Bananaman (TV series)
Bananaman is a cartoon series, based on the character of the same name and featuring the voices of the members of The Goodies, that aired from 1983 to 1986.[2] It was produced by 101 Productions. Parts of the character were changed for the series: he was now called Eric Twinge, had a distinctive banana-shaped hairstyle rather than punk stubble, and had a love interest (only when transformed) in the form of Fiona, a newsreader based on Selina Scott and also a possible homage to Lois Lane.[3][4]
Bananaman | |
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Title card | |
Genre | Animation/Comedy |
Created by | Steve Bright |
Starring |
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Theme music composer | Dave Cooke |
Country of origin | United Kingdom |
Original language(s) | English |
No. of series | 3 |
No. of episodes | 40[1] |
Production | |
Producer(s) | Trevor Bond |
Running time | 5 minutes |
Release | |
Original network | |
Original release | 3 October 1983 – 4 March 1986 (reruns 1989–1997) |
Graeme Garden (incorrectly credited as Greame Garden on some episodes) voiced the characters of Bananaman, General Blight and Maurice of The Heavy Mob, Bill Oddie voiced the characters of Crow, Chief O'Reilly, Doctor Gloom and the Weatherman, and Tim Brooke-Taylor voiced the characters of Eric, King Zorg of the Nerks, Eddie the Gent, Auntie, and Appleman, as well as narrating the episodes.
Jill Shilling voiced Fiona and any additional female characters, including Eric's cousin Samantha (but not Auntie). It lasted for forty episodes between 3 October 1983 and 15 April 1986.
Bananaman was aired in the United States by the Nickelodeon cable network, as a companion piece to Danger Mouse, but Bananaman never came close to reaching that series' American popularity. The show also aired during the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's (ABC) after school timeslot, and is considered one of the Classic ABC shows.
In 1997, some episodes of Bananaman were used on the cartoon series The Pepe and Paco Show, created by Henson International Television.
Some of these episodes would eventually reappear in print form in The Dandy in 1998, coinciding with the BBC repeating the series that year, and were reprinted in the comic in Spring 2007, now promoting the DVD. Each episode was roughly five minutes from start to end.[5] Phrases from the show, "twenty big men" and "ever alert for the call to action", are still used in the comic today.
Cast
- Tim Brooke-Taylor as Eric
- Graeme Garden as Bananaman
- Bill Oddie as Crow
- Jill Shilling as Fiona
Reception
Bananaman was a popular cartoon and is one of the most well known British Superheroes.[6]
References
- Rosser, Michael; Wiseman2014-03-18T19:13:00+00:00, reas. "'Live action' Bananaman planned". Screen.
- Rosser, Michael. "'Live action' Bananaman planned | News | Screen". Screendaily.com. Retrieved 2019-12-13.
- Rowney, Jo-Anne (27 October 2017). "Bananaman is back - the Man-of-Peel returns in live action debut". mirror. Retrieved 12 April 2019.
- Kamen, Matt (13 January 2016). "Bananaman: The Musical heading to theatres. Yes, really". Retrieved 12 April 2019 – via www.wired.co.uk.
- Erickson, Hal (2005). Television Cartoon Shows: An Illustrated Encyclopedia, 1949 Through 2003 (2nd ed.). McFarland & Co. pp. 111–112. ISBN 978-1476665993.
- Murray, Chris (15 March 2017). "The British Superhero". Univ. Press of Mississippi. Retrieved 12 April 2019 – via Google Books.
External links
- Bananaman on IMDb
- Bananaman at TV.com
- Bananaman at the Big Cartoon DataBase
- Episode guide