger - which makes the name "ALARM clock" pretty fitting.

Alas, the Wicked Witch sees them in her crystal ball again, and she's not pleased. "Take a squadron of monkeys and stop them for good!" she orders Truckle.

"What do you mean I don't look good in purple?!"

The good guys are traveling through the Cuckoo Forest, where the trees all have cuckoo clock birds living in them. The flying monkeys show up to ambush them, but the Scarecrow gets the idea to fend them off by making a lot of noise. With the monkeys discombobulated, Dorothy and the others run to the "time stream" and jump aboard a floating sundial. Now they just have to brave the rapids.

They get to Father Time's house, who complains that ever since the Wicked Witch stole the History of Oz book to Pendelum Mountain, everything has been a mess.

That's quite a forehead Father Time has.

"Thanks for your time. We're off to Pendelum Mountain!" the Tin Man says, but before they leave, Father Time gives them a bag of magic sand - the Sands of Time, that is. He does not, however, tell them what to do with it, when the Scarecrow asks he just says that they'll figure it out. Way to be unhelpful, Father Time.

So into Pendelum Mountain they sneak. Now they just need to think of a way to defeat the Wicked Witch. Here's a suggestion, why don't you just find some water and MELT HER? It worked the first time. Unfortunately, the Wizard winds up giving them away before they can think of a plan. As chaos unfolds, the Scarecrow does his best Miley Cyrus impression:

"I came in like a WREEEEEEEEC-KING BALL!"

The Wizard uses the Sands of Time to extinguish the fire that the Witch was using to create the magical green smoke. All the history of Oz that she erased magically reappears after the Cowardly Lion flips the pages of the book with a sneeze. The Witch's plan is foiled. "I'LL GET YOU FOR THIS!" she shrieks.

"I don't know how, but we reversed this spell!" the Scarecrow says. Don't worry, Scarecrow, I'm not quite sure how you did it either. The pendelum disappears, and since the Witch's messing with the book was apparently erased from Oz's history, everyone is teleported out of the mountain. Downside: the Wizard flies off in his balloon again - but at least he's back to being the Wizard.

Glinda shows up and praises Dorothy, the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, and the Cowardly Lion for saving the day. Quick question, why didn't SHE make any sort of attempt to stop the Wicked Witch? Before she got her memory erased, I mean?

Hey, Scarecrow, Mickey Mouse called. He wants his gloves back.

What's the Verdict?

So that's The Wizard of Oz, and while it's not the greatest cartoon ever, it makes for a pretty good sequel series to the film. They do a lot of creative stuff with the time land, the voice actors all do a good job, everyone is in-character. I do have two complaints, though. First of all, the animation, while competent, is riddled with errors. Most of the character designs are good, but Dorothy and Glinda are a bit off-putting (I think it's the eyes). Second, while you'll hear no complaints from me over the show being based on the iconic 1939 film, I think it was a bit of a missed opportunity not to include stuff from the books that wasn't in the film. I mean, in total there are FORTY Oz books, including the fourteen written by L. Frank Baum. Surely you could've had the Kalidahs or something pop up in one episode. But I digress.

If you like the movie, you'll probably like the cartoon. You can find every episode on YouTube, and there are also some VHS and DVD releases (only one, the tenth episode, was never released on home video). And now, a word from our sponsor.

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Fancast Time: The Haunted Mansion

Even if you've never been to a Disney theme park, there's a very good chance that you've heard of the Haunted Mansion.

This is one of Disney's most popular attractions. They probably weren't the first to do a haunted house at a theme park, but they're definitely the ones who perfected it. I could write an entire post about the history of this ride, but this blog is about animation, not theme parks (although the two subjects overlap a lot), so instead, watch this video.

The Haunted Mansion differs from other haunted house attractions at theme parks in that it's filled to the brim with unique characters and lore. So it's no surprise that over the years there's been several attempts at adapting the attraction. There have been books...

