Shirt Tales are characters that were created in 1980 by greeting card designer Janet Elizabeth Manco and were featured on Hallmark Cards greeting cards. The characters were adapted into a 1982–1983 animated series for television, by Hanna-Barbera Productions, which aired on NBC.[1]
| Shirt Tales | |
|---|---|
 Season one title card | |
| Genre | |
| Created by | Janet Elizabeth Manco (original characters) |
| Directed by |
|
| Voices of | |
| Theme music composer | Hoyt Curtin |
| Opening theme | "Shirt Tales" |
| Ending theme | "Shirt Tales" (Instrumental) |
| Composer | Hoyt Curtin |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| No. of seasons | 2 |
| No. of episodes | 23 (46 segments) |
| Production | |
| Executive producers | |
| Producers |
|
| Editor | Gil Iverson |
| Running time | 22 minutes (11 minutes per segment) |
| Production company | Hanna-Barbera Productions |
| Original release | |
| Network | NBC |
| Release | September 18, 1982 – November 19, 1983 |
Cards
editHallmark Cards released the homonymous line of greeting cards with animal characters wearing T-shirts upon which was a message. Those cards were among Hallmark's best sellers at that time, which led the company to team with Hanna-Barbera Productions to adapt the Shirt Tales into a Saturday morning cartoon, which premiered on NBC on September 18, 1982.[2] The card line remained, but it faded shortly after the show left broadcast television in 1985.[3]
TV series
editThe animated Shirt Tales cartoon featured Tyg Tiger (in orange), Pammy Panda (in pink), Digger Mole (in light blue), Rick Raccoon (in red), and Bogey Orangutan (in green) (so-called because he spoke using a Humphrey Bogart-style voice). They lived in Oak Tree Park and wore shirts that flashed various brightly lit messages which reflected the characters' thoughts. They spent their time teasing the park custodian, Mr. Dinkel, and battling crime in and out of their hometown of Mid City. They zipped around the world in a vehicle known as the STSST (Shirt Tales' SuperSonic Transport) which could operate as a car, jet, boat, submarine, and other forms of transportation. Though most law enforcement agencies like the unnamed Commissioner knew of the Shirt Tales as crime fighters by reputation, few people seemed aware that they were talking animals—including Mr. Dinkel, whom the group often had to trick to keep their secret safe.
Each episode was divided into two 11–minute segments. After the success of the thirteen episodes in Season 1, ten episodes were created for Season 2. However, the show was semi-rebooted and Kip Kangaroo (in light yellow) was added to the cast of characters without context for her joining the Shirt Tales. There is also a difference in leadership among the Shirt Tales, in which for the first season Rick appeared to be the de facto leader, but in the second season is instead Tyg. Several stories in Season 2 either omit Rick altogether or give him a minor role in the story. The second season also added some superhero elements to the dynamic of the group as well, most notably the color of all their T-shirts changing to a bright red color when "Shirt Tale Time" is called for.
Following the initial run on NBC, Shirt Tales aired on CBS during the 1984–1985 Saturday morning season, replacing The Biskitts in their time slot. CBS aired selected episodes from its two-season NBC run until March 23, 1985, when The Biskitts were returned to the time slot for the rest of the 1984–1985 season.
On March 23, 1985, Shirt Tales was pulled from broadcast television for good, and the Hallmark franchise faded not long after as well. The show continued for a number of years as part of USA Network's Cartoon Express block and on Cartoon Network, but also continues to be broadcast in selected countries around the world on various networks, including Boomerang.
Voice cast
editMain
edit- Nancy Cartwright – Kip Kangaroo (Season 2 only)
- Robert Allen Ogle – Digger Mole
- Patricia Parris – Pammy Panda
- Steve Schatzberg – Tyg Tiger, Rick Raccoon (Episode 4 only)
- Ronnie Schell – Rick Raccoon
- Fred Travalena – Bogey Orangutan
- Herb Vigran – Mr. Dinkel
- William Woodson – Commissioner (Season 1 only)
Additional Voices
edit- Richard Balin (Season 1)
- Joe Besser (Season 1) – Elmo the Elephant (in "Elephant on the Loose")
- Joey Camen (Season 2) - Sparky the Dragon (in "Kip's Dragon")
- Victoria Carroll (Season 2)
- Brian Cummings
- Walker Edmiston (Season 1)
- Marshall Efron (Season 1)
- Bernard Erhard (Season 2)
- Ernest Harada (Season 2)
- Bob Holt (Season 2)
- Buster Jones (Season 2)
- Stanley Jones (Season 1)
- Sherry Lynn (Season 1)
- Tress MacNeille (Season 1)
- Kenneth Mars (Season 1)
- Joseph Medalis (Season 1)
- Howard Morris (Season 2) – Shutter McBugg (in "Double Exposure")
- Henry Polic II (Season 1)
- Tony Pope
