1982 11:00 on CBS: PANDAMONIUM

[captain-slinky.livejournal.com]

In 1982, CBS gave the Saturday Morning 11:00 time slot to a show called "Pandamonium", which was the new Marvel Productions team's first attempt at an original Hanna-Barbera-style Saturday Morning Cartoon.

The show had a pretty complicated set-up, but easy-to-follow episodes. When an evil alien named Mondraggor tried to steal The Pyramid of Power (an ancient artifact thingee with untold power and whatnot), the pyramid shattered into many pieces, which scattered around the world. Each week, Mondraggor would race against the brother/sister team of Peter and Peggy Darrow, and three talking pandas named Chesty, Timothy, and Algernon, who were irradiated by the Pyramid's magic. The three of them could come together Voltron-style to form Poppapanda, a being with supernatural power.

Over the course of their 13 episodes, the team of good guys found most (but not all) of the pieces of the pyramid and the show was cancelled before there could be any kind of resolution :(

(Also aired at 8:30 starting in the Spring of 1983)

Comments

[artytoons.livejournal.com]

CBS Sports coverage pre-empted this show often on the West Coast ao I never saw the complete run. The first episode was released on home video. Familiar actor Jesse White (The lonely Maytag repairman in the commercials) played the voice of Timothy the cranky panda leader.

Produced by Marvel Productions and Intermedia Productions headed by former CBS/NBC/ABC programming chief Fred Silverman. Both companies also produced the "Meatballs and Spaghetti" cartoon show in the same season on CBS.