Jabberjaw

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Jabberjaw
Jabberjaw.png
Jabberjaw title card.
Genre Animation
Comedy
Created by Joe Ruby
Ken Spears
Directed by Charles A. Nichols
Voices of Tommy Cook
Barry Gordon
Julie McWhirter
Pat Parris
Frank Welker
Country of origin United States
Language(s) English
No. of episodes 16
Production
Executive producer(s) William Hanna
Joseph Barbera
Producer(s) Alex Lovy
Running time 30 minutes
Production company(s) Hanna-Barbera Productions
Broadcast
Original channel ABC
Audio format Mono
Original run September 11, 1976 – September 3, 1978

Jabberjaw is a 30-minute Saturday morning animated series created by Joe Ruby and Ken Spears and produced by Hanna-Barbera and aired from September 11, 1976 to September 3, 1978 on ABC.

Contents

[edit] Premise

Per a great deal of Hanna-Barbera's output in the 1970s, the format and writing for Jabberjaw was similar to that for Scooby-Doo,[1] Josie and the Pussycats and Speed Buggy. The show also drew inspiration (in the use of a shark as a character) from the overall shark mania of the 1970s[2] and the then-recent film Jaws. It also shared The Flintstones' penchant for making use of puns as the names of locations, people, etc., in this case, ocean-themed puns (such as "Aqualaska" instead of Alaska).

Sixteen 30-minute episodes of Jabberjaw were produced, which aired on ABC Saturday Morning from September 11, 1976 to September 3, 1977 and rebroadcast for a second season of reruns on Sunday Morning from September 11, 1977 to September 3, 1978. In the 1980s, repeats resurfaced on USA network's Cartoon Express and in the 1990s on Cartoon Network and Boomerang. This is one of a number of shows made before the mid-1980s seen on the Cartoon Network and Boomerang to have been taken from PAL prints.

Like most Saturday morning animated series' of the era, Jabberjaw contained a laugh track.

For details on the Hanna-Barbera-created laugh track, see Hanna Barbera laugh track.

[edit] Plot

Jabberjaw is a 15-foot anthropomorphic great white shark. He is a drummer for The Neptunes, a rock group made up of four teenagers — Biff, Shelly, Bubbles and Clamhead — who live in an underwater civilization in the year 2076. Jabberjaw and The Neptunes travel to various underwater cities where they encounter and deal with diabolical villains who want to conquer the undersea world.

[edit] Characters

Jabberjaw and The Neptunes. Counterclockwise: Jabberjaw (drums), Bubbles (keyboard), Biff (guitar), Shelly (tambourine) and Clamhead (bass guitar).
  • Shelly (voiced by Pat Parris) - Shelly is a dark-haired young woman who plays tambourine for The Neptunes. Shelly is intelligent, haughty and abrasive (like Josie and the Pussycats' Alexandra) and while she holds a great deal of contempt for Jabberjaw (or "blubberhead" as she calls him), she does have some fondness for him deep down and occasionally shows it. Also, she's sometimes irritated by Bubbles' idiocy.
  • Bubbles (voiced by Julie McWhirter) - Bubbles is a blonde-haired young woman who plays keyboard for The Neptunes. She is extremely ditzy and dimwitted, has a cute giggle, similar to Josie and the Pussycats' Melody. Shelly sometimes nicknames her "Ding-a-Ling" or "Bubblehead". Her voice and mannerisms are similar to Gracie Allen, wife of George Burns. Whenever she volunteers to help, she ends up messing it up.
  • Clamhead (voiced by Barry Gordon) - Clamhead is a young man who plays bass for The Neptunes. His catchphrases are crying out "Abba-abba-abba!" and "Wowee-wow-wow!" whenever he gets excited. Clamhead is Jabberjaw's best friend, and bears a strong resemblance to Scooby-Doo's Shaggy, Speed Buggy's Tinker and to Josie and the Pussycats' Alexander.