There have been video games...

And of course, there have been movies. Three of 'em, in fact. The first, starring Eddie Murphy, recieved a negative reception from critics and fans of the attraction alike. Same goes for the one released twenty years later, which languished in development limbo (at one point it was going to be directed by Guillermo Del Toro) and was a box office bomb on top of that. In between these films, there was the direct-to-streaming Muppets Haunted Mansion film, which I personally enjoyed. For more information about the multiple Haunted Mansion adaptations, I'm going to recommend another video.

We're probably going to get more Haunted Mansion adaptations at some point, and y'know what? I think it's high-time for an animated adaptation - be it a show or a movie, or even a series of shorts - of the attraction. I know there has been at least one attempt at doing one: Shannon Tindle's pitch for a series, but it was rejected. And, honestly, why ARE all the adaptations of Disney attractions live action anyway? Wouldn't something like a movie starring the characters from the Country Bear Jamboree work better in animation than live action?

Case in point...

So, if they WERE to do an animated adaptation of the Haunted Mansion, they'd need to have a great cast. After all, the attraction has a lot of iconic voice actors lending their voices to it - Paul Frees, Thurl Ravenscroft, Eleanor Audley, Dallas McKennon, even the woman who sang the Star Trek theme song is in it! So, how would I cast as the voices of the nine hundred and ninety-nine happy haunts who live in the mansion? Well, I'll tell you...

The only rule for this cast is, just to make it a little harder on myself, I'm gonna try to avoid using anyone who's actually voiced any of these characters before - so, I can't use Corey Burton as the Ghost Host or Susan Blakeslee as Madame Leota since they already voiced the characters in Disneyland's Haunted Mansion Holiday overlay. Though if I actually WERE the voice director of a Haunted Mansion project, I would indeed just get them back.

Fred Tatasciore as the Ghost Host

How on Earth do you replace Paul Frees as the Ghost Host? Aside from "get Corey Burton", of course. Well, let me tell you a little about Fred Tatasciore. He's a very versatile voice actor, and as somebody who was lucky enough to meet him in 2022, I should mention that he's also an extremely nice guy. He's no stranger to doing voice work for Disney theme park characters - he's the Yeti in Expedition Everest at Animal Kingdom, he recently provided the voice of Buff in the new Country Bear Jamboree at the Magic Kingdom, he can also be heard in Star Tours, the Guardians of the Galaxy ride at Disney's California Adventure, and the Big Grizzly Mountain Runaway Mine Cars in Hong Kong Disneyland. At various conventions, he's demonstrated that he can do a great impression of Paul Frees' Ghost Host, so if I have to choose somebody new to do the voice, I think Fred would be the best choice.

Tasia Valenza as Madame Leota

Madame Leota was hard to figure out. You need to find a voice actress who can pull off a dignified, menacing, almost seductive voice - one that's not too young-sounding but not too old-sounding either. In other words, a voice just like Eleanor "Maleficent" Audrey gave Leota. I cycled through a bunch of different voice actresses and characters with voices like that in my head, eventually deciding to take a listen to the various voices that Batman's foe Poison Ivy has had over the years. I heard a clip of Tasia Valenza's take on the character and found just what I was looking for.

Cree Summer as Constance Hatchaway

This is mostly just me trying to find somebody who sounds close to Kat Cressida's voice for Constance. Listening to it, I think Cree Summer could pull the character off nicely. Her voices for Princess Kitana and Madame Web are good comparisons, I feel - she could definitely hit that right balance of sweet and sinister.

