Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels

Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels
Created by	Joe Ruby Ken Spears
Directed by	Charles A. Nichols Ray Patterson (1978–80) Carl Urbano (1978–80)
Voices of	Mel Blanc Laurel Page Marilyn Schreffler Vernee Watson
Narrated by	Gary Owens
Theme music composer	Hoyt Curtin
Composer(s)	Hoyt Curtin
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
No. of series	3
No. of episodes	40
Production
Executive producer(s)	William Hanna Joseph Barbera
Producer(s)	Iwao Takamoto
Running time	11 minutes per episode
Production company(s)	Hanna-Barbera Productions (Warner Bros. Television)
Release
Original network	ABC
Picture format	Film 4:3 480i
Audio format	Monaural
Original release	September 10, 1977 – June 21, 1980

Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels is a Saturday morning animated series created by Joe Ruby and Ken Spears and produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions which aired on ABC from September 10, 1977 to June 21, 1980.

Summary

Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels centers on the mystery-solving adventures of the Teen Angels—Brenda, Dee Dee and Taffy—and their friend Captain Caveman (or Cavey for short), a prehistoric caveman whom the girls discovered and thawed from a block of ice. The concept and general plot for the show was seen as a parody of Charlie's Angels (which also aired on ABC). It also borrowed heavily from other Hanna-Barbera shows such as Scooby-Doo and Josie and the Pussycats, among others. Captain Caveman's powers include super-strength, a variety of useful objects hidden inside his hair, and a club that allows him to fly and from which pops out different tools he uses to fight crime. His trademark is his battle cry of "Captain CAAAAAVEMAAAAAAANNNN!" Captain Caveman's voice was provided by Mel Blanc.

A total of forty 11-minute episodes ran for three seasons from 1977 to 1980: sixteen episodes were produced as segments of Scooby's All-Star Laff-A-Lympics in 1977, eight episodes were produced as segments of Scooby's All-Stars in 1978 and sixteen episodes were produced in 1980 when Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels were given their own half-hour show which combined new episodes and reruns from 1977–79. Cavey and the girls also participated in sporting competitions as part of "The Scooby-Doobies" team on the half-hour "Laff-A-Lympics" segment. Like many animated series created by Hanna-Barbera in the 1970s, the show contained a laugh track, one of their last productions to do so.

Characters

Captain Caveman

Captain Caveman, or "Cavey" for short (voiced by Mel Blanc), is the main character of the show. He is a caveman who is thousands of years old (his exact age is never disclosed). He can pull various objects from his long body hair that covers his body except for his nose, arms, and legs. He can also fly, but his flying power always seems to fail him at the worst possible moment. Sometimes he would attribute this mishap to an energy shortage ("Uh oh! Bad time for energy crisis." CRASH!), which was a reference to the gasoline rationing shortages of the late 1970s. He speaks in stereotypical "caveman-talk", replacing subject pronouns with their object equivalents and dropping articles such as "the" (for example, "Me know where bad guys are hiding."), and often mumbles the nonsense phrase "unga bunga". He also has a bad habit of occasionally eating large non-food objects in one gulp (i.e. bicycles, TV sets, safes, table lamps), and the Teen Angels occasionally have to stop him from eating potential clues that will help them to solve the mystery.

Dee Dee Skyes

Dee Dee Skyes (voiced by Vernee Watson) is the brains of the Teen Angels, is the group's sole African-American, and acts as their unofficial leader. Dee Dee and the rest of the Teen Angels found the frozen Captain Caveman and defrosted him. She wears her hair in an afro and usually wears a red turtleneck sweater with a blue skirt and red knee high boots. Both her dress style and her knack for solving mysteries make her similar to Velma Dinkley of Scooby-Doo fame, while she also bears a resemblance to Valerie from Josie and the Pussycats.

Brenda Chance

Brenda Chance (voiced by Marilyn Schreffler) is a cowardly brunette who is always scared of the demons, monsters and phantoms that she encounters and always tries to back out of a scary mystery, but always ends up getting captured or getting the short end of the stick. She wears a purple striped tank top and a pair of hot pink flared trousers with a white belt. She also acts as Dee Dee's sergeant of the Teen Angels.

Taffy Dare

Taffy Dare (voiced by Laurel Page) is the blonde member of the group, renowned for her cry of "Zowie!" whenever she comes up with a plan (or "Another Daffy Taffy Plan" as Brenda and Cavey would call it) to catch the culprits, has a distinct, childlike persona and New York-influenced/Southern accent. In spite of her usually zany plans and ditziness, Taffy is actually very capable and clever. She has the ability to seduce Caveman into acting as bait for her plans to capture the culprit. She usually wears a green dress with matching shoes. She also acts as Dee Dee's second-in-command of the Teen Angels. It is revealed that Captain Caveman has a crush on her and vice versa.

Cavey Jr

Cavey Jr (voiced by Charlie Adler) is Cavey's son who appears in The Flintstone Kids. He can fly just like his father, wears a blue hat, and has black dots for eyes. While he isn't quite as powerful as his father, he is a lot smarter. Despite being a child, he has hair all over his body (even his grandmother does). It is unknown what became of Jr when his father got frozen.

