Let's Watch This: An Episode of "Speed Buggy"

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.

It's been too long since I've reviewed a Hanna-Barbera cartoon. Let's fix that, shall we?

Speed Buggy is another cartoon that owes its existence to Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?. As we've established, that show's popularity led to many, many other cartoons about at least three teenagers and something out of the ordinary - a talking dog, a talking shark, a ghost - solving mysteries. This time, the Fred, Daphne, and Shaggy clones were teamed up with a talking car voiced by Mel Blanc. Other inspirations for the show were Disney's 1968 film The Love Bug and Speed Racer.

The show was created by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera and premiered on CBS in September 1973. One season, consisting of sixteen episodes, was produced. Like most of the Scooby-Doo cash-grabs made during this time period, it didn't reach that show's level of success (though critics apparently liked it). Over the years, it's rerun on channels like Cartoon Network and Boomerang, and Speed Buggy has made cameos in other shows like Johnny Bravo, Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated, and Futurama.

Our main characters: Speed Buggy, Mark, Debbie, and Tinker.

I've watched most of the Scooby-Doo cash-grabs for this blog. As a rule of thumb, the more similar to Scooby-Doo they are, the lousier they are too. Fangface was mediocre at best, and Goober and the Ghost Chasers had nothing going for it. On the flip side, I thought The Funky Phantom was worth a watch, mostly for the Funky Phantom himself. Jabberjaw was okay. I've actually watched several episodes of Speed Buggy before doing this review, and I think it's probably the best of the Scooby-Doo clones. Of course, there are still a lot more that I need to review (I'm sure I'll do Clue Club at some point). Why do I say that? Well, let's watch the eleventh episode of the show, "The Ringmaster", and I'll go into more detail on why Speed Buggy is better than you might think...

The episode starts off with Speed Buggy and his pals Mark (voiced by Michael Bell), Tinker (Phil Luther Jr.) and Debbie (Arlene Golonka) racing in the Bayou 500. You'd think a race in the bayou would involve boats as opposed to cars, what with most of the bayou being water. Of course, Speed Buggy is not an ordinary car. Even aside from the whole "he can talk" thing, Tinker has outfitted him with all sorts of gadgets and abilities. See, he's TOTALLY different from Shaggy - Shaggy isn't a mechanic!

As for Mark and Debbie, yeah, they're pretty much just Fred and Daphne 5.0, but there's one thing worth noting... Debbie is the leader of the team, not Mark. I think there's still ONE episode where she gets captured by the bad guy, but that's it. To be fair, though, Daphne didn't get captured that much in the original show either.

Sure, the Mystery Machine is more iconic, but can it DRIVE ON WATER?

"Keeping us on course in this swamp is like looking for a needle in a wet haystack!" Debbie groans, looking at the map. Then we cut to... a circus tent? Set up in the middle of a swamp? Who are the Ringling Brothers expecting to come see the show, Shrek?

From out of the tent emerges the titular Ringmaster. He plays a pan flute and some animals emerge from smaller tents in front of him: an elephant, a giraffe, a zebra, a gorilla, a cheetah, and a crocodile. The giraffe has a video camera on its head and makes sounds like an injured bird. Y'know, as giraffes often do.

That's an awfully small crocodile. Maybe it's actually a caiman?

The giraffe's video camera, it seems, is there to alert the Ringmaster of anyone approaching his island. And when he sees that Speed Buggy and his compadres are on their way, he is not pleased. You'd think he'd be happier to see what could just be paying customers - I mean, obviously this guy is up to something EEEEEEEEE-VIL, but they have no way of knowing that yet. Paranoid much, Ringmaster?

"Ugh. I've always liked Captain Caveman better."

To prevent the kids' arriving on his island, the Ringmaster raises the drawbridge... which only goes up AFTER Speed Buggy and his friends drive over it. I'm not sure if it's still cool to say "EPIC FAIL", but that's the perfect way of describing what just occured. They drive right up to the guy and he demands to know in his weird accent I can't figure out (I want to say British, but I genuinely have no idea) what they're doing on his island.

