The Plastic Man Comedy-Adventure Show

[Frosty81]

Hi,

One SatAM cartoon I would like to see get prepped for DVD by Warner Bros. Entertainment is Ruby-Spears' The Plastic Man Comedy/Adventure Show. Sure enough, Plas is a DC Comics property, and because WB had been doing so well with the Super Friends franchise, Plas would surely not be far from getting a DVD release.

This 2-hour block show, which ran from September 22, 1979 to September 27, 1980 on ABC, exploited the adventures of Plastic Man (voiced by Michael Bell) and his wife Penny (Melendy Britt) and good Hawaiian friend Hula Hula (aka Bad Luck Hula; voice of Joe Baker). The block also had four other stars:

*1978's Fangface made his return with a new baby cousin by his side, called Fangpuss (called appropriately, Fangface & Fangpuss). Frank Welker voiced both characters.

*Mighty Man & Yukk! - about a millionaire-by-day named Brandon Brewster, who would change (and shrink) to Mighty Man to save the day, and his ugly anthropomorphic sidekick dog, Yukk!, who had to keep his doghouse on his head at all times (due to his ugly face) unless the duo got in a bind by certain villains depicted in the segments. Whenever Mighty Man had found any clues, he would scat-sing (just as Scooby-Doo's mid-'70s cousin, Scooby-Dumb, would hum the opening bar of "Beethoven's 5th" whenever he found any clues). The duo were voiced by two future Transformers stars: Peter Cullen (Mighty Man/Brandon Brewster) and Frank Welker (Yukk!).

*Last but not least: the oft-underrated Blaxploitation effort, Rickety Rocket, about three African-American teens exploring mysteries behind a rocket ship.

The show's format was:
*Plastic Man (30 mins)
*Fangface & Fangpuss (15 mins)
*Mighty Man & Yukk! (15 mins)
*Rickety Rocket (30 mins)
*Plastic Man (15 mins)
*Mighty Man & Yukk! (15 mins)

You heard that right: two Plastic Man adventures (one running a full 1/2 hour and another running 15 min), one segment each of Fangface & Fangpuss (15 mins) and Rickety Rocket (1/2 hour), and two segments of Mighty Man & Yukk! (both 15 min).

For the 1980-81 season, the show was cut down to a 1/2 hour and retitled The Plastic Man/Baby Plas Super Show. Baby Plas (voice of Clare Peck) was born after the elder Plas wed his wife, Penny. Three segments comprised this show: one of The Plastic Family (obviously focusing on all three members; running 6 mins), one of Baby Plas (3 mins), and wrapping it up is a 15-min segment devoted to Senior Plas with Penny and Hula Hula.

~Ben

[robyrob]

Plas was one of my favorite Saturday morning cartoons of that era, I'd love to see it on DVD, but I never cared for the other features much.