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Bananaman (TV series)

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Bananaman
Title card
Genre
Created bySteve Bright
Starring
Theme music composerDave Cooke
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Original languageEnglish
No. of series3
No. of episodes40[1]
Production
ProducerTrevor Bond
Running time5 minutes
Original release
Network
Release3 October 1983 (1983-10-03) –
4 March 1986 (1986-15-04) (reruns 1986–1999)

Bananaman is a British animated comedy series which ran from 1983 to 1986. It was based on the comic strip character Bananaman and each of the show's roughly five-minute episodes featured the voices of The Goodies (Tim Brooke-Taylor, Graeme Garden and Bill Oddie).[2][3]

Parts of the character were changed for the series: he was now called Eric Twinge (rather than Eric Wimp), had a distinctive banana-shaped hairstyle rather than punk stubble, and had a love interest (only when transformed) in the form of Fiona, a newsreader.[4][5]

"This is 29 Acacia Road. And this is Eric, the schoolboy who leads an amazing double life. For when Eric eats a banana, an amazing transformation occurs. Eric is Bananaman, ever alert for the call to action!"

- opening narration

When Danger Mouse first aired on Nickelodeon in America Bananaman was shown after it to round out the show to a half hour.

Cast

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Written by Bernie Kay. Produced by Trevor Bond. Directed by Terry Ward.

Series guide

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  • Series 1: 3 October[6] – 11 November 1983[7] - 12 episodes
  • Series 2: 4 October[8] – 19 December 1984[9] - 13 episodes
  • Series 3: 7 January – 15 April 1986[10] - 15 episodes

"Memory Lane" episode from series 2 was not broadcast until June 1988 but was made alongside series 2.

Reception

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Bananaman was a popular cartoon and is one of the most well-known British superheroes. Taken from the DC Thomson comic entitled Nutty, it was made into a TV animated series of 40 five-minute episodes by Terry Ward of Flicks Films Ltd.[11]

References

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  1. ^ Rosser, Michael; Wiseman, Andreas (18 March 2014). "'Live action' Bananaman planned". Screendaily.com. Archived from the original on 25 August 2024.
  2. ^ Rosser, Michael. "'Live action' Bananaman planned | News | Screen". Screendaily.com. Retrieved 13 December 2019.
  3. ^ Erickson, Hal (2005). Television Cartoon Shows: An Illustrated Encyclopedia, 1949 Through 2003 (2nd ed.). McFarland & Co. pp. 111–112. ISBN 978-1-4766-6599-3.
  4. ^ Rowney, Jo-Anne (27 October 2017). "Bananaman is back - the Man-of-Peel returns in live action debut". The Mirror. Archived from the original on 29 December 2017.
  5. ^ Kamen, Matt (13 January 2016). "Bananaman: The Musical heading to theatres. Yes, really". Wired UK. Archived from the original on 13 May 2017.
  6. ^ "Bananaman - BBC One London - 3 October 1983". Genome.ch.bbc.co.uk. 3 October 1983. Archived from the original on 20 October 2014.
  7. ^ "Bananaman - BBC One London - 11 November 1983". Genome.ch.bbc.co.uk. 11 November 1983. Archived from the original on 20 October 2014.
  8. ^ "Bananaman: Mystery at the Old Mine". Genome.ch.bbc.co.uk. 4 October 1984. Archived from the original on 18 November 2023.
  9. ^ "Bananaman: The Night Patrol". Genome.ch.bbc.co.uk. 19 December 1984. Archived from the original on 24 April 2018.
  10. ^ "Bananaman: Operational Total". Genome.ch.bbc.co.uk. Archived from the original on 18 November 2023.
  11. ^ Murray, Chris (15 March 2017). The British Superhero. University Press of Mississippi. ISBN 978-1-4968-0740-3. Retrieved 12 April 2019 – via Google Books.
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