Disney’s The Wuzzles

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Ha -cha -cha -cha -cha! Chief Quimby here, and

your assignment is to listen to TuneCast. BWAAAHAHAHAHAHA!

BWAAAHAHAHAHAHA! A little bit of this, a little

bit of that And when you add Hello and welcome

to the 56th episode of tune cast brought to you

by the geek cast radio network I'm your host

if you and Mike and today I'm joined once again

by Kevin Optimus solo Thompson. Hello, sir. Hello.

How's it going? It's going today. We're going

to be talking about Disney's the wuzzles. I love

this show. This is awesome This show is just

awesome. This show isn't as epic as last week's

show, but this show is still awesome. Before

we get into that discussion, though, a couple

of things to bring up. I guess we'll start it

on a down note. There have been a lot of celebrity

deaths in the past week. There was a report of

a Thundercats writer, Stephen Perry, uh... being

missing and something happened his house got

ransacked and there was a severed arm or something

i don't have the story in front of me i've already

actually talked about this for a mini episode

of this week in geek where i reported on all

these deaths but uh... that has been confirmed

that it is now a homicide investigation apparently

his two former roommates are suspects or something

very very sad uh... uh... also uh... gary colman

has passed away Rest in peace Willis or no Arnold

oops Arnold yeah, but you're talking about Willis

That's that's very very sad We all kind of knew

it was coming, but it's still sad King Koopa

dentist hopper passed away yesterday And Peter

Keefe one of the producers of Voltron passed

away due to throat cancer, which is very very

sad These last two years, there have been so

many celebrity deaths. It's just... I don't even

know what else to say about this stuff because

there's just been so many. Yeah, and it seems

to come in groups and little bunches. Yeah. Yes,

yes it does And not to really detract but we

have to get this show back in the positive our

one -year anniversary for tooncast is coming

up June 1st Which this episode will actually

air June 2nd, but anyway Yeah, yeah June 2nd

happy one year yesterday Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Also the network one year anniversary is June

1st So yeah, that works. Yeah Yeah, exactly in

the end. So what are you been up to sir? Well

a little bit of this a little bit of that um

then that sounds horribly horribly Vague yeah,

it is but but actually I've been I've been doing

quite a bit of work We you know obviously we're

in a ongoing forever long Project that behind

the voice actors of trying to add like basically

every animated show in history onto the site

Which is right now? We have a list of about I

don't know five to seven hundred shows we want

to add or at least add more content to if they're

already there and they don't have much. So I've

been going on a spree of adding basically eighty

shows to the site Mysterious Cities of Gold,

Sektars, Teddy Ruxpin, Wuzzles, Sky Commanders,

Tiger Sharks, Shirk Tales, Thunder the Barbarian,

The Flying House, Superbook and lots of others.

So I've been adding like crazy stuff on there

as far as main cast. and voice actors, characters,

etc. Although I'm a little stuck on Tiger Sharks

as far as which Thundercats and Silverhawks voice

actors did which characters, but basically I've

been doing a lot of... You mean it's not as simple

as the country version of Lionel? I gotta listen

a little closer to all the voices and match them

up, I guess. I just haven't had a chance to do

that. It's been fun because I've been watching

as I've been adding characters and voice actors

I've been watching episodes of each of these

shows and stuff like that and then actually helped

for this week since I added wuzzles I got to

watch a couple episodes while I was adding the

the characters and the voice actors to that so

that's basically what I've been doing there and

Kind of nice this week and maybe for a couple

more episodes. I have access to Basically my

own laptop here, so I have the script in front

of me. I have the internet that I can look at

while we're doing stuff if I want to. Oh, you're

actually prepared other than the next three episodes

that will come up in the next three weeks, because

we recorded those before you were actually prepared.

Right, but we might have a few episodes where

it's back to the normal, so that's kind of fun.

Yeah, yeah. How about you? Let's see, I'm trying

to think. not really much won't be homeless hopefully

so that'll that'll be good I'm working on a plan

to be able to stay in this apartment so hopefully

by June 17th I'll have a actual yes or no definitive

answer on that just been podcasting like usual

beast unleashed secret origins all that good

stuff I am planning a Episode 25 of tfg1 podcast

it will be this will be the final final episode

of that show Outside of outside of the DVD commentary

Steve and I did for the movie We hadn't had any

new content in that show for about a year and

a half And basically episode 25 is just going

to be a bunch of people that all have the matrix

set and just talking about the differences between

the Rhino set and the matrix set so Yeah, I will

still call you a bastard for having that first

before I did but still now that I have it It's

like wow watching that voice actors thing. I'm

not really gonna go into too much depth though,

but oh my god That's probably my favorite part.