[edit] Broadcast history

Original ABC broadcast:

  • Telecast: ABC Saturday Morning September 11, 1976 - September 3, 1977
  • Retelecast: ABC Sunday Morning September 11, 1977 - September 3, 1978

Broadcast schedules (all EDT):

  • September 1976 - November 1976, ABC Saturday 9:00-9:30 am
  • December 1976 - September 1977, ABC Saturday 8:30-9:00 am
  • September 1977 - September 1978, ABC Sunday 10:30-11:00 am

[edit] Episodes

№ Title Airdate Production Code Synopsis
JBJ-1 "Dr. Lo Has Got to Go" 1976 September 11 84-1
JBJ-2 "There's No Place Like Outer Space" 1976 September 18 84-2
JBJ-3 "Atlantis, Get Lost" 1976 September 25 84-4
JBJ-4 "Run, Jabber, Run" 1976 October 2 84-3
JBJ-5 "The Sourpuss Octopuss" 1976 October 9 84-5
JBJ-6 "Hang Onto Your Hat, Jabber" 1976 October 16 84-6
JBJ-7 "The Great Shark Switch" 1976 October 23 84-7
JBJ-8 "Claim-Jumped Jabber" 1976 October 30 84-8
JBJ-9 "Ali Jabber and the Secret Thieves" 1976 November 6 84-9
JBJ-10 "Help, Help, It's the Phantom of the Kelp" 1976 November 13 84-10
JBJ-11 "No Helpin' the Sculpin'" 1976 November 20 84-11
JBJ-12 "The Bermuda Triangle Tangle" 1976 November 25 * 84-12
JBJ-13 "Malice in Aqualand" 1976 November 27 84-13
JBJ-14 "The Fast-Paced Chase Race" 1976 December 4 84-14
JBJ-15 "The Piranha Plot" 1976 December 11 84-16
JBJ-16 "There's No Heel Like El Eel" 1976 December 18 84-15

* Telecast at Noon (EST), Thursday afternoon, November 25, 1976, as part of ABC's Thanksgiving Funshine Festival.

[edit] Yogi's Space Race (1978-79)

Main article: Yogi's Space Race

In 1978, Jabberjaw was featured in a new NBC Saturday morning program called Yogi's Space Race, in which he participated in intergalactic racing competitions with Yogi Bear, Huckleberry Hound and several new characters. Jabber's racing partner was a lazy bloodhound named Buford (from The Buford Files of Buford and the Galloping Ghost).

[edit] Cartoon Groovie

A music video, known as a Cartoon Groovie, for Jabberjaw airs on Cartoon Network and Boomerang featuring a short story with the Jabberjaw characters animated in 3D escaping a lunch box decal and waging battle with evil robots and an eel. The Punk Rock-inspired song is performed by the band Pain.

The track was released in 1999 on 7" EP, and 2007 on CD-EP, by independent record label Springman Records.

[edit] Other appearances

Outside of his own TV series, Jabberjaw also appeared in comic books such as this issue of Cartoon Network Presents #23, from 1999.
  • Jabberjaw made some comic book appearances. Such as Laff-A-Lympics issues #10 and #12 in 1978 and 1979. Hanna Barbera Presents #6 in 1995, and Cartoon Network Presents #23 in 1999.
  • Jabberjaw made a guest appearance in the Adult Swim animated television series Sealab 2021 in the episode, "Return of Marco" (2004), where he was one of the many sharks impaled with spears by the underwater cave tribe called The Snarkells.
  • Jabberjaw appeared later still in sporadic appearances on Cartoon Network's Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law (2002) where the Neptunes were accused of stealing Shouyu Weanie's (portrayed by the Chan Clan) song. It is also referenced that in the late 1990s, Jabberjaw was briefly engaged to budding filmmaker Madeline Austin-Kulat. In this show, Frank Welker reprises his role of Jabberjaw and also voices Biff. Clamhead made another appearance in the episode "Identity Theft" where he was voiced by Steven Blum.
  • Jabberjaw also appeared on Cartoon Network (and later Boomerang) in a music video set to Pain's "Jabberjaw (Running Underwater)" with Jabberjaw and The Neptunes portrayed as a ska band, with the group dressed in modern clothing. In this version, Biff is the lead guitar and singer wearing a bowling shirt and jeans, Shelly is now dressed in a tank top and jeans and plays rhythm guitar & assists on vocals, Bubbles is dressed in a black top with a Catholic schoolgirl-style skirt and Mary Jane shoes and still plays the keyboard, and Clamhead is dressed in a modern version of what he wore in the original series and plays the trumpet & also assists on vocals. Jabberjaw still plays the drums and has a goatee and a nose ring.
  • Jabberjaw appears in the Scooby Doo special Night of the Living Doo, trying to take out the gang in order to get his respect.
  • Jabberjaw makes a cameo in the Johnny Bravo episode "Johnny Goes Hollywood".
  • Jabberjaw and his team appear in the Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated episode The Mystery Solvers State Finals alongside other Hanna-Barbera mystery teams in a fever dream of Scooby-Doo's. This time, Jabberjaw was unable to breathe on land without being moisturized. Frank Welker reprised the role of Jabberjaw.