Sir Topham Hatt does not approve.

"Don't get uptight, Napoleon! Just give us some directions and we'll leave your precious island!" Debbie declares. Dang, that's a pretty gutsy thing to say. I guess now we know why Debbie's the one who wears the pants in this quartet. Although I'm not sure "Napoleon" is the wittiest thing to call this guy, seeing as he's much taller (unless he's wearing stilts under those pants. That's a distinct possibility).

"You can't leave! You've seen too much!" the Ringmaster snaps. What do you mean they've "seen too much"? They haven't seen anything outside of you. They just got there! They haven't given you any indication that they've noticed the tents, or the animals, or your trapeze artists and clowns assuming you even have them. Speed Buggy tries to drive away, but the Ringmaster orders the animals to stop them, which they accomplish rather easily.

Take a look at the elephant's face. That expression manages to be both disturbing and hilarious at the same time.

"Smile! You're on Giraffe Camera!"

The Ringmaster traps Speed, Mark, Debbie, and Tinker in a cage and dubs himself the best animal trainer and ringmaster the world has ever known. But he doesn't actually run a circus, which explains the lack of clowns, trapeze artists and cotton candy vendors. No, no - his animals are a prototype of an entire animal army that he's going to use to take over the world.

He demonstrates how he'll do it. He's built a set meant to represent any government building in the world. First, he'll have the giraffe spy on the folks inside the building with his video camera.

"We have incriminating evidence against Richard Nixon! 'I am not a crook'
my spotted rear end!"

The video camera is hooked up to some sort of monitor, showing the Ringmaster that the office is empty. When he points this out to the good guys, Mark says, "Yeah, just like your head!" as opposed to "Of course it's empty, you mook, it's not a real government building."

Next, the Ringmaster sends in the gorilla and the crocodile to sneak into the building, and then the zebra to break down the door... which seems kind of pointless if the gorilla and crocodile have snuck in already, but what do I know, I'm not a supervillain. Then, when the gorilla and crocodile wheel out a safe, he has the elephant jump up and down on top of it to get it open. Uh, one small problem with this: elephants can't jump. No, really. Look it up. 

I know it's stupid to bring realism into a cartoon with a sentient talking car, just thought
I'd bring it up.

Then the cheetah will steal the contents of the safe - top-secret papers - and bring it to the Ringmaster. He boasts that his animal army will be unstoppable. Unless the government brings in a big game hunter, I suppose.

That night, Debbie attempts to bend the bars of the cage they're in, but fails at it for the obvious reason that she is not Hercules or a cartoon gorilla. "Don't just stand there, give me a hand!" she tells Mark and Tinker... to which they start clapping, a genuinely very funny joke.

I like to think that they actually knew what she meant, they're just trolling her. In fact,
that might have been the indication.

Then Tinker gets an idea. He removes Speed's back tires - which Speed comments makes him feel naked, another genuinely funny joke - so that Speed can use them to cut through the floor of the cage like a buzzsaw.

So, do the good guys have a plan to foil the Ringmaster's plot to use animals to take over the world? Nope, they're just going to make a run for it. Can't say I blame them. I mean, they'd be going up against a gorilla, a cheetah, a crocodile, and an elephant. The Ringmaster could just order the elephant to sit on them and they'd be flattened into pancakes. Or he could have the crocodile eat them.

Well, he could have the crocodile eat Mark, Tinker, and Debbie anyway. I don't think it's
possible for a crocodile to eat a car.

Unsurprisingly, Mr. Monopoly's evil twin is not pleased to discover that Speed Buggy and his amigos have escaped. He orders his animals to make sure they do not get off the island, but by this point they're back in the bayou so I guess that ship has sailed. He has the zebra put a giant rock in their path, but Speedy manages to drive on top of the rock and turn the tables on the black and white horse. Good guys: 1, Ringmaster: zilch.

"Suddenly, I feel like Indiana Jones!"