Daran Norris as the Hatbox Ghost

Now we're at the characters in the attraction who don't talk. The Hatbox Ghost, best known for being removed from the Disneyland version in its early days because the whole "disappearing head" effect didn't work right only to return in 2015, doesn't say a word - he chuckles, but that's about it. Apparently, Corey Burton did his voice for some sort of internet campaign, using the same voice he used for the Ghost Host in the aforementioned Haunted Mansion Holiday, but I can't find any clips of that online so I'm gonna have to go in a different direction (plus, I'd rather not have him sound just like the Ghost Host if the Ghost Host is already there). Let's look at this guy's character design: he's got sunken-in eyes, a toothy grin, he's got a top hat and a cloak... he's pretty creepy, and I think a reedy voice, something both sinister-sounding AND comedic, would fit him quite nicely. Steve Buscemi kept popping into my mind, but he seemed a bit too obvious. After racking my brain, I decided to go for an impression of either Peter Lorre or Paul Lynde, both known for their distinct voices. Fortunately, Daran Norris can do both, and demonstrated his ability to do both in TUFF Puppy - he did a Peter Lorre impression for the Chameleon and a Paul Lynde impression for the Meerkat. Thus...

And now, the three most popular residents of the mansion! Stars of fanfic all over the internet, their likeness plastered on merchandise... it's the Hitchhiking Ghosts! Once again, since these guys usually don't talk, we're going to have to look at their character designs and find voices that match.

Maurice LaMarche as Ezra

Ezra is lanky, basically a skeleton, and has sunken-in eyes and a toothy grin like the Hatbox Ghost (you think they're related?). Maurice LaMarche is usually known for deeper voices like the Brain and most of his characters in Futurama (Morbo, Lrrr, Calculon), but he can do higher-pitched roles too. One of my favorite roles of his is Mortimer Mouse, Mickey's obnoxious rival, a character that he's been voicing since Mickey Mouse Works in 1999. It's not a super-high voice, but it's not a super-deep one either, it's more or less in the middle. Ezra is mostly depicted in fanwork as a wisecracking smart-mouth (a la Yakko Warner), and I think Mortimer's slimy, sneaky-sounding voice would fit that personality well

Kevin Chamberlain or Kevin Michael Richardson as Phineas

Okay, so Phineas is pretty chubby. I didn't want a stereotypical "dumb guy" voice (think Patrick Star or Beaky Buzzard), but I still wanted a voice that had some "weight" to it, if that makes any sense. So I have two ideas for this guy.

Yes, Kevin Chamberlain is a celebrity. No, he hasn't done much voice acting. But I think he SHOULD do more voice acting, he's actually an actor as opposed to a musician or some random schmuck on YouTube, and he's a GOOD actor (it's generally agreed that his performance as Horton was the best thing about the original Broadway production of Seussical) so I'd say he's far more qualified to do voice acting than, say, Rihanna or Marshmello, and from what I've heard he's a very nice guy. Plus, he has experience doing characters who thrive in a macabre setting - he was Uncle Fester in the Addams Family show on Broadway - AND he's worked for Disney before (he played Bertram in Jessie), and I think his voice would fit Phineas well, so why not?

As for Kevin Michael Richardson, like with Maurice LaMarche he's usually typecast as deeper-voiced characters, but he can do characters with high-pitched voices too. Y'know how in the first few episodes of The Flintstones, Barney had a higher-pitched Jersey-accented voice? That's the voice Kevin does whenever he voices Barney. Call me crazy, but I think that voice would work for Phineas as well. It's high-pitched, but still has a little "weight" to it.

Frank Welker as Gus

Gus is the only Hitchhiking Ghost who speaks in the attraction - before he's seen hitchhiking, he appears singing alongside an executioner ghost and a headless knight. His voice was provided by Candy Candido, an actor who lent his growly voice to several movie characters such as the Indian Chief in Peter Pan, that crocodile under Prince John's employment in Robin Hood, and the apple tree who Dorothy and the Scarecrow tick off in The Wizard of Oz. Who could forget that voice?

So, we need a voice that sounds like Candy Candido's, the joke being that you wouldn't expect such a voice to come out of the teeny-tiny Gus. How about Frank Welker, using the same voice he used for Dr. Claw in Inspector Gadget?