- Robert Ridgely (Season 1)
- Michael Rye (Season 1)
- Marilyn Schreffler - T.J. Tiger (in "T.J.'s Visit")
- Rick Segall (Season 1)
- Michael Sheehan (Season 1)
- Hal Smith
- John Stephenson (Season 1) – Game Master (in "The Game Masters"), Museum Tour Guide (in "The Humboldt Ghost"), The Humboldt Ghost (in "The Humboldt Ghost"), Ebenezer Creepling (in "The Humboldt Ghost")
- Andre Stojka (Season 1)
- Jimmy Weldon (Season 2)
- Frank Welker (Season 1) – Figby the Cat (in "Figby, the Spoiled Brat Cat")
- Ted Zeigler (Season 1)
Episodes
editSeason 1 (1982)
edit| No. overall | No. in season | Title | Written by | Original air date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | "The Case of the Golden Armor" | Bob Ogle | September 18, 1982 |
| "Crumbling's Circus Caper" | Tom Dagenais | |||
| 2 | 2 | "The Game Masters" | Jim Ryan | September 25, 1982 |
| "Shirt Napped" | Tom Dagenais | |||
| 3 | 3 | "The Big Foot Incident" | Bob Ogle | October 2, 1982 |
| "Elephant on the Loose" | Tom Dagenais | |||
| 4 | 4 | "Horsin' Around" | Bob Ogle | October 9, 1982 |
| "Mission Mutt" | Jim Ryan | |||
| 5 | 5 | "Vacation for Dinkel" | Jim Ryan | October 16, 1982 |
| "Wingman" | Tedd Anasti | |||
| 6 | 6 | "The Humboldt Ghost" | Bob Ogle | October 23, 1982 |
| "Figby, the Spoiled Brat Cat" | Hank Saroyan | |||
| 7 | 7 | "Digger Runs Away" | Tedd Anasti | October 30, 1982 |
| "The Commissioner Is Missing" | Misty Stewart | |||
| 8 | 8 | "Raiders of the Lost Shark" | Jim Ryan | November 6, 1982 |
| "The Terrible Termites" | Tedd Anasti | |||
| 9 | 9 | "Moving Time" | Tom Ruegger | November 13, 1982 |
| "Back to Nature" | Gary Stamm | |||
| 10 | 10 | "Save the Park" | Tom Dagenais | November 20, 1982 |
| "Pam-dora's Box" | William Hasley | |||
| 11 | 11 | "Hapless Hound" | John Graham | November 27, 1982 |
| "The Very Buried Treasure" | Janis Diamond, Allan Heldfond | |||
| 12 | 12 | "Nearsighted Bear" | Janis Diamond, Allan Heldfond | December 4, 1982 |
| "The Magical Musical Caper" | Jim Ryan | |||
| 13 | 13 | "Dinkel's Ark" | Tom Dagenais | December 11, 1982 |
| "The Duke of Dinkel" | Tom Ruegger | |||
Season 2 (1983)
edit| No. overall | No. in season | Title | Written by | Original air date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 14 | 1 | "Bogey Goes Ape" | Glenn Leopold | September 17, 1983 |
| "The Rain, the Park and the Robot" | Glenn Leopold, Cliff Roberts | |||
| 15 | 2 | "Digger's Three Wishes" | Bob Ogle | September 24, 1983 |
| "Digger's Double" | ||||
| 16 | 3 | "Kip's Dragon" | David Detiege | October 1, 1983 |
| "Double Exposure" | Jim Ryan | |||
| 17 | 4 | "Taj Mahal Tyg" | Glenn Leopold, Cliff Roberts | October 8, 1983 |
| "Brass Bogey" | Bob Ogle | |||
| 18 | 5 | "The Outer Space Connection" | Janis Diamond | October 15, 1983 |
| "The Forbidden Island" | John Bates | |||
| 19 | 6 | "Saturday Night Shirt Tales" | Cynthia Friedlob, John Semper | October 22, 1983 |
| "Dinkel's Buddy" | Alan Burnett, Jeff Segal | |||
| 20 | 7 | "Pleasure Valley" | Dan DiStefano | October 29, 1983 |
| "The Ghost Out West" | David Detiege | |||
| 21 | 8 | "T.J.'s Visit" | David Detiege | November 5, 1983 |
| "The Big Set-up" | Jim Ryan | |||
| 22 | 9 | "Kip's Toy Caper" | Cynthia Friedlob, Glenn Leopold, Cliff Roberts, John Semper | November 12, 1983 |
| "Dinkel's Gift" | Alan Burnett, Jeff Segal | |||
| 23 | 10 | "Mayhem on the Orient Express" | Cynthia Friedlob, John Semper | November 19, 1983 |
| "The Cuckoo Count Caper" | ||||
Other media
editThere were also two musical book-and-record sets released by K-tel International under the "Castle Rock" imprint: A Song Saves the Park, and Sunrise Surprise. However, both sets use sound-alikes for the voices, and are presented differently from typical read-alongs.
Home media
editIn 1986, a VHS release of the series was issued by Worldvision Home Video and Kids Klassics, it contained the first full-length episode from Season 2 and the first segment of another episode from that season.
On September 16, 2014, Warner Archive released Shirt Tales: The Complete Series on DVD in Region 1 as part of their Hanna–Barbera Classics Collection.[4]
References
edit- ^ Perlmutter, David (2018). The Encyclopedia of American Animated Television Shows. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 549. ISBN 978-1538103739.
- ^ Rovin, Jeff (1991). The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Cartoon Animals. Prentice Hall Press. p. 274. ISBN 0-13-275561-0. Retrieved 8 April 2020.
- ^ Erickson, Hal (2005). Television Cartoon Shows: An Illustrated Encyclopedia, 1949 Through 2003 (2nd ed.). McFarland & Co. pp. 737–738. ISBN 978-1476665993.
- ^ "The Shirt Tales - 'The Complete Series' of the '80s Cartoon is Now on DVD!". tvshowsondvd.com. Archived from the original on 2014-09-17.
External links
edit- Shirt Tales at IMDb