I didn't realize out of those eight people. I

mean I knew Michael Bell was was up there in

age But I thought Frank Welker would look older

than what he actually looks on that thing now

I don't know if they used makeup on these people

or if they did any special touch -ups or whatever

But a lot of the pit like a lot of the mainstay

look like a mainstay picture like the picture

you guys use on BBTA That makes him look horrible.

You guys need a new picture. I like that picture

That picture makes him look like he's 99 years

old. I'm not saying anything bad about the guy

turning old, but I'm just saying, compared to

watching the voice actor panel thing on the DVD

set, I'm like, he doesn't look as old as what

he's portrayed as, for the most part, in those

pictures. It's like, wow. Jack Angel, on the

other hand, oh my god, he looks ancient. Yeah,

he did look very old on that. Yeah. Let's see

what else we have been up to. Steve and I, this

Saturday, June 5th, will be recording a commentary

for TF1, the live -action film. Then we'll be

trying to get together a bunch of people to basically

bash the second movie. I don't know when. That's

not nice. Well, not Saturday, but Saturday's

just going to be the first movie, and then we'll

do a commentary bashing the second movie. I will

stick to my guns that I like the second one better

than the first. What? I've always liked the second

one better than the first. This coming from the

guy that won't watch sequels in animation, which...

I know, for some reason I... You will be watching

sequels in animation because we have Little Mermaid

2, Cinderella 2 and 3, Lady and the Tramp 2.

Yeah. That's what you think. We'll be watching

sequels in animation. The second Transformers

was better because the Transformers got to talk

more. That's all there is to it. There's less

humans, more transformers. You gotta like that.

I will at that point, however, we did not need

giant fucking Devastator balls. No, I agree to

that. We did not need, while I really don't care

that much about it, we really didn't need Skids

and Mudflap. However, in, you know, it's a whole

other convoluted thing, but anyway. We will have

a voicemail. from the other Kevin in this somewhere

I don't know where it will probably go at the

end before the outro when I normally do the whole

uh where Tara Strong did her bubbles voice and

says tune cast will be back after this so I'll

probably put it in there um but yeah he sent

us a voicemail I forget what I I haven't even

listened to it in a while it was about a week

and a half two weeks ago something like that

I don't even remember what it was about uh something

about uh... was it uh... hound puppies episode

or the something about to your art whether it's

a reaction is a i'm not sure what he was talking

about you've lost your i want to listen to it

and it's been so long as i was doing i have to

listen to it again give me a hard time for not

being prepared sometimes it's a voicemail it's

not the script information damage uh... household

ship it's uh... it still a lot of work outside

doing a lot of outside work now since it's nicer

I power washed my entire deck and shed and siding

and sidewalk and then I am in the process of

getting ready to stain the whole deck and I'm

scraping off all the paint on all the doors and

windows frames, because it's 15 -year -old chip

paint, and I'm going to repaint all those frames.

So yeah, that's a lot of fun. But it's been so

freaking hot, so I haven't been doing as much

as I wanted to. Oh, and I also waged battle against

about 1 ,000 dandelions and pulled them all from

my yard, so that wasn't fun. I couldn't move

my hand after that day, but it's better now.

Disney's Wuzzles is an American animated television

series created for Saturday morning television

and was first broadcast on September 14th, 1985

on CBS. An idea of Michael Eisner, although Othello

Bach actually came up with the idea with her

furful line, for his new Disney television animation

studio. The Wuzzles are animal creatures composed

of half of one animal and half of another. Only

13 episodes of The Wuzzles were produced, making

it the shortest running animated series produced

by Disney. A second season was planned to be

made, but the future episodes were never made

due to the death of Bill Scott. Scott's death,

however, did not stop a second season of Disney's

Adventures of the Gummy Bears, which premiered

the same day as Wuzzles. Kind of an ironic thing

that both Disney shows premiered the same day,

but on competing... channels uh... with gummy

bears uh... on a bc and was also on cbs uh...

one season later was moved to a bc which was

eventually sold to disney for reruns and then

disappeared from network television after that

so that does it for the history lesson so mike

what do you remember about apparently the amazing

cartoon that you called the wasles i love the

was almost this that this thing was awesome uh...

i'd just i watched some episodes on youtube uh...

the other day and I tried to watch like the very

first episode, which I did, I did find it, and,

um, wow. As soon as I saw the theme, obviously,

as soon as I, um, uh, as soon as I heard Stan

Freberg, which I know now that it's Stan Freberg,

I didn't know by the time I was watching it,

but, uh, Stan Freberg being the narrator, opening

the thing and setting up the scenery, I just

love it. I actually remember, and we'll get to

this in the legacy segment, but I remember having

a Elaru. One of the toys. Interesting. Yeah.

Come on now, it's not the most revealing thing

I've ever told you. I know. Right in Montana.

It could have been worse. You could have had

a Butter Bear. No. My... What? uh... okay and

now my two favorite and i'll get i'll get this

we get the characters with my two favorite out

of all the toys stuff that they had was uh...

ellaroo and bumble line were my two favorites

so but yeah it's just it's a good little fun

cartoon uh... it didn't like launch disney animation

like latin did disney animation for television

like last week show uh... gummy bears but uh...

It's still a nice little fun thing. Yeah, I guess.

I can tell you don't like it. Well, first of

all, I mean, I don't have necessarily the, I

don't know, the nostalgic connection to it because

I do remember seeing it a little bit when I was

a child. It came out when I was about, I guess,

four or so. Well, that's fun. Yeah, well. I remember

being there and I remember the concept and thinking

it was kind of cool that they were combining

these two animals and I like that. I don't know,

there's certain series that were only on for

about 13 episodes that somehow left a lasting

impact on me and this is one of those that was

only on for 13 and somehow it just didn't. You

know, it's hard if you're only on for that long

to make an impact on people and stuff like that

and for me this one kind of I don't know got

lost amongst all the other cartoons in the 80s

for me I don't remember ever seen or having the

toys. I Mean, I think I knew they existed but

I never I never had one I don't know. I guess

to me it's kind of It played second fiddle to

a lot of similar shows that were geared towards

the same age group and the same type of You know

the same type of content you had gummy bears

you had you know muppet babies Care Bears before

that and for me this one. I don't know it kind

of came in behind it was lost in the shadow I

guess I'll say but watching it back recently

I will say that I did enjoy the narration By

by Stan Freberg I thought that was one of the

highlights of the of the show and I like the

concept of the of the Characters being you know

half different animals and stuff like that, but

for some reason the actual stories I just, I

don't know, I found it real hard to watch them.

Yeah, the actual stories are kind of a, you know,

kind of it's not really so great part about the

show, but I mean, overall you've got, you know,

a bunch of great people. I just thought they

could have done more with what they, I thought

it was a good concept and a good idea, I just

wish. And maybe it's because they only had 13

episodes, but I just thought they could have

done a better job or done more with the concept.

Yeah. Well, again, you got to think, though.

It's also a kids' show. I mean, we're not going

to get in -depth stories. No, I don't mean that.

I just mean whether it was making it a little

bit funnier or making the stories a little bit

more adventurous. I mean, it lacks a lot of things

that some of those other shows like Gummy Bears

had that made it special. But I'll give it to

you that it is worth you know, watching or remembering

it, it had its place and, you know, it's amongst

a group of cartoons in the 80s that did a good

job of giving a good variety for kids of all

ages and kids that were into all different types

of things. Yeah, but again, you know, you really

can't compare this to Gummies because Gummies

was that adventure cartoon. This was more of,

hey, it's a magical, mystical island thing and...

Yeah. I mean, it's almost like, um... You're

gonna hate me. What? You're gonna hate me, but

I think I'd rather watch Care Bears than this.

You're dead to me. What the hell is wrong with

you? Care Bears were more fun to me than this

was. Oh my god, no way. I'd rather watch, actually

I'd rather watch Get Along Gang or Shirt Tales

than this. I don't even remember those ones.

Get Along Gang and Shirt Tales were awesome,

especially Get Along Gang. Sorry, had to throw

that out there. Yeah, anyways So jumping into

the characters here. We have a bunch of bunch

of crazy characters here. We have Bumble lion

was voiced by Brian Cummings half bumblebee half

lion Bumble lion is a short squat orange furred

creature with pink mane and fuzzy antennae a

lion's tail small insect wings and horizontal

brown stripes of his tummy He lives in a beehive

who likes sports and is courageous and has a

crush on Butter Bear. He is said to be the sort

of who rushes into uh... sort of what? The sort

who rushes in when he has a crush on Butter Bear.

