S01E03 Pac-Man

In this premiere of PAC-MAN, your Saturday Morning historian, Christopher Jay, takes a look at the origin of the show. Included, is a look at the talent behind the scenes, a rundown of the pilot segments, “Presidential Pac-Nappers” and “Picnic in PacLand”, and a look at the legacy of PAC-MAN after all these years.

Grab some power pellets and take a ride through PacLand with us all the way back to September 25, 1982. 

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Transcript

THE SATURDAY MORNING PODCAST

“Pac-Man”

0. OPENING (PRE-RECORD)

                        SHOW THEME PLAYS

ME:           Wake up, it’s Saturday Morning. Let Mom and Dad sleep in and come with me back to the 80’s. Let’s grab a bowl of Golden Puffs or Apple Cinnamon Cheerios and flip on the tube. I’ve got the TV Guide and hours of nothing to do. 

              My name is Chris and I love all the Saturday Morning cartoons. When I was a kid, I lived for Saturday mornings. Now that I’m an adult, I want to relive all those great shows and see how they came about. 

Let’s take a deep-dive back to the 80’s and see what’s waiting. Rewind!

                   FX: REWIND

1. THE SHOW

                   AMBIENT: ARCADE

ME:           In 1980, the world was gripped in a pandemic that is now mostly forgotten. The symptoms included: throbbing fingers, stiff neck, blurry vision and loss of quarters. But the most telling symptom was the fever. The Pac-Man fever. And while the Nameco video game was all the rage, many creators jumped on the craze and wanted a piece of Pac-Mania.

              Enter Hanna-Barbera who saw potential in the concept, developed Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man and Pac-Baby, as well as bringing comedy through the bumbling Ghost Monsters.

              Grab some power pellets and power up as we explore the world of PAC-MAN.   

                   MUSIC: PAC-MAN THEME SONG

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                   AMBIENT: ARCADE

ME:           In the Fall of 1982, ABC launched the PAC-MAN animated series in the 8:30 time slow, along with “The Little Rascals” and “The Richie Rich Show”. The series of shows ran a lengthy 90 minutes and was produced by Hanna-Barbera. Because Pac-Man the arcade game was such a big deal, ABC promoted this animated version as the Big Deal on Saturday’s. The day it premiered was declared PAC-MAN Day on ABC-TV. The design of the ad, based on the layout of the game, was eye-catching and declared “Saturday’s More Fun on ABC!” The network was definitely trying to cash in on the popularity of the arcade hit.

              The show was set in Pac-Land and followed the adventures of the Pac-Man family. The Pacs find themselves constantly battling the Ghost Monsters - Blinky, Inky, Pinky, Clyde and Sue - who work for Mezmaron. The number one commodity of PacLand seems to be power pellets, the object Mezmaron is after so he can control it. 

              The Pac-Man family is made up of Pac-Man himself, Mrs. Pac-Man, whose first name is revealed to be Pepper, and their baby, Pac-Baby. As with the video game, Mrs. Pac-Man sports a pink bow on the top of her head. 

              As it was in the game, the Ghost Monsters revert to being floating eyeballs when chomped. And then they go back to Mezmaron’s lair to retrieve new bodies from a closet. 

              I’m going to say at this point that the off-the-wall premise of the show is definitely an 80s concept. The fact that the power pellets motivate Pac-Man and friends to speed up and become aggressive towards the ghosts, kind of reminds me that there was a lot of cocaine use in the 1980s. I’m not saying this is the case with the series’ creators. But it’s very much in line with the times. 

              So back to Pac-Man. The pellet chomper is a family man in this series. He works in the security field, helping to guard the Power Pellet Forest from the evil Mezmaron. Because of his job, Packy (as Pepper calls him), finds himself at odds with the Ghost Monsters as they try to find the location of the forest.

              Pepper, is the keeper of Pac-Baby, as well as Chomp-Chomp and Sour Puss, the sphere-like dog and cat pets of the family. I’m sure Pepper had her hands full, as Sour Puss would often harass Chomp-Chomp, though his plans would regularly backfire. 

              Baby Pac-Man would often find himself in trouble when his parents weren’t looking. He sported a blue bow and was a force of destruction, all while smiling with the happiness of a child. 

              Mezmaron is the uncle of the Ghost Monsters and wants to gain control of the Power Pellet Forest to take over and rule Pac-Land. With the grill over his mouth, I couldn’t help but notice he looks a lot like what’s under Darth Vader’s mask at the end of “Return of the Jedi”. Nothing is really known about his past, or why his appearance differs so much from the Pac-People of Pac-Land. He’s short-tempered and quick to chastise the Ghost Monsters when they fail. 

              Ah yes, the Ghost Monsters. What can you say about Blinky, Inky, Pinkie, Clyde and Sue? They’re bumbling, completely inept and were never going to succeed in antagonizing the Pac-People. They live to be verbally and physically abused by Mezmaron. Let’s face it, they’re born failures.

              Let’s take a deeper look into how Pac-Man and Company chomped their way into our hearts. 

                   FX: STATIC

2. THE CREATORS & SERIES ORIGIN

                   MUSIC: HAPPY MEMORIES

ME:           In early 1979, computer designer Toru Iwatani (I-wa-tani) at Nameco, headed up a nine man team to design a game that would appeal to kids, as well as adults. Inspired by a pizza with a slice missing, Iwatani and his team delivered the iconic video game character we all know and love… Puck-Man!

              The name was changed with the international release, fearing that the arcade cabinet could easily be defaced, changing the P to an F.

              From the release of the arcade Pac-Man game until the premiere of the animated Pac-Man series, the game and character was a commercial and critical success. Everyone flocked to the arcade to play the yellow pizza that chomped the ghosts and sucked up power pellets faster than the mainstream could devour Pac-Merch.

              And what a bunch of merchandise there was. If you walked into your local Toys R Us or Kaybee Toys, you would have found wind-up Pac-Men, plastic figures, stuffed animals, reusable colorforms, coloring books, shirts, stickers, a pinball game, plastic blow-ups branded with the pellet muncher and, of course, pocket games and mini arcade-style cabinets so you could play Pac-Man in your bed room. 

              In December 1981, the musical group Buckner & Garcia seized the Pac-Fad and released the single “Pac-Man Fever”. It peaked at Number Nine four months later, but it was a constant reminder of our favorite 8-bit hero.

              It was a no-brainer that Hanna-Barbera wanted in. There was an obvious potential to expand the Pac-Man mythos and bring the character into America’s living rooms on a weekly basis. The animation studio was an innovator and was the first to base a cartoon on a video game. Having experience in marketing iconic characters, such as Scooby-Doo, the studio probably saw their adaptation of the game as a solid money maker. If the cartoon did moderately well, it would fuel a craze for more Pac-Man merch… this time, with their version of Pac-Man. I don’t believe the cartoon was simply about breathing life into Nameco’s creation, it was about creating a new line of revenue based on something that was a proven winner in the merchandise arena.

              All they had to do was flesh out Pac-Land, figure out what Pac-Man desired, and design the Ghost Monsters to keep him from it. It would take some creativity, a weekly formula and, The Perfect Cast.

                        FX: STATIC

3. THE PERFECT CAST

                   MUSIC: HAPPY MEMORIES

ME:           When PAC-MAN was in development at Hanna-Barbera, the animation studio was looking for a voice to match their pizza pie hero. Enter Marty Ingles, known stand-up comedian, actor, voice artist and, at the time of being cast, theatrical agent. Legend has it that Ingles was on the phone with a producer and they were discussing work for actor Robert Culp, famous for the shows “The Greatest American Hero” and “I, Spy”. Unknown to Ingles, the producer was recording the call. Taken with the quality of the agent’s voice, the producer took the tape to Hanna-Barbera. The animation studio cast Ingles on the spot for PAC-MAN. The producer then had to call Ingles and convince him to come out of semi-retirement to take the part. His stand-up background brought a sense of humor to Packy, his voice was paired perfectly with the character design.

*   *   *

              Veteran actress Barbara Ellen Minkus was cast as Ms. Pac-Man, aka Pepper. Her professional resume starts back in 1968 with the movie “What’s So Good About Feeling Bad?” PAC-MAN looks to be her only voice artist credit, though she comes from a singing and theatrical background. 

