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Destroy All Podcasts DX Episode 192 - Donkey Kong on Saturday Supercade: How Much is That Gorilla in the Window?

Comments

20 comments posted
Another novel...

I'm old enough to remember this cartoon. As I recall, Pauline was Mario's niece.

Actually, even though they turned Mario into a circus gorilla trainer, Donkey Kong was the most unaltered of the four cartoons on the show. Frogger is a news paper reporter, Q*Bert is an homage to the 60s, and DK Jr. got teamed up with a clone of the Fonz. (And isn't it ironic that DK Jr. is the jump-the-shark segment of the show?)

Season 2 swapped two of the cartoon segments out for Space Ace and Kangaroo, but I don't remember much about those, except that David Mendenhall made his voice acting debut in the Kangaroo cartoon.

Speaking of which, did you guys mention the voice actors on this cartoon? It's Peter Cullen as Mario and Soupy Sales as Donkey Kong.

Even though this show kinda sucks, I'd like to see it come back. It hasn't aired since the original run in 1983 and 84. You'd think that with the advent of Virtual Console, there'd be some incentive to bring this cartoon back. It's basically all Sega, Nintendo, and Konami. That can't be too difficult to arrange a license agreement for that.

I'm afraid I can't answer Zuey's video game fetish challenge. Princess Daphne was the only gamer girl worth drooling over when i was a kid, and I had firmly moved onto cartoon chicks by the time the NES came along. Ask me about Princess Adora some time. (Oh god, why did I just admit that?)

Mr Neil's picture
Posted by Mr Neil on 13 June, 2011 - 03:15
DKJ

Did Donkey Kong Jr. & his Fonzie friend ever found his uncle in the show. Mr. Neil?

Diakron's picture
Posted by Diakron on 13 June, 2011 - 03:57
Sadly no...

They rode off into the sunset after thirteen episodes and were never seen or heard from again.

Mr Neil's picture
Posted by Mr Neil on 13 June, 2011 - 06:36
Eh, sounds typical of shows

Eh, sounds typical of shows that don't try to wrap it up in the end in those days.

Chris@StudioToledo's picture
Posted by Chris@StudioToledo on 13 June, 2011 - 06:38
comment deleted

comment deleted

Chris@StudioToledo's picture
Posted by Chris@StudioToledo on 13 June, 2011 - 06:39
That's too bad that they

That's too bad that they pieced it out like that. I would have liked to have seen the show make a DVD comeback the way Captain N had.

There were also bumpers between the shows where characters from one segment would briefly interact with characters in the next segment, so you'd have something like Donkey Kong interacting with Q*Bert between cartoon segments. We'll probably never see those again.

Mr Neil's picture
Posted by Mr Neil on 13 June, 2011 - 06:46
That's true about those

That's true about those 'bridging segments' of the show as well. It makes you wish someone had taped it all back then besides the one or two episodes that managed to find their way through the tape-trading circuit. I notice the DK and DKJr. episodes end with a Universal logo as well, possibly they still have some sort of distribution rights to these as well.

I know the Space Ace cartoons use to show up on Boomerang years back. Clips of the Q*Bert cartoons have showed up on YouTube as part of some "Minisode" type deal. Not sure of Frogger, Pitfall Harry or Kangaroo's rights for the moment myself.

Chris@StudioToledo's picture
Posted by Chris@StudioToledo on 14 June, 2011 - 00:43
I'm old enough to remember

I'm old enough to remember this cartoon. As I recall, Pauline was Mario's niece.

Me too. I was 6 when Saturday Supercade first showed up around 1983. Back in those days, Saturday morning was still kinda stuck in the 1970's mold of how these shows were developed and followed through, many of them only really lasted a season or two and that was it, you hardly ever heard of 'em again like "Rubik the Amazing Cube" or "Meatballs & Spaghetti" or even "Trollkins" (stuff I faintly remember watching). Often times you get stuff that was adapted a a prime-time show like Mork & Mindy or The Dukes of Hazzard showing up, and no doubt it was a product of some network exec. thinking only of dollar signs and ratings for the most part. Saturday Supercade and a few video game-related cartoons of that time no doubt was riding on the video game trend that would've went on if it wasn't for the Crash in '84 and for Nintendo to come into the playing field to show how to do it right.

