''The Popeye Show'' (Originally titled I'm Popeye) is an American

cartoon A cartoon is a type of visual art that is typically drawn, frequently animated, in an unrealistic or semi-realistic style. The specific meaning has evolved over time, but the modern usage usually refers to either: an image or series of images ...

anthology series An anthology series is a radio, television, video game or film series that spans different genres and presents a different story and a different set of characters in each different episode, season, segment, or short. These usually have a differ ...

that premiered on October 29, 2001, on

Cartoon Network Cartoon Network (often abbreviated as CN) is an American cable television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. It is a part of The Cartoon Network, Inc., a division that also has the broadcasting and production activities of Boomerang, Car ...

. Each episode includes three ''

Popeye Popeye the Sailor Man is a fictional cartoon character created by E. C. Segar, Elzie Crisler Segar.Fleischer Studios Fleischer Studios () is an American animation studio founded in 1929 by brothers Max and Dave Fleischer, who ran the pioneering company from its inception until its acquisition by Paramount Pictures, the parent company and the distributor of i ...

and/or

Famous Studios Famous Studios (renamed Paramount Cartoon Studios in 1956) was the first animation division of the film studio Paramount Pictures from 1942 to 1967. Famous was founded as a successor company to Fleischer Studios, after Paramount seized contro ...

. The show is narrated by Bill Murray (not to be confused with the film actor of the same name), who gives the audience short facts about the history of the cartoons as filler material between each short. Animation historian

Jerry Beck Jerry Beck (born February 9, 1955, in New York City) is an American animation historian, author, blogger, and video producer. Beck wrote or edited several books on classic American animation and classic characters, including ''The 50 Greatest C ...

served as a consultant and Barry Mills served as writer and producer. A total of 45 episodes were produced, consisting of a total of 135 shorts.

Significance

Prior to the premiere of ''The Popeye Show'', most television airings of theatrical ''Popeye'' cartoons bore the logos of

Associated Artists Productions Associated Artists Productions, Inc. (a.a.p.) later known as United Artists Associated was an American distributor of theatrical feature films and subjects for television. Associated Artists Productions was the copyright owner of the ''Popeye ...

, the company that bought the films from

Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS). It is the fifth-oldes ...

for television distribution. This is due to the films having been sold in the 1950s, when most movie studios did not want to be associated with television. As a result, A.A.P. was required to replace the original Paramount logos with their own. For ''The Popeye Show'', efforts were made to present these films as close to their original theatrical form as possible: some of the cartoons shown were copies that actually had their original Paramount titles intact, while others needed to have their original titles simulated through the process of

digital video editing Non-linear editing is a form of offline editing for audio, video, and image editing. In offline editing, the original content is not modified in the course of editing. In non-linear editing, edits are specified and modified by specialized soft ...

. The show focused mostly on the Fleischer ''Popeye'' shorts and early Famous Studios shorts that were originally filmed in

black and white Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white in a continuous spectrum, producing a range of shades of grey. Media The history of various visual media began with black and white, and as technology improved, altered to color. ...

. For all episodes, the first two shorts were from this era. Sometimes the third cartoon would be a

color Color (American English) or colour (British English) is the visual perceptual property deriving from the spectrum of light interacting with the photoreceptor cells of the eyes. Color categories and physical specifications of color are associ ...

cartoon from Famous Studios, but on many occasions an entire episode would entirely be made of black-and-white cartoons. While selecting the color entries that would air, the only ones that were initially selected were those that were in the

Turner Turner may refer to: People and fictional characters *Turner (surname), a common surname, including a list of people and fictional characters with the name * Turner (given name), a list of people with the given name *One who uses a lathe for turni ...

vaults with their original titles. The only color cartoons to have their original titles recreated were those shown in the last episode of Season 3, and all episodes of Season 4. In season 1, an original copy of ''Popeye, the Ace of Space'' (1953) with its original titles was shown for the first time on TV. This particular cartoon was originally shown in 3D, and therefore had a unique opening sequence. It also had a unique ending sequence that was not shown on syndication prints because it involved the Paramount logo being formed from the smoke of Popeye's

pipe Pipe(s), PIPE(S) or piping may refer to: Objects * Pipe (fluid conveyance), a hollow cylinder following certain dimension rules ** Piping, the use of pipes in industry * Smoking pipe ** Tobacco pipe * Half-pipe and quarter pipe, semi-circula ...