Okay, yeah, I get it. He and Ellery are our best

friends. Butter Bear? Oh wait, before we get

into Butter Bear, Bumble Lion, when I watch his

episodes, he is pretty much um... I hate to equivalent

him to this because this character is much cooler

than bubble lion, but he's sort of the Michelangelo

of wuzzles He's like he's gonna rush in and do

some stuff without thinking about it And he just

wants to you know get it done, and you know thinks

he's the best so yeah He's the character I most

remember yeah my brief time watching it when

I was a kid and you know Brian Cummins is great

so oh, yeah Butter bear who is voiced by Sarah

Melton. Half bear, half butterfly. Butter bear

is mostly a bear in appearance. She has yellow

fur with white tummy, larger wings than the other

wuzzles, and short antennae with flowers in the

ends. She is a keen gardener who is also gentle

and patient despite the crazy adventures of her

friends. She's okay. Then we had Ella Rue. voiced

by Henry Gibson, which was obviously half an

elephant and half kangaroo. One of the larger

wuzzles, Elaru, is purple, with the body shape

and tail of a kangaroo and an elephant's trunk

and ears. He has a horizontally striped pouch,

despite the fact that pouches are found only

on female kangaroos. Elaru has trouble remembering

what he stores in his pouch. He is sweet, but

accident and disaster prone, and he and Bumbleyon

are, like we said, best friends. Yes. I love

this character. He's so cool. He's basically...

I don't know if Disney was going for this, but

I equate him to... Oh, what's that stupid elephant

that's always sitting on the egg? You know who

I'm talking about in Looney Tunes. I do, but

I don't know a name. Yeah, I don't remember his

name either. There's a pink elephant that's in

Looney Tunes that is always... Oh, I remember

the bird's name that gets him to eat... the bird

she tricks him into sitting on her egg was she

goes out there zee all god what else do you know

if it's name i don't know if i know the other

kevin the uh... stocker kevin hill hill hill

call in the last night i think that's good you

know uh... but yeah i i love delaware he was

so so cool uh... he was good he was good in the

episodes that i watched uh... him in bumbley

were were were fun to watch I liked... I liked

the... I liked Mussel... as far as like what

he did and how he sounded and all that stuff

but I didn't care for the actual design of that

character I like the moose part of the design

but the seal part I didn't really care for I

just don't like the combination of those two

like I like him as a character but I don't like

what he looks like I guess yeah I um When I was

watching some episodes I honestly couldn't tell

you if he was male or female because His voice

it doesn't sound directly like a guy or it sounds

like a combination of a guy and a girl. Yeah

You can take them. Yeah, we had a Hop -hop, I

can't say that damn one. Hop -hopotomus. Hop

-hopotomus Which is voiced by Joanne Worley half

rabbit and half hippopotamus. She is called Hop

-ho by her friends Hoppo is a wuzzle who is a

hippopotamus with a rabbit's ears, buck teeth,

and a fluffy tail. She loves to sing and act.

Hoppo is a pushy, demanding diva, but she can

be sweet. However, when toughness is called for,

particularly in dealing with the villains, she

is the toughest wuzzle of all. Hoppo has a crush

on Bumble Lion, but Bumble Lion has his heart

set on Butter Bear. And I just have to say, like...

This is probably my least favorite character

in the whole show. Yeah, I tried to watch the

second episode and it was Going to holly was

or something like that. She was trying to sing.

Oh my god. It's like Liz. It's like trying to

watch Oh, what's her stupid name on fucking raw?

Oh, and she's from Louisville, too Jillian something

fucking Don't know you just can't sing. Yeah,

it's it's the point and that's that's why I equated

ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha The voice actor

but wow This is one of my favorite voice actors

because it's fucking Skeletor as rinoke. It's

Alan Oppenheimer Yeah, he's half rhinoceros half

monkey rinoke is a wuzzle who has a Rhino like

snout with a horizontal striped horn pink fur

and Rhino like legs He is an imposter that very

much like that of a monkey's rinoke is a fun

-loving Happy -go -lucky prankster. He loves

to play practical jokes. He can be obnoxious,

but he loves his friends. Rinoki is also Muscle's

best friend. Yeah, his jokes were just god -awful.