Actually, even though they turned Mario into a circus gorilla trainer, Donkey Kong was the most unaltered of the four cartoons on the show. Frogger is a news paper reporter, Q*Bert is an homage to the 60s, and DK Jr. got teamed up with a clone of the Fonz. (And isn't it ironic that DK Jr. is the jump-the-shark segment of the show?)

You can certainly tell the guys planning these shows didn't have much to go on besides the characters and what they could do with them, since those games didn't really have much of a premise to begin with besides it's straight-forward play. I though Q*bert was more the 1950's "Happy Days"-ish sort of homage. Also, I call that guy in DK Jr. a cross between the Fonz and Dave Seville, but that's just me!

Speaking of which, did you guys mention the voice actors on this cartoon? It's Peter Cullen as Mario and Soupy Sales as Donkey Kong.

I would call Soupy Sales' take on DK s--t myself, he certainly was only going by what he though a gorilla might try to say despite perhaps having limited intelligence or a speech impediment (and no doubt too many animals like Donald Duck and Scooby Doo end up in that category).

Even though this show kinda sucks, I'd like to see it come back. It hasn't aired since the original run in 1983 and 84. You'd think that with the advent of Virtual Console, there'd be some incentive to bring this cartoon back. It's basically all Sega, Nintendo, and Konami. That can't be too difficult to arrange a license agreement for that.

I think the real problem is that many of the cartoons that comprised "Saturday Supercade" appear to be owned by separate companies. I noticed Sony Pictures Television seems to have the Q*bert section of the show, while Turner/Time Warner had Space Ace (as well as the standalone Dragon's Lair series that aired on another network in '84).

The look of DK in the show didn't really bugged me with it's big head/small body. I suppose it comes down to what liberties were taken in designing the characters for the show or what material they had to go by, since the video game characters didn't had a look or style that would be later solidified in later years to what we know them today. Mario in this cartoon certainly reminded me more of a Latino character than an Italian one the way they drew him.

Reminded of a later episode of the DK cartoons that had them meeting up with Stanley the gardener, who would appear in his own game with the big ape called Donkey Kong 3, the game itself though is probably the lowest DK could stoop to be humiliated by... being sprayed in the nuts with bug spray!

Chris@StudioToledo's picture
Posted by Chris@StudioToledo on 13 June, 2011 - 06:40
It'd be funny if Samus was

It'd be funny if Samus was man ALL ALONG!

IT'S A TRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAP!

VZMK2's picture
Posted by VZMK2 on 13 June, 2011 - 12:04
Commenting Etiquette Question

So, if you guys ask a question about one of our comments, should we

A)Respond in the comments section of the podcast where you ask the question,

B)Respond in the comments section where we made the original comment, or

C)Assume you were asking questions to be polite and you don't actually care about the answer?

Anyway, thanks for answering my rambling question, and Fighting Foodons is basically Pokemon, but all the Pokemons are made of food objects and their names are all wonderful puns, like "Rap Scallion" or "Hot Doggone-It". The theme song is just a piece of classical music they stole and wrote silly lyrics for. It honestly sounds like it took five minutes.

Pizza will attack with gooey cheese. The Fighting Foodons theme just wanted to make sure you understand that.

The Waffle Man's picture
Posted by The Waffle Man on 15 June, 2011 - 00:41
As for Donkey Kong

One thing that's fun about 80s cartoons is that they came out in a time when American and Japanese animators were working together a lot, but the Americans didn't know what Japanese cartoons were and the Japanese didn't know what American cartoons were, so both sides just sort of made wild guesses, which accounts for Kong's big ol noggin. I love spotting stuff like that, though now I'm blanking on what else there is, besides background signs in Ninja Turtles that are almost but not quite English.

Also, somehow these Ruby-Spears shows seem to end up aping anime a lot. Turbo Teen is basically Ranma 1/2, and now Donkey Kong pretty much Lupin III, with Donkey as Lupin and Super Mario as Inspector Zenigata. Now I'm wondering what the Mr. T show would be.

The Waffle Man's picture
Posted by The Waffle Man on 15 June, 2011 - 01:05
Is there any furry creature

Is there any furry creature that Zuey doesn't Rule 34?