Jeff Bennett or Kevin McDonald as the Caretaker

Let's be honest, if the Caretaker (I believe his official name is Silias Crump) could talk, he'd totally sound like Don Knotts (in fact, the Disney Wiki claims that Don Knotts played him for his brief appearance in the 2003 movie, I dunno if there's any truth to that). So we need a Don Knotts soundalike, and I know two actors who'd be a good choice for that. The first is Jeff Bennett, who served as a voice-match for Don Knotts' character, Turkey Lurkey, in the Chicken Little video game. The second is Kevin McDonald, technically a celebrity but one with lots of voice acting experience (ESPECIALLY for Disney - he's Pleakley, after all)... and when I watched Cats Don't Dance, I noticed that Don Knotts' voice sounds very similar to Kevin's. Of the two, I think I'm leaning more towards Jeff, as I fear Kevin's voice might sound a bit too young-sounding for the Caretaker.

Frank Welker as the Caretaker's Dog

We've already got the master of animal noises in the cast as Gus, so I see no reason why Frank couldn't voice the Caretaker's Dog too.

Sam Ramey, Randy Crenshaw, Jess Harnell, Rob Paulsen, and Jeff Bennett as the Singing Busts

For all of the 2003 movie's flaws, you've gotta admit that casting the Dapper Dans from Disneyland as the Singing Busts was a nice touch. One of the busts, as you know, was voiced by Disney legend Thurl Ravenscroft. Sam Ramey isn't exactly a voice actor, he's a singer, but he DID voice a character in Over the Garden Wall who sounds an awful lot like Thurl Ravenscroft when he sings. Randy Crenshaw, as well, is more of a singer than a voice actor, but he has lots of animation experience, including for Disney, and can be heard singing in films like Thumbelina, The Nightmare Before Christmas, and The Thief and the Cobbler. Plus, they're SINGING busts, so I think I can get away with casting professional singers as two of them. As for the other three, I chose Jess Harnell, Rob Paulsen, and Jeff Bennett because all three of them are great singers. Simple as that.

Now, if my math is correct there are nine hundred and eighty-seven more ghosts living at the Haunted Mansion (nine hundred and ninety-nine in all... but there's room for a thousand), but I'm not going to assign a voice to every single ghost because that would be very hard, and there's no way Disney would pay that many voice actors for one prodution. Fortunately, Fred Tatasciore, Tasia Valenza, Cree Summer, Daran Norris, Maurice LaMarche, Frank Welker, Kevin Michael Richardson, Jeff Bennett, Rob Paulsen, and Jess Harnell are all really versatile, so they could all do double-duty and voice more than one character. If there's money in the budget for a few more, I'd also have Corey Burton, Tress MacNeille, Lauri Fraser, Jeff Bergman, and Scott Innes provide additional voices. Not a bad cast, huh?

Once again, if you have any suggestions of your own for these characters, feel free to post 'em in the comments section below.

Let's Watch This: An Episode of "The Funky Phantom"

NOTE: Please do not take any of the little nitpicks in this review (or any of my other reviews, for that matter) seriously. I write these reviews in the hopes of making people laugh. Those nitpicks are really just dumb little observations that I'm attempting to make jokes out of, not complaints that add to whether or not I like something.

If you're an avid reader of my blog, you probably know that the 1970s saw the greenlighting of many, MANY cartoons that were blatant knockoffs of Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?. We've already reviewed three - first I looked at Jabberjaw, which paired clones of Fred and Shaggy up with clones of characters from Josie and the Pussycats and a wacky talking shark. Then I looked at Fangface, which had the main character as an equivalent for both Shaggy AND Scooby... he was a werewolf. And earlier this year, I looked at Goober and the Ghost Chasers, which was one of the most blatant Scooby-Doo cash-grabs of all because the Scooby equivalent was ALSO a dog.