Broadcast history

Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels was broadcast in these following formats on ABC:

• Scooby's All-Star Laff-A-Lympics (September 10, 1977 – September 2, 1978, ABC Saturday)
• Scooby's All-Stars (September 9, 1978 – September 8, 1979, ABC Saturday)
• Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels (March 8, 1980 – June 21, 1980, ABC Saturday)

Broadcast schedules (all EDT):

• September 10, 1977 – July 1978, ABC Saturday 9:00-11:00 a.m.
• July 1978 – September 2, 1978, ABC Saturday 9:30-11:30 a.m.
• September 9, 1978 – November 1978, ABC Saturday 10:00-11:30 a.m.
• November 1978 – May 1979, ABC Saturday 8:00-9:30 a.m.
• May 1979 – September 8, 1979, ABC Saturday 8:30-10:00 a.m.
• March 8, 1980 – June 21, 1980, ABC Saturday 11:30-12:00 noon

Opening and closing credits

The opening credits for each episode consisted of voice-over narration by Gary Owens:

Set free by the Teen Angels from his prehistoric block of glacier ice, comes the world's first superhero, Captain Caveman! Now the constant companion to the Teen Angels—Brenda, Dee Dee and Taffy—in their hilarious, and sometimes scary mystery missions. Get ready for Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels!

The music heard in the closing credits is the CB Bears theme. After the first three screens, the end credit roll is from the original two-hour version of Scooby's All-Star Laff-A-Lympics.

Episodes

Season 1 (1977)

Season 2 (1978)

Season 3 (1980)

Cast

Main voices:

• Mel Blanc as Captain Caveman
• Laurel Page as Taffy Dare
• Marilyn Schreffler as Brenda Chase
• Vernee Watson-Johnson as Dee Dee Sykes
• Gary Owens as Narrator

Additional voices:

• John Astin
• Julie Bennett
• Ted Cassidy
• Henry Corden
• Stefanianna Christopherson
• Micky Dolenz
• Joan Gerber
• Florence Halop
• Pat Harrington, Jr.
• Hettie Lynn Hurtes
• Nicole Jaffe
• Ann Jillian
• Casey Kasem
• Jim MacGeorge
• Julie McWhirter
• Don Messick
• Heather North
• Vic Perrin
• Alan Reed
• Mike Road
• Ronnie Schell
• Hal Smith
• John Stephenson
• Susan Steward
• Jean Vander Pyl
• Janet Waldo
• Frank Welker
• Bill Woodson

Later appearances

The Flintstone Comedy Show (1980–82)

In November 1980, Captain Caveman began to star in segments of his own on The Flintstone Comedy Show, one of many spin-offs of Hanna-Barbera's popular prime-time show The Flintstones, often in a role similar to that of Superman. Captain Caveman worked at The Daily Granite newspaper with Wilma Flintstone and Betty Rubble. His "secret identity" was Chester, the office boy. To disguise himself as Chester, Captain Caveman wore a pair of glasses and a tie. Despite the simplicity of his disguise, he required a coat rack and an elaborate transformation sequence to become Captain Caveman.

The Flintstone Kids (1986–88)

In 1986, Captain Caveman appeared in a backup segment of The Flintstone Kids called Captain Caveman and Son with his son, Cavey Jr. (voiced by Charles Adler). In this case he appeared on a show-within-a-show that the younger versions of Fred, Barney, Wilma, and Betty enjoyed watching; the Captain's mumbled "unga bunga" became a catchphrase that the kids would shout before watching each "episode" of the show. The show would involve a lesson the Flintstone kids were trying to learn in the prologue. The whole "secret identity" idea was also ignored or forgotten.

Other appearances

• A very similar pair of characters, the Slag Brothers, made an appearance in the earlier Hanna-Barbera series Wacky Races.
• In the Pinky and the Brain episode "The Luck of Pinky", Captain Caveman makes a cameo appearance as a small statue.
• Captain Caveman later appeared in the Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law episode "The Evolutionary War" with Captain Caveman voiced by Chris Edgerly and Cavey Jr. voiced by Maurice LaMarche. His son Cavey Jr. was teased at school because his existence proved the Theory of Evolution.
• Captain Caveman appeared in the Robot Chicken episode "Ban on the Fun" voiced by Breckin Meyer. In a segment that parodies the Laff-A-Lympics in the style of the Munich massacre, Captain Caveman and Shaggy Rogers confront Daisy Mayhem and Captain Caveman blows her up with the wrong club.
• Characters that look very similar to Captain Caveman appear as enemies in the 8-bit computer game Renegade III: The Final Chapter.
• In the Halloween 2008 episode of Homestar Runner, Homsar disguises himself as Captain Caveman. He then exclaims "Daaa!! AaAah'm the Captain Caveman of the graveyard train!"
• In the Family Guy episode named "Perfect Castaway", Peter expresses how much he misses Captain Caveman, and vows that he will see him again once he gets off the island.
• Captain Caveman also makes a cameo appearance in an episode of Adventure Time where he is seen as a stuffed doll in Finn's room.
• Captain Caveman appears in the Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated episode "Mystery Solvers Club State Finals" (2011) voiced by Jim Cummings. He and the Teen Angels appear alongside other Hanna-Barbera detective teams in a fever dream of Scooby-Doo's. When the teenage sleuths are kidnapped by Lord Infernacus, it's up to their sidekicks to save them.
• In Scooby-Doo! Mask of the Blue Falcon, there is a person that dresses up as Captain Caveman in a Hanna-Barbera convention.
• Captain Caveman is seen briefly in the background in South Park - Imaginationland: The Movie (2008). He is amongst a plethora of other imaginary and cartoon characters who are being attacked by terrorists.

Home media releases

A PAL videocassette of Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels (Bumper Edition) containing 13 episodes was released only in Europe on May 11, 1998. On July 23, 2013, Warner Archive released Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels: The Complete Series on DVD in region 1 as part of their Hanna–Barbera Classics Collection. This is a manufacture-on-demand (MOD) release, available exclusively through Warner's online store and Amazon.com.^[1]

References

External links

• Freddy Corven's Captain Caveman Page
• Captain Caveman at Don Markstein's Toonopedia. Archived from the original on April 9, 2012.
• Cartoon Legends' Captain Caveman
• Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels at Big Cartoon DataBase
• Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels at the Internet Movie Database
• Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels at TV.com