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Hong Kong Phooey

WHO IS THIS SUPER HERO? Sarge (voice of JOE E. “RITZIG” ROSS)? No. Rosemary the telephone operator? No. Penry (Pooch), the mild-mannered janitor? “Could be…” Cue Will and Joe at the peak of their powers with – yikes – a blaxploitation piss-take involving dog Penry (voiced by SCATMAN CROTHERS) jumping into a filing cabinet to change into robes, then via ironing board and skip into bizarre pseudo-Chinese “car that just won’t stop” which, at the bash of a gong, turned into a crap helicopter which drilled itself into the ground. Real (unsung) hero was stripy cat Spot, who trailed him and did all the proper work. Trademark H-B gimmickry present and perfectly correct: weird semi-regular all-black villain the Shadow; comic bookend scenes with the Sarge and “Rose-mare”; and the ever-useless Hong Kong Book of Kung-Fu. Theme tune with proto-rap was one of the best. Nice work, lads. A number one super guy. Quicker than the human eye.

3 Comments

3 Comments

  1. Cindylover1969

    April 23, 2010 at 7:59 pm

    “What an honour to have a whole day’s work ruined by him!”

    Unlike a lot of Billy and Joey’s shows of the ’70s, this holds up pretty well today. (Included in the writing credits at the end: William Raynor and Myles Wilder, the guys who wrote every other episode of “The Dukes Of Hazzard.” Be interesting to know which one they were more proud of…)

  2. The Haj

    November 29, 2013 at 1:10 pm

    Just bought the DVD for my nephew’s Christmas, BTW he got the original Scooby Doo, Where Are You? on DVD for his birthday. Bit worried by just how excited my brother was by that news. I have a feeling the nephew might not see much of it….

  3. Richardpd

    November 4, 2023 at 11:32 am

    Above average for H-B, though the Chinese stereotyping has probably limited it’s repeatability.

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