Yeah. God -awful. See, now this is like, he's

almost the opposite for me of Muscle. Muscle,

I liked everything about him except for what

he looked like. uh... here in okia i'd like to

what it looked like and i liked his uh... characters

appearance and all that but i did not say i care

for the actual character so it's kind of like

vice -versa from his own rinoki that's the same

thing for me it's like wow good lord then we

have uh... tycoon who kinda comes in later in

the series or more sporadically, who is voiced

by Greg Berger, who we all know. Half tiger and

half raccoon. I actually like how he looks like

a lot. Tycoon is the rich kid of was. He owns

a money tree. He shows the other Wuzzles that

he got his wealth from smart investing and saving

his money and teaches the Wuzzles about fiscal

responsibility. I'm not sure whose idea it was

to put a character like this in a kid's show.

I guess it worked. I like what he looked like

and everything, but it just seems weird to me.

Yeah, it is very, very weird. That's just nuts.

You don't put somebody like... This is not Shere

Khan, thank you very much. Although you can see

in almost all of these characters some type of

connection to Disney stuff of the past. Oh, yeah.

I mean, hell, well, I know Care Bears wasn't

Disney, but wow. Bumble Lion is... If you took

the bumble out of him, he looks just like, what's

his name? Oh, that stupid care bear. Yeah, Thunderheart.

Yeah, there you go. And he also reminds me of

a little, each one of them reminds me of different

stuff. I mean, Butter Bear reminds me of a Gummy

Bear, obviously. You know, Ellery, like you said,

the other Disney elephants that we've seen in

the past. The Reinoki has kind of the whole Jungle

Book type thing going on there. uh... muscle

really doesn't he's kind of unique but new yeah

but you know and even a couple at least one of

the bad guys has connections there but now that

you can you can definitely see disney and print

all over these guys so that doesn't for the the

good was also so to speak and that's the main

group of of the the heroes of the show i guess

if you want to call them and we have basically

three uh... three main villains Well, one main

villain in his two henchmen. Yeah, Croc, who

is also voiced by Alan Oppenheimer. Half crocodile,

half dinosaur. The main villain of the show,

Croc is bad -tempered, lazy, vile, ignorant,

and a bully. A bully and does anything to get

what he wants. He always wants the best of what

the Waddles have, but does not want to apply

the effort to acquire it himself. Wait, if he's

half crocodile, half dinosaur, shouldn't he be

a Crock -a -losaurus or something or they got

lazy with they got lazy with the the bad characters

names. Yeah There's like a croc. That's that's

good enough. Everyone else has like these combination

names and he's just crack Yeah, it should be

like crocosaur or dinodile Dinodile One of his

henchmen is named brat Also voiced by Bill Scott,

who did the voice of Mussel. Half wild boar and

half toad. Croc's chief sidekick. Brat sputters,

babbles, and grunts in his speech, but Croc understands

what he is saying. Like Croc, he is very lazy

and has a strong dislike towards the Wuzzles,

coupled with a desire to have the best of what

they have without applying any effort towards

acquiring it. As his name implies, Brat is very

bad -tempered and is often shown throwing tantrums

when he does not get his own way. He is also

greatly lacking in intelligence, and his incompetence

often sees himself in Croc. falling victim to

their own devices, which in turn occasionally

sees the two of them falling out. He kind of

reminds me of the Tasmanian devil mixed with,

I don't know, a variety of different bad characters

from other shows. Yeah. This next one, Flizzard,

is the only one out of the three bad guys that

actually have something, a name close to what

he actually is. He's half frog, half lizard.

Kroc's other sidekick, Flizzard, is more particularly

intelligent, but he means well and is more amable

in his manner than either Kroc or Brat, and relatively

more tolerant of the Wuzzles. But nevertheless,

very loyal to Kroc. On occasion where Kroc and

Brat fall out, it is often left to Flizzard to

try and patch things up between them. Yeah, they're

okay when the three of them are together, but...

Individually these these two sidekicks suck.

I actually like the bad guys in this better than

the good guys I think I don't know what about

what about them. I I really like Blizzard and

I think especially like you said when they're

together they work really well together and I

as a group I kind of like them better, but I

think it's just because how much I dislike a

couple of the good characters, but I don't know.

The voice acting, I mean, I know we're kind of

rushing into that, I guess, but the voice acting

on this show is pretty good. I mean, it's not

like the best voice cast we've ever had on all

the shows we've done, but it's pretty darn good.

And it's kind of ironic that we've just done

a couple of these other shows, but Brian Cummings,

obviously, Bumbleyne and Flizzard, was also Papa

Bear and Bear and St. Bear's when we talked about

him. And I keep bringing it up that he was Dr.

