Pac-Man (TV series)
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Pac-Man was a Saturday morning cartoon series produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions, which aired on ABC from September 1982 to December 1983. Based upon the Pac-Man arcade game by Namco, reruns are now shown occasionally on Boomerang.
The arcade game Pac-Land was based entirely on the cartoon. Also, the Tengen release of the original arcade game for the Nintendo Entertainment System features box art based on the cartoon.
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[edit] Overview
Pac-Man followed the adventures of the title character Pac-Man (voiced by Marty Ingels), his wife Mrs. Pepper Pac-Man (voiced by Barbara Minkus), and their son Baby-Pac (voiced by Russi Taylor; he is actually called "Pac-Baby" in this series). The family lives in Pac-Land, a place in which the geography and architecture seem to revolve primarily around spheres and sphere-like shapes. The Pac Family seems to spend a lot of their time outwitting their only known enemies, the "Ghost-Monsters:" Blinky, who was constantly nervous (voiced by Chuck McCann), Pinky, the hardcore street thug ghost (also voiced by Chuck McCann), Inky, the requisite dumb one of the group (voiced by Barry Gordon), Clyde, the official leader (voiced by Neilson Ross), and Sue, the only female (voiced by Susan Silo). Their leader is Mezmeron (voiced by Allan Lurie), a mysterious Darth Vader-esque figure whose sole mission in life is to obtain the "Power Pellets" which give Pac-Man and the other inhabitants of Pac-Land their chomping abilities. (This should actually not be that difficult a task; Power Pellets are found nearly everywhere in Pac-Land, and serve as the deus ex machina in nearly every episode, as they just happen to be found where the Ghost-Monsters have the Pac Family cornered.)
[edit] Common themes
For whatever reason, nearly everything in Pac-Land takes the shape of a sphere (or is round, at the very least). Everything from natural backgrounds to houses to cars to animals and even (or especially) the people assume the form of a ball.
Another recurring theme is the common use of "Pac-" as a prefix for verbs and famous or common existing nouns (an example: Pac-Hollywood, a town famous for its film studios). This is reminiscent of The Smurfs or The Snorks, both animated series which replaced or altered several existing words with "Smurf" or "Snork," respectively.
Power Pellets (which were previously called "power pills", or "energizers") seem to be the focal point of nearly every episode, as Mezmeron and the Ghost-Monsters are intent upon finding them. In actuality, Power Pellets are plentiful and easy to find around Pac-Land. Although their primary purpose appears to be enabling the Pac-people to "chomp" Ghost-Monsters, Power Pellets also seem to be the staple of their diet.
It's interesting to note that when Pac-Man (or any other Pac-person, or Pac-animal) eats a power pellet, instead of turning blue (like in the video game series) the "Ghost-Monsters" (known as simply "monsters" in the original arcade game, and as simply "ghosts" in the Atari 2600 version) turn "purple with panic" after which they make an obvious note of their situation ("P-P-P-P-P-Pac Power!").
Other changes from the video games include the following:
- Super Pac-Man (voiced by Lorenzo Music) is portrayed as a separate character who lives in a parallel dimension (and is called "Super-Pac").
- Clyde is the 'head' ghost-monster, instead of Blinky (who is the first one out of the monster pen at the beginning of each level in the games); this is probably a reference to "Clyde" of the Ant Hill Mob from Wacky Races, another Hanna-Barbera series. Considering the gangster persona applied to Clyde and somewhat to Sue, Clyde may have been made the leader as a reference to Bonnie and Clyde (with Sue fitting the bill for Bonnie).
- Ms. Pac-Man is called "Pepper".
- When the ghosts catch up to Pac-Man in the early episodes, they trap him and "eat his skeleton". The result left Pac Man as a desheveled version of himself sans skeleton. It was a pretty creepy visual for the predominantly young audience and in future episodes, Pac-Man just appeared beat up rather than internally gobbled.
- Sue (the only female ghost-monster) is now a separate character. In Ms. Pac-Man, Sue replaced Clyde in an attempt to give Ms. Pac-Man a rival of her own.
