Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels
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| Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels | |
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| Genre | Animation |
| Created by | Joe Ruby Ken Spears |
| Directed by | Charles A. Nichols |
| Voices of | Mel Blanc Laurel Page Marilyn Schreffler Vernee Watson |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of episodes | 40 |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | William Hanna Joseph Barbera |
| Running time | 11 minutes per episode |
| Production company(s) | Hanna-Barbera Productions |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | ABC |
| Original run | September 10, 1977 – June 21, 1980 |
Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels is an animated series created by Joe Ruby and Ken Spears and produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions from September 10, 1977 to June 21, 1980 on ABC.
The first and second seasons were originally broadcast as segments on the package shows Scooby's All-Star Laff-A-Lympics and Scooby's All-Stars from 1977 to 1979 and the third season featured Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels in their own half-hour timeslot in 1980.
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Summary [edit]
Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels centers on the mystery-solving adventures of the Teen Angels—Brenda, Dee Dee and Taffy—and their friend Captain Caveman (or Cavey for short), a prehistoric caveman whom the girls discovered and thawed from a block of ice. The concept and general plot for the show was seen as a parody of Charlie's Angels (which also aired on ABC). It also borrowed heavily from other Hanna-Barbera shows such as Scooby-Doo and Josie and the Pussycats, among others. Captain Caveman was also on the "Scooby Doobies" team on Laff-a-Lympics.
Captain Caveman's powers include super-strength, a variety of useful objects hidden inside his fur, and a club that allows him to fly and from which pops out different tools he uses to fight crime. His trademark is his battle cry of "Captain CAAAAAVEMAAAAAAANNNN!" Captain Caveman's voice was provided by Mel Blanc.
The first and second seasons of the show remained part of Scooby's All-Star Laff-A-Lympics and Scooby's All-Stars through 1979. Cavey and the girls also participated in sporting competitions as part of "The Scooby Doobies" team on the half-hour "Laff-A-Lympics" segment. In March 1980, Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels were given their own half hour show with 16 new episodes combined with reruns from 1977–1979. A total of 40 11-minute episodes were produced (16 in 1977–1978, 8 in 1978–1979 and 16 in 1980).
Like many animated series created by Hanna-Barbera in the 1970s, the show contained an inferior laugh track created by the studio, one of their last productions to do so.
Main characters [edit]
Captain Caveman [edit]
Captain Caveman (voiced by Mel Blanc) is the main character of the show. He is a caveman who is thousands of years old (his exact age is never disclosed). He can pull various objects from his long body hair. He can also fly, but his flying power always seems to fail him at the worst possible moment. Sometimes he would attribute this mishap to an energy shortage ("Uh oh! Bad time for energy crisis." CRASH!), which was a pun on the gasoline rationing shortages of the late 1970s. He speaks in stereotypical "caveman-talk", replacing subject pronouns with their object equivalents and dropping articles such as "the" (for example, "Me know where bad guys are hiding."), and often mumbles the nonsense phrase "unga bunga". He also has a bad habit of occasionally eating large non-food objects in one gulp (i.e. bicycles, TV sets, safes, table lamps), and the Teen Angels occasionally have to stop him from eating potential clues that will help them to solve the mystery. Captain Caveman's family was introduced during his later stints as part of the Flinstones comedy show. These episodes however, have either not been shown or heavily edited when aired on the Boomerang Network due to incidents of domestic violence in scenes where Captain Caveman clubs his wife on the head. [1]
The Teen Angels [edit]
Dee Dee Skyes [edit]
Dee Dee Skyes (voiced by Vernee Watson) is the brains of the Teen Angels, is the group's sole African-American, and acts as their unofficial leader. Dee Dee and the rest of the Teen Angels found the frozen Captain Caveman and defrosted him. She wears her hair in an afro and usually wears a red turtleneck sweater with a blue skirt and red knee high boots. Both her dress style and her knack for solving mysteries make her similar to Velma Dinkley of Scooby Doo fame, while she also bears a resemblance to Valerie from Josie and the Pussycats.
Brenda Chance [edit]
Brenda Chance (voiced by Marilyn Schreffler) is a cowardly brunette who is always scared of the demons, monsters and phantoms that she encounters. She usually wears a pale pink top and a pair of hot pink flared trousers with a white belt.
