Shirt Tales
 |
This article does not cite any references or sources. (August 2010) |
| Shirt Tales | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Saturday morning cartoon series |
| Directed by | Oscar Dufau George Gordon Bob Hathcock Carl Urbano John Walker Rudy Zamora |
| Voices of | Nancy Cartwright Bob Ogle Patricia Parris Steve Schatzberg Ronnie Schell Fred Travalena Herb Vigran William Woodson |
| Country of origin | United States |
| No. of seasons | 2 |
| No. of episodes | 46 |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | William Hanna Joseph Barbera |
| Producer(s) | Iwao Takamoto Kay Wright |
| Running time | 30 min. |
| Production company(s) | Hanna-Barbera |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | NBC |
| Original run | September 18, 1982 – January 21, 1984 |
Shirt Tales are characters that were created in 1980 by greeting card designer Janet Elizabeth Manco and were featured on Hallmark Cards greeting cards. The characters were adapted into an animated series for TV by Hanna-Barbera, which first aired in 1982 on NBC.
Contents |
Cards [edit]
Hallmark Cards released the Shirt Tale line of greeting cards with animal characters wearing T-shirts upon which was a message. The Shirt Tale cards were among Hallmark's best sellers at that time, which led the company to team with Hanna-Barbera Productions to adapt the Shirt Tales into a Saturday morning cartoon, which premiered on NBC on September 18, 1982. The card line remained, but faded shortly after the show left broadcast television in 1985.
TV series [edit]
The animated Shirt Tales cartoon featured Tyg Tiger (in orange), Pammy Panda (in pink), Digger Mole (in light blue), Rick Raccoon (in red), and Bogey Orangutan (in green) (so called because he spoke using a Humphrey Bogart-style voice). They lived in Oak Tree Park and wore shirts which flashed various brightly lit messages reflecting the characters' thoughts. They spent their time teasing the park ranger, Mr. Dinkle, and battling crime in and out of their hometown of Mid City. They zipped around the world in a vehicle known as the STSST (Shirt Tales' SuperSonic Transport) which could operate as a car, jet, boat, submarine, and other forms of transportation. Though most law enforcement agencies knew of the Shirt Tales as crime fighters by reputation, few people seemed aware that they were talking animals—including, Mr. Dinkle, whom the group often had to trick to keep their secret safe.
Each episode was divided into two 11–minute segments. After the success of the 13 episodes in season one, ten episodes were created for season two. However, the show was semi-rebooted and Kip Kangaroo (in yellow) was added to the cast of characters without context for her joining the Shirt Tales. There is a difference in leadership among the Shirt Tales. In the first season Rick appeared to be the de facto leader. In the second season Tyg appeared to be the leader. Also several stories in season two either omit Rick altogether or give him a minor role in the story. The second season also added some superhero elements to the dynamic of the group as well; most notably the color of all their T-Shirts changing to a Bright Red Color when "Shirt Tale Time" is called for.
Buck Beaver (in whitish blue) helped the Shirt Tales use a tree as a bridge in "The Big Foot Incident" and helped them build an ark in "Dinkel's Ark". In the episode titles "Moving Time" 4 cousins out west were introduced for the episode only...Prairie Dog Pete (in red with black vest), Fillmore Fox (in green), Violett Skunk (in yellow), and Hoozitz Owl (in lavender). In "Back to Nature" Cubby Bear (in red) helped the Shirt Tales when a wild bear had Mr. Dinkle chased up a tree.
Following the initial run on NBC, Shirt Tales aired on CBS during the 1984-1985 Saturday morning season, replacing The Biskitts in their time slot. CBS aired selected episodes from its two-season NBC run until March 23, 1985, when The Biskitts were returned to the time slot for the rest of the 1984-1985 season.
On March 23, 1985, Shirt Tales was pulled from broadcast television for good ("Shirt Tales" was airing on CBS at the time), and the Hallmark franchise faded not long after as well. The show continued for a number of years as part of the USA Network's "Cartoon Express" and on Cartoon Network. Shirt Tales continues to be broadcast in selected countries around the world, including Boomerang.
Episodes [edit]
Season 1 [edit]
| No. | Title | Air date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | "The Case of the Golden Armor / Crumpling's Circus Caper" | |
| 2 | "Shirt Napped / Game Masters" | |
| 3 | "Elephant on the Loose / The Big Foot Incident" | |
| 4 | "Horsin' Around / The Humbolt Ghost" | |
| 5 | "Mission Mutt / Vacation for Dinkel" | |
| 6 | "Digger Runs Away / Wingman" | |
| 7 | "Figby the Spoiled Cat / The Commissioner is Missing" | |
| 8 | "The Terrible Termites / Raiders of the Lost Shark" | |
| 9 | "Moving Time / Back to Nature" | |
| 10 | "Save the Park / Pam-Dora's Box" | |
| 11 | "Hapless Hound / The Nearsighted Bear" | |
| 12 | "The Magical Musical Caper / The Very Buried Treasure" | |
| 13 | "Dinkel's Ark / The Duke of Dinkel" |
Season 2 [edit]
| No. | Title | Air date |
|---|---|---|
| 14 | "Bogey Goes Ape / Digger's Three Wishes" | |
| 15 | "The Rain, the Park and the Robot / Digger's Double" | |
| 16 | "Kip's Dragon / Taj Mahal Tyg" | |
| 17 | "Double Exposure / The Outer Space Connection" | |
| 18 | "Brass Bogey / The Forbidden Island" | |
| 19 | "T.J.'s Visit / Pleasure Valley" | |
| 20 | "Saturday Night Shirt Tales / Kip's Toy Caper" | |
| 21 | "Dinkel's Buddy / The Big Set-up" | |
| 22 | "The Ghost Out West / Dinkel's Gift" | |
| 23 | "Mayhem on the Orient Express / The Cuckoo Count Caper" |
Cast [edit]
- Nancy Cartwright - Kip Kangaroo (Season Two Only)
- Bob Ogle - Digger Mole
- Pat Parris - Pammy Panda
- Steve Schatzberg - Tyg Tiger
- Ronnie Schell - Rick Raccoon
- Fred Travalena - Bogey Orangutan
- Herb Vigran - Mr. Dinkle
- William Woodson - Commissioner (Season One Only)
Additional voices [edit]
- Richard Balin -
- Joe Besser -
- Joey Camen -
- Victoria Carroll -
- Brian Cummings -
- Walker Edmiston -
- Marshall Efron -
- Bernard Erhard -
- Laurie Faso -
- Ernest Harada -
- Bob Holt -
- Buster Jones -
- Stanley Jones -
- Sherry Lynn -
- Tress MacNeille -
- Sparky Marcus - T.J. Tiger: Tyg's Nephew (Season Two, Single Episode, Uncredited)
- Kenneth Mars -
- Joseph Medalis -
- Howard Morris -
- Henry Polic II -
- Tony Pope -
- Robert Ridgely -
- Michael Rye -
- Marilyn Schreffler -
- R.J. Segall
- Michael Sheehan -
- Hal Smith -
- John Stephenson - Game Master (Season One, Single Episode)
- Andre Stojka -
- Jimmy Weldon -
- Frank Welker -
- Ted Zeigler -
Other media [edit]
- There were also two musical book-and-record sets released by K-tel International under the "Castle Rock" imprint: A Song Saves the Park, and Sunrise Surprise. However, both sets use sound-alikes for the voices, and are presented differently from typical read-alongs.
External links [edit]
- Shirt Tales at the Internet Movie Database
- Shirt Tales at TV.com
|
|||||||||||||||||
