1981 8:00 on CBS: The Kwicky Koala Show

[captain-slinky.livejournal.com]

The Kwicky Koala show from Hanna-Barbera aired at 8am on your local CBS station starting in 1981, and only lasted one season. The show is a pretty forgettable comedy anthology, mostly notable for being among legendary cartoon director Tex Avery's final works. Avery died during production in 1980.

The show consisted of a mish-mash of relatively fresh and original comedy concepts that were unfortunate victims of an overzealous network of censors, corporate interests and parental watch-dog groups who feared anything that might even come close to being actually funny (I'M BIASED).

Kwicky Koala was a cross between Tex Avery's "Droopy" cartoons of the past and a Road Runner/Speedy Gonzalez theme. Wilfred Wolf was always trying to catch Kwicky for some undisclosed reason (either money or cartoonibalism, I think?), and Kwicky used the natural faster-than-light capabilities of a Koala(?!) to outsmart him and escape.

The Bungle Brothers were the vaudeville dogs who kind of hosted the show, and/or were always trying to sell their vaudeville act and become big stars. They didn't really have a PART in the show, just the little intros and endings of each episode.

Crazy Claws was a wildcat who used his sharp wits and equally sharp claws to evade the fur trapper Rawhide Clyde and his dog Bristletooth in a National Park run by Ranger Rangerfield. I don't remember much about this one other than how my buddy Kevin always said that Crazy Claws reminded him of his favorite X-Man, Wolverine (he bought a copy of Incredible Hulk #181 for $8 and back in 1981 that was just stupid-expensive for one comic book, but I digress...)

Dirty Dawg was the story of a homeless vagrant dog and his best friend (a rat named Ratso) as they tried to better their lives, and Officer Bullhorn as "The Man" who constantly foiled them.

Comments

[aurora77]

"Cartoonibalism" is a term I haven't heard, so I took to Google and found only one instance of the word online. I had Google translate the page from Italian and all I can do is go WTF? I think that reference means something different, so I would call this a new term.

From the little I recall of this, I think it also suffered from old school ideas clashing with new school ideas as well as the censorship.

Incredible Hulk #181 for $8? Lot of money for a kid then, but I'd say that was a good investment!