Taffy Dare [edit]
Taffy Dare (voiced by Laurel Page) is the blonde member of the group, renowned for her cry of "Zowie!" whenever she comes up with a plan (or "Another Daffy Taffy Plan" as Brenda and Cavey would call it) to catch the culprits. In spite of her usually zany plans, Taffy is actually very capable and clever. She has the ability to sweet-talk Caveman into acting as bait for her plans to capture the culprit. She usually wears a green dress with matching shoes. It is revealed that Captain Caveman has a crush on her.
Opening and closing credits [edit]
The opening credits for each episode consisted of voice-over narration by Gary Owens:
Set free by the Teen Angels from his prehistoric block of glacier ice comes the world's first superhero, Captain Caveman! Now the constant companion to the Teen Angels—Brenda, Dee Dee and Taffy—in their hilarious, and sometimes scary mystery missions. Get ready for Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels!
The music heard in the closing credits is the CB Bears theme. After the first three screens, the end credit roll is from the original two-hour version of Scooby's All-Star Laff-A-Lympics.
Episodes [edit]
Season 1 (1977) [edit]
| No. | Title | Original airdate | Synopsis |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "The Kooky Case of the Cryptic Keys" | 1977 September 10 | |
| 2 | "The Mixed Up Mystery of Deadman's Reef" | 1977 September 17 | |
| 3 | "What a Flight for a Fright" | 1977 September 24 | |
| 4 | "The Creepy Case of the Creaky Charter Boat" | 1977 October 1 | |
| 5 | "Big Scare in the Big Top" | 1977 October 8 | |
| 6 | "Double Dribble Riddle" | 1977 October 15 | |
| 7 | "The Crazy Case of the Tell-Tale Tape" | 1977 October 22 | |
| 8 | "The Creepy Claw Caper" | 1977 October 29 | |
| 9 | "Cavey and the Kabuta Clue" | 1977 November 5 | |
| 10 | "Cavey and the Weirdo Wolfman" | 1977 November 12 | |
| 11 | "The Disappearing Elephant Mystery" | 1977 November 19 | |
| 12 | "The Fur Freight Fright" | 1977 November 26 | |
| 13 | "Ride 'em Caveman" | 1977 December 3 | |
| 14 | "The Strange Case of the Creature from Space" | 1977 December 10 | |
| 15 | "The Mystery Mansion Mix-Up" | 1977 December 17 | |
| 16 | "Playing Footsie with Bigfoot" | 1977 December 24 |
Season 2 (1978) [edit]
| No. | Title | Original airdate | Synopsis |
|---|---|---|---|
| 17 | "Disco Cavey" | 1978 September 9 | |
| 18 | "Muscle-Bound Cavey" | 1978 September 16 | |
| 19 | "Cavey's Crazy Car Caper" | 1978 September 23 | |
| 20 | "Cavey's Mexicali 500" | 1978 September 30 | |
| 21 | "Wild West Cavey" | 1978 October 7 | |
| 22 | "Cavey's Winter Carnival Caper" | 1978 October 14 | |
| 23 | "Cavey's Fashion Fiasco" | 1978 October 21 | |
| 24 | "Cavey's Missing Missile Miss-tery" | 1978 October 28 |
Season 3 (1980) [edit]
| No. | Title | Original airdate | Synopsis |
|---|---|---|---|
| 25 | "The Scarifying Seaweed Secret" | 1980 March 8 | |
| 26 | "The Dummy" | 1980 March 15 | |
| 27 | "Cavey and the Volcanic Villain" | 1980 March 22 | |
| 28 | "Prehistoric Panic" | 1980 March 29 | |
| 29 | "Cavey and the Baffling Buffalo Man" | 1980 April 5 | |
| 30 | "Dragonhead" | 1980 April 12 | |
| 31 | "Cavey and the Murky Mississippi Mystery" | 1980 April 19 | |
| 32 | "Old Cavey in New York" | 1980 April 26 | |
| 33 | "Cavey and the Albino Rhino" | 1980 May 3 | |
| 34 | "Kentucky Cavey" | 1980 May 10 | |
| 35 | "Cavey Goes to College" | 1980 May 17 | |
| 36 | "The Haunting of Hog Hollow" | 1980 May 24 | |
| 37 | "The Legend of Devil's Run" | 1980 May 31 | |
| 38 | "The Mystery of the Meandering Mummy" | 1980 June 7 | |
| 39 | "The Old Caveman and the Sea" | 1980 June 14 | |
| 40 | "Lights, Camera... Cavey!" | 1980 June 21 |
Later appearances [edit]
The Flintstone Comedy Show (1980–82) [edit]
In November 1980, Captain Caveman began to star in segments of his own on The Flintstone Comedy Show, one of many spin-offs of Hanna-Barbera's popular prime-time show The Flintstones, often in a role similar to that of Superman. Captain Caveman worked at The Daily Granite newspaper with Wilma Flintstone and Betty Rubble. His "secret identity" was Chester, the office boy. To disguise himself as Chester, Captain Caveman wore a pair of glasses and a tie. Despite the simplicity of his disguise, he required a coat rack and an elaborate transformation sequence to become Captain Caveman.