*   *   *

              Allan Lurie, cast as Mezmeron, started his career in live television in 1958 with “General Electric Theater”. For the next two decades, Lurie worked pretty steadily on TV, appeared in an episode here and there of “All in the Family”, “Gunsmoke”, “Emergency!” and others. In 1981, around the time PAC-MAN was just getting into development, Lurie started in voice work for Hanna-Barbera. At the animation giant, Lurie lent his vocals to “Space Stars” and “Richie Rich” before becoming the baddie on PAC-MAN. 

*   *   *

              The rest of the regular cast features very familiar faces to the world of voice work. Russi Taylor voiced Pac-Baby, and was known for “Strawberry Shortcake” and playing Pebbles on “The Flintstone Comedy Show”. 

Colorado-born Frank Welker provided the character of Chomp-Chomp, the sphere-like dog of the Pac-Family. Welker, a staple of Hanna-Barbera, voiced Fred in “Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!” and more voices than I can go into here. I guarantee I will produce an episode about Welker in the future and, with his impressive list of credits, it will be 13 hours long.

Peter Cullen, like Welker, was cast as an animal. In this case, as Welker’s nemesis Sour Puss, the cat who constantly challenges the oblivious dog. Cullen was a Hanna-Barbera favorite, as he was all over Saturday Morning animation in shows like “Trollkins” and “The Plastic Man Comedy/Adventure Show”.

Rounding out the cast as the Ghost Monsters, were: Chuck McCann as both Blinky and Pinky; Barry Gordon as Inky; Neil Ross as Clyde; and Susan Silo and Sue. 

                   FX: STATIC

4. GUEST STARS

                   MUSIC: HAPPY MEMORIES

ME:           In addition to the main cast, the guest stars were pretty impressive.

              Lorenzo Music, known at the time as Carlton the Door Man on “Rhoda”, was on four episodes as Super Pac. 

              Credited with “Additional Voices”, PAC-MAN boasted the talents of Pat Fraley, known for “Super Friends”, “G. I. Joe” and “Saturday Supercade”, among others. “Saturday Supercade”, by the way, was the result of PAC-MANs success and also hoped to capitalize on the video game craze of the time, and was released in 1983.

              Jodi Carlisle (who started her career with PAC-MAN), William Callaway (Aquaman on “SuperFriends”), Christopher Collins (Cobra Commander on “G. I. Joe”) and Janet Waldo (the original Judy Jetson) rounded out the cast of well-known voice actors who brought life to Pac-Land.

              After these messages, we’ll be right back.

                   VINTAGE COMMERCIALS #1 (1:30)

5. THE PREMIERE

                   AMBIENT: ARCADE

ME:           If you watched the premiere of PAC-MAN, the date was      September 25, 1982. Ronald Reagan was the president of the United States. America was listening to “Hard to Say I’m Sorry” by Chicago, the number one song in the land. Movie-goers eagerly went to the theatres to see Henry Thomas and Drew Barrymore in “E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial”. Born on this day were Jada Pinkett Smith and Nick Jonas. On the cover of TV Guide was Victoria Principal, promoting prime time soap opera “Dallas”.

              If you were a kid in 1982, maybe you got up early and got yourself breakfast. Maybe you had cereal, like a bowl of Donkey Kong or PB & J cereal.

              If you were an ABC kid, you knew that September 25, 1982 was declared PAC-MAN DAY in all the print ads. The world of PAC-MAN hit television screens at 8:30, just after an episode of “Super Friends”. 

              PAC-MAN was made up of two segments, the first being “Presidential Pac-Nappers” and it went like this:

              In the Opening: We see Pac-Man running like a coward from the Ghost Monsters while what sounds like the music of a carousel plays. This is a quick run through Pac-Land, giving an overview of the world before the show actually starts.

              Pac-Man floats on air as he chomps up random power pellets, which gives him the power to chomp the Ghosts, leaving behind their eyeballs. An omnious voice from nowhere, heard by us and the pellet gobbler, wheezes out “Pac-Man.”

              Cut to Pac-Man with Pac-Baby on his head and Ms. Pac-Man at his side as they travel the streets of Pac-Land. But wait - the neighborhood security cameras give Mezmaron the ability to see the Pac-Family. The wizard is so outraged that he screams, “I must have those power pellets!” He screams this at the disembodied Ghost Monsters. If they’re only eyeballs, how can they hear? No one knows, no one cares. The Ghosts beat a path to the closet to retrieve their spare ghost skins. Because a closet is where we all keep our spare skins.

