THE TELEPHEMERA YEARS: 1985, part 4

Written By:

Alan Boon

Ah, telephemera… those shows whose stay with us was tantalisingly brief, snatched away before their time, and sometimes with good cause. They hit the schedules alongside established shows, hoping for a long run, but it’s not always to be, and for every Street Hawk there’s two Manimals. But here at STARBURST we celebrate their existence and mourn their departure, drilling down into the new season’s entertainment with equal opportunities square eyes… these are The Telephemera Years!

1985-86

The NBC sitcom juggernaut kept on rolling into the Fall 1985 season, with The Cosby Show and Family Ties flying high, joined in the top ten by Cheers and new arrival The Golden Girls, with Night Court, You Again, and another new show in 227 finding spots in the top twenty. CBS put up the best opposition, with Jessica Fltcher nosing around in third, 60 Minutes telling the world about Live Aid in fourth, and perennial favourite Dallas beating out ABC’s Dynasty to sixth place. ABC were in transition, with Benson, The Fall Guy, Hardcastle and McCormack, and The Love Boat all entering their final seasons, although The Colbys, Growing Pains, MacGyver, and Perfect Strangers were all debuting on the alphabet network.

Over on CBS, new arrivals included The Equalizer and a reboot of The Twilight Zone, while NBC took Diff’rent Strokes from ABC to add to its sitcom line-up, and premiered Steven Spielberg’s Amazing Stories. It was once again another year of thin gruel for genre fans, though, with Knight Rider ending its run and only the earthbound angel drama of Highway to Heaven bringing anything in the way of paranormal drama to TV screens. Those were all shows for adults, though; what about Saturday morning diversions their sugar-soaked kids? This is the story of 1985’s new kids’ shows…

Little Muppet Monsters (CBS): The reinvention of The Muppets as their infant selves in 1984’s The Muppet Babies was a smash hit. Going up against The Mighty Orbots on ABC and NBC’s The Smurfs, the show ruled Saturday mornings, with one episode – “Gonzo’s Video Show” – shown as a prime-time special in December 1984. CBS were keen to take advantage of their golden goose and proposed extending their Saturday morning Muppet slot to an hour, approaching creator Jim Henson for ideas to fill the gap, who was excited by the possibility of telling stories that featured Muppets as neighbourhood kids using camcorders – which had started to proliferate, at least in suburbia – to make their own TV shows.

In his Red Book, a log of his creative activities he kept from 1965 until 1988, he wrote, “I think it’s going to change the whole way kids think about television. Before it’s always been something that kids were subject to or watched, but now they can participate in it, they can be part of that, they can manipulate it. And I think it’s a huge difference, and we’re going to see some results of this in about ten years when these kids grow up and start doing things in the medium.”

Filtered through Henson’s unique mind, and with Diana Birkenfield overseeing the show at Henson Associates, the result was Little Muppet Monsters, produced – like Muppet Babies – in association with Marvel Productions. The set-up was simple, with three young Muppets – new creations Tug, Molly, and Boo – causing chaos, leading to Scooter banishing them to the basement. From there, they operate their own television station, broadcast to the rest of the Muppet house (and us at home). The show was a mixture of live-action and animation, with segments presented as their own unique shows, such as Gonzo’s Weirder Than Me, Muppet Sports Shorts, Fozzie’s Comedy Corner, and Kermit the Frog, Private Eye. There was even a return for Muppet Show segment Pigs in Space, this time in animated form.

The show debuted on September 14^th 1985, but behind the scenes there were already issues as Marvel Productions were late delivering animated segments to go with those filmed by Henson Associates. For Henson’s part, the Muppet portions of the show were produced for the entire thirteen-episode run, but after three episodes had aired, the show was put on hiatus to give Marvel time to catch up. CBS aired re-runs of The Muppet Babies following new episodes of the same to fill out the Muppet hour, and unfortunately for Henson, these re-runs rated much higher than Little Muppet Monsters had, and the decision was made not to bring it back to the schedules. The Muppet Babies continued to thrive, running until November 1991 and receiving the reboot treatment in 2018, but the cast of Little Muppet Monsters were never seen on TV again, aside from an appearance in The Muppets: A Celebration of 30 Years to promote the show in January 1986, four months after it had been cancelled.

The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo (ABC): Although he’s now the butt of jokes, it’s probably fair to say that the introduction of Scrappy-Doo to the Scooby-Doo franchise – created by animation and comic book legend Mark Evanier – saved the show. Ratings were at cancellation level and Hanna-Barbera felt that the Scooby-Doo formula was worn out by the mid-1970s. They sought to refresh it by not only introducing his annoying nephew but also marginalising the roles played by Daphne, Fred, and Velma from the cast for 1979’s Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo, ultimately removing them altogether a year later. Daphne returned for 1983’s The New Scooby and Scrappy-Doo Show, with Fred and Velma back in the pack for 1984’s The New Scooby-Doo Mysteries, but it soon became clear to most that the problem was less with Scooby and Shaggy’s long-time associates than with the newest addition to the cast.

Hanna-Barbera, though, were seemingly still happy with Scrappy and the change of emphasis to actual supernatural threats rather than greedy businessmen in disguise that had accompanied him. Still, the series did need a refresh and under the guidance of producer Mitch Schauer, The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo did one thing that had never before been attempted and introduced a season-long arc. Fred and Velma were once again discarded – their absence later retconned to reveal they were attending summer camp – and Scrappy was retained, although his abrasive nature was dialled down somewhat. Tom Ruegger, who would go on to helm Tony Toon Adventures and Animaniacs, brought a fresh energy to the show, with fourth-wall breaking asides to the audience.

The set up saw the crew crash-land Daphne’s plane in the Himalayas, where Scooby and Shaggy are tricked by two ghosts into opening the Chest of Demons, freeing thirteen of the most terrifying ghosts and demons ever to walk the Earth. As only those who freed the spectres can be the ones to return them to their prison, the gang – with the addition of a new character in the shape of Film Flam, a young Tibetan con artist based on Short Round from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom – set off on a worldwide quest to recapture them before they can do too much damage. Assisting the team was a warlock named Vincent van Ghoul, who would contact them by crystal ball and who was voiced by horror legend Vincent Price.

Something wasn’t clicking with the viewers, though, and ABC pulled the show from the schedules, replacing it with re-runs of Laff-a-Lympics. At the time of the cancellation, only thirteen episodes had been completed, with just twelve of the thirteen ghosts recaptured, a cliffhanger that remained unresolved until the 2019 direct-to-video film Scooby-Doo! and the Curse of the 13th Ghost. Scooby and the gang would be absent from TV for three years until 1988’s A Pup Named Scooby-Doo, a prequel series which dispensed with Scrappy-Doo at last. He wouldn’t reappear until a cameo appearance in the live-action 2002 Scooby-Doo movie, becoming an object of fun and forever linked to New Coke.

Hulk Hogan’s Rock ‘n’ Wrestling (CBS): Vince McMahon Jr’s aggressive expansion of the northeast World Wrestling Federation into a nationwide endeavour claimed many victims along the way. Regional promotions that had served their populations well for decades were swept away in McMahon’s power grab, often by underhand means, but if nothing else, the proliferation of the WWF’s colourful, action-packed spectacle – with the help of Cyndi Lauper and MTV – made superstars of its major players, parlayed into merchandising aimed primarily at younger fans. One of those caught up in the wave of excitement was Andy Heyward, who also happened to be the head of DIC Enterprises, the newly established US arm of Jean Chalopin’s French animation studio, which had recently enjoyed hits with Inspector Gadget, The Littles, and Heathcliff.

Thinking that wrestlers such as Hulk Hogan and André the Giant were modern-day superheroes, Heyward approached McMahon with an idea to make a Saturday morning cartoon based around their adventures, something McMahon was only too willing to get involved with. Hueyward based the show around McMahon’s WWF Heavyweight Champion, Hulk Hogan, a larger than life – in both senses of the term – character who, even then, was already spinning of web of obfuscation about his origins, perfect for McMahon’s televised and touring circus. Born Terry Bollea in August 1953, Hogan claimed to have rejected an offer from Metallica to play bass in the band and to have suffered a deliberately broken leg on his way day at training to see if he was tough enough to return. His early days were spent on the Florida, Alabama, and Memphis circuits as Terry “The Hulk” Bollea, named for Marvel Comics’ bulky hero, before joining Vince McMahon Sr’s World-Wide Wrestling Federation in 1979.

It was McMahon Jr, then working for his father ahead of buying him out and dropping a W from the organisation’s name, that named him Hogan, also suggesting he should dye his hair red to make him look Irish; the WWWF thrived on such ethnic stereotypes, with hyphenated Americans making up much of the audience in their Northeastern base. Hogan stayed with the WWWF for two years before moving to the Midwestern focussed American Wrestling Association, largely because he accepted the role of Thunderlips in Rocky III against McMahon’s wishes. Hogan spent two years with the AWA, alternating his time there with tours of Japan for New Japan Pro-Wrestling, and when McMahon had eyes on taking the WWF nationwide, Hogan was the man he brought back to lead it.

His opposite number was “Rowdy” Roddy Piper, a kilt-wearing Scotsman (from Canada), and each led a band of heroic blue-eyes and dastardly villains made up from the WWF’s babyface and heel rosters as they stood in 1984 when the show went into production. Backing up Hogan were André, Junkyard Dog, manager Captain Lou Albano (who had appeared in the video for Lauper’s “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun”), Wendi Richter, Hillbilly Jim, Tito Santana, and Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka. Piper recruited The Iron Sheik, Nikolai Volkoff, The Fabulous Moolah, Big John Studd, and his own non-wrestler in the shape of the stereotypical Mr Fuji. Notable omissions included Hogan’s Wrestlemania opponent “Mr Wonderful” Paul Orndorff, Greg “The Hammer” Valentine, Brutus Beefcake, and Sgt Slaughter, who had left the WWF in December 1984 after a dispute over his inclusion in the GI Joe cartoon.

For a show called Hulk Hogan’s Rock ‘n’ Wrestling and featuring wrestlers from the World Wrestling Federation, there was precious little wrestling. Rather the two factions would come into direct conflict over a standard cartoon sitcom such as a car race or baseball game, or as part of wider stories that included an escaped gorilla, being transformed into children, and encountering an alien robot. The show began a thirteen-episode run on September 14^th 1985, part of an all-new line-up that also included The Berenstain Bears, The Wuzzles, and Jim Henson’s Muppets, Babies & Monsters. Some episodes had two stories, while others had just one full-length adventure.

None of the wrestlers were voiced by their real-life counterparts, the WWF’s arduous road schedule given as the major reason, with Hogan voiced by newcomer Brad Garrett, who later go on to star as Robert Barrone in Everybody Loves Raymond. Other voice artists lending their talents to the show included Charles Adler, Lewi Arquette, and James Avery, although the wrestlers did get to appear in live-action segments produced for the show, including a music video shot to promote The Wrestling Album, an LP of songs recorded by the WWF roster.

The show did well enough that a second season, again of thirteen episodes that alternated between one and two stories per week, began on September 13^th 1986. The cast remained the same, despite Snuka and Richter having left the WWF in June and November 1985, respectively, and Studd would follow them out of the door before his final appearance on the show. This time out, escapades included Albano finding an incompetent genie, the ladies entering a Miss Muscle contest, and the wrestlers joining a circus, while Snuka fell in love with a girl on a train, only for her to be kidnapped. That was probably a fate better than the one that met Nancy Argentino, the woman whose death in 1983 resulted in a manslaughter charge that McMahon helped his asset beat.

There was no third season, possibly because the cartoon could not keep pace with the WWF’s roster churn – Albano would be gone by November 1985 and the main-event scene included newcomers “Macho Man” Randy Savage, the Honky Tonk Man, and Jake “The Snake” Roberts by Wrestlemania III in March 1987 – and also because McMahon didn’t need a Saturday morning cartoon to complete his dominance of the US wrestling scene, with just one serious rival remaining by the end of the 1980s. Hogan himself would jump to that rival – Ted Turner’s World Championship Wrestling – in 1993, but even they would be out of business by 2001, the end of a story less believable than any episode of Hulk Hogan’s Rock ‘n’ Wrestling.

It’s Punky Brewster (NBC): After breaking in as a writer on the Tv adaptation of The Odd Couple, David W Duclon moved into production with The Jeffersons and Silver Spoons, but still kept his hand in as a scriptwriter, creating the short-lived Jim Belushi and Michael Keaton show Working Stiffs and Double Trouble starring twins Jean and Liz Sagal. In 1984, as part of Brandon Tartikoff’s refreshment of the struggling NBC network, he was tasked with coming up with a new sitcom, delivering a story of a girl abandoned by her parents who is found living in an abandoned warehouse and taken in by a kindly old man. Thinking back to an older tomboy he had a crush on at school, Tartikoff provided the name for both the character and the show, seeking permission from the real-life inspiration before it went to air, and Punky Brewster debuted on September 16^th 1984.

With a feisty Soleil Moon Frye – who won the part over three-thousand other girls at auditions, including Melissa Joan Hart – in the title role, backed by George Gaynes – recently seen in Police Academy and Tootsie – as Henry, her surrogate father, the show was an instant hit in a comfortable Sunday evening slot. During the football season, it was scheduled straight after NFL action, with shorter episodes especially produced to air when games ran long. As well as her shaggy dog Brandon, Punky makes friends with neighbourhood kids Allen (newcomer Casey Ellison), spoiled rich girl Margaux (national tap-dancing champion Ami Foster, discovered on Star Search a year earlier), and Cherie Johnson, who lives across the hall with her grandmother, Betty (Susie Garrett). Duclon named Cherie for his niece, who later tried out for the role and won it, with the credits therefore reading “Cherie Johnson as Cherie Johnson.” Several of Punky’s teachers were also featured, including one – Mrs Rutledge – played by the girl who inspired Punky’s name, Peyton “Punky” Rutledge (neé Brewster).

