The Skatebirds was a Syndication network Saturday morning live-action\animated package series produced by Hanna-Barbera which premiered on September 10, 1977 and ended on January 21, 1978 after 16 episodes.
Plot[]
The Skatebirds consisted of three large costumed birds on roller skates: Knock-Knock, a woodpecker (voiced by Lennie Weinrib); Satchel, a pelican (voiced by Bob Holt) and Scooter, a penguin (voiced by Don Messick); their nemesis was a cat named Scat Cat (voiced by Scatman Crothers). The live-action sequences featuring The Skatebirds mostly revolved around the nasty Scat Cat perpetually chasing the roller-staking trio and trying to get the best of them.
The show was divided into four short segments introduced by live action wraparounds with The Skatebirds characters which included three animated segments (The Robonic Stooges, Wonder Wheels and Woofer & Wimper, Dog Detectives) and a 10-minute live-action segment ("Mystery Island").
The appearance of the characters and the show's format was similar to "The Banana Splits Adventures Hour". Unlike its similar predecessor and most Saturday morning children's shows produced in the 1970s, The Skatebirds did not contain a laugh track.
A total of 16 episodes of The Skatebirds were produced in its original run from September 10, 1977 to January 21, 1978.
In the fall of 1979, the show returned to Syndication in a shortened half-hour version with "Wonder Wheels" and "Mystery Island" segments ("The Robonic Stooges" and "Woofer & Wimper, Dog Detectives" segments had been spun off into a separate half-hour) and broadcast on Sunday mornings from September 9, 1979 until January 25, 1981.
Segments[]
The Robonic Stooges The show featured the characters of The Three Stooges: Moe, Larry and Curly as clumsy crime-fighting bionic superheroes who are given assignments via film projector from their boss Agent 000 who runs the Superhero Employment Agency.
Wonder Wheels The show was about a high school journalist named Willie Wheeler and his girlfriend Dooley solve crimes with the help of his shape-shifting superhero motorcycle, Wonder Wheels; whenever Willie goes into action, his beat-up motorcycle transforms itself into a pimped out version with a mind of its own.
Woofer & Wimper, Dog Detectives The show was a shortened and re-titled version of "Clue Club" featuring two talking bloodhounds Woofer & Wimper, who help solve mysteries with the Clue Club detectives: Larry, Pepper, D.D. and Dottie.
The original half-hour episodes of "Clue Club" were cut-down to 10 minutes to showcase both dogs as the show's main characters.
Mystery Island The show was about the adventures of a plane crew: Chuck Kelly, Sue Corwin, her younger brother Sandy and their computer robot named P.O.P.S. who end up stranded on a remote island by the evil scientist Dr. Strange who hopes to capture P.O.P.S. and use it in his quest for world domination.
Cast[]
- Maurice Cooke (costumed actor)\Scatman Crothers (voice actor) as Skat Kat
- Bruce Hoyt (costumed actor)\Lennie Weinrib (voice actor) as Knock-Knock
- Ken Means (costumed actor)\Bob Holt (voice actor) as Satchel
- Joe Giamalva (costumed actor)\Don Messick as Scooter)