C.B. Bears
Like pet rocks and mood rings, the Citizen's Band radio craze hit the
70’s hard and fast. Spurred on by the success of the C.W. McCall song
"Convoy," the popularity of C.B. radios skyrocketed, moving from
truckers' rigs into private residences. The cries of “Breaker, Breaker”
and “10-4 Good Buddy” could be heard for miles around. The song
inspired a movie starring Kris Kristofferson and Ernest Borgnine, and
eventually the craze manifested itself in animated form.
The C.B. Bears featured a bevy of different segments lumped
into a one hour program. The title characters appeared in a segment of
their own, fighting crime from a dilapidated garbage truck that was
chock-full of technical goodies. Hustle was the leader, a Moe
Howard-like bully with a voice that sounded like Phil Silvers; Bump was
the token idiot, with a garbage can lid for a hat and a slight
resemblance to Scooby-Doo; and Boogie was a clone of Boo-Boo from the Yogi Bear cartoons. The trio’s marching orders were dispatched over the C.B. in their truck by an unseen female named Charlie.
Among the other segments: “Undercover Elephant,” who solved crimes
with his partner Loud Mouse; “Shake, Rattle, and Roll,” which had a
trio of ghosts running a hotel against the wishes of its operator,
Sidney Merciless; “Hey, It’s the King,” which had a city cat meet up
with Big H the hippopotamus, Clyde the ape, Skids the alligator,
Yukayuka the mole, Zelda the ostrich, and Sheena the lioness; “Blastoff
Buzzard and Crazy Legs,” a dialogue-free desert chase with a bird
pursuing a snake; and finally, “Posse Impossible,” about four bumbling
cowboys (Sheriff, John Wayne soundalike Big Duke, a fat guy who cried a
lot named Blubber, and Stick the Hillbilly), who defended justice in
the old west town of Saddlesore.
The show ran half a season on its own, then was incorporated into the two hour Go Go Globetrotters for the rest of the season.
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