Mindbender and G .I. Joe. That's one and Bill

Scott. I got to give a little shout out to him.

We just did gummy bears Oh, yeah, he's gruffy

and Sir Tuxford and toady at different times

He's also bullwinkle from rockin bullwinkle show.

So we got some good guys We obviously already

know about Greg Berger and Alan Oppenheimer.

So it's a decent cast there. I Never thought

I would ever see a show where Grimlock and Skeletor

would be in the same show Definitely interesting.

Yeah, and also we should bring up the narrator,

who is voiced by Stan Freberg, the narrator of

the series who would often be heard in intervals

and broke the fourth wall telling the audience

points where he considered trouble ahead for

the Wuzzles or explaining a certain faucet of

the Island of Was. I think this was my favorite

part of the show. I agree, and another thing

I want to mention about that is he also it would

do the thing where I don't know what the what

the theory was behind this or if I would if I

even remember from when I was a kid or if I would

have liked it or not but when they came back

from commercials Freeberg would Kind of lead

on like the like the viewers missed something

during a commercial even though it was obvious

that it never happened Right and so that was

kind of a little ironic twist or a little not

ironic to us for a little quirky twist to things

but yeah I agree the narrator was probably one

of the favorite parts of the show for me and

it was the part that was most watchable as watching

it back as a I guess an adult if you can call

it. Yeah it kind of goes back it doesn't it breaks

the fourth wall it doesn't thank God it doesn't

break the fifth wall but it goes back to like

I think the easiest thing I can equate it with

is Huck. Huckleberry, the Huckleberry Hound Show,

where that narrator actually interacted with

Huck. That's breaking the fifth wall. But yeah,

this was done very, very well. Some characters

that appeared in books and as plush toys, but

not on TV. Piggy Pine. Half pig, half porcupine.

Oh, God. Koala Keet. Half koala, half parakeet.

Uh... Pen Dever? And a half beaver? Wow, does

that need a shave. Uh... Oh god, half sheep,

half walrus, what the hell? The next one sounds

like it belongs in a He -Man show. No, scowl

does half skunk half owl. That's why I know that's

what I'm saying He sounds like it belongs in

a he man or shira. Yeah, I guess there was a

cowl and stuff like that the scowl. I like walrus

Those are terrible names by the way. Yeah, those

are very very bad names Most of the names on

this show are pretty bad. Actually, but oh come

on Bumble lion and Ella Rue are the two best

ones. I think Butter bear sounds I don't know.

Yeah, well I was trying to think when I watched

the episodes I'm like wait butter bear butter

bear What the hell could that be a combination

of and and then I cuz I didn't look at the script

before we started recording this I'm like. Oh,

she's a butterfly and a bear That doesn't work

out for flying. You know yeah That's for sure

It is what it is the characters. I don't know

for me the characters. I think it's a great idea

I think the idea of common Combining animals

is something that kids would like because kids

like animals kids like, you know Imagination

combining stuff that's not combined in real life.

So I think that's a great idea. I just think

Characters kind of fell short of being memorable

characters for me. Yes, that's problem I have

but it's a decent voice cast and I don't know

Yeah, I agree So I guess moving into the behind

the scene behind the scene segment here I have

no production notes and the series was directed

by Fred Wolf for 12 out of the 13 episodes in

85 and the only writing credit I have listed

is Mark Evanier who did one episode in 85. You

know you said before that you know the stories

could be a little bit more than what they were

but you know at the same time it was part of

that you know, cheesy cartoons of the 80s type,

you know, trying to appeal to kids. And again,

this is based off of a book and a toy line. So...

I just think all the good writers were apparently

busy, though. They were too busy working on other

good shows in 85 to help out with this one. Yeah,

there's this little thing called Transformers,

you know? A couple other good shows airing in

85, and I think... the series just lacked in

the ability to get some good writers. Yeah, very

true. So moving into the actual show, as far

as the premise of the series, Wuzzles features

a variety of short, rounded animal characters,

each called a Wuzzle, which means to mix up.