Now, at this point in the franchise, Scooby-Doo and his pals weren't encountering real ghosts and monsters yet - it wasn't until the 1980s that they started running into actual ghosts. The ghosts were always just guys in costumes. So this show actually has a pretty unique premise for a Scooby-Doo cash-grab: what if the ghost-chasing kids had a real ghost for a sidekick?

The Funky Phantom starred Jonathan Wellington "Mudsy" Muddlemore, the ghost of an American patriot from the Revolutionary War, voiced by Daws Butler using the same voice he used for Snagglepuss (and the lion from The Roman Holidays). He and his ghost cat, Boo (voiced by Julie Bennett), were freed from the inside of a longcase clock by three teenagers who'd stumbled upon it trying to get out of the rain: Skip (Mickey Dolenz), April (Kristina Holland), and Augie (Tommy Cook), and their dog Elmo (Jerry Dexter). They drove around in a dune buggy - not Speed Buggy, this one didn't talk - and solved crimes, most of them involving ghosts.

The show premiered on September 11th, 1971. Only seventeen episodes were produced, and despite the show generally being brushed off as another lame Scooby-Doo knockoff nowadays, Mudsy himself seems well-liked enough to warrant appearances in shows like Harvey Birdman, Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated, and Jellystone!... not that any of those shows treated him with any dignity. Now, just because a show is a blatant Scooby-Doo cash-grab doesn't automatically mean I'm not going to like it. I liked the one episode of Speed Buggy that I've seen and found Jabberjaw okay. Who knows, maybe I'll like The Funky Phantom too?

So... since it's October, that month of the year when we celebrate Halloween and so I post reviews of cartoons starring ghosts, monsters, etcetra, we're going to watch the fourth episode of the show, "Who's Chicken?". As Mudsy would say, it's Funky Phantom time!

The episode starts off with a truck for "Chicken Delicious" driving down the road. Here's a fun fact for you: in 1968, a few years before this show premiered, they started opening Yogi Bear's Honey Fried Chicken restaurants, where you could munch on fried chicken surrounded by fiberglass statues of Yogi (you can find an article about the restaurants at cartoonresearch.com - only one still exists today). I wonder if the folks at Hanna-Barbera were at all tempted to do a little cross-promotion, but decided against it.

Maybe it was just too hard to fit "Yogi Bear's Honey Fried Chicken" on the side of the truck...

Then we see these two charming characters, who it should be pretty clear are the episode's antagonists. "That truck should be due any time now!" the one in the chicken costume snarls in the unmistakable voice of Don Messick (it's sort of a fusion of his voices for Papa Smurf and Vulture from the 1981 Spider-Man cartoon). "Hurry it up! Get that tree across the road!"

Wow, that's the worst Blue Falcon costume I've ever seen.

So these two, and this other guy, chop down a tree and push it down on the road to block the truck's path. When the truck stops, the guy in the chicken suit jumps onto the tree and starts squawking and waving his arms like... well, I wouldn't say a chicken. More like an escapee from a mental asylumn.

"BRAWK! Ignore the human mouth under my beak, please! I'm a real bird, I swear!"

The confused driver of the truck gets out and demands that this strange not-quite-bird not-quite-human-either creature get out of the road. Then one of the other guys grabs the driver and drags him off.

Then we cut to Augie's garage, where Augie and Elmo are lifting weights. He encourages Skip and Mudsy to do it as well, but Mudsy dubs this a preposterous idea - how much exercise could a two-hundred-year-old ghost need? As for Boo, he decides to sabotage Elmo. He's a cartoon cat, and Elmo is a cartoon dog. They can't help it, they're required to mess with each other.

I think it's just the lack of an outline, but that bicycle in the background looks like
it's just painted on the wall.

Just then, April runs in and shows Augie that day's newspaper, its headline about the mysterious "Chickenman" on the loose. I can't hear them say "Chickenman" without thinking of Toy Story 2 and Rex's "IT'S THE CHICKENMAN!" line. Apparently, this "Chickenman" has been robbing supply trucks for the Chicken Delicious chain of "eating houses". Maybe he's the CEO of KFC, and he's trying to eliminate the competition?

