HONG KONG PHOOEY by the Hanna Barbera studio originally ran from September to December 1974, and consisted of 31 shorts packaged into 16 episodes. The title character was voiced by Scatman Cruthers, and Don Messick as his cat companion Spot.
The show revolved around a police station janitor, who in his alter ego as Hong Kong Phooey fought crimes with martial arts.It was a timely basis for a show considering the massive rise in popularity the two years before due to the success (and death) of Bruce Lee. The show and it's characters remain hugely popular to this day, and indeed Hanna Barbera would bring them back in various other shows over the years.
ESPISODE #2 with the shorts #3 IronHead The Robot and #4 Cotten Pickin Pocket Picker
1974 GIVE-A-SHOW story slides
1975 GIVE-A-SHOW story slides
a selection of 1970's merchandising:
Charlton Comics ran 9 issues of Hong Kong Phooey, cover dated May 1975 - November 1976.
In 1980 the shorts from the show were paired with the odd choice of Toho's Godzilla for the GODZILLA/HONG KONG PHOOEY HOUR, which ran from November 1980 to May 1981.
In 1995 the band Sublime covered the theme song , albeit with a bit of artistic license, for the cd "Saturday Morning: Cartoons Greatest Hits".
In 2006, the entire series was released on dvd.
and yet no Herculoids set...
ReplyDeletei believe HERCULOIDS has been offered as one of those "dvd-on-demand" sets, but i could be wrong.
ReplyDeleteprobably so, but why bother with DVDrs if you can record them yourself from TV?
ReplyDeleteanyway, there's way more action on those covers than there ever was in the show.
Whoa. That one comics story up there regarding "Superthief" was actually creepy. I mean really, REALLY creepy. :O
ReplyDeleteIt was actually like a spooky Twilight Zone episode or something; and even creepier, there was absolutely NO explanation given or offered at the end.
Brr.