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The All New Popeye Hour
Genre	Comedy
Based on	Popeye by E. C. Segar
Directed by	Ray Patterson (seasons 1–2) Carl Urbano (seasons 1–2, 4) Oscar Dufau (season 2) George Gordon (seasons 2, 4) Chris Cuddington (season 3) Rudy Zamora (season 4)
Voices of	Jack Mercer Marilyn Schreffler Allan Melvin Daws Butler Don Messick Hal Smith John Stephenson Jo Ann Worley
Theme music composer	Sammy Lerner (arranged by Hoyt Curtin)
Opening theme	"I'm Popeye the Sailor Man"
Composer	Hoyt Curtin
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	4
No. of episodes	56 (164 segments)
Production
Executive producers	William Hanna Joseph Barbera
Producers	Alex Lovy (seasons 1–2, special) Art Scott (seasons 3–4)
Editors	Gil Iverson Peter Jennings (season 1) Robert Ciaglia (seasons 1–3, special)
Production companies	Hanna-Barbera Productions King Features Entertainment
Original release
Network	CBS
Release	September 9, 1978 (1978-09-09) – September 5, 1983 (1983-09-05)
Related
Popeye and Son (1987)

The All New Popeye Hour is an American animated television series produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions and King Features Entertainment. Starring the comic strip character Popeye, the series aired from 1978 to 1983 Saturday mornings on CBS. Despite the series' mixed reception (mostly being criticized about its cheap animation, writing and PSAs), it was a hit for King Features Entertainment.

Production

The show was produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions, which tried to retain the style of the original Thimble Theatre comic strip while complying with the prevailing content restrictions on violence. Featured characters, aside from the popular main stars of Popeye, Bluto, Olive Oyl and Wimpy, were Swee'Pea, Poopdeck Pappy, Eugene the Jeep and Popeye's quadruplet nephews. Popeye's outfit reverted to his original blue sailor's uniform, except for his white hat, which retained the "Dixie cup" style. Bluto's name was restored, as it had been changed to "Brutus" for the early 1960s Popeye cartoons because of an incorrect understanding by King Features over who owned the rights to the character. Olive Oyl also reverted to her 1930s look.

At the start, The All New Popeye Hour had three segments: "Popeye", "Popeye's Treasure Hunt" and "Dinky Dog", a non-Popeye segment about the misadventures of an enormous sheepdog that was later spun off into its own show. In 1979, the show added "The Popeye Sports Parade".

Because of restrictions on violence on television cartoons for children at the time, Popeye did not throw punches in retaliation to Bluto; he often lifted him, with his own hands or with machinery, and hurled him away. The series marked the last time Jack Mercer would voice Popeye; he died on December 4, 1984, fifteen months after the show's cancellation. Unlike most other cartoon series produced by Hanna-Barbera in the 1970s, The All New Popeye Hour did not contain a laugh track.

Each episode also contains a PSA interstitial called a Safety Tip or a Health Tip about things that include but are not limited to washing hands before dinner, brushing teeth, nutrition, crossing the street the right way, protection against sunburn, and spray paint safety. Some Safety Tips feature an anthropomorphic wolf named Mr. No-No who would engage in dangerous or destructive activities like consuming toxic substances, drinking alcohol, smoking, and recreational drug use. He would tend to get Pipeye, Peepeye, Poopeye, and Pupeye to do the same until he is either stopped in some way or turned away by Popeye.

During the time the series was in production, CBS aired the half-hour special The Popeye Valentine Special: Sweethearts at Sea on February 14, 1979.

The All New Popeye Hour ran on CBS until September 1981, when it was shortened to a half-hour show and retitled The Popeye and Olive Comedy Show. The show added two new segments. The first segment was "Prehistoric Popeye", which is similar to The Flintstones. The second segment was "Private Olive Oyl", where Olive and Alice the Goon join the Army, then proceed to drive their drill instructor, Sgt. Bertha Blast (voiced by Jo Anne Worley) nuts, yet impress the base commander, Col. Crumb (voiced by Hal Smith). This cartoon is based on the idea of Private Benjamin; Hanna-Barbera was also concurrently producing a virtually identical concept with sitcom characters Laverne and Shirley called Laverne and Shirley in the Army for rival network ABC at the time.