"Hey, where did my eyebrows go?"

"Don't worry, Augie, you'll get used to not having them. I sure did."

"Hey, at least you're the only human here with pupils, April."

"I just now noticed how long your neck is, Skip. It's like a giraffe's, even."

"Chickenman? You sure that isn't YOU, Skip?" Augie asks with a smirk. Jeez, way to be a jerk, Augie. Mudsy then says that this situation "sounds like FOWL play", because if you're doing a cartoon where a chicken plays a prominent role you've gotta make that pun at some point.

April spews out some exposition about the owner of Chicken Delicious being her uncle, Henry Fowler. Skip says that he'll help April stop the Chickenman, to which Augie says, "You? HAW! If HE's going, I'D better come too. 'Cause with HIM along, your helper is gonna need HELP." Y'know what, I've decided that I don't like Augie. He treats Skip with total disrespect. I want Skip to punch him in the face.

I'm just now noticing that Augie and Skip basically have the exact same face (Augie's chin
and nose are just larger).

Fortunately, while Skip doesn't pucnh Augie in the face, he dishes it back out - he says that with Augie coming along, they'll have plenty of hot air if they need it. Snap. And of course Mudsy, Boo, and Elmo are coming along too. The six of them head to Henry Fowler's office in their dune buggy. When Augie wonders what anyone would want with a truckload of frozen chicken, Mudsy declares, "A bird in the fist is worth two hydrangeas! Ha, ha, ha." I don't get the joke here. Is the punchline that he got the expression wrong? I mean, I know a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, but I'm not even sure what THAT expression means either.

When they get to the office, Henry Fowler - who, natch, looks similar to Colonel Sanders - laments that he's been forced to close down all but one of his "eating houses" because of this rassafrassin' Chickenman. Then a guy named Angus barges in and frets over the Chickenman ruining their business. What makes him so sure? Easy - he's gotten a message from the Chickenman himself:

Okay, I've seen enough Scooby-Doo episodes to know that this guy is definitely the guy dressing up as the Chickenman because he has a bone to pick with Mr. Fowler. Maybe it's just because he's clearly voiced by Don Messick as well (although it's not the same voice he does for the Chickenman - he sounds more like Zilly from Dastardly and Muttley in Their Flying Machines) and that he's wearing a green suit (what color is the Chickenman again?).

"WE'RE RUINED, I TELL YOU! WIPED OUT!" Angus shrieks. "WHERE'S THE POLICE?! I PAY TAXES! I WANT PROTECTION!" When he leaves, Mr. Fowler explains that Angus isn't one of his employees, but rather the owner of a chain of roast beef restaurants. Very su-SPI-cous...

Fortunately, April has a plan to catch this Chickenman (who is totally going to be Angus. Just sayin'). By the way, for some reason Mudsy decided to turn invisible while the others were talking to Mr. Fowler. I guess it's because he thinks Mr. Fowler would be freaked-out by the presence of a g-g-g-g-GHOST, even a friendly one. Casper had the same problem.

"Hey, wait, if there's an empty seat next to Skip, why are you guys crammed in the back of the
buggy?"

"Uh... there's more legroom?"

April's plan, apparently, is to work at the one remaining Chicken Delicious eating house (did people EVER call restaurants "eating houses"?) and catch the Chickenman when he shows up. Mudsy has a better idea: "Retreat, I say! Make tracks for the hills! The foothills! Abandon all ships, even!"

Why is Mudsy so afraid? First of all, he's already a ghost, so it's not like the Chickenman could harm him even if he tried. And second, even if they don't know that this Chickenman is just a guy in a chicken suit, it's still for all intents and purposes a giant chicken. All they have to do is lure it into the deep-fat fryer and presto, one cooked Chickenman. Anyhow, even though nobody aside from April is on board with the plan (not even Augie - if it's because he's too scared like Mudsy, he really has no right to mock Skip for his cowardice).

