[identity profile] captain-slinky.livejournal.com posting in [community profile] saturday_am_80s


First, the description - A live-action show about a Monkey named Roxana Banana who is given super-powers by aliens and has wacky adventures. COULD ANYTHING POSSIBLY BE MORE PERFECT?!?!?

Folks, you know me. You know that I have a *fairly extensive knowledge* of 1980's Saturday Morning Programming, right? I mean, hey, I *did* start up a whole Preservation/Reenactment Society, after all... I know my way around a 1980's TV Guide and a 13-channel television dial (14 if you count the UHF).

So believe me when I say that I'm *pretty sure* this show didn't actually exist.

In 1984 i was *obsessed* with Oragutans, chimpanzees and "Monkeys" in general. I sold little baskets of fruit at our corner grocery store in order to reach my goal of buying myself a monkey that could drive me to school, wear pajamas, rollerskate and smoke cigars for my amusement. When i started seeing ads for this show in my comic books, I WENT NUTS! I HAD TO SEE IT!

I tuned in every Saturday at noon, only to find some stupid local educational show airing there instead, to be followed by an episode of Spider-Man & His Amazing Freinds before they moved on to Sportball programs. This is when I first learned about how Network Affiliates and Local Educational Programming quotas, and I was assured by the person who wrote me back from KING (the local NBC affiliate that I had written an 11-year-old letter of complaint to) that the show was airing in other cities but not the greater Seattle area.

HOWEVER! In the 30 years since it supposedly aired on Saturday mornings, I have not met a SINGLE PERSON who has actually SEEN, with their OWN EYES, a single episode of this show! Lots of people kind of think they maybe saw an episode, but ends up it was one of the many Orangutan-centric movies of the time ("Any Which Way But Loose", "Going Ape", "Canonball Run", etc).

To further my claim that this show never existed, I submit the fact that on ALL THE INTERNET, the only image you'll ever see of the show is the one I have posted at the top of this entry. No other pictures, no clips, no video, no theme song - NOTHING. Presumably produced by Hannah-Barbera, even the Wikipedia page doesn't seem to know anything about this show and/or if there's any proof to back up it's existence!

This makes me sad - I really want there to have been a show about a monkey given super-powers by aliens :(

Date: 2013-09-05 09:35 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] deepseasiren.livejournal.com
For some reason this show rings a bell but you're right in that I never saw a single episode of it. I feel your pain!! You're so adorable LOL when you said you sold baskets of fruit to make money to buy a monkey LOL that could do all the things you mentioned.

See this is where I think all us adults should never lose that part of us that loved cartoons. I don't mean we should be childish, but I mean we should always keep the inner child alive. I LOVE it when I talk to people my age and they remember these cartoons or comics and things and still have the heart and the imagination to still watch shows and not feel foolish about it.
Heck I have more toys now than when I was a kid. In fact I think I may be regressing. I was a 'small adult' as a kid and now I am just a BIG kid LOL.

Date: 2013-09-05 10:23 pm (UTC)
aurora77: (Pinup)
From: [personal profile] aurora77
This sounds vaguely familiar. I'll see if I can hunt up any additional info.

Date: 2013-09-05 10:58 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] artytoons.livejournal.com
The series was often pre-empted on the West Coast for NBC's sports coverage.

James Avery (later on "The Fresh Prince of Bel Air" amd the voice of Shredder in the 1980s "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" cartoon series) and Bill Saluga (aka Raymond J. Johnson in the beer commercials of the era..."You can call me Ray...or you can call me Jay") played the bumbling bad guys out to kidnap the ape.

I believe the series was cancelled after half a season and replaced by reruns of "Thundarr the Barbarian".

Date: 2013-09-05 11:39 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] volare.livejournal.com
I have ZERO recall on this one, damn...

Date: 2013-09-06 12:46 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] man-of-snows.livejournal.com
Is September 14 still the date of the next watch along?

Date: 2013-09-06 11:49 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] cybermathwitch.livejournal.com
I don't remember if I saw the show itself, but it was certainly one of the shows highlighted in that year's NBC Saturday Morning Preview "Laugh Busters". I remember that, and have (somewhere) a VHS tape of the special. The "bumbling bad guys" were the evil mastermind's henchmen.

Date: 2013-09-07 07:22 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] janusfiles.livejournal.com
Is there any hint of this on YouTube?

Date: 2013-09-08 05:26 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] janusfiles.livejournal.com
In other words, no luck.

Date: 2013-09-08 11:24 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] janusfiles.livejournal.com
And I'm guessing that even though it was made in the 1970s, you probably went ape over Lancelot Link, Secret Chimp.

Date: 2013-09-12 09:59 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] muppetdance.livejournal.com
I saw this show. I remember it didn't air that often - most likely due to sports. I don't remember any specific episodes, but I do remember they would end the show with previews from a fictional network called JBS - Jungle Broadcast System(?). One of the 'previews' was for a show called "Pony Loves Chachi".

Date: 2014-01-07 10:02 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] timlybarger.livejournal.com
I absolutely remember this show -- especially the JBS segments. I've got a few audio recordings from the JBS segments and might even have the actual Going Bananas theme recorded, too. Checking now.

Date: 2014-01-07 10:07 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] timlybarger.livejournal.com
Just found the JBS recordings. Still looking to see if the actual show theme is in here anywhere.

Date: 2014-01-07 10:24 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] timlybarger.livejournal.com
No luck on the actual theme song -- although I still think I've got it somewhere. My brother and I recorded tons of stuff on cassette tapes when we were kids -- often on Saturday mornings. I've definitely got two or three good examples of JBS from the end of Going Bananas episodes though. Give me a bit and I'll try and slap something together to share on youtube later this evening.

Date: 2014-01-08 12:21 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] timlybarger.livejournal.com
Sure it does. The JBS segment was at the end of every episode. I didn't make these up on my own and record them. :) I assure you, the show existed.

I posted a link to a youtube video with audio from a few JBS segments but it says that this site marked it as spam.

Date: 2014-01-08 01:24 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] timlybarger.livejournal.com
youtu . be / KvPjSYrd6xE

Try this. Just remove the four spaces from the link above.

Date: 2014-01-08 01:37 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] timlybarger.livejournal.com
Try again. Was going to send you a link via twitter but it should be working if you try again.

Date: 2014-01-08 01:57 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] timlybarger.livejournal.com
HA! Glad to contribute. I know how satisfying it can be to fill in a gap when you've been looking for something for a long time! Now if I could just find a video copy of the Laugh Busters special!

Feel free to share the link...I'll let you know if I come up with the theme from the actual show.

Further evidence of Going Bananas

Date: 2014-01-23 10:19 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] timlybarger.livejournal.com
From Laugh Busters (just remove spaces from the link)...

http : // youtu . be/ EAe87N4IwGw
Edited Date: 2014-01-23 10:20 pm (UTC)

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