Next, the Ringmaster has the elephant jump off a hill onto Speed and his chums (even though, again, elephants can't jump), only for the elephant to wind up landing on top of the crocodile instead. It's a good thing Speed lives up to his name, otherwise he and his pals would've been stickers on a pachyderm's portly posterior.

"OH, GOD, MY SPINE! I'M IN SO MUCH PAIN RIGHT NOW!"

The Ringmaster sends the giraffe out after that, and by this point Speedy is starting to get tired. So they get the idea to hide under the giraffe's stomach. It doesn't work.

"Hey, that's a private area!"

They make it to the bridge... so I guess they're not off the island yet after all? Anyhow, the bridge is still up, but Speed has the ability to inflate his tires by holding his breath, allowing him to drive on water. "This looks like a job for my frog man!" the Ringmaster declares. Disappointingly, he doesn't mean an actual half-frog/half-human hybrid monster, which would've been pretty cool. He means the crocodile. Which is still cool, but "frog man" seems like a strange thing to call a crocodile.

The crocodile chases them back onto the island, and they decide to hide out in the circus tent... only for the giraffe to spot them anyway. The animals surround them inside, but Debbie gets another idea. If they can steal the Ringmaster's piccolo, maybe THEY can control the animals. But first, it's time for a chase scene with WHACKY SHENANIGANS!

As I've said before, walking across a tightrope is one thing I think you'd have to be crazy
to do. At least without a net or a million fluffy pillows underneath it.

Mark eventually manages to steal the flute... and promptly drops it. Speed Buggy drives over it, which somehow removes its ability to control the animals, as the Ringmaster discovers. Or at least it removes the RINGMASTER's ability to control the animals - Debbie is able to use it to control the elephant. Somehow. I have no idea how that thing works.

"We're fed up with working for peanuts! We demand a raise in pay or we'll maul you like
the wild animals we are!"

After he is subjected to more WHACKY SHENANIGANS, they manage to defeat the Ringmaster. And they even have enough time to finish the race! I guess the other racers were just standing around waiting for them to return to continue. How nice of them.

They manage to win the race, but it wasn't easy for Speedy - he had to tow all those circus wagons behind him. Inside those wagons are the Ringmaster, who's going to jail, and the animals, who are going to the zoo.

I like how nobody in the crowd seems at all confused by this.

What's the Verdict?

Speed Buggy is a fun show. Like most of Hanna-Barbera's work, it's so unapologetically goofy that it's hard not to enjoy it. And as far as Scooby-Doo clones go, it manages to stand on its own the most. Likely because instead of ghosts and monsters, the characters go up against crazy supervillains. Of the characters, it's Speed Buggy himself who I like the most, followed by Debbie. Mark and Tinker are good too, but the Fred and Shaggy similarities are pretty blatant. Debbie feels distinct enough from Daphne in a way that, say, April from The Funky Phantom doesn't. And she has a lot of great lines. But let's be honest, it's Speedy who we came to watch, and it's hard not to love him. He may very well be the cutest cartoon car I've ever seen. Plus, he's voiced by Mel Blanc, so he has that going for him too.

Of course, the show isn't flawless (what is?). The animation has several errors, but I've seen far worse. But as a whole, I think Speed Buggy is better than the internet gives it credit for and deserves better than to just get lumped in with other examples of Hanna-Barbera copying itself when the internet feels like taking the studio down a peg. And, honestly, even if a show was made to cash in on the success of another, extremely popular show, does that automatically make it bad? I mean, The Owl House was clearly greenlit to cash in on the success of Gravity Falls but a lot of people really like THAT show*!

If you'd like to watch Speed Buggy for yourself, you'll need either MeTV Toons or the show's DVD release. There aren't any full episodes on YouTube or the Internet Archive, and the only streaming services it's on are ones that I don't have.

Rating: Four needles in a wet haystack out of five. One of Hanna-Barbera's better 1970s cartoons.

