Jabberjaw


Jabberjaw is an American animated television series created by Joe Ruby and Ken Spears and produced by Hanna-Barbera which aired 16 original episodes on ABC from September 11 to December 18, 1976. Reruns continued on ABC until September 3, 1978.

Premise

Jabberjaw, a 15-foot air-breathing great white shark, is the drummer for The Neptunes, a rock group made up of four teenagers — Biff, Shelly, Bubbles and Clamhead — who live in an underwater civilization in the year 2076. Jabberjaw and The Neptunes travel to various underwater cities where they encounter and deal with assorted megalomaniacs and supervillains who want to conquer the undersea world.
Like a great deal of Hanna-Barbera's 1970s output, the format and writing for Jabberjaw was similar to that for Scooby-Doo, Josie and the Pussycats and Speed Buggy. The show also drew inspiration from the overall shark mania of the mid-1970s caused by the then-recent film Jaws. It also shared The Flintstones' penchant for making use of puns as the names of locations, people, etc., in this case, ocean-themed puns. Every episode ended with a musical chase sequence where Jabberjaw and the gang would run from the villains, performing zany cartoon antics in order to escape while a song by The Neptunes played in the background.

Characters

The series features the following five main characters throughout its run:
Sixteen 30-minute episodes of Jabberjaw were produced, which aired on ABC Saturday Morning from September 11, 1976, to September 3, 1977, and rebroadcast for a second season of reruns on Sunday Morning from September 11, 1977, to September 3, 1978. In the 1980s, repeats resurfaced as part of USA Cartoon Express on USA Network, in the 1990s on Cartoon Network and in the 2000s on Boomerang. This is one of a number of shows made before the mid-1980s seen on the Cartoon Network and Boomerang to have been taken from PAL prints.
Like many animated series created by Hanna-Barbera in the 1970s, the show contained a laugh track created by the studio.
Broadcast schedules :

Other appearances

In 1977–78, Rand McNally released two coloring books, a story book and a read & color book.
Other merchandise in the late 1970s–early 1980s included a lunchbox and thermos, iron-on transfers, jigsaw puzzles, Presto Magix, bubble maker set, a school tablet, Avon pendant, a plush toy and Hanna-Barbera Marineland Jabberjaw picture viewer.
In 2005, a Jabberjaw Wacky Wobbler bobblehead figure was released by Funko.

Home media

On July 28, 1988, an 85-minute videocassette of Jabberjaw containing four episodes was released by Worldvision Home Video.
On February 15, 2011, Warner Archive released Jabberjaw: The Complete Series on DVD in region 1 as part of their Hanna–Barbera Classics Collection. This is a manufacture-on-demand release, available exclusively through Warner's online store and Amazon.com.

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