If Zuey is old, I am ancient, because I played Donkey Kong on the Atari 2600. I like those times, but I'll take Mario in any form. I'm not interested in going back to 8-bit.

I guess Zuey must've cried at X-men First Class, with Magneto and the Nazis.

You know, if you name the episode of the next podcast "Zuey shares her podcast-related art with all of us" she will be FORCED to draw something for us, finally.

I am shocked that there hasn't been a Super Mario video game in decades. Mario is still relevant, and I'd love to see some weird interpretation of him.

(I hope that if and when you guys leave from this "beautiful" website, you include a disqus comment section or something. That would be cool )

Yotaru's picture
Posted by Yotaru on 15 June, 2011 - 10:36
wait what they're still making Mario games

Or did you mean a Super Mario cartoon?

Rankarana's picture
Posted by Rankarana on 16 June, 2011 - 05:47
rule 34.

Dude, I'm the living, physical incarnation of Rule 34. I'm it's willing, fervent servant.

I haven't watched x-men first class yet! I was scared to get my heart broken again, as I am such a huge fuckin x-man fan and I can't handle any more comic-made-into-a-movie emotional disappointments in my life.

By my dubious honor, I WILL make you guys some drawings sometime in my life before I die! I WILLLLLLL!!!!!

Zuey's picture
Posted by Zuey on 30 June, 2011 - 15:28
WAIT WAIT WAIT!Why does Zuey

WAIT WAIT WAIT!

Why does Zuey not have internet access? What year is this?? Not even dial-up??

Yeah, I think I sent her an e-mail, but I forget. Doesn't matter, because ZUEY DOESN'T HAVE INTERNET ACCESS!

Damn, Jeremy, you dropped the "lives with parents" bomb several times. I know Zuey deserves it, but that's mean!

Sorry I did not clear up what I meant by s-y in the Zeiram comments section. What I meant is s_ _ _ _ y. (now you have to go back to the Zeiram comments to figure out what the devil I'm talking about.)

Yotaru's picture
Posted by Yotaru on 15 June, 2011 - 11:33
Thinking back, I don't

Thinking back, I don't remember much in the way of video game-related early sexual fantasies. The only thing I can think of is getting really turned on by Morrigan and Felicia playing Darkstalkers, and while I guess to a certain extent that's inherently kinky, it's not that interesting, since that's kind of the point of those characters.

The other thing I can really remember is the girls in Jim Lee's X-Men comics. So apparently I had a thing for women with thoraxes who all have the same face. But Jeremy already mentioned X-Men.

And I think the earliest thing I was ever turned on by was Catwoman in Batman Returns. Which you guys also already talked about.

Seems like what I'm saying is that I was a boring child who got boring boners.

TheMarkSewell's picture
Posted by TheMarkSewell on 15 June, 2011 - 14:16
About Robotech

Jeremy, I didn't say it wasn't popular. I said that it was obscure in certain areas of the US. There are markets in the US where Robotech either didn't air or it didn't appear on any of the popular children's television blocks in the 80s. Here in Chicago, I don't remember Robotech ever airing. It would have either been on WGN or FOX, and it was on neither.

Mr Neil's picture
Posted by Mr Neil on 15 June, 2011 - 21:08
Yeah I remember it being on

Yeah I remember it being on at some weird time in my area (NJ). Like really early in the morning on weekdays. The only way I got to see it was by setting the vcr to record episodes. That's right a good old vcr :)

Novacaine31's picture
Posted by Novacaine31 on 16 June, 2011 - 11:11
Yeah...

I forgot to mention that, too. It was on at really weird times in certain markets.

Mr Neil's picture
Posted by Mr Neil on 16 June, 2011 - 18:26
another awesome podcast. I

another awesome podcast.

I agree with Jeremy that moe has really not done the industry any good in the long run and really just adds to the stigma.... in fact I had really given up with anime for about 2 years until by chance I came across a new show called Tiger & Bunny a show about a group super heroes who live in a world that scores them on heroism like a video game while airing their lives like a TV entertainment show. I'd recommend it if you enjoyed the look of Karas.

as for the Donkey Kong I really didn't even know this existed and its interesting to see what was done with Mario in regards as to how he differs from his now traditional look and feel

Blitz's picture
Posted by Blitz on 16 June, 2011 - 14:01