              The renewed Ghost Monsters chase down Mr. and Mrs. Pac, ignoring that the Baby has a bottle full of power pellets he’s sucking on. And Baby-Pac chases everyone and there’s no resolution. 

              ACT ONE: The first full shots we see in Pac-Land make it look like candy-coated Flintstone houses, coupled with sounds rejected from “The Jetsons”. 

              This is where we find PAC-MAN running from the Ghost Monsters and running low on energy. Ghost Monster Sue sets a trap for Pac: A huge pipe bend at a 90 degree angle. Blinky and Clyde chase Pac towards the pipe, where he enters and is blasted into the sky. The Ghost Monsters crash into each other as if to say, “We’re not smart.” 

              Pac-Man falls back to the ground, and trash cans break his fall. The Ghost Monsters confront him and Pac’s wife, Pepper, shows up to rescue the hero. Luckily, Pepper has a quarter to drop into a Pac-Snack machine, and hundreds of snacks fly out. We will later learn that Mezmaron wants to control the Power Pellet Forest. If he’s only after Power Pellets, why not get a butt-load of quarters and hit all the snack machines? 

              Now energized after a meal of crack-like power pellets, Pac-Man says he’s got the munchies… the Ghost munchies. And I’m sure Pac-Man could stop chomping power pellets at any time, cold turkey even. But he won’t because he really can’t. Does Pac-Land have a power pellet rehab center? Should Pepper plan an intervention, or is she addicted and pelleted out of her mind, too? Who knows?

              The Ghost Monsters, frightened of “Pac-Power”, turn pink and flee with Pac giving chase. Pepper goes after Sue and eats her. Cornering Blinky, Pepper and Pac chomp him together, ending this ghost meal with a smooch, giving the audience a PDA - A Pac Display of Affection.

              The floating eyeballs go back to Mezmaron’s lair and we see the baddie in all his baddie goodness. Is it just me or does Mezmaron, bald and with a grill over his mouth, looks a lot like what Vader will look like next year in “Return of the Jedi” when his helmet is taken off, wearing a cool 70s disco-era high collar.

              Mezmaron chides the Ghosts and they all hide in various parts of his lab, cowering and whimpering like the dog that pooped on the floor. The Ghosts get new skins on and we see that there is a huge scale difference between Mezmaron. If the wizard is a giant, couldn’t he just conquer the Pac-People?

              It is here that we learn Mezmaron has a spy satellite that lets him perv on the people of Pac-Land, and that he wanted to control the Power Pellet Forest and control Pac-Land. Pac-Man is the Security Chief of the forest, so naturally they are all enemies.

              Mezmaron has a new plan: Take over the Yellow House, home of the Pac-President, so Pac-Man will reveal the location of the Forest. Why the Ghosts don’t try to hold Pepper and Pac-Baby hostage to get Pac-Man to take them to the forest is unclear. Could you imagine how fast Pac-Man would follow orders if the Ghosts gave him Pepper’s severed pinky finger? Yeah, that seems like a more straight forward way to get results.

              At the Yellow House, the Ghost Monsters force their way in through the sewers. The Pac-President, who looks a little like Teddy Roosevelt, is now taken hostage. The Ghosts get on TV to give their demands to Pac-Man, who promptly thinks of a plan and bails. For those interested, Pac-Man and a friend of his were watching TV in lounge chairs that seems to be in a grey void, like some sort of Pac-purgatory.

              At the Yellow House, the Pac-President is held captive in a cage like a tiger, while the Ghost Monsters play ping-pong on a non-regulation table. Pac-Man eats the door and, as an Army of One, comes to rescue the President. Why didn’t Packy bring a real army? Why keep it five against one? Why not eat a full meal of pellets and turn this into a blood bath?

              Instead, Pac, in an effort to rescue the President, runs away. The Ghosts, who cowered from him, now run towards him. Pac-Man’s plan is to trick the Ghosts with a full size balloon of himself, which he blows up in two seconds. At my kid’s next birthday party, I’m inviting Pac-Man to inflate all the balloons. You ever blow up a ton of ballons at a birthday party? Leaves you all light-headed and feeling weird.

