SATURDAY SUPERCADE CARTOONS
There was nothing better than sitting down with a bowl of cereal(or 2, or 3) on a Saturday morning in the 80s, and watching 4 to 5 hours of awesome cartoons! Now, there were so many different types of cartoons to pick from. You had your superhero classic shows like Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends to Challenge of the Super Friends. You also had pop culture figure based character shows like Mr. T, Hulk Hogan’s Rock and Wrestling and the Karate Kid. Even Laverne&Shirley to Fonzie from Happy Days had their own shows! All were great, and I watched and loved all of them. But one lineup of cartoons stood out to me that debuted in 1983. The Saturday Supercade cartoon had segments of your favorite and most popular arcade game characters of the time! The show consisted of 2 seasons which ran from September 27, 1983 through December 1, 1984. Each show had a running time of approximately 32-43 minutes with each segment getting around 10-13 minutes. All in all there was a total of 26 episodes and 97 segments. Season 1 had episodes and segments with the following characters: Frogger, Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr., Q-Bert and Pitfall Harry. During Season 2, Frogger and Donkey Kong stayed in the lineup, while Donkey Kong Jr., Q-Bert and Pitfall Harry were replaced by Space Ace and Kangaroo.
SEASON 1:
DONKEY KONG: Donkey Kong (voiced by Soupy Sales) has escaped from the circus. He is on the lam, and Mario (voiced by Peter Cullen) and Pauline (voiced by Judy Strangis) are chasing the ape. As with the original game, Donkey Kong will often grab Pauline, and Mario has to save her. It must be noted that Pauline’s portrayal as Mario’s niece is an original Ruby-Spears concept. It is not a part of Nintendo’s official canon, in which Pauline is Mario’s girlfriend.
FROGGER: Frogger (voiced by Bob Sarlatte) is an ace reporter of the swamp who works at the Swamp Gazette. He and his friends Shellshock “Shelly” Turtle (voiced by Marvin Kaplan) and Fanny Frog (voiced by B.J. Ward) go out in search of crazy stories (sometimes about human behavior) to publish in the swamp’s newspapers. Frogger also has to deal with his gruff boss Tex Toadwalker (voiced by Ted Field Sr.). As in the game, he often gets flattened or has an encounter with an alligator.
DONKEY KONG JR: Donkey Kong Jr. (voiced by Frank Welker) is sad to find that his father is running away from Mario and the circus. He befriends a greaser nicknamed “Bones” (voiced by Bart Braverman) who has a motorcycle and offers to help Junior by finding his dad together. Donkey Kong Jr’s catchphrase is “Monkey muscle!”, which he tells to himself and Bones to inspire self-confidence. Bones often serves as the voice of reason when Donkey Kong Jr. bites off more than he can chew.
Q-BERT: In a 1950s inspired world set in the town of Q*Berg, a teenage fur-covered creature named Q*Bert (voiced by Billy Bowles), his girlfriend Q*Tee (voiced by Robbie Lee), his brother Q*Bit (voiced by Dick Beals), and his friends Q*Ball (voiced by Frank Welker), Q*Val (voiced by Robbie Lee), and Q*Mongus (voiced by Frank Welker) must deal with the resident bullies Coily, Ugg, Wrong Way (all three voiced by Frank Welker), and Viper (voiced by Julie McWhirter). Features both “block-hopping” scenes, “swearing” bubbles and occasional flying disc, all from the original game. New to the cartoon was Q*Bert’s use of “slippy-doos”, a black ball projectile which he loaded and fired through his nose, producing an oil slick wherever the balls splattered. Slick and Sam (both voiced by Frank Welker) are also featured.
PITFALL: Pitfall Harry (voiced by Robert Ridgely), his niece Rhonda (voiced by Noelle North), and their cowardly pet Quick Claw the Mountain Lion (voiced by Kenneth Mars) explore jungles for hidden treasures, having many different adventures along the way.
SEASON 2
SPACE ACE: Space Ace (Jim Piper) is the always smiling self-confident champion of the “Space Command”, whereas when always ‘wimping out’ to Dexter (Sparky Marcus) after being hit by the Infanto-Ray, he becomes clumsy and weak. With officer Kimberly (voiced by Nancy Cartwright), he works for Space Marshall Vaughn (voiced by Peter Renaday) to keep the peace in the universe. They fight the evil alien commander Borf (voiced by Arthur Burghardt) and keep him from invading Earth. Ace and Kim try to keep his ‘wimping’ situation secret and pretend that Dexter is Kim’s little brother.
KANGAROO: Joey Kangaroo (voiced by David Mendenhall), his mother Katy (voiced by Mea Martineau) and Sidney Squirrel (voiced by Marvin Kaplan) must stop the four meddlesome monkeys called the Monkeybiz Gang (voiced by both Pat Fraley and Frank Welker) from making trouble at the local zoo, usually by trying to escape. An interesting note is that the monkeys’ names (Bingo, Bango, Bongo, and Fred) are based on the names of the ghosts from Pac-Man.
SATURDAY SUPERCADE INTRO:
So there you have it! This series always stands out to me for 2 reasons. I loved Saturday Morning Cartoons and going to the arcade and playing these games. The only game that escapes me from this lineup was Space Ace. I never remember playing it. Go and check these episodes out on YouTube. I think they’re all pretty fun and entertaining!
All summaries and episodes for each of the shows are courtesy of https://saturdaysupercade.fandom.com