Popeye the Sailor (1960s TV series)

Popeye the Sailor is an animated TV series produced for ABC through King Features Syndicate that ran from 1960 to 1962 for 220 episodes. Episodes are grouped by production studios: Larry Harmon Pictures, Rembrandt Films/Halas and Batchelor, Gerald Ray Studios, Jack Kinney Productions and Paramount Cartoon Studios. The executive producer of the series was Al Brodax.

Production

In the late 1950s, the original Popeye theatrical shorts released by Paramount Studios from 1933 to 1957 began airing in many television markets and garned huge ratings.^[1] King Features Syndicate, who owned the print rights to the "Popeye" name, did not earn any money from the syndication of the Paramount theatrical Popeye films, and so they decided the best way to capitalize on Popeye's television popularity was to commission a new series of made-for-television Popeye cartoons — and fast.^[2] Al Brodax served as executive producer of the cartoons for King Features' then-newly created TV production and distribution division (now known today as Hearst Entertainment, named after King Features' parent company, the Hearst Corporation). Jack Mercer, Mae Questel and Jackson Beck returned for this series, which was produced by several different animation companies:

• Jack Kinney Productions
• Rembrandt Films (William L. Snyder and Gene Deitch)
• Larry Harmon Productions
• Halas and Batchelor

Famous Studios, who produced the theatrical entries from 1941 to 1957, also returned, although by this point they had been renamed Paramount Cartoon Studios.

The series was produced using the limited animation technique, whose production values contrasted sharply to their Popeye theatrical counterparts. The artwork was streamlined, simplified for television budgets, and the entries were completed at a breakneck pace. 220 made-for-television cartoons were produced in two years; in contrast, 231 theatrical cartoons were produced in 24 years.^[1]

Several minor changes were made for the characters. Though World War II had ended 15 years prior, Popeye still retained his white Navy uniform. Olive Oyl's appearance was a hybrid of different incarnations; while her outfit reverted to the Fleischer years of a red turtleneck, long black dress and huge shoes, her hair retained the 1950s makeover initiated by Famous Studios. The biggest change was to Bluto, whose name was changed to "Brutus." At the time, King Features believed that Paramount owned the rights to the name "Bluto." King Features actually owned the name, as Bluto had been originally created for the comic strip; however, due to a lack of thorough research, they failed to realize this and reinvented him as Brutus to avoid supposed copyright problems.^[2] Realizing their mistake, King Features began to promote Brutus as an entirely new character. His demeanor was altered slightly and his physical appearance was changed from being muscular to morbidly obese. In addition, the sailor/Navy uniform was replaced with an enormous blue shirt and black pants.^[2]

Many entries lifted storylines directly from the comic strip, resulting in the inclusion of many characters not seen in the theatrical releases, including the Sea Hag, Toar, Rough House and King Blozo.^[1] Like their theatrical counterparts, the made-for-television series was also a big ratings success. Popeye the Sailor aired in syndication in the US well into the 1990s. Notably, the 1960s shorts would mark the final time Mae Questel would voice Olive Oyl.

List of episodes

Larry Harmon Pictures

• Muskels Shmuskels - Popeye runs afoul of circus heavyweight Brutus.
• Hoppy Jalopy
• Dead-Eye Popeye
• Mueller's Mad Monster
• Caveman Capers - Popeye remembers his prehistoric ancestor's discovery of spinach
• Bullfighter Bully
• Ace of Space
• College of Hard Knocks
• Abominable Snowman
• Ski-Jump Chump
• Irate Pirate
• Foola-Foola Bird
• Uranium on the Cranium - Popeye and Brutus race to an island containing uranium
• Two-Faced Paleface
• Childhood Daze
• Sheepish Sheep-Herder - Popeye and his Pappy clash with rustlers
• Track Meet Cheat
• Crystal Ball Brawl - Brutus tries to steal a crystal ball in Popeye's possession