              Who or why does a company in Pac-Land manufacture balloons that look like one specific person? Does everyone have a balloon of themselves? Is that a standard defense? Is Pac-Man, as a glorified security guard, so famous that this is a thing?

              The Ghost Monsters chomp Pac-Balloon, and it explodes while the real Pac-Man rescues the Pac-President. Packy gives the President his last power pellet, just as the Ghosts demand to be taken to the Power Forest. 

              To show they mean business, Pinky goes to the top of the Yellow House, then inflates and lifts the house off the ground. 

              The Ghosts threaten to drop the House and kill everyone if Pac-Man doesn’t give up the location of the Power Forest. Blinky questions what will happen to the Ghosts if the house is dropped, and the Ghosts realize they are not smart.  

              Pac-Man gives the Ghosts what they want, the apparent location of the Power Forest. The Yellow House is brought back to Earth and Mezmaron shows up.

              The Pac-President begs Pac-Man not to give up the location of the forest, and then, if you watch real closely, you’ll see the Prez is so angry he pops out a third arm. Seriously, he’s got three arms.

              Mezmaron goes through the palm trees, finds a gated area marked Power Forest and gets a closer look to find they are not power pellets. 

              Out of nowhere, Pepper and other different colored Pac-People spring on Mezmaron and chomp his robes. Pepper and Pac-Man gorge on power pellets and, in their euphoric state, chomp all the Ghost Monsters, forcing Mezmaron to run away. This ensures that the series will last more than an episode, and they don’t have to create any more enemies. 

              Pac-Man walks hand-in-hand with Pepper into the sunset, and finds out that power pellets are for dinner. But he just had those! Why this is a bother, I don’t know. All he eats is power pellets, why would dinner be any different? What does he want? Ghost loaf?

              And then it’s onto to PAC-MANIA. Packy is being chased by the Ghost Monsters and he’s out of power pellets. He does have fast growing cactus seeds and disappears around a tree. When the Ghosts round the same corner, they impale themselves on a fully-grown cactus and Pac says that’s what they get for being a “thorn in his side”.

              Insert rim shot.

              For “Picnic in PacLand”, we find the Pac-man family traveling to PacLand Park for a picnic. The sounds of the cars are right out of “The Jetsons”. Packy tries to set up chairs and the cat and dog get into it, with Sour Puss harassing Chomp-Chomp. With the power pellets on the barbecue, Pac-Man plays Frisbee with the dog, only to find Chomp-Chomp eating the flying disc. 

              Chomp-Chomp and Sour Puss are up to their usual hi-jinks, with the cat’s plans backfiring as the dog outsmarts all the feline attacks on him. And all of Sour Puss’ plans backfire because… comedy.

              One of Packy’s stray Frisbees lands in the middle of a picnic the Ghost Monsters are having. In fact, they’re grilling up Pac-Man-shaped pancakes on the grill. Just as Pinky is about to get rid of the Frisbee, here comes Chomp-Chomp. Sue recognizes the mutt as Pac-Man’s dog and a scheme is hatched. All of the Ghost Monsters, except for Sue, cram together and merge into a four-colored flying disc. It’s at times like this I wonder why the Ghost Monsters didn’t have mustaches to twirl.

              The Ghosts get Chomp-Chomp to take them to Pac-Man, but the dog buries them in the ground. 

              Back at the picnic, Pac-Man’s power pellet burger is ready, but eaten by Chomp-Chomp. And every time Pac-Man gets a new burger, the dog is there to eat it. Because this is what was funny in 1982. 

              The Ghosts find the Pac-Family and hatch a scheme to trail honey to the picnic, with ants following to ruin the day. It looks like it might work, with the ants marching two by two towards the Pac-Nic. But Inky, being an idiot, trails the ants back to the Ghost Monsters and hungry ants bite them up. 

              While fishing with Pac-Baby and Chomp-Chomp, Pac-Man catches a fish that the dog eats. And then Sour Puss tries to drown the dog and falls overboard. Making his way back to the boat, Sour Puss is going to somehow use Pac-Worms on Chomp-Chomp, but is instead chomped by a huge fish that devours the cat. Somehow, I don’t think that awful cat will be turned into fish turds. 

              The Ghost Monsters impersonate a shark to get Pac-Man’s attention, and it does. Pac-Man sees both sharks. Both sharks? You got it - a real shark is following the Ghost Shark, who chomps them all in one bite. For that, the shark is my favorite character.

              The Ghost Monsters, back for more, have a plan that backfires and they get chomped by Jaws. Sure hope that shark comes back next week. 

              Still fishing, Pac-Man gets a bite on the line and pulls it up. It’s the Ghosts, of course. But the shark reappears, chomps the Ghosts and Packy tries to reel in Pac-Jaws.

              While Pac-Man and Pepper play Pac-Checkers, she calls Pac-Mate and one of her pieces chomps all of Pac-Man’s. Pac-Baby wants to fly a kite, which leads to Pac-Baby covering his father in kite string. Their kite gets struck in a tree as a plot device and the Ghosts form into a kite to chomp Pac-Man. Getting pulled in, lightning appears in the sky and zaps the ghostly quartet and fries them. 

              Watching the Pac-Family drive away without a scratch, the Ghost Monsters ruminate on how they messed up the Pacs. Of course, the Ghosts are bruised and bandaged and the Pac-Family never knew anyone was trying to harass them.

              And everyone in PacLand is safe for another week.

                   FX: STATIC

6. THE TOP 3

AMBIENT: ARCADE

ME:           PAC-MAN ran for a total of 21 episodes, across two seasons. They even had a holiday special, “Christmas Comes to Pac-Land” in December 1982. Of those episodes, three are remembered as being the best of the Pac-Pile.

              #3 - “The Greatest Show in PacLand” & “Pac-A-Lympics”, airing October 15, 1983. In the first segment, Dinky and Pac-Baby celebrate their birthday’s at the circus. And at the “Pac-A-Lympics”, the Ghost Monsters face down the Pac-Family. “The Greatest Show” marks one of the few times that the Ghost Monsters team up with Pac-Man, and that none are chomped.

              #2 - “Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Pac-Man” & “Around the World in 80 Chomps”, airing October 22, 1983. “Dr. Jekyll” finds Pac-Man tricked into eating Mezmaron-created power pellets and turned into a werewolf. The other segment takes Pac-Man around world to stop Mezmaron and the Ghost Monsters from finding other Power Pellet Forests. This segment marks the last appearance by Mezmaron in the series. It also features a goofy sequence of Pac-Man feeding power pellets to George Washingpac on Mount Rushmore, which comes to life and chomps Mezmaron’s hot air balloon. I’m sure this was a glorious and creative moment on Saturday Mornings in the 80s. 

              And #1 - “Here’s Super-Pac!” and “Hey, Hey, Hey… It’s P.J.”, airing September 17, 1983. These episodes had it all, including the creation of a giant Ghost Monster robot by Mezmaron, the introduction of Super-Pac, and Pac-Man having to convince cousin P.J. to stay in school. As the season two opener, it sounds like a very special episode of PAC-MAN.

              Super-Pac, voiced by Lorenzo Music, was very loud and overdramatic, appearing when Pac-Man needed a hand with the Ghost Monsters. Able to fly, Super-Pac came to PacLand from another dimension via “Super Timewarp Space Holes.” He would appear in four of the last eight episodes of the series.

                   FX: PAC-MAN DEATH SOUND

                   FX: STATIC

7. WAS IT A PHENOMENON?

MUSIC: I FEEL YOU 

ME:           Was it a phenomenon? Sort of. The PAC-MAN series would survive on ABC for two years, being paired with “Rubik, The Amazing Cube” for season two. While the Hanna-Barbera PAC-MAN appeared on merchandise, spawned a Christmas special, and is fondly remembered, I wouldn’t say that the series itself was a phenomenon. Pac-Man himself is the true star. Not the character as presented in the series, but Pac-Man as an idea in the games.

              The one thing that might be truly phenomenal about the PAC-MAN series is that it was the first cartoon based on an arcade game. This was at a time when video games lacked story, but thrived on concepts and action. At the start of the 80s, it kicked open the door of what was possible and helped to usher in an era of cartoons based on best-selling and beloved games. 

              In the years after PAC-MANs Saturday Morning debut, game icons such as Donkey Kong, Q-Bert, Super Mario, Frogger, and a ton of others made their way into our living rooms. That is the legacy of the PAC-MAN series: It made a story and mythos from an 8-bit pizza man that allowed creative worlds to be built from other games, creating a new genre of TV show. 

                   FX: STATIC

8. CANCELLATION

MUSIC: I FEEL YOU 

ME:           I can only assume that PAC-MAN was cancelled due to low ratings or lack of interest on ABC during the second season. The Fall of 1983 saw the series air in a 9:30 time slot. It was an hour later than first season. This avoided a conflict with CBS’s “Saturday Supercade”, also a video game-themed show. The move, however, put PAC-MAN in the same slot as “Dungeons and Dragons” and “The Smurfs”. 

              In 1983, “The Smurfs” would have entered their third season, and they were a huge hit. They were so big that NBC ran ninety minutes of new material every Saturday. Being that “The Smurfs” outlived all the competition, it is no surprise that viewership went to them.

              The final episode of PAC-MAN aired on November 5, 1983, with the season being rerun into 1984. 

              After these messages, we’ll look at what happened to the cast and explore the legacy of PAC-MAN.

                   VINTAGE COMMERCIALS #2 (1:30)

9. AFTERMATH

MUSIC: NOSTALGIC 

ME:           Toru Iwatani (I-WA-TANI), the creator of the video game PAC-MAN would go on to create several other Pac-related games and Pole Position. He entered the Guinness Book of Records in 2005 for having the most coin operated arcade games in operation worldwide for Pac-Man. For those curious, the number came in at 293,822. After helping to develop “Pac-Man Championship Edition” for Xbox 360 in 2007, Iwatani retired from video games.

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              Voice actor Marty Ingles continued to act and took on roles in live-action television. His career started in the late 1950’s and ended in 2015. In 1977 he married Shirley Jones of the “Partridge Family”. He passed away at the age of 79 in 2015.

*   *   *

              Barbara Minkus, who played Pepper, moved away from full time TV actress and appeared in numerous stage plays and musicals. She is still active today as an entertainer.

*   *   *

              The failed ruler of PacLand, Mezmaron, was played by Allan Lurie. Lurie would continue as a voice actor, mostly credited as “additional voices” and work on more Hanna-Barbera shows of the 80s. He passed away at the age of 91 in 2015. He is survived by his son, Peter Lurie, also a voice actor.

                   FX: STATIC

10. LEGACY

MUSIC: HORIZONS 

ME:           The legacy of PAC-MAN stems from the original video game, but intersects with the cartoon. 

              The character has been a part of pop culture that hasn’t faded since its introduction in December of 1980. Pac-Man has been referenced in songs, TV, movies, books and other video games. Pac-Man is a part of the Nintendo family, where his games have appeared on several of the companies systems. He’s a playable character in Super Smash Bros, where Pac can battle it out with Mario, Luigi and Donkey Kong. 

              In 2015, Pac-Man appeared in the Adam Sandler movie “Pixels”. It was a goofy take on video games that featured Pac coming to life and chomping off the hand of his creator.

              In 2013, Pac-Man returned to the small screen with the show “Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures”. That show ran three seasons and 53 episodes, surpassing its 80s counterpart from 30 years earlier. 

              The original series is available on DVD through the Warner Bros website, as part of their Hanna-Barbera series. 

              As long as the Pac-Man characters live on, this 1982 series will always be a part of the game’s legacy. I would hope that gamers and cartoon fans everywhere would at least check out this series for the curiosity it is. I believe PAC-MAN, in the form it’s in, could not be made anywhere but in the 1980s. 

              Until next time, take your power pellets and don’t let Mezmaron get to you. Thanks for tooning in.

                        FX: PAC-MAN END THEME

11. FOLLOW AND END (PRE-RECORD)

ME:           Thank you for joining us at THE SATURDAY MORNING PODCAST. If you like what you hear, please subscribe. If you could do us a favor, leave a Five Star Review wherever you get your episodes from.

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              Thank you again for listening.

FADE OUT.

THE END