Sunday 16 August 2015

209 Hong Kong Phooey


First  watched  : 17  March  1975

With  typical  succession  planning  (  or lack  thereof  ) this  daft  cartoon  series  replaced  The  Changes  on  a  Monday  teatime. With  one  exception  ( which  is  something  of  a  special  case )  I'm  thinking  this  is  the  last  Hanna-Barbera  cartoon  I  followed  so  I'll  be  interested  to  find  out  as  we  progress  if  that  was  really  the  case.

Hong  Kong  Phooey  was  better  than  recent  offerings  as  it  was  satirical  in  intent, making  fun  of  the  martial  arts  craze. Phooey  was  a  dopey  police  janitor  who  turned  into  a  crime  fighting   super  hero  when  the  need  arose. The  twist  was  that  he  wasn't  one.  Despite  possessing  a  Pat  Pending  like  convertible  vehicle,  Phooey  was  completely  incompetent  and  had  to  be  rescued  by  his  cynical  but  smart  companion  Spot  the  cat  on  every  occasion  while  Phooey only succeeded  in   making  himself  look  like  an  idiot. He  was  no  more  convincing  a  martial  arts  master  than  tubby  recent  chart  topper  Carl  Douglas.

Sixteen  episodes  were  made  in  total  with  all  but  the  last  containing  two  separate  adventures. Like  Valley  of  the  Dinosaurs  it  was  repeated  within  Multi-Coloured  Swap  Shop  the  following year.

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