* Please note that I consider The Owl House okay myself (I'm not a huge fan of it, but it's fine for what it is), but you can't deny that it was another show greenlit by Disney to cash in on the success of Gravity Falls. Granted, the shows themselves probably aren't THAT similar, but the whole "mysterious goings-on and magic stuff" premise, the wacky and quirky female lead, and the presence of Alex Hirsch as a character are certainly eyebrow-raising.

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?

Let's Watch This: An Episode of "Goober and the Ghost Chasers"

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.

NOTE #2: No disrespect is meant towards anyone who worked on the show I am reviewing today. I'm sure they are all very nice and talented people.

NOTE #3: If you like this show, that is great. Go ahead and like it. I'm not judging you.

Y'know what it's been a while since we've talked about? Scooby-Doo cash-grabs! As I stated before in my reviews of Jabberjaw and Fangface, Hanna-Barbera and Ruby-Spears greenlit dozens of cartoons in the 1970s that were basically just Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? except instead of a dog, it was, say, a wisecracking shark or an actual ghost or a sentient car or something. And that character would be the only truly unique part of the show.

Perhaps the most blatant of these cash-grabs was Goober and the Ghost Chasers. Why? Because its Scooby-Doo equivalent was still a dog!

They couldn't have at least made Goober, I dunno, a Komodo dragon or a musk ox? It HAD to be a dog? Why didn't you just call him "Not Scooby" or "Scooby-Two" while you were at it?

Well, anyhow, Goober and the Ghost Chasers aired for one season of sixteen episodes on ABC in 1973. Goober, voiced by Paul Winchell using his Tigger voice, is a goofy dog who traveled around with three teenagers named Fred... I mean, Ted (voiced by Jerry Dexter), Daphne... I mean, Tina (voiced by Jo Ann Harris), and Gilly (Ronnie Schell), who actually WASN'T a Shaggy knockoff personality-wise. They worked for Ghost Chaser magazine and encountered ghosts, using their fancy high-tech equipment to determine whether or not the ghost is real. Sometimes, they'd meet a real ghost who would help them defeat the fake ghost. That's kind of neat, I guess. Two things set Goober apart from Scooby: he could turn invisible (I don't think it's ever explained why) and even though he could talk to the audience, the humans in the show couldn't understand him (again, I don't think it's ever explained why). Also, characters from The Partridge Family frequently showed up. Apparently this is because Hanna-Barbera already had the actors on hand for a Partridge Family cartoon they were working on, and they figured having the characters appear in Goober would increase the chances of the show being a success.

I've never watched a single episode of this show - I don't know if reruns ever aired on Boomerang, which is how I was introduced to most of Hanna-Barbera's other cartoons (I loved their "Boomerang Zoo" block!). But you can find episodes of the show via the Internet Archive, which is a great place to go if you feel like watching Hanna-Barbera cartoons, so guess what? We're going to watch the seventh episode of the show, "The Haunted Wax Museum". This is Goober and the Ghost Chasers!

The episode starts off with our three human leads staring directly into our souls. This makes for a very eerie way to start the first episode of the show I've ever watched. Also, I know I said that Gilly wasn't a Shaggy knockoff personality-wise, but he SOUNDS a lot like Shaggy. In fact, he sounds more like Casey Kasem than any of the "modern" Shaggy voices I've heard (even Scott Innes!).

Is Tina actually an alien impersonating Carol Burnett?

Jeez, never thought I would type THAT sentence...

It's revealed that the teens and Goober are working on a jigsaw puzzle. They've almost completed it when Goober sneezes and sends the pieces flying everywhere. Either Goober has very powerful sneezes or those puzzle pieces are flimsily-made, because I don't think a sneeze should be enough to cause the whole puzzle to fall apart.

Gilly yells at Goober for messing up the puzzle, and then Goober does... this:

"Ooh, I think there was somethin' in those brownies I got from the shady guy in that alleyway..."

Before Gilly can yell at Goober some more, the gang gets a call from Laurie Partridge (Susan Dey). Apparently, the Partridges have a day off between concerts, so they thought it would be fun to visit the local wax museum. But there's something weird going on there...