That night, they start their first shift at Chicken Delicious, with Mudsy initially being invisible but revealing himself when the customers ask how their entrees are floating around the room by themselves.

He also dubs himself their "ghost host" - even in the 1970s, people were making references
to Disney theme park rides.

The customers, of course, freak out at the sight of a g-g-g-g-GHOST and flee the eating house. Not long after, a truck pulls up to Chicken Delicious, and in that truck are the Chickenman and his henchmen, who are disguised as normal Chicken Delicious truck drivers. When Skip sees the henchmen, he tells them to put what's in the truck in the rear, since they're swamped out front - and to make sure that Chickenman doesn't get it. Oh, the irony.

Of course, the henchmen aren't DELIVERING anything - they're STEALING chicken from the eating house. When they drive off with their stolen cargo, Mudsy and Boo emerge from the box of frozen French fries they loaded onto the truck. They're being ghost-napped! Wait, what were they doing in a box of frozen French fries?

I mean, I know WHY they were in the box - so that WHACKY SHENANIGANS could
ensue, but it's still a headscratcher...

Unaware of the ghostly presence, the henchmen meet back up with the guy who likes to dress as the Corn Flakes rooster. "Head for the hideout! We'll get rid of all of it!" the Chickenman declares. Overhearing this, Mudsy gets mad. "All right, you three! Put 'em up, put 'em up! Your goose is cooked, Chickenman! BASTED, even! I gotcha cornered!" he says, even though they still have no idea that he's in their truck. "What am I sayin'? I'm in a pickle! I gotta keep an eye on 'em, and let the others know where I am! Or I'm a cooked ghost!"

...how exactly does one cook a ghost?

Back at Chicken Delicious, Skip, Augie, April, and Elmo discover that they've been cleaned out and that clearly those two guys in the truck are behind it. Elmo figures out that Mudsy and Boo were probably taken by them too. April dubs him a smart dog, to which Augie says, "Yeah, smart like his master." "Well, if he's smart like his master, then we'd better go in the opposite direction!" Skip quips, prompting April to scold him and Augie for mocking each other. Good on ya, April.

As for Mudsy, to make sure that the others can find him and Boo, he leaves a trail of frozen French fries - M-shaped French fries, even.

Has McDonald's ever tried making M-shaped French fries? If not, they should - that
would be really cool.

"If Daniel Boone ever hears about this, I'll be guffawed out of the colonies! All thirteen of 'em!" Mudsy moans. "Or maybe I'm just stupid-stitious..." But it works, the others spot the trail of French fries and follows them to a billboard for "Rangs Fresh Eggs" - which, fortunately, lifts up and allows them entry into the dark and spooky forest that the truck drove through to get to the parked train where the bad guys are going to unload all the stuff they stole. They're putting it in refrigerated boxcars.

Well, on the bright side, if some hobo ever hitches a ride on that train, they're gonna
have quite a meal.

"Hmmm. That means they're planning to ship that stuff someplace," Skip points out. Augie tells Elmo to scout on ahead, and the dog walks right into a toolshed - and right into the Chickenman.

"Ruh-roh!"

Elmo runs back to the others, only for the Chickenman to follow him and discover Skip, Augie and April. "Stop those kids!" he tells his henchmen, who give chase on their motorcycles.

"Getcha motor runnin',
Head out on the highway..."

After some running around, Skip sends one henchman smashing into the back of a train, while Augie and Elmo do the old "paint a tunnel on a solid wall" (or in this case, a stack of crates full of eggs) to take out the other one. Then the good guys hide out in one of the boxcars, only for the Chickenman to trap them inside. Augie and Elmo start bickering again. On the bright side, the boxcar that they're trapped in turns out to be the very same one that Mudsy and Boo are hiding in. So there's THAT.