Rembrandt Films/Halas and Batchelor

• Interrupted Lullaby
• Sea No Evil
• From Way Out
• Seeing Double
• Swee'pea Soup - King Blozo's subjects demand that he step down and install Swee'pea as King
• Hag Way Robbery
• The Lost City of Bubble-on
• There's No Space Like Home
• Potent Lotion
• Astro-Nut
• Goon with the Wind
• Insultin' the Sultan
• Dog-Gone Dog-Catcher
• Voice from the Deep Or See Here, Sea Hag
• Matinée Idol Popeye
• Beaver or Not
• The Billionaire - take-off on the TV series The Millionaire
• Model Muddle
• Which Is Witch
• Disguise the Limit
• Spoil Sport
• Have Time, Will Travel
• Intellectual Interlude
• Partial Post
• Weight for Me - Depressed over a lengthy tour by Popeye and Brutus, Olive eats herself to grotesque shape
• Canine Caprice
• Roger
• Tooth Be or Not Tooth Be

Gerald Ray Studios

• Where There's a Will - Brutus and Popeye are co-beneficiaries in a will
• Take It Easel - Artist Popeye literally paints his Spinach to save the day
• I Bin Sculped - Olive the artist is sculpting a statue personifying weakness and exhaustion
• Fleas a Crowd
• Popeye's Junior Headache - Popeye has more than he can take with Olive's mischievous niece
• Egypt Us
• The Big Sneeze
• The Last Resort
• Jeopardy Sheriff
• Baby Phase