Could it be that none of the other Partridges have their eyes colored in?

Why are wax museums always places where evil or creepy stuff goes on? I've never even been to a wax museum, but based on the fact that cartoons and moves always portray them as the lairs of crazy villains who trap people in wax to put on display, I don't think I'd want to even if there WAS one near me.

Anyway, Laurie thinks that the wax museum is haunted. And considering that a Marie Antoinette statue suddenly walks off the little staircase it's been posing on, she might be on the money.

GAH! Those pupils! Something tells me Laurie is scarier than any of the ghosts
we're going to see in this episode...

"Okay, gang! Let's get out the equipment and get moving!" Ted declares. After making sure they have everything they need in their "Apparition Apparatus", the gang heads out.

Take a look at the Ghost Chasers' car. Not exactly the Mystery Machine, is it?

It looks like a giant litter box.

When they get to the wax museum, they are greeted by the owner, Mr. Willy Waxman... who, judging from the permanent evil sneer on his face, is totally gonna be the episode's villain. He tells them that the museum is closed and that there's no one inside but his wax figures. Suspicious, is it not?

Did the animators run out of white paint before they could color in the characters' eyes?

Ted thinks it's strange that the Partridges apparently left the museum before they got there. Adding to the confusion, the Partridges' bus is still parked nearby. Now, I've never seen the original Partridge Family show (it went off the air years before I was born) so I had to use Google to make sure the Partridges really did have a bus like this in the original show. Sure enough, they did. Very bold of the Partridges to have Piet Mondrian paint their bus for them.

The paint job in the cartoon is slightly different, though - in live action, it was all reds, blues, whites and yellows. But hey, why should the OTHER colors of the rainbow be left out?

I don't have a car, but if I did, I'd probably paint it to look like that. It'd make finding it in a
parking lot very easy.

The three Ghost-Chasers and their dog sneak into the museum through the back (I guess Mr. Waxman didn't lock the back door for whatever reason), and Axl Heck... I mean, Ted suggests that they split up to find the Partridges. Gilly will go off with Goober and Ted will go off with Tina, presumably so they can go make out in a closet or something. Gilly and Goober don't find the Partridges, but they DO find Marie Antoinette... or rather, her g-g-g-g-GHOST!

So, is the idea that the ghost of Marie Antoinette possessed the wax figure of her that
Mr. Waxman built, or did the statue just come to life on its own? I'm not sure...

Goober makes a run for it, but Gilly does not - like I said, he's not a total Shaggy clone. Instead, he attempts to take a picture of Ghost Marie, and Goober needs to run back over and carry him off. TV Tropes compares this to Scooby and Scrappy-Doo's dynamic - and this show actually PREDATES Scrappy!

Goober must be stronger than he looks if he can carry Gilly like that.

Eventually, Goober and Gilly meet back up with Ted and Tina, and they discuss the situation while driving around in little buggies. Gilly complains that he could've gotten a great photo of her if it weren't for Goober... y'know what, I've decided that I don't like Gilly. He's an ungrateful pill. To be fair, though, what exactly could Marie Antoinette's ghost do to Gilly? Let him eat cake?

Coincidentally enough, the gang runs into the Partridges, and now they just have to find a way out. And for some reason they decide to leave Chris (Brian Forster) and Tracy (Suzanne Crough) in the "Children's Favorites" section of the museum while they look for an exit... wait a minute, WHAT? You're in a museum that seems to be HAUNTED, and you're just going to leave two kids alone while you go off looking for an exit? You might as well just put signs reading "HEY, EPISODE'S VILLAIN - KIDNAP US!" on them! Haven't you ever heard of "safety in numbers"? And if you're looking for a way out, here's an idea - why not the way you came in? The back door, presumably?

"All right, this is a stick-up! Hand over the money or the Partridge Family gets it!"