The train starts moving, which means that the good guys have failed in their mission to stop the Chickenman... or HAVE they? Skip reminds Mudsy that, since he's a ghost, he can just walk through the wall of the boxcar and pull the coupling pin. For some reason, the fact that Skip had a good idea really steams Augie up.

"U MAD, AUGIE?"

So Mudsy teleports outside of the boxcar (he can only walk through walls when he's invisible) and pulls the coupling pin. Downside, now the six of them are marooned on a runaway boxcar, and the Chickenman and his goons are right behind them! They manage to pull the boxcar's brakes, but they still have to deal with their "fine feathered fiend" as Augie puts it, who chases them into a warehouse full of theatrical costumes and props.

Despite being the Daphne equivalent, April takes a page from Fred's book and suggests that they set a trap for Foghorn Leghorn's evil twin. First, Mudsy walks up to the henchmen and scares them just by appearing in front of them and saying, "To coin an old cliche... boo!"

"AUGH! A GEORGE WASHINGTON COSPLAYER!"

They hide from Mudsy in a chest, which he traps them inside, which is April's cue to lure the Chickenman into their trap.

"Drat! How did they know that my one weakness was ropes?!"

As they hoist the Chickenman high into the air, his mask falls off and yep, it's Angus in that Chanticleer get-up. Even if I hadn't suggested it beforehand, you probably would've figured it out by yourself.

To be fair, there were mysteries in Scooby-Doo where it was equally obvious who the culprit
was.

They never specify just what Angus' goal was, but I think we can deduce that he wanted to sabotage Chicken Delicious so everyone would eat at his roast beef restaurants. Jeez, you never see the folks who run Arby's trying to sabotage Taco Bell. But anyway, the day is saved, and the episode ends with Augie making fun of Skip again. Laugh it up, Augie - joke's on you, at least Skip's voice actor is a member of the Monkees. Granted, your voice actor also voiced Biff in Jabberjaw, so that should count for something...

What's the Verdict?

I should admit first and foremost that I chose this episode to review because of how silly the premise sounded (I thought it would give me the most joke material). It's very hard to make a giant chicken scary, and I think the folks at Hanna-Barbera were aware of that. I'm guessing other episodes of the show were much spookier.

Honestly, I found The Funky Phantom pretty good, even if the Scooby-Doo cash-grab part is blatant (they even use the same music!). Much like with Jabberjaw, it's the Funky Phantom himself that carries the show on his shoulders. He's such a charming character... a friendly ghost, hailing from the Revolutionary War, with the voice of Snagglepuss? How can you not like THAT? Skip, Augie, and April themselves are pretty dull characters, but Augie and Skip at least feel less like Fred and Shaggy than, say, Mark and Tinker from Speed Buggy (which I do plan on reviewing at some point, for those wondering) do - but did they have to make Augie so argumentative? I can't help but wonder if they didn't put much effort into making the teens interesting in these shows because they knew we were just gonna watch it for the funny ghost, or the wisecracking shark, or the talking car, or whatever.

As far as the animation goes, it's basically the same as any other Hanna-Barbera 1970s show - the art style and backgrounds are nice, but errors abound. In one scene, Augie, Skip, and April briefly vanish while Elmo is telling them about the Chickenman. Unsurprisingly, the funniest lines come from Mudsy, most of the other jokes fall flat. So, yeah. While I wouldn't say The Funky Phantom is Hanna-Barbera's BEST show, it's worth watching at least one episode of. Watch it for Mudsy like I did. You can find episodes of the show on the Internet Archive.

Y'know what Warner Bros. should do? They should make a show where Mudsy, Jabberjaw, and Captain Caveman drive around in Speed Buggy, getting into hilarious hijinks and solving mysteries in their usual bumbling way. No Fred, Daphne, and Shaggy knockoffs, just the four of them. That would be fun, wouldn't it?