Each is roughly even, colorful mix of two different

animal species, as a theme song mentions, living

with a split personality. And all the characters

sport wings. On their backs all of the wuzzles

live on the island aisle of was double species

are not limited limited to the wuzzles themselves

from the apple berries they eat to the telephonograph

on the home or the luxury home called a castle

scraper Okay, then Nearly everything on was is

mixed together in the same way as the wuzzles

are The characters in the show were marketed

extensively. The characters were featured in

children's books and posable figures and plush

toys, similar to Care Bears. And in a board game,

Disney premiered two animated series on the same

day, Wuzzles and Disney's Adventures of the Gummy

Bears, but on different networks. The Wuzzles

was on CBS. Gummy Bears was on NBC, as you said

before in the history lesson. Although Gummy

Bears was a successful series, Wuzzles was not.

at least the u .s. however it does have a fan

base today it was a much bigger success in the

united kingdom where the plot pilot episode aired

as a theatrical feature oh my god wow they were

desperate well it is the uk in the united kingdom

waffles and disney's adventures the gummy bears

were originally screened at the same channel

ITV in 1985 -86. Therefore, both series enjoyed

high popularity, and The Wuzzles was also repeated

on the BBC in 1987. Re -runs of the show were

aired on both Disney Channel and Toon Disney.

Lead vocal on the theme song for Wuzzles is performed

by songwriter Stephen Geyer. Okay. Now I didn't

know this was re -aired on Disney Channel and

Toon Disney. That's interesting. I want to know

what the actual theory or what the philosophy

was as to why Disney decided to air two of their

shows. When they're first starting to make it,

they're airing two shows in direct competition

of each other. Well, it could be network. Maybe

ABC wanted gummies and not wuzzles, and maybe

CBS wanted wuzzles and not gummies. Networks

will decide on what shows they want. Especially

nowadays, thank God Fox came to their senses

and are cancelling 24, the show's ending. There

was a rumor that it was going to be sold to NBC

and continue production. Which actually is probably

going to be happening with one of the other shows

that just got cancelled. I'm not a huge fan of

it. I mean, I don't watch it all the time, but

the show Ghost Whisper actually does great in

the radians, and it just got canceled by whatever

channel it's on. CBS. Yeah. And they're saying

that NBC, ABC, or Fox is going to pick it up

for next year because of how well it was doing.

It's kind of a weird thing to cancel when you're

doing well. But yeah, I don't know where I was

going with that. Well, at least ABC can get better

programming on Wednesday and Sunday night now

that that one show is gone. It's on Tuesday.

Whatever. One of the greatest shows of all time.

No, no, not all, not at all, no. One of the greatest

live action shows of all time. It's purgatory,

that's how an engine purgatory. Not quite. Anyways,

going into the music segment, I love the theme

song to this. It is so catchy. It's not as, it's

not as catchy as Gummies, but... It's very catchy.

The series' original music was done by Thomas

Chase and Steve Rucker. Yeah, the music was probably

one of the better parts of the show. The theme

song's not great, but you're right that it is

catchy. The music throughout the show is decent.

So going into the legacy segment while Kevin

leans back in his chair, don't you teach students

not to do that? I can't help it. You're setting

a bad example, damn it. Wuzzles in popular culture.

The Wuzzles are paired in the Robot Chicken episode,

especially the animal, Keith Crawford, with Bumble

Lion, voiced by Breckenmeyer, Butter Bear, voiced

by Vanessa Hudgens, and Ellaroo, voiced by Seth

Green. The three Wuzzles wonder how their parents

got together, given the biological impossibilities.

Oh, God. I hate you robot chicken. That's awesome.

Bumble lion envisions that Bumblebee mother and

a lion had sex with each other. Ellery envisions

the same thing with an elephant and a kangaroo

and a donkey human, a modified hippopotamus figure

that's voiced by Seth Green, attempts to do the

same. He is cut off by the other wuzzles who

don't want to know. Oh. Wow. I don't want to

know either. Damn. As far as the DVD release,

many DVDs have been available for sale online,

but none are official releases. Whether Disney

plans to release this series on DVD is unknown.

I wish they would. I mean, even if it was just

one disc, 13 episodes, or hell, even just two

discs, 13 episodes, just to have it out there.

Seems like it would be pretty easy since it was

only 13 episodes to make a real quick thing.

You wouldn't have to have necessarily a whole

bunch of bonus features on it. But I wouldn't

buy it. It'd be nice for some people to have

it out there. Whatever. Shut up. As I said before

in the history lesson, there were toys. I think

there were action figures and plush dolls. I

had the you know and again i was five six years

old when the show aired so you know i'm not ashamed

to admit that i had an LR and bumble lion plush

doll i don't care what people say i don't give

a fuck because they were cool i had that LR everywhere

i took that thing everywhere so um your your

wuzzles was my care bears yeah care bears oh

god Hello, this message is for the tune cast.