Just to make sure it's safe, Ted scans the room with his "specter detector". It claims that there are no ghosts inside, just wax statues of characters like Little Bo Peep, Robin Hood, and Davy Crockett. "This should be the safest place for them," Ted says. "Besides, we'll be right back." Again, I think it's a really bad idea to leave these two kids alone in what appears to be A HAUNTED BUILDING. Can't you at least leave Goober with 'em just in case?

After abandoning Chris and Tracy (Danny and Laurie, you are not going to be winning any "Sibling of the Year" awards), the others head off to find a way out, unaware that they're being watched - by Mr. Willy Waxman. Yep, he's the bad guy. And here's something else that might surprise you: Goober is a DOG.

"In case you're wondering why the lower half of my body has mysteriously vanished,
I'm not going to tell you... because I honestly have no idea either. The abilities of the 1970s
cartoon villain are an enigma."

The Ghost Chasers promptly run into another sentient wax figure, Blackbeard.

Here's a joke for you: what do you get when you cross a pirate with a deer?
A buck-aneer! Please laugh. I'm trying so hard...

For some reason, none of the Ghost Chasers are freaked out by the fact that what's either a ghost or a wax figure that came to life is standing in front of them and claiming that they'll "rue the day" they met him. Another one of Goober's sneezes sends Blackbeard flying backwards, prompting Gilly to yell at him again... okay, I swear he just called Goober "Scoob". Did Gilly forget what cartoon he was in for a second?

When Blackbeard returns, Gilly starts taking pictures of him, apparently too stupid to realize that the pirate means them harm. "He's ridick-alick-alick-alick-aleh!" Goober points out, his only line in the episode thus far. Hey, Goober, just a suggestion - let Blackbeard abduct Gilly. He's just going to yell at you again if you DO try to rescue him.

That is one ugly dog...

Goober saves Gilly, then tells the audience, "This guy with the beard-o is a real weird-o." Goober, you need to fire the guy who's writing your material. I think even Yogi Bear would be cringing at that. Well anyhow, Goober, Gilly, and Danny (Danny Bonaduce) hide out in a room with a statue of Montezuma in it. "If I didn't know better, I'd say it was my agent's wife," Danny quips. Okay, see, Goober, THAT'S funny. Maybe you should have DANNY write your material.

While Goober is goofing around with Montezuma's headdress, Willy Waxman shows up and some WHACKY SHENANIGANS ensue.

"Goober, what are you doing on the ceiling?"

"Oh, y'know, just hangin' around..."

"Boooooooooooo!"

"I'm warning you! You and your meddling friends better leave here immediately! Or you may never leave here at all! Understand?!" Mr. Waxman declares. Meanwhile, back in the "Children's Favorites" section, Chris and Tracy go inside the house of that woman who lived in a shoe and discover an escalator that takes them to... well, we don't see what the room looks like. Instead, we cut back to Ted, Tina, and Laurie, who pop inside the "Hall of Royalty" and discover that the wax Cleopatra statue is alive as well.

Was Cleopatra a redhead?

Ted and Tina attempt to start up an interview with Cleopatra, but she's not exactly in an "answering questions" mood. Then they encounter more sentient wax figures - like Attila the Hun, who turns out to have a tape recorder under his armor. Which explains why Attila's lips weren't moving when he talked (I figured it was just an animation error), but if ALL of the wax figures had tape recorders in 'em, how come Cleopatra's lips DID move?

Gilly, Danny, and Goober meet back up with the others, and then Tina notices that there's a diamond hidden behind Goober's ear. "That must've fallen off of Montezuma's headdress when Goober was wearing it!" Gilly points out. Ted declares that they should find Chris and Tracy and then get out of the museum ASAP, but when they head back to the "Children's Favorites" section, they don't see Chris and Tracy anywhere. Gee, maybe you shouldn't have left them alone in a HAUNTED MUSEUM, idiots.

So now that they've got two missing kids on their hands, what do the Ghost Chasers Plus Two Partridges do? Split up again, of course! Which leads to Gilly, Danny and Goober running into Montezuma, who is all "RETURN MY DIAMOND OR ELSE!". Goober decides to mess with him a little.

