Jabberjaw

Hi, you're listening to Truecast. Hello and welcome

to the 43rd episode of Tooncast brought to you

by GeekCast Radio Network. I am your host, DFG,

and Mike, and today I am joined once again by

Kevin, Professor Boss, K -Dog Thompson. Hello.

Hello. And today we will be continuing the Hand

on My Barrier Spotlight with Jabberjaw. How are

you, sir? I am doing pretty good, actually. Yes.

I can't complain. I've been doing a lot of stuff.

When I have a chance, when I go to my mom's house,

I've been doing some stuff with behind the scenes.

I found an online photo thing that allows me

to do a little bit of editing. So I've actually

been putting up with a few of the characters

we've been talking about recently. I've got Gilby

Bear and Huckleberry Hound, some characters on

there, and Quickshot McGraw. I've been trying

to get some of the older stuff back up there,

so very slowly this year. Yeah, I'm just, you

know, the normal podcasting my butt off every

week. I actually have, we're recording this one

a little bit early, but I actually have to record

Beast Unleashed episode 5 in two hours. Three

hours, something like that. So it's a good thing

that the Hanna -Barbera cartoons don't last that

long as far as the discussion. Yeah, that's true.

Oh, boy. Let's see what else has been going on

with me. Not much, really. I guess we will move

on to the history lesson. All right. Today's

history lesson takes us to 1976 for the Hannah

Barbera classic, Jabberjaw. Jabberjaw, that's

just fun to say. Jabberjaw was actually created

by the famous cartoon duo Joe Ruby and Ken Spears.

Its first episode aired on September 11, 1976,

and its 16th and final episode aired on September

3, 1978. Jabberjaw originally aired on the ABC

network on Saturday morning. The first season

consisted of 16 new episodes. Well, the second

season consisted entirely of reruns. The show

was then later rerun on Cartoon Express, the

Cartoon Network, and Boomerang at very different

times. That does it for the history lesson. The

class is the Smiths, Mike for Jabberjaw. Since

it's the most recent of the shows we've covered

here on the Spotlight, it might correct that

we both have a little more clear recollections

of the famous Great White compared to maybe McGill,

Gorilla, or Quickjaw, or Huckleberry Hound. I

gotta bring something up, though. It was actually

called, and I know this isn't your fault, I'm

not blaming you because it's Wiki, but it was

actually called the USA Cartoon Express because

it was run on the USA network back in the day,

but, you know, of course, people at Wiki don't

know, you know, full titles of stuff. And it's

actually funny, I... because we had some shows

on the schedule of this podcast earlier in its

lifespan that I just really didn't care for we

will actually have an episode dedicated to the

USA Cartoon Express so um Jabberjaw it's basically

Jerome Curly Howard in a shark suit even though

it's not Curly doing the voice that's where the

voice came from Yeah, oh yeah, of course. And

that was pretty much intentional. I think most

of this show is not trying to pretend to be original.

I mean, it's just trying to rip off everything,

anything and everything from the time period.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's good. I do have a lot

of memories of Jabba Jabba compared to some of

the other Anna Barbera shows. I don't know why,

but for some reason this show just really stuck

with me. And I think it was just the fact that

it was, I think it all centered around the big

shark, Jabberjaw, and his voice. For some reason,

I know it was a, you know, a Three Stooges rip

-off basically, but the voice and the shark animation

and stuff just really sold this cartoon. I could

hardly remember until I watched a few episodes

any of the other characters in the show, but

I always have remembered Jabberjaw and the shark

actual character, and he just, for some reason,

has a early cartoon characters, it's really stuck

with me. I don't know why. Yeah, yeah, and I

think, well, you know, it's funny that you mentioned

the fact that this kind of, well, it took place

a few years before both of us were born, but

it's not like the other Hannah Barbera stuff

where it's 40s, 50s, 60s, or, you know, whatever.

You know, and it's funny that This premiered

in 76 and they're using a character voicing stereotype

from the 20s or from the 20s and 30s whenever

the whenever the Stooges were were big Now I'm

not saying I love Jabberjow's voice. I mean,

I love the fact that they implemented a characterization

of of Curly I think that's what that's another

thing that sells the show Honestly, I don't I

mean I remember watching the show but it wasn't

like It wasn't like say thundercats where oh

my god. I have to watch every single episode

Every day it comes on or transformers. I'm not

saying it's a bad show. It's just one of those

ones where I don't know I I liked the show And

I feel like the show when I watched it last week.

