The All New Popeye Hour
The spinach-powered Popeye
has been a pop culture staple since 1929, the star of several hundred
comic strips, theatrical shorts, and his own radio and television
shows. 1978 marked the beginning of a new era for the squinty-eyed
sailor, returning to the small screen in The All New Popeye Hour.
This series was broken up into different segments: The Adventures of Popeye, Popeye’s Treasure Hunt, Popeye’s Sports Parade, and Dinky Dog. The latter segment starred a huge mutt and had little or nothing to do with Popeye or any sort of maritime activity.
Because of the changing times, these episodes featured less
fighting and more trickery on the part of Popeye's nemesis, who was
back to being called Bluto after his mysterious name-switching run as
"Brutus." Each episode also featured a public service portion, in which
the spinach-eating swabby would educate his nephews Peepeye, Pupeye,
and Pipeye on topics such as home safety or sensible dieting. In one
such segment, Popeye explained what a bad habit smoking was, and how he
only used his pipe for “tooting” at the end of his theme song.
In 1980, the series was shortened to a half-hour and rechristened The Popeye and Olive Comedy Show. Two new segments were added: Prehistoric Popeye, which showed us a Cro-Magnon version of the sailor eating Jurassic spinach, and Private Olive Oyl, which chronicled the adventures of Olive and Alice the Goon as privates in the Army.
CBS decided to retire the beloved boatman in 1983. Popeye returned to Saturday morning once more, in 1987's Popeye and Son,
which lasted only one season. It would be unfair to say, however, that
Popeye passed out of the limelight, since his presence is still felt
today in cartoon reruns, continued merchandising, and even a fast food
restaurant chain. "Strong to the finish," indeed.
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