"Popeye the Sailor" (1960) TV series 1960-1963

Seasons:

1 | 2

Release Date:

1960 (USA)

Genre:

Animation | Comedy | Family | Romance

Plot Keywords:

Popeye | Spinach | Male Female Relationship | Character Name In Title

Cast

Jack Mercer	...	Popeye / ... (175 episodes, 1960-1961)
Mae Questel	...	Olive Oyl / ... (143 episodes, 1960-1961)
Jackson Beck	...	Brutus / ... (114 episodes, 1960-1961)

Series Directed by
Jack Kinney		(86 episodes, 1960)
Seymour Kneitel		(41 episodes, 1960-1961)
Gene Deitch		(28 episodes, 1960-1961)
Paul Fennell		(18 episodes, 1960)
Tony Guy		(7 episodes, 1960-1961)
John Halas		(7 episodes, 1960-1961)
Bob Bemiller		(5 episodes, 1960)
Tom McDonald		(5 episodes, 1960)

Series Writing credits
Ed Nofziger		(24 episodes, 1960)
Charles Shows		(18 episodes, 1960)
Jack Kinney		(12 episodes, 1960)
Seymour Kneitel		(9 episodes, 1960-1961)
Jack Mercer		(8 episodes, 1961)
Carl Meyer		(8 episodes, 1961)
Raymond Jacobs		(7 episodes, 1960)
Isadore Klein		(6 episodes, 1960-1961)
Edwin Rehberg		(5 episodes, 1960)
Walter Schmidt		(5 episodes, 1960)
Joseph Gottlieb		(5 episodes, 1961)
Joe Grant		(4 episodes, 1960)
Osmond Evans		(2 episodes, 1960)
Cal Howard		(2 episodes, 1960)
Ken Hultgren		(2 episodes, 1960)
Jack Miller		(2 episodes, 1960)
Milt Schaffer		(2 episodes, 1960)
Noel Tucker		(2 episodes, 1960)

Series Produced by
Al Brodax	....	executive producer (183 episodes, 1960-1961)
Jack Kinney	....	producer (86 episodes, 1960)
William L. Snyder	....	producer (28 episodes, 1960-1961)
Larry Harmon	....	producer (18 episodes, 1960)
Gerald Ray	....	producer (10 episodes, 1960)
John Halas	....	producer (7 episodes, 1960-1961)

Series Original Music by
Ken Lowman		(83 episodes, 1960)
Winston Sharples		(41 episodes, 1960-1961)
Gordon Zahler		(17 episodes, 1960)

Series Film Editing by
Joe Siracusa		(39 episodes, 1960)
Roger Donley		(18 episodes, 1960)
Dan Milner		(18 episodes, 1960)
Cliff Millsap		(17 episodes, 1960)
Norman Vizents		(10 episodes, 1960)

Series Art Department
Anton Loeb	....	scenic artist (26 episodes, 1960-1961)
Robert Owen	....	scenic artist (4 episodