Rich Animation.

In the fall of 1980, Hanna-Barbera decided to bring another Harvey character to the small screen. And when they animated Richie Rich, they got it right by making the cartoons more faithful to the comics.

It was an absolute joy to see all the major players there. Richie, his parents, Cadbury, Chef Pierre, Bascomb, Irona, Professor Keenbean, Nurse Jenny, Gloria, Freckles(but not his brother Pee Wee), Dollar, and even antagonists like Reggie Van Dough and Mayda Munny. There was even an unforgettable one-shot appearance by Jackie Jokers. He, canine star Fifi, and the entire cast of the soap opera "Look For Yesterday" were kidnapped by a mysterious TV phantom. Richie found a clue from Jackie himself that led to the prisoners' location, and the capture of the villain. Don't know if the Rich Family's archenemies The Onion and Dr. N.R.G were in any episodes, but they probably should have been.

Although Richie headlined "The Richie Rich/Scooby-Doo Show" initially, the poor little rich boy's position was usurped two years later, when Scooby "relocated" to "The Scooby-Doo/Puppy Hour," and he was now joined by a video game hero, and a bunch of young stars from the old days. Here are my thoughts on these new segments:

"Pac Man." By the time Pac Man became a cartoon character, I had already been overexposed to the little yellow pellet eater, not only by playing the game, but by repeatedly listening to that great '80's classic, "Pac Man Fever." This show was likeable, since all the characters from the video game were present, including Pac Jr, or PJ for short, and Super Pac. Super Pac, incidentally, was a separate character, and not Pac Man's alter ego, though that would have been interesting. And the newly created characters Mezmaron, Chomp Chomp, and Sour Puss didn't hurt the show either.

"The Little Rascals." Ok, What was HB thinking when they animated Spanky and company? Did they really think it was worth it to bring back a property that had done enough entertaining back in the day? And the new theme music was terrible, compared to the theme music of the live-action films. Is it any wonder I never saw more than a brief clip during a Saturday morning preview show? This was another one the studio should have left alone. Sorry, but those are my true feelings.

Trivia Question 36: True Or False: Richie had ancestors in Ancient Egypt and Medieval England.

Answer: True.

One of the story writers for Hanna-Barbera's "Richie Rich" is Paul Haggis...who wrote episodes of "thirtysomething" and "The Tracey Ullman Show" and created the tv series "Due South" and the short-lived but critically acclaimed "EZ Streets". Haggis wrote and directed the film "Crash" which won Oscars for Best Picture and Best Screenplay and wrote the screenplay for "Million Dollar Baby". Now a major player in Hollywood films.

The Richie Rich stories did not have any titles or individual writer credits...only the names of the various Richie Rich comic books were displayed at the start of the story ("Gems", "Millions", "Dollars and Sense", "Cash", "Diamonds" for short 5 to 8 minute stories, and "Zillion Dollar Adventures" for the longer 10 minute episode at the end of the hour)...Other Hanna-Barbera cartoon shows starting in Fall 1980 had episode title cards and writer credits per story...prior to that the story writers were lumped together in alphabetical order in the full end credits. Filmation Studios had writer credits in the title cards for most of their programs since the 1960s ("Archie" was an exception).

Nancy Cartwright's first animation role was as the voice of Gloria...of course Bart Simpson made her famous.

"Richie Rich" had a long run on ABC lasting to 1983 with reruns on CBS around 1985...enough for Sparky Marcus' voice as Richie to noticeably change and deepen at the end of the series run. I enjoyed the faithfulness to the comic although Dollar and his daydreams in being a hero and his failure to do so in "real life" got a little silly sometimes.

Cartwright and Marcus would later team up in Ruby-Spears' "Space Ace" segments for "Saturday Supercade" as the voices of Officer Kimberly and Dexter respectively.

The Scooby Doo cartoons during the same hour with Richie Rich only featured Shaggy, Scooby, and Scrappy Doo...usually building stories around the trio getting chased by various bad guys...supernatural or "real"... instead of investigating a mystery, in a ten minute running time. No Freddie, Daphne, and Velma.

The two leads from "Richie Rich" and "The Little Rascals", Sparky Marcus (Richie) and Scott Menville (Spanky) would be in the same cast as Montgomery Moose and Bingo Beaver respectively in the 1984 "Get Along Gang" cartoon show.

Scott Menville is the son of animation writer Chuck Menville and he continues to perform as Robin in the "Teen Titans" and "Teen Titans Go!" cartoons.

"Pac-Man" was cute if a little repetitive with the ghost monsters chasing the Pac Family around and the Pac Family fighting back by biting back. Marty Ingels previously played Beegle Beagle in "The Great Grape Ape" with the same distinctive voice. Neil (Neilson) Ross's first animation role was as Clyde the ghost monster leader. Mezmaron was voiced by Allen Lurie who later played recurring space villian Uglorr in "Space Stars". The video game cartoon concept was good enough for Ruby-Spears to produce "Saturday Supercade" and "Dragon's Lair" and DIC to produce "The Super Mario Brothers Super Show", "Super Mario 3", and "Captain N."

"Pac-Man" was invented by Japanese video game manufacturer NAMCO. "Paku" is Japanese for "to eat". The US name for Pac-Man was originally "Puck-Man" given Pacman's shape...but NAMCO's marketing people felt that the name could be a target for vandals altering the name to spell out a profanity and the name was changed.

Voices:
Richie Rich: Sparky Marcus
Dollar: Frank Welker
Mr. Rich/Cadbury: Stanley Jones
Mrs. Rich/Irona: Joan Gerber
Professor Keenbean: Bill Callaway
Gloria: Nancy Cartwright
Reggie Van Dough: Dick Beals
Freckles: Christian Hoff

Pac-Man :Marty Ingels
Ms. Pac-Man: Barbara Minkus
Baby Pac: Russi Taylor
Chomp Chomp: Peter Cullen
Sourpuss: Frank Welker
Mezmaron: Allen Lurie
Clyde: Neil Ross
Inky/Pinky: Chuck McCann
Sue: Susan Silo
Super Pac: Lorenzo Music
PJ: Darryl Hickman

Spanky: Scott Menville
Alfalfa/Woim: Julie McWhirter (Dees)
Butch/Porky/Waldo: BJ Ward
Darla: Patty Maloney
Buckwheat: Shavar Ross
Petey/Officer Ed: Peter Cullen

I disagree with emeraldisle regarding The Little Rascals as animated by Hanna-Barbera. I thought it was rather good, considering that it marked the animation voice debut of Patty Maloney, whom I had enjoyed watching seven years earlier on Far Out Space Nuts. I also once saw Fred Wolf's Little Rascals Christmas Special, and thought Hanna-Barbera's work was better. And it wasn't just a clip they showed on the Pac-Preview Party, but the full episode "Beauty Queen for a Day". Granted, Hanna-Barbera's series lacked the spontaneity of the Hal Roach shorts (pre-MGM), but I still enjoyed it.

It's a shame that four separate companies—Warner Bros., Turner Entertainment, CBS and Sonar Entertainment—claim partial ownership of the Our Gang franchise, as the animated series of The Little Rascals deserves a DVD or Blu-ray release.