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DVD Shopping Bag: Pac-Man Season 1
Chasing that Saturday morning feeling By
Robert T. Trate
February 14, 2012
Pac-Man arrives from the Warner Archive
© Warner Archive
“Did you know that the original name for Pac-Man was Puck-Man? You'd think it was because he looks like a hockey puck but it actually comes from the Japanese phrase 'Paku-Paku,' which means to flap one's mouth open and closed. They changed it because they thought Puck-Man would be too easy to vandalize, you know, like people could just scratch off the P and turn it into an F or whatever.” – Scott Pilgrim
This fun bit of dialogue from Edgar Wright’s incredible film reminded me how much fun I had with Pac-Man as a kid. After all the game chomped its way into our lives all those years ago, its impact can still be felt. It was one of the early arcade games that found its way into our home. It drove us all crazy with this innate desire to run a maze, survive a plague of ghosts, and then immediately start all over again. There is no way to way win, but the desire to see how far we can get kept bringing us back. When I do see a big arcade console version of Pac-Man (or any one of his spinoffs) I love to pop in a few quarters and test my skills.
Of course in the eighties the hype of Pac-Man spawned spinoff games (Ms. Pac-Man, Baby Pac-Man and Super Pac-Man) that were essentially just the same. They came in forms of miniature console versions for tabletop play at home and the dreadful Atari version. Then Pac-Man found his way onto Saturday morning with his own cartoon. Warner Archive (see link for clips) recently released the first season of Pac-Man and I wanted to revisit that Saturday morning feeling.
Like many of you I still remember getting up early on my only day off for the week. I say my only day because Sunday my parents always insisted we go to church. This day, Saturday, was mine. I had a routine and even though it changed over the years, many of the shows had been on since my parents were little. Much of Hanna Barbera’s library had been on in prime time in their day but now these shows were for my pleasure. You could always tell a show was not from their era due to a marketing tie-in or a pop culture phenomenon. In the eighties our pop culture explosion was video games. We had the likes Dragon’s Lair (see column), Space Ace, and Pac-Man. These games usually provided interesting twists on the characters. They quickly found themselves nestled in between episodes of The Smurfs, The Pebbles and Bam Bam Show (see link), Mr. T, and Thundarr the Barbarian.
I would say that I have a fairly good memory. I can tell you something about Most of the shows above if not go through one or two of their full episodes. When it came to Pac-Man I drew a blank. I remember it featured Pac-Man and his family, the Ghosts, and took place in Pac-World. Other than that I was drawing a complete blank. Wanting to have those feelings of Saturday nostalgia again, I went for the first season of Pac-Man.
You know that saying: you can’t go home again? Well in the case of Saturday morning cartoons they may be right. Pac-Man was absolutely terrible. The premise of the show has Pac-Man (voiced by Marty Ingels) as the security chief of the Power Forest. The Power Forest is where all the Power Pellets come from. The Ghosts (Inky, Blinky, Clyde, Sue,,,) are under the orders of Mezmaron (Allan Lurie) who wants to control the Power Forest. His reason for doing so will enable him to have complete control over Pac-Land. Pac-Man is usually put into a dangerous situation by the Ghosts and then has to find his way out of it. It regularly ends with Pac-Man using the Power Pellets and eating the Ghosts to save the day.
I know this is supposed to be a show for children to watch on a Saturday morning while they are wrapped in a blanket or chomping down on cereal. I get that and appreciate it. However, I kept coming up with all these questions as the leaps in logic became more and more absurd. Who was Mezmaron? He is a giant human being living in this world of Pac-People. I get that he wants to rule the world (who doesn’t?) but why this one? The Ghosts are obviously his henchmen but why are they the only Ghosts in Pac-World? They walk the streets with all the other Pac-People and no one bothers to stop them. If Pac-Man is our Batman on the show and these Ghosts are his Rogues Gallery (the Joker, Penguin, and the Riddler) then why aren’t the good people trying to stop them, too? At the very least they could be afraid of them. Power Pellets are the key to the show (and the game). While I could see, plot wise, Pac-Man not having them readily available every time he needs them to put him in danger. I then realized this was absurd because he was always in danger. Why would he go outside without them? I kept waiting for his wife, Pepper (Barbara Minkus), to bring it up because she at least had a brain.
After a while, I realized how Hanna Barbera must have pitched the show. It’s Popeye set in Pac-Man’s world. Power Pellets are his spinach and, no matter what, they will save the day. Pepper is Olive Oil and Pac-Baby (who had no real name) is Sweat Pea. If it weren’t for the occasional diversion in the typical plots, I might have thrown myself at a few Ghosts to get eaten. The “Pac-Mania” segments are quick one liner jokes which never last more than a minute and at least make you smile. Another nice diversion was the Roadrunner and Coyote type stories between Pac-Man’s dog, Chomp Chomp, and his Cat, Sour Puss (Peter Cullen).
As I have gotten older I have chased that Saturday morning feeling with these cartoons and found that most were pretty lame. The good ones really were few and far between. For every show like Thundarr (also available through the Warner Archive) there are 10 Pac-Man’s out there. I know you really can’t ever go home again, but it’s still fun to try every once in a while.
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Robert Trate writes three weekly columns for Mania: the DVD Shopping Bag, the Toy Maniac, and The Geek Life. Follow Robert on Twitter for his for Geek ramblings, Cosplay photos and film criticisms.
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I used to watch this. No, it was never great, but it does take me back. I can still remember the jingle for the Pac-Man cereal. That, I can retain for years. So why can't I remember where I left the remote 30 seconds ago???