Jack Kinney Productions

• Battery Up - Olive Oyl is Popeye's biggest baseball fan
• Deserted Desert
• Skinned Divers - Popeye looks for sunken treasure and encounters a mermaid who resembles Olive Oyl
• Popeye's Service Station - Brutus flirts with Olive Oyl in the title setting, much to pump jockey Popeye's chagrin.
• Coffee House - Brutus introduces Olive to beatnik culture in the title setting; Popeye follows.
• Popeye's Pep-Up Emporium - Popeye subjects Olive and Wimpy to rugged exercise drills
• Bird Watcher Popeye - Olive coerces Popeye to take up bird watching
• Time Marches Backward
• Popeye's Pet Store
• Ballet de Spinach
• Sea Hagracy
• Spinach Shortage - Brutus corners the spinach market
• Popeye and the Dragon
• Popeye the Fireman
• Popeye's Pizza Palace - Brutus insists on ordering a tamale pizza
• Down the Hatch
• Lighthouse Keeping
• Popeye and the Phantom - Popeye and Olive gets into a struggle with a mischievous shape-shifting ghost
• Popeye's Picnic
• Out of This World
• Madame Salami - Brutus disguises himself as the title character, a fortune teller
• Timber Toppers
• Skyscraper Capers
• Private Eye Popeye (also the name of a 1954 Popeye theatrical cartoon)
• Little Olive Riding Hood - take off on Little Red Riding Hood
• Popeye's Hypnotic Glance
• Popeye's Trojan Horse
• Frozen Feuds - After Alaska becomes the 49th state, a senator promises to rid his constituency of a wandering Goon
• Popeye's Corn-Certo
• Westward Ho-Ho
• Popeye's Cool Pool - Popeye digs a swimming pool
• Jeep Jeep
• Popeye's Museum Piece
• Golf Brawl
• Wimpy's Lunch Wagon
• Weather Watchers
• Popeye and the Magic Hat
• Popeye and the Giant - Brutus ingests Wimpy with growth pills, causing Wimpy to grow to freakish proportions
• Hill-Billy-Dilly
• Pest of the Pecos
• The Blubbering Whaler
• Popeye and the Spinach Stalk - take-off on Jack and the Beanstalk
• Shoot the Chutes
• Tiger Burger
• Bottom Gun
• Olive Drab and the Seven Sweapeas - take-off on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
• Blinkin' Beacon
• Aztec Wreck
• The Green Dancin' Shoes - Olive puts on the title objects, and can't stop dancing
• Spare Dat Tree
• The Glad Gladiator
• The Golden Touch
• Hamburger Fishing
• Popeye the Popular Mechanic
• Popeye's Folly
• Popeye's Used Car
• Spinachonara
• Popeye and the Polite Dragon - A dragon magically pops out of a storybook that Popeye is reading to Swee'pea
• Popeye the Ugly Ducklin - take off on The Ugly Duckling
• Popeye's Tea Party
• The Troll Wot Got Gruff - take off on The Three Billy Goats Gruff
• Popeye the Lifeguard - Olive is jealous of the attention Popeye gets as a lifeguard
• Popeye in the Woods
• After the Ball Went Over - Popeye tries to outsmart Brutus at table tennis
• Popeye and Buddy Brutus
• Popeye's Car Wash
• Camel Aires
• Plumbers Pipe Dream - Popeye tries to fix a leak in Olive's apartment
• Popeye and the Herring Snatcher - Popeye runs afoul of a fish thief
• Invisible Popeye
• The Square Egg
• Old Salt Tale - Popeye fancifully explains to Swee'pea why the ocean is salty
• Jeep Tale - take-off on Peter Rabbit
• The Super Duper Market - Brutus's store is so big one man gets lost in it for 15 years
• Golden-Type Fleece - Popeye and company in ancient Greek roles.
• Popeye the White Collar Man
• Swee'pea Thru the Looking Glass - take-off on Alice Through the Looking Glass
• The Black Knight
• Jingle Jangle Jungle
• The Day Silky Went Blozo
• Rip van Popeye
• Mississippi Sissy - Popeye, Olive, Brutus and Wimpy participate in a riverboat mystery
• Double Cross Country Feet Race - Popeye and Brutus compete in a foot race for a date with Olive
• Fashion Fotography - Olive wants to be a fashion model
• I Yam Wot I Yamnesia - Popeye and Swee'pea, and Olive and Whimpy switch personalities through amnesia
• Paper Pasting Pandemonium - Popeye and Brutus are given one hour to paper Olive's house before company arrives
• Coach Popeye
• Popeyed Columbus
• Popeye Revere
• Popeye in HaweYe - Rival tour guides Popeye and Brutus vie for Olive's business in Hawaii.
• Forever Ambergris
• Popeye De Leon
• Popeyed Fisherman
• Popeye in the Grand Steeplechase
• Uncivil War
• Popeye the Piano Mover
• Popeye's Testimonial Dinner
• Around the World in Eighty Ways
• Popeye's Fixit Shop
• Bell Hop Popeye
• Barbecue for Two** - Popeye clashes with uninvited Brutus, Wimpy and Swee'pea over a barbecue