"Phyllis Diller called, she wants her hat back!"

We then cut back to Ted, Tina, and Laurie, who encounter Cleopatra again. After escaping from her, they meet back up with Gilly, Danny and Goober, then they all hide out in the "Hall of History". But wouldn't you know it, Goober's sneezes give them away - and blow off Cleopatra's head, revealing that she's actually Mr. Waxman in disguise!

"It looks like someone's been playing games with us!" Ted says. So what's Mr. Waxman's motivation? Well, he was a vaudeville star whose shtick was that he could disguise himself as somebody else in the blink of an eye, from Marie Antoinette to Blackbeard to Montezuma to Magilla Gorilla's sister.

...I've got nothing.

For once, the good guys do something smart and run off while Waxman is dancing around in his ape costume, much to his outrage. Then Goober finds a secret panel in the wall that allows them to find Chris and Tracy.

Sorry, kids, but they're not holding auditions for The Incredibles yet.

Chris and Tracy show them where they found the masks they're wearing - the waxworks where they make the statues. Turns out, the museum is a front for a gang of jewel thieves, who are loading the statues with real jewels. And since it's been established that Willy Waxman is EEEEEEEEEEEE-VIL, he must be the leader of the jewel thieves.

"Say hello to my two henchmen, who didn't show up earlier because... actually, I have
no idea where they were!"

The two henchmen manage to corner Ted, Tina, Laurie, Danny, and Gilly, but Goober subjects them to more WHACKY SHENANIGANS and then knocks over the waxworks with another sneeze. Dear lord, how strong are this dog's sneezes? The villains wind up trapped in their own wax, and Chris and Tracy called up the police. The day is saved, they've got a great story for their magazine, and Goober still has a cold. Somebody get this dog some Tylenol.

"Scooby-Dooby-Doo! Uh, I mean, Goober-Doober-Doo!"

What's the Verdict?

Goober and the Ghost Chasers has very little going for it. There's nothing here we haven't already seen done better in Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? or one of the other Scooby-Doo copycats Hanna-Barbera has produced.

The characters? Utterly flat. Ted and Tina are just Fred and Daphne 5.0, and I really didn't like Gilly. Even Goober is a really blah character, basically just being an uglier Scooby-Doo minus the big appetite and with the "turning invisible" shtick that really doesn't have any reason or point to exist. He barely even talks, and when he DOES talk nothing out of his mouth is funny, meaning that Paul Winchell is pretty much wasted as his voice.

All of the jokes - not just the ones involving Goober, ALL OF THEM - are extremely unfunny. The animation is typical mediocre 1970s Hanna-Barbera animation - fine for the most part, but errors abound (they actually didn't do the animation for the show, it was farmed out to Eric Porter Studios in Australia). The Partridge Family doesn't add much to the show. And on top of that, this episode is looooooooooooooooong. Needlessly long. You could've cut one of the "let's have the characters split up" scenes and I think the episode would've been better off for it. And hey, now that I think about it, what was the point of the tape recorder thing when all of the other wax figures were revealed to be Mr. Waxman in disguise? Was it supposed to be a red herring?

So, yeah. Would I recommend watching Goober and the Ghost Chasers? No. Is it an AWFUL show? Again, no. Is it the worst Hanna-Barbera show ever? Far from it. It's not nearly as stupid as Yo Yogi or as dull as something like CB Bears. But I doubt I'll be watching any more episodes.

And for what it's worth, Hanna-Barbera isn't the only animation studio that's copied themselves. Warner Bros. made a show where the whole premise was "these characters are just the Looney Tunes characters, but younger and they aren't actually the Looney Tunes characters". How many times now has Disney done had a character in their movies that's a hoofed animal who acts like a dog? And then there's DreamWorks... people liked Gingy from Shrek, so they included MORE "cute little character with a high-pitched voice who's put in peril for comedic purposes" characters in at least two other films (the shrimp in Shark Tale and Mort in Madagascar). So how come Hanna-Barbera is getting singled out?