I enjoyed it still but honestly, I I don't, you

know, it had nothing to do with the show or any

of the side characters or even some of the main

characters. I mean, without Jabberjah, this show

is, I mean, obviously, since he's the type of

character, but for some reason I can, I don't

usually do that. Well, you can remember one character

just like perfectly in your head. You can remember

what he looks like. You can remember what he

sounds like. You can remember how he acted on

screen. And you don't remember anything else

about the show. And I think that just says a

lot about his character and maybe not so much

about the rest of the show. Yeah. Yeah. So I

guess we can move on to the characters and voice

actors. I guess I'll let you go with this. Okay.

First we got Jabberjaw, who is an air -breathing

great white shark whose voice mannerisms, like

we said, are similar to Curly Howard and the

Three Stooges. Javadal found it hard to get respect

in a society where shark ejector robots that

would guard various buildings or cities against

sharks being allowed to enter were commonplace.

Tom tends to frequently utter his catchphrase

borrowed from Rodney Dangerfield, no respect.

And then of course he has four human sidekicks

that form the band, the Neptune's. I don't know

how much we want to get into them. I mean, if

you want to, you can, but we really don't have

to. Just real quick, this is a brown -haired

guy. He plays the guitar, similar to Fred from

Scooby -Doo. Shelly, dark -haired girl, plays

tambourine. Bubbles, blonde -haired girl, plays

the keyboard. A mannerism similar to Gracie Allen,

the wife of Jordan Burns. And Clamhead, who's

a young man who plays bass, and very strong resemblance

to Scooby -Doo's Shaggy. Basically, those four

characters make the show look like Scooby -Doo

underwater. Wow. So they took the four Scooby

characters, changed their designs a little bit,

changed the voice actors, put different names

on the characters, changed Scooby from being

a Great Dane to a Great White Shark, put a different

voice on... this is scooby -doo underwater with

musical instruments oh crap oh shit that's funny

to sum that up i mean in the like a lot of my

animal bear shows there's really no uh consistent

bad characters you just have various bad guys

or evil people trying to do stuff that pop up

throughout the whole series but these are the

based on the five recurring characters, and it's

easy. Jabberjaw is the favorite, and all the

rest are my favorite. Yes. Speaking of the voice

actors, Frank Welker was Jabberjaw. This role

cemented the reputation of the then stand -up

comic Frank Welker. His hilarious curly -like

imitations resulted in increased demand for his

vocal services on subsequent animated series.

So Jabberjaw launched his career. Basically.

Up to then, if you mentioned Frank Welker in

Hollywood or in various circles, nobody would

have said he was a voice actor. He was a stand

-up comic. To say that this resulted in an increased

demand for his vocal services, wow, is that ever

the understatement? Well, yeah, obviously that's

an understatement. I know Mr. Welker is getting

up there in age. But I would have loved to have

seen him when he was doing the Transformers stuff.

I would have loved to have seen him back in the

80s on stage doing voices and animal sounds as

a comedy act. That would be hilarious. You know

what? You can't get away from this guy and what

I've noticed now since I've become obviously

a lot more familiar with a lot of these voice

actors through this show and other things is

Now when I watch movies and I see credits all

of a sudden, I see all these names that I recognize,

I went over to one of my friends' house and they

were watching the end of one of the Chris Farley

movies. I can't remember which one it was. Tommy

Boy? Might have been. And sure enough, and the

credits rolling down, all animal voices. Frank

Walker. Yep. All animal sounds. All animal sounds,

Frank Walker. And I don't know if we've mentioned

this on the show before or not, so since this

is a show basically that... that launched his

career, so to speak. I will say it now that in

case anyone doesn't know, Frank Welker has basically

made more money in movies than any person ever.

the movies he's been in have grossed more money

than any other actor in history. I can't remember

what side it is that you can look up, but you

can look up actors that have been in the most

grossing movies. Obviously, someone like Harrison

Ford who was in the movie Indiana Jones and all

the Star Wars and stuff is way up there, but

Frank Walker is at the top. You know what I would

have loved to seen? I'm noticing under the other

characters actor credits that Don Messick was

in this show. I would have loved to have seen

Scooby and Jabberjaw do a scene together. Well,

actually, you can see that in some of the stuff

we'll talk about later where Jabberjaw shows

up in the future. But you were mentioning with

some of the voice actors, just to go through

the other main characters, this was Tommy Cook,

who I'm not real familiar with. Shelley was Pat

Parris, who, again, I'm not real familiar with.