. The black and white short ''The Hungry Goat'' (1943) was kept from being shown in earlier seasons because it required extra attention to recreate the ending as close to original as possible. The original ending involved Popeye's nemesis in the short, a goat, laughing at Popeye while watching the end of the very cartoon they were in, and, like ''The Ace of Space'', involved the Paramount logo. The 1945 short ''Tops in the Big Top'', which did not open with the standard ''Popeye'' theme music, but had a rendition with a circus theme, had its original soundtrack restored for the program. Similarly, a version of ''We're on Our Way to Rio'' (1944) was prepared with the opening soundtrack restored, but the show was cancelled before it could be included in any episodes.

Cartoons skipped during original run

Two episodes from Season 1 were initially skipped and did not make their TV debut until reruns. The reason was that the two episodes had cartoons that the executives at Cartoon Network would not pass for unedited airings. Episode #10 was originally supposed to have ''

Popeye the Sailor Popeye the Sailor Man is a fictional cartoon character created by Elzie Crisler Segar.Betty Boop Betty Boop is an animated cartoon character created by Max Fleischer, with help from animators including Grim Natwick.Pointer (2017) She originally appeared in the ''Talkartoon'' and ''Betty Boop'' film series, which were produced by Fleischer ...

cartoon in which Popeye makes his theatrical debut. This particular cartoon had a scene at the carnival where Popeye and Bluto play a ball-toss game where the target is an

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

stereotype In social psychology, a stereotype is a generalized belief about a particular category of people. It is an expectation that people might have about every person of a particular group. The type of expectation can vary; it can be, for example ...

. Episode #11 had the short ''Happy Birthdaze'', in which Popeye murders his suicidal Navy buddy Shorty in a scene that is usually cut from most TV broadcasts. When Episode #10 finally aired, ''I Eats My Spinach'' replaced ''Popeye the Sailor'', while Episode #11 aired with no changes made, and ''Happy Birthdaze'' was shown uncut.

Ethnic censorship

Several shorts are not seen in or out of this package due to heavy racial stereotyping, despite this Anthological series being aired as part of

Adult Swim Adult Swim (AS; stylized as

dult swim Dult is a village in Batala in Gurdaspur district of Punjab State, India. It is located from sub district headquarter, from district headquarter and from Sri Hargobindpur. The village is administrated by Sarpanch an elected representati ...

and often abbreviated as s is an American adult-oriented night-time cable television Television channel, channel that shares channel space with the basic cable network Cartoon Network and is programme ...

in later runs. ''Pop-Pie a la Mode'', ''The Island Fling'', and ''Popeye's Pappy'' have since been removed from circulation because of African-American stereotyping. ''You’re a Sap, Mr. Jap'', ''Scrap the Japs'', and ''Seein' Red, White, 'N' Blue'' are no longer shown on US television due to Japanese stereotyping. A later episode featured an unedited version of the

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

themed ''Spinach Fer Britain'' (1943), a cartoon in which Popeye battles

Nazis Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...

. This particular cartoon is rarely shown outside of any scheduled airings of The Popeye Show. Another later episode featured stereotypes of Native-Americans in ''Wigwam Whoopee'' (1948), which featured Olive Oyl portrayed as an Indian Princess with depicted

skin color Human skin color ranges from the darkest brown to the lightest hues. Differences in skin color among individuals is caused by variation in pigmentation, which is the result of genetics (inherited from one's biological parents and or individu ...

. This episode is also rarely shown outside of any schedule airings of this anthology series. ''Wigwam Whoopee'' was available uncut on the

Boomerang A boomerang () is a thrown tool, typically constructed with aerofoil sections and designed to spin about an axis perpendicular to the direction of its flight. A returning boomerang is designed to return to the thrower, while a non-returning b ...

app until it was eventually removed in September 2021.

Episodes

Below is an episode guide for ''The Popeye Show''. All episodes are listed in production order. There were a few occasions where episodes were skipped and therefore did not air in their proper order.

Series overview

Season 1 (2001-2002)

Season 2 (2002)

Season 3 (2002)

Season 4 (2003)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Popeye Show Cartoon Network original programming 2000s American animated television series 2000s American anthology television series 2001 American television series debuts 2003 American television series endings American animated television spin-offs American children's animated anthology television series English-language television shows Popeye the Sailor television series