The Flintstone Kids (1986–88) [edit]
In 1986, Captain Caveman appeared in a backup segment of The Flintstone Kids called Captain Caveman and Son with his son, Cavey Jr. (voiced by Charles Adler). In this case he appeared on a show-within-a-show that the younger versions of Fred, Barney, Wilma, and Betty enjoyed watching; the Captain's mumbled "unga bunga" became a catchphrase that the kids would shout before watching each "episode" of the show. The show would involve a lesson the Flintstone kids were trying to learn in the prologue. The whole "secret identity" idea was also ignored or forgotten.
Other appearances [edit]
- A very similar pair of characters, the Slag Brothers, made an appearance in the earlier Hanna-Barbera series Wacky Races.
- In the Pinky and the Brain episode "The Luck of Pinky," Captain Caveman makes a cameo appearance as a small statue.
- Captain Caveman later appeared in the Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law episode "The Evolutionary War" with Captain Caveman voiced by Chris Edgerly and Cavey Jr. voiced by Maurice LaMarche. His son Cavey Jr. was teased at school because his existence proved the Theory of Evolution.
- Captain Caveman appeared in the Robot Chicken episode "Ban on the Fun" voiced by Breckin Meyer. In a segment that parodies the Laff-A-Lympics in the style of the Munich massacre, Captain Caveman and Shaggy Rogers confront Daisy Mayhem and Captain Caveman blows her up with the wrong club.
- Captain Caveman appeared as an enemy in the 8-bit computer game Renegade III: The Final Chapter.
- In the Halloween 2008 episode of Homestar Runner, Homsar disguises himself as Captain Caveman. He then exclaims "Daaa!! AaAah'm the Captain Caveman of the graveyard train!"
- In the Family Guy episode named "Perfect Castaway", Peter expresses how much he misses Captain Caveman, and vows that he will see him again once he gets off the island.
- Captain Caveman also makes a cameo appearance in an episode of Adventure Time with Finn and Jake where he is seen as a stuffed doll in Finn's room.
- Captain Caveman appears in the Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated episode "Mystery Solvers Club State Finals" voiced by Jim Cummings. He and the Teen Angels appear alongside other Hanna-Barbera detective teams in a fever dream of Scooby-Doo's. When the teenage sleuths are kidnapped by Lord Infernacus, it's up to their sidekicks to save them.
- FC Barcelona Skipper Carles Puyol is often nicknamed "Captain Caveman" by sections of the English-language international media on account of his shaggy long hair, rugged facial features and impetuous playing style.
- In Scooby-Doo! Mask of the Blue Falcon, there is someone that dresses up as Captain Caveman in a Hanna-Barbera convention.
Home media releases [edit]
A PAL videocassette of Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels containing 13 episodes was released only in Europe in 1997. The series is being restored for DVD release later in 2013 for the Hanna–Barbera Classics Collection through the Warner Archive Collection.[2]
References [edit]
- ^ "Programming Questions with Ryan Adams, Vice President Cartoon Network programming and Sceduling",Animation World Network, July 20, 2010
- ^ http://www.homemediamagazine.com/tv-dvd/warner-archive-revives-spirit-saturday-morning-cartoons-30099
External links [edit]
- Freddy Corven's Captain Caveman Page
- Captain Caveman at Don Markstein's Toonopedia. Archived from the original on April 9, 2012.
- Cartoon Legends' Captain Caveman
- Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels at Big Cartoon DataBase
- Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels at the Internet Movie Database
- Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels at TV.com
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- 1977 American television series debuts
- 1980 American television series endings
- 1970s American animated television series
- 1980s American animated television series
- American Broadcasting Company network shows
- Fictional captains
- Fictional characters with superhuman strength
- Fictional prehistoric characters
- The Flintstones characters
- Hanna-Barbera series and characters
- Hanna-Barbera superheroes
- Television spin-offs
- Superhero television programs
- Superhero comedy television series
- Prehistoric people in popular culture
- USA Cartoon Express
- Television series by Warner Bros. Television