Bubble was June McWhorter -Dees, who is He was

basically one of the best female cartoon voice

actors of that time period. And interesting enough,

this one's been an earlier role for him unless

I am unfamiliar with his other stuff, but Clam

Head was Donna Tarlo from the Teenage Mutant

Ninja Turtles very early. I think Snorks was

after this. Was it? Yeah, it was. It was in the

80s, wasn't it? I'm going to go ahead and say

whatever else you want. The other voices, and

these must have been some of the bad characters

that showed up or just some of the side characters

that are a little harder because they didn't

have a consistent role, but oh my goodness, it

is a veritable who's who of voice actors from

that time period. You have Casey Kasem, Don Messick,

Vic Perrin. Howe Smith, John Stevenson, Janet

Waldo, and Lenny Weinerib. And since I mentioned

a few weeks ago, at BehindTheVoiceActors .com,

I have a top ten male voice actors before 1980.

And Don Messick, Howe Smith, John Stevenson,

Lenny Weinerib are all on that, and they all

do voices for this. And Janet Waldo is on my

female one with Julie the Quarter D. So this

show really brought in some good top -notch voice

acting to do the roles. You know, like I said,

Frank Welker is the one that made the show. Character

Jabberdaw and Frank Welker's voice of him is

really what sticks in your memory. And I'm not

surprised that this launched his career, but

he had a lot of supporting cast that was pretty

popular at the time in voice acting. Right, right.

I did look up in our... I jumped in the DeLorean

and went back to episode 13's script. Snorks

was premiered in 84, so yes, this did happen

before then, but as soon as I saw Barry Gordon's

name, I'm like, holy crap, it's Donatello or

Junior or whoever. Yeah, and I'm thinking this

is one of his earlier voice roles, unless he

had done a lot of just various voices where it

wasn't any actual main characters before this.

Right Do we have anything else we want to say

about that then? Just a great voice cast led

by one of the greatest of all time Yeah, and

you know all right so going into the behind -the

-scenes segment pray great deal of Hannah Barbera's

output in the 1970s the format and writing of

Jabberjowl was similar to that for scooby -doo

Josie and the Pussycats and speed buggy The show

also drew inspiration to the use of shark as

a character from the overall shark mania of the

1970s 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. Oh, God, that's a horrible

pun. Scooby -Doo and Josie and the Pussycats

combined and then put them underwater and then

name stuff like the Flintstones or like we would

later see in like The Smurfs. Wow. That's a pretty

good, pretty good comparison though. Scooby -Doo

and Josie and the Pussycats underwater using

the shark mania Jaws character as your main guy.

There's nothing original about this show. Well,

no. It kind of reminds me of nowadays. The producer

is obviously Hanna Barbera. It was created by

Ruby and Spears, like you said, and the director

was Charles A. Nichols. Getting into the actual

show, Jabberjaw is a 90s... Wow. I was trying

to read a year, not his height. Jabberjaw is

a 15 -foot talking great white shark. He is the

drummer for the Neptunes, a rock group made up

of four teenagers, Biff, Shelly, Bubbles, and

Clam Head, 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. Okay. I know.

Oh god, this is going to be such a bad analogy.

I know Little Mermaid wasn't even thought of

at this point, but damn. You got Scooby -Doo.

Well, I'm talking about the movie as far as something

being animated. The first thing I thought of

when I read that last line... You know diabolical

villains who want to conquer the undersea world

the first thing I thought I was freaking Ursula

and and Little Mermaid, yeah You know and again

with the show, you know, it wasn't anything It

wasn't anything original like we've said. It

wasn't, um... And that's not to say it was a

bad thing. Like I said before, you know, using

a curly imitation to create a character. I think,

well, an animated character. I think that's just

great. But, I mean, again, it goes back to, like

we said, this is just Scooby -Doo and Josie and

the Pussycats underwater. It's something odd.

It's nothing original. It's nothing fantastic.

The stories aren't anything we haven't seen before,

but somehow it's still good to me. More worth

watching than a lot of Hanna Barbera stuff, and

I can still watch it and actually get some entertainment

out of it. I don't know if I can understand it.

I shouldn't like it, but for some reason I still

like it. Well, I think it's one of those things...

It's like one of those songs you get stuck in

your head and you can't get it out. Yeah. But

I mean, I don't know anybody that saw this show

and then didn't try to talk like Jabba Jabba.