[edit] Merchandising

In 1977-1979, merchandising for Jabberjaw included:

Jabberjaw and the Neptunes
Jabberjaw Does It Again

In 1977, a comic book series was originally scheduled by Charlton Comics but was later cancelled; however, in France, Jabberjaw was featured in comic books under his French language name Mantalo (1978).

In July 1988, a Jabberjaw videocassette was released by Worldvision Home Video:

  • Hanna-Barbera Presents Jabberjaw (1988) contains 4 episodes:
1. Dr. Lo Has Got to Go
2. There's No Place Like Outer Space
3. The Sourpuss Octopuss
4. The Great Shark Switch
(c) 1988 Worldvision Enterprises, Inc.

In April 2005, a Jabberjaw wacky wobbler bobblehead doll was released by Funko.

[edit] DVD release

On February 15, 2011, Warner Home Video released Jabberjaw: The Complete Series on DVD in region 1 via their Warner Archive Collection. This is a Manufacture-on-Demand (MOD) release, available exclusively through Warner's online store and only in the US.[4]

[edit] Jabberjaw in other languages

[edit] References

  1. ^ Crandol, Michael (1999). "The History of Animation: Advantages and Disadvantages of the Studio System in the Production of an Art Form". Digital Media FX. Joe Tracy. http://www.digitalmediafx.com/Features/animationhistory.html. Retrieved 2009-01-31. 
  2. ^ Mallory, Michael (1998). Hanna-Barbera Cartoons. Warner Bros., Hugh Lauter Levin Associates Inc.. ISBN 0-88363-108-3. 
  3. ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1RCplpVaQ0&t=19s
  4. ^ http://www.wbshop.com/Jabberjaw-197677-TV/1000191201,default,pd.html?cgid=NEW

[edit] External links
Films
Jaws (1975) • Jaws 2 (1978) • Jaws 3-D (1983) • Jaws: The Revenge (1987)
Video games
Related articles
The Flintstones
Tom and Jerry
Scooby-Doo
The Jetsons
Yogi Bear and Huckleberry Hound
Quick Draw McGraw
The Smurfs
Magilla Gorilla
Peter Potamus
Jonny Quest
Space Ghost
Wacky Races
Top Cat
Atom Ant and Secret Squirrel
The Hanna-Barbera New Cartoon Series
Grape Ape
Other
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The New Casper Cartoon Show (1963-1970) • The Smokey the Bear Show • The Cattanooga Cats Show (1969-1971) • Hot Wheels (1969-1971) • The Hardy Boys (1969-1971) • Skyhawks (1969-1971) • The Adventures of Gulliver (1968-1970) • Fantastic Voyage (1968-1970) • Will the Real Jerry Lewis Please Sit Down (1970-1972) • The Road Runner Show • The Funky Phantom (1971–1973) • The Jackson 5ive (1971–1973) • The Osmonds (1972-1974) • The ABC Saturday Superstar Movie (1972-1974) • The Brady Kids (1972–1974) • Kid Power (1972-1974) • Yogi's Gang (1973-1975) • Super Friends • Lassie's Rescue Rangers (1973-1975) • Goober and the Ghost Chasers (1973) • Mission: Magic! (1973-1974) • Hong Kong Phooey (1974-1976) • The New Adventures of Gilligan (1974-1977) • Devlin (1974-1976) • These Are the Days (1974-1976) • The Tom and Jerry Show (1975-1977) • The Great Grape Ape Show (1975-1976) • The Oddball Couple (1975-1977) • Jabberjaw (1976-1978) • The Scooby-Doo/Dynomutt Hour • The Mumbly Cartoon Show (1976-1977) • The All-New Super Friends Hour • Scooby's All-Star Laff-A-Lympics (The Scooby-Doo Show • Laff-A-Lympics • Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels) • Fangface (1978-1979) • Challenge of the Super Friends • The All-New Pink Panther Show (1978-1979) • The World's Greatest Super Friends • The Plastic Man Comedy/Adventure Show (Mighty Man and Yukk • Rickety Rocket) (1979-1981) • Spider-Woman (1979-1980) • Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo
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