A mark of the show’s success was that season one’s final episode, “Fenster Hall,” was used as backdoor pilot for a spin-off show set in the titular foster home, where Punky spent some time before her arrangement with Henry was finalised. The episode introduced a new character – TK Carter (a debuting Mike Fulton) – who would have been the main focus of the spin-off, but NBC ultimately decided against taking it to series. Punky Brewster was renewed for a second season, though, with Carter popping up as a recurring character, and the failure of Fenster Hall didn’t mean there’d be no extra-curricular Punky action for the 1985-86 season…

Already in development for a Fall 1985 debut was an animated spin-off, produced by Ruby-Spears Productions and developed by Cliff Ruby – son of Ruby-Spears founder Joe – and his wife, Elana Lesser. To all intents and purposes, It’s Punky Brewster was the same show as its live-action inspiration, with cast members Frye, Gaynes, Ellison, Foster, and Johnson providing the voices for their animated counterparts. Apart from, that is, the addition of Glomer, a “leprechaun gopher” (voiced by Frank Welker) who came from Chaundoon, the city at the end of the rainbow, and has magical powers.

With the help of Glomer’s magic, Punky and her friends are able to travel all over the world, and even through time, giving ample rein for scriptwriters to tell stories that see the gang meet a Pharaoh in ancient Egypt, travel to pre-urbanisation Chicago (not the most exciting premise, granted), and visit Chaundoon itself. Glomer’s magic is also responsible for giving Allen the abilities of an NFL quarterback, turning Henry into a statue of Julius Caesar, giving Brandon the gift of speech, and creating a bee with the ability to spell. In one episode, Glomer accidentally makes himself giant and Punky needs to find a way to shrink him down before the National Guard are deployed.

It’s Punky Brewster debuted on September 14^th 1985, part of a Saturday morning line-up that also included Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends, Mr T, and another new arrival in Disney’s Adventures of the Gummi Bears. Writers working on the show included Sheryl Scarborough (who would later develop the New Kids on the Block cartoon) and Dianne Dixon and Cliff Roberts, who had done similar work on The Gary Coleman Show for Hanna-Barbera.

It’s Punk Brewster did well enough that it was renewed for a second season, which meant that it outlasted its parent show, which struggled for ratings in its second season against 60 Minutes on CBS, leading to Tartikoff reluctantly cancelling the show and its partner in the schedules, Silver Spoons. Both shows were eventually revived for syndication, although regulations of the time meant NBC could not be involved in their production and they were farmed out to Columbia Pictures Television. The revival came too late for the third season of Punk Brewster to begin airing as part of the Fall 1986 schedules, and so the animated show was the only way people could get their fix of the loveable tyke that year.

The second season, again with thirteen episodes, debuted on September 13^th 1986, and this time Glomer’s magic – which didn’t always work as planned – saw Punky fostered out to a candy factory owner who uses children as slave labour, meet the Seven Dwarves, turned into a grown woman who has to get a job, and grant Allen his wish to have never been born. By the end of the season, nothing is resolved, therefore ensuring the episodes can be run in any order, and that was the last anyone saw of Glomer. Punky Brewster, meanwhile, returned in December 1987 with twenty-two episodes shown on consecutive weeknights, and a fourth and final season followed in April 1988. Frye would undergo some very public struggles with her adolescent body in the wake of the show’s cancellation but kept acting, securing a regular role in Sabrina the Teenage Witch in 2000, and eventually leading a Punky Brewster revival – in which Punky is now mother to a foster child of her own – in 2021.

Next time on The Telephemera Years: Back to 1972 and a US adaptation of a “beloved” UK show…

Check out our other Telephemera articles:

The Telephemera Years: pre-1965 (part 1, 2, 3, 4)

The Telephemera Years: 1965 (part 1, 2, 3, 4)

The Telephemera Years: 1966 (part 1, 2, 3, 4)

The Telephemera Years: 1967 (part 1, 2, 3, 4)

The Telephemera Years: 1968 (part 1, 2, 3, 4)

The Telephemera Years: 1969 (part 1, 2, 3, 4)

The Telephemera Years: 1970 (part 1, 2, 3, 4)

The Telephemera Years: 1971 (part 1, 2, 3, 4)

The Telephemera Years: 1973 (part 1, 2, 3, 4)

The Telephemera Years: 1974 (part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5)