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All-New Popeye Show, The

YOU NEEDN’T have bothered. TV rehash of the 1930s spinach eater’s surreal but strangely unlikeable adventures, but without the surrealism. Everyone’s a loser. Standard devices used to wring out every last drop of subject matter – for example, give him three identical miniature kids to look after, without indicating where they’d come from. Also utilised Panther-patented “middle cartoon” format, here introducing (get this) “Private Olive Oyl”, that’s Olive Oyl in the army with typical goon Alice The Goon and strangely-sexy tiny woman sergeant. No Popeye however. Popeye’s middle cartoon was Prehistoric Popeye or some shit like that. Did have amusing opening sequence, involving ‘Eye scooping Bluto (Pluto? Brutus?) up with a JCB, then “boxing” and firing him towards the stars in a big rocket (“well, waddaya know?”). Only other pro was possession of the swirly-star Hanna-Barbera logo at the end.

5 Comments

5 Comments

  1. John Fred

    October 17, 2010 at 10:51 am

    Ironic that it was entitled, ‘the all-new’, Popeye Show, as they’re were still showing it some 20+ years later. Did anyone else notice that the very last part of the intro theme tune seems to suddenly speed up as he sings, ‘I’m strong to the finish….’?

  2. Richard Davies

    October 17, 2010 at 5:29 pm

    I can remember them being repeated every few years unil the mid 1990s, possibly later.

  3. televisualcabbage

    October 17, 2010 at 8:49 pm

    Filler material!

    Why this was bunged out, goodness knows why!

  4. Lee James Turnock

    February 3, 2011 at 4:13 pm

    Spike Milligan named the Goon Show after Alice the Goon.

  5. Matty

    December 1, 2012 at 6:26 pm

    You’ve mis-remembered the opening credits a little. It’s teh ‘eye who gets thrown into a rocket and blasted into space by comedy 1930s “navvie” Bluto. Once the big-chinned sailor returns and guzzles a can of the green stuff (followed by excellent “bulges travel along his arms and he ends up with anvils for biceps” animation) he then grabs a JCB and scoops Bluto up before depositing him in a van with “trash” on the side (DYS?).

    I remembered all this myself and definitely didn’t just watch this YouTube clip:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRRRK21igA8

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