• • - this cartoon used stock music from Winston Sharples

Paramount Cartoon Studios

• Hits and Missiles - Popeye must rescue cheese denizens of the moon
• Seer-Ring Is Believer-Ring - Olive purchases a ring that belongs of a mystic
• The Ghost Host
• Strikes, Spares An' Spinach
• Jeep Is Jeep
• The Spinach Scholar - Olive insists that the illiterate, uneducated Popeye enroll in Grammar School.
• Psychiatricks - Brutus tricks Popeye into a psychology session
• Rags to Riches to Rags
• Hair Cut-ups
• Poppa Popeye
• Quick Change Ollie - Popeye and Wimpy go back in time to the "ollie days" thanks to the Whiffle Bird
• The Valley of the Goons - Popeye must help The Goons defeat pirates
• Me Quest for Poopdeck Pappy - Popeye seeks his long-lost father
• Mopey Hick
• Mirror Magic
• It Only Hurts When They Laughs - Olive forces Popeye and Brutus to laugh their way to friendship
• Wimpy the Moocher - Wimpy pulls off an audacious con on short order cook Rough House
• Voo-Doo to You Too - The Sea Hag turns Olive into a zombie and freezes Popeye with a voodoo doll
• Popeye Goes Sale-ing - Olive drags Popeye into a nasty department store sale
• Popeye's Travel - Take-off on Gulliver's Travels
• Incident at Missile City - King Blozo's kingdom comes under attack from a city of missiles
• Dog Catcher Popeye
• What's News
• Spinach Greetings
• The Baby Contest
• Oil's Well That Ends Well - Brutus cons Olive into purchasing a seemingly dry oil well
• Motor Knocks
• Amusement Park
• Duel to the Finish
• Gem Jam - The Sea Hag entraps Olive with a cursed perfume which turns her to a gem thief
• Bathing Beasts
• The Rain Breaker
• Messin' Up the Mississippi
• Love Birds
• Sea Serpent
• Boardering on Trouble
• Aladdin's Lamp - The Sea Hag acquires a magic lamp
• Butler Up- Popeye must act as Olive Oyl's butler
• The Leprechaun - Sea Hag steals Irish gold
• County Fair
• Hamburgers Aweigh - Sea Hag tries to hijack Popeye's ship
• Popeye's Double Trouble - Popeye sees two Olives thanks to Sea Hag's magic
• Kiddie Kapers
• The Mark of Zero - Popeye tells his niece Diesel a story about a swashbuckling swordsman
• Myskery Melody - Poopdeck Pappy is hypnotized by a haunting flute melody
• Scairdy Cat
• Operation Ice-Tickle
• The Cure
• William Won't Tell
• Pop Goes the Whistle
• Autographically Yours - Popeye and Brutus compete for the affection of a young movie fan
• A Poil for Olive Oyl - Sea Hag tries to foil Popeye's exploration of a pearl area
• My Fair Olive
• Giddy Gold - The Whiffle Bird turns a Tunnel Of Love into a genuine gold mine
• Strange Things Are Happening
• The Medicine Man
• A Mite of Trouble
• Who's Kiddin' Zoo
• Robot Popeye - Brutus builds a robot double of Popeye
• Sneaking Peeking
• The Wiffle Bird's Revenge - The Whiffle Bird turns Wimpy into a vicious werewolf
• Going...Boing...Gone
• Popeye Thumb

VHS

In 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000 or 2001, Popeyes Chicken & Biscuits owned most of the 1960s Popeye cartoons on VHS, which in includes its first promo of the fast food chain, followed by the shorts (The first short is "Popeye and the Phantom"). After the cartoons, it also features its second promo and two bonus shorts "Olive Drab and the Seven Sweapeas", and "The Baby Contest".

DVD

In 2004, Family Home Entertainment released the 4 1960s cartoons on the DVD release of "Popeye's Voyage: The Quest for Pappy". The shorts included "Spinach Greetings" (Classic Christmas Episode), "Popeye in the Grand Steeple Chase", "Valley of the Goons", and "William Won't Tell". 85 of the 1960s Popeye cartoons were released on DVD by Koch Vision in a three-disc DVD set entitled Popeye's 75th Anniversary. Warner Archive Collection will re-release the cartoons. The first volume was released on May 7, 2013. Most of the cartoons to be released were produced by Paramount Cartoon Studios,^[3] which are included in the first volume.

See also

• Popeye
• List of Popeye the Sailor theatrical cartoons (Fleischer Studios) (1933 – 1942)
• List of Popeye the Sailor theatrical cartoons (Famous Studios) (1942 – 1957)
• The All-New Popeye Hour (1978 – 1981, CBS; produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions)
• The Popeye and Olive Show (1981 – 1983), CBS; produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions)
• Popeye and Son (1987, CBS; produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions)
• The Popeye Show (2001 - 2003, Cartoon Network)

References

External links

• Hearst Entertainment's official page for the series (Identified as both "Original Popeye" and "Classic Popeye")
• Popeye the Sailor at the Internet Movie Database