This is Kevin. We're calling on response to the

current episode for Teddy Works' Thing where

you guys put out a call for some feedback. And

I do think it's a good idea for the outro of

the episode to be the same song or the topic

for the next episode. And that way it kind of,

you know, sets up the audience expectations and

kind of gives them anticipation for the next

episode. And then what's even cooler about that

is if it's, uh, like a cartoon that not a whole

lot of people know about or wasn't watched that

much, uh, for folks to be like, okay, well, I

don't really recognize that song, I have to wait

till the next episode to be like, oh, okay, okay,

yeah, now I remember. Or if it was a classic,

you'd be like, yeah, okay, we're gonna talk about

that shit. So, yeah, just wanna give some feedback

on it. Y 'all guys have a good day. Alright,

bye. This is Dr. Wily, and I will destroy Mega

Man while listening to Tooncast! More of a mouth

here, and when I'm not setting Mickey up, I like

listening to Tooncast! So, final thoughts on

the Wuzzles, sir? Um, you know, it is what it

is. Like I said before, I think it was a great

idea. I think some parts of it are good. I think

it's... not nearly as good as the other stuff

that was airing at the same time in the 80s,

but it does deserve a spot in its proper spot

in the 80s cartoon history books or whatever

you want to call it. Good things about it, but

just for me, it's hard to watch now and I didn't

watch it a lot when I was a kid, so it would

be kind of one of those second tier shows for

me. It's not something I can sit and watch on

YouTube I did watch two or three episodes on

YouTube But it's not something I can sit here

in front of the computer and watch on YouTube

if it was something I was able to have on DVD

and You know Actually lay on a couch or lane

lane better whatever and watch just for fun and

not for say review purpose I could probably do

it because I love the show when I was a kid.

I thought it was awesome and and just to see

those stories regardless of whether they were

you know just lame stories or whatever but you

know just to see them again because I and actually

This episode actually or this not really this

episode as far as episode 56 this this cartoon

Actually would not have ever made it to the schedule

if it wasn't for Christopher Stapleton of chicken

pot pod you can see them at chickenpotpod .com

They had done one of their episodes on chicken

pot pod about Yeah, I think it was 80s cartoon

themes and he started playing this and I'm like

wait Know that what is that thought? What is

that theme song? And then he said it was the

wuzzles and I'm like, oh, okay As soon as I did

that or as soon as I heard him say that I opened

the schedule I either took something off or moves

it to a different place and I put the wuzzles

here because yeah, I love this show Yeah Regardless

it if it has its problems, which I know a lot

of people aren't gonna like it or you know people

didn't you know weren't at the age that they

would like it they were in other stuff like G

.I. Joe and Silver Hawks. Exactly. Anyways, it

is still an all -around good kids cartoon, especially

coming from Disney. I just got to plug myself

out here, though. But anybody that is curious

as to what the Wuzzles look like or wants to

remember what they look like, all the characters'

pictures are on BehindTheVoiceActors .com so

you can look at them. And you can reminisce and

be nostalgic. Or they can just look at the Tooncast

art because it is the title screen of The Wuzzles

with all the characters on it. They can do that

too. So thank you for joining us here on Tooncast,

our one -year anniversary episode. There are

several ways to get in contact with us or leave

feedback for the show. Visit the website geekcastradio

.com. You can comment on each post. uh... join

the forum spread empire dot com slash nexus leave

the show's feedback in itunes please do this

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aren't you cast minus tfg one mike what is your

twitter uh... boss get up become a fan on facebook

search geek cast radio network don't call the

voicemail line it's dead for now i gotta get

that back up and running Let's see what else.

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Tooncast,

which you'll join us next time when we'll be

reminiscing on the Baron Stain Bears. I love

them things. We're keeping with the Brian Cummings

theme. Yes. I don't know if it's so much a theme,

but I mean, hell, if we were. If we were doing

a show on each Looney Tunes cartoon, it would

be a meld blank spotlight. That's true. Oh. For

now, I am TFG1Mike with... Optimus Solo from

BehindTheVoiceActors .com. Thank you for listening.

Until next time. Sword of Omens. Give me sight

beyond sight. I see a new episode of Tooncast

coming this week. This way to bear country. You'll

know when you're there. As soon as you enter,

you'll feel like a bear. A great grizzly bear.