The show was removed from the CBS lineup in September 1983, and the cartoons were immediately sold to local stations in nationwide syndication. They have also been released on VHS and DVD. The syndicated version can currently be seen on Amazon Prime Video, Tubi (as "Popeye: The Continuing Adventures") and on YouTube (as "All-New Popeye").

Voice cast

In addition to providing many of the cartoon scripts, Jack Mercer reprised his voice as Popeye, while Marilyn Schreffler and Allan Melvin became the new voices of Olive Oyl and Bluto, respectively (Mae Questel auditioned for Hanna-Barbera to recreate Olive Oyl, but was rejected in favor of Schreffler).

Main

• Jack Mercer as Popeye, Poopdeck Pappy, Pipeye, Peepeye
• Allan Melvin as Bluto
• Marilyn Schreffler as Olive Oyl, The Sea Hag, Swee'Pea, Alice the Goon, Poopeye, Pupeye
• Julie Bennett as Monica
• Daws Butler as Wimpy
• Jackie Joseph as Sandy
• Don Messick as Eugene the Jeep
• Frank Nelson as Uncle Dudley
• Hal Smith as Col. Crumb
• John Stephenson as Mr. No No
• Frank Welker as Dinky
• Jo Anne Worley as Sgt. Bertha Blast

Additional

• Roger Behr
• Ted Cassidy
• Richard Erdman
• Joan Gerber
• Ross Martin
• Virginia McSwain
• Pat Parris
• Barney Phillips
• Jane Roberts
• William Schallert
• Jean Vander Pyl
• Janet Waldo
• Lennie Weinrib

Episodes

Seasons 1–3 (1978–1980): The All New Popeye Hour

Season 1 (1978)

Season 2 (1979)

Season 3 (1980)

Season 4 (1981–1983): The Popeye and Olive Comedy Show

Special

Home media

The first DVD that features The All New Popeye Hour was released on May 16, 2000, by Rhino Home Video with eighteen segments from the series. A few years later, Warner Home Video released Popeye & Friends - Volume One, a single DVD featuring eight unedited episodes. As of 2024, the series has yet to have a complete series DVD box set.

Notes

1. ^ Episodes that are part of Popeye's Treasure Hunt.
2. ^ In their TV title cards, these episodes are titled or credited with some orthographic errors, which are "The Decathlon Dilemna" and "Olive's Devastatingk Decorators"
3. ^ Episodes that are part of The Popeye Sports Parade.
4. ^ Episodes that are part of Prehistoric Popeye.
5. ^ Episodes that are part of Private Olive Oyl.
6. Rerun of an episode from the Season 3.

References

1. "When Popeye was Popular Without His Punch!". Skwigly. 9 March 2017. Retrieved 18 August 2017.
2. "Popeye and Friends, Vol. 1". DVD Talk. Retrieved 18 August 2017.
3. ^ Erickson, Hal (2005). Television Cartoon Shows: An Illustrated Encyclopedia, 1949 Through 2003 (2nd ed.). McFarland & Co. p. 637. ISBN 978-1476665993.
4. "Popeye's Less Violent Return to Television! - Popeye-Expert Fred Grandinetti Talks The All New Popeye Hour". Searchmytrash.com. Retrieved 18 August 2017.
5. Woolery, George W. (1989). Animated TV Specials: The Complete Directory to the First Twenty-Five Years, 1962-1987. Scarecrow Press. pp. 311–313. ISBN 0-8108-2198-2. Retrieved 27 March 2020.
6. Perlmutter, David (28 March 2014). America Toons In: A History of Television Animation. McFarland. ISBN 9781476614885. Retrieved 18 August 2017.
7. "Cartoon Brew: Leading the Animation Conversation » Popeye and Friends". 12 March 2008. Archived from the original on 12 March 2008. Retrieved 20 August 2017.

External links

• The All New Popeye Hour at IMDb
• The All-New Popeye Hour DVD news: Final Box Art for Dinky Dog - The Complete Series
• episode listing in the Animation page on Hearst Entertainment's site

• 1978 American television series debuts
• 1983 American television series endings
• 1970s American animated television series
• 1980s American animated television series
• American children's animated comedy television series
• American animated television series reboots
• American English-language television shows
• Popeye the Sailor television series
• Television about Bigfoot
• Television series by Hanna-Barbera
• CBS animated television series