Nyah nyah. As far as the legacy segment, I'm

going to have to find this on YouTube, but a

music video known as a cartoon groovy for Jabberjaw

airs on Cartoon Network and Boomerang. Featuring

a short story with the Jabberjaw characters animated

in 3D escaping a lunchbox decal and waging battle

with evil bugs. The punk rock inspired song is

performed by the band Pain. The track was released

in 1999 on a 7 -inch EP and in 2007 on a CD EP

by independent record labels Spring Man Records.

In 1978 Jabber Jaw was featured in a new NBC

Saturday morning program called Yogi's Space

Race in which he participated in the 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. I don't remember that character. What

the hell? Yeah, that's an old one that I don't

think I ever watched. Yeah... You want to go

into some of the other appearances? Yeah, um...

Jabberjaw made a special guest appearance at

a celebrity roast honoring Fred Flintstone on

the CBS special Hannah Barbera's All -Star Comedy

Ice Review in 1977. That might be actually something

worth looking up if it's possible. Jabberjaw

made special appearances as a guest announcer.

So here you go on Scooby's All -Star Last Olympics

on Scooby's All -Star. So maybe you do get to

see. I don't know if Scooby and Jabberjaw have

a scene in there or not. Jabberjaw appeared in

Yogi's Treasure Hunt in the episode Goodbye Mr.

Chump. Jabberjaw made a guest appearance on the

Adult Swim animated television series, Sea Lab

2021, in the episode Return of Marco, where he

was one of the many sharks impaled with spears

by the underwater cave tribe called the Snarkles.

I think I'll pass on that one. Jabberjaw appeared

later still in sporadic episodes on Cracking

Network's Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law, where

the Neptunes were accused of stealing song is

also a reference that in the late 90s Jabberjaw

was briefly engaged to budding filmmaker Madeleine

Austin Clouat. Frank Welker reprises his role

of Jabberjaw and also voices Biff. Clamhead made

another appearance in the episode Identity Test

which she was voiced by Stephen Bloom. Interesting.

And then two more, Jabberjaw appears in the Scooby

-Doo special Night of a Living Dew. And Jabberjab

makes a cameo in the Johnny Bravo episode, Johnny

Goes Hollywood. So the character, obviously,

is popular enough where it showed up basically

in just about every decade here or there. Well,

you know, oh, and I mean, the thing is, though,

he's a universal character. he is currently the

three stooge or the stooge from the three stooges

in a great white shark animated body that's that's

what he is I mean you know you mix in a little

Rodney Dangerfield and there you go but I meant

to mention something about the when we're doing

the actual show it says up here that they live

in a civilization in the year 2076 now This show

premiered in 1976. Did they do that intentionally,

I wonder? I wouldn't be surprised. I don't know.

That means I have to live until I'm almost 100

so I can see this actually happen in real life.

As far as the merchandising goes... Yeah, I know.

From 1977 to 1979, merchandising for Jabberjaw

included a lunchbox and thermos, and two coloring

books, Jabberjaw and the Neptunes, and Jabberjaw

does it again. It also included iron -on transfers,

a storybook, a jigsaw puzzle, Presto Magic's

dry transfer game, Bubble Maker set by Imperial

Toy, and a school tablet. 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... Menalito? I don't know

how to say that. In July of 1988, a Jabberjaw

videocassette was released by World Vision Home

Video. Hannah Marr represents Jabberjaw, contains

four episodes. Dr. Lowe has got to go. There's

no place like outer space. The Sourpuss Octopus.

The Great Shark Switch. Wow. In April 2005, a

Jabberjaw Wacky Wobbler Bobblehead doll was released

by Funco. As of 2000 - I don't have a Jabberjaw

Bobblehead. Oh. Do you actually have it? No,

I'm saying how do you have one? I don't. It's

a no. I mean, how did how did you? I don't know.

There's no head. I mean, it's all one thing I

Yeah, I don't know. I'd have to I have to see

that as 2009 there is no word on when Warner

Brothers will plan to release the show on DVD

for the Hit of America classics collection. Holy

shit Yeah, you know, yeah, how the hell do you

have a jabber -jabber? Maybe you have me on that

one. Maybe the spring came loose and he's like

his head just pops in and out Yeah, I don't know

I'm gonna have to look that up Wow, I'm surprised

that it's not on DVD Yeah, you know they'll probably

put it on the On those Saturday. Well, yeah,

they can put it hopefully if Warner has the rights

to it They can put it on those Saturday mornings

classic collections or whatever. Yeah, but I

would think that it's only 16 episodes. It would

be a quick UV. One disc, yeah. I don't know.

I don't like that. I don't like when they give

a shitty treatment to a show. Well, like we said

before, this show launched Frank Welker's voice

acting career. Why would you give a shitty video

release with only having four episodes on a video

cassette I get? But why the hell wouldn't you

have it on DVD? as much as like the everyday

fan doesn't know that there's a lot of people

that are up on voice acting these days and I

think people will buy it just based on that and

especially since they could probably do it for

pretty cheap I mean if it's only 16 episodes

yeah it's gonna be the whole series for less

than 20 bucks very true very true um I you know

that just really pisses me off sometimes people

are so stupid Hey, this is Chris Stapleton from

Chicken Pop Pod calling in about Jabba Jabba

Jabba Jaw, one of the Hanna -Barbera classics,

one of their 50 billion incarnations of the Scooby

-Doo formula of mascot with teenagers solving

crimes. And I actually loved Jabba Jaw. I don't

know if it was the prospect of hanging out with

a great white shark or the whole setting underwater

with the aquatic villains. I thought it was great.

Hanna Barbera uses this voice talent, and I'm

sure you guys mentioned his name, I don't remember

it, but he did a fantastic Curly impression.

And I know some people would kind of criticize

that as being a ripoff, but he did it so well,

and they used him a couple of times with that.

They did, he did Curly in the robotic Stooges,

and of course he was Jabberjaw with the Curly

ripoff voice. Loved it, I thought he was hilarious,

I loved his. his banjo with the teenagers, and

it was a great cartoon. I mean, I know it was

a familiar formula, very Scooby -Doo -ish, very

speed buggy, Josie and the Pussycats. All that

stuff was the same, but for some reason, I thought

Jabberjaw was one of the better revisions of

that. So, a lot of fun, fun cartoon, and great

villains, and I'm sure you've mentioned it, but

there is a kind of a music video they did a couple

years ago. It's kind of an updated version of

Jabberjaw on Boomerang. They ship it a lot. So

I was hoping that would kind of be a relaunch

of Jabberjaw, because I think it could be a lot

of fun, but it was just a one -off. And it's

pretty cool, though. So you guys are doing a

great job. Appreciate you letting me call in.

And make sure to check out my little podcast

called Chicken Pop Pod. You can get it at chickenpoppod

.com. All right. Take care. Later. Alright, so

final thoughts on Jabberjaw, sir? Um, I don't

know why, but I just have kind of a... I don't

know. I remember it from my childhood, so I have

a fondness that's connected to it from then.

You know, I really remember loving that character

when I was a really tiny kid, because obviously

it came out a few years before I was born, but

I remember my brother watching it and just really

liking the shark character and really liking

Curly's voice. So I give a props to that, that

was before I even knew who Frank Walker was and

I still loved his voice. And I would put it ahead

of a lot of other Hanna Barbera shows just for

that. It's not ever going to be as good of a

show as some of these, like it's never going

to be Yogi Bear just because the stories aren't

there and they weren't that concerned with that

part of the show. And like we said, it's not

the most original thing, but I think it still

has appeal. And I would watch it again, and if

it ever did come out on DVD, I probably would

buy it. So, you know, it's a positive review

for me on Jaggerjah. Yeah, you know, in the same

way, just, you know, watching a few episodes

this week and, you know, reading through the

information and everything else, and it's like,

wow. You know, how can you have a show that has

no originality whatsoever as far as the stories

go and as far as the concept. I mean that concept

doesn't even really, I don't know, I just. Mostly

on the show matters except for watching Jabberjaw

walk around and listen to him talk. And the theme

because the theme is very catchy. Yeah. Yeah.

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like that are. We hope you enjoyed this episode

of Tunecast where she'll join us next time. We'll

be continuing the Hanna -Barrera Spotlight with

McGillagorilla. How much is that gorilla in the

window? For now, IMTF2 and Mike with... Uh, Ed.

Will you actually do a real fucking sign off?

Uh, Professor Voskidog. Optimus Solo, Kevin Thompson.

Okay. In the immortal words of Optimus Prime,

transform and roll out, and thank you for listening,

until next time. Especially under water, Mike

Who's gonna save the world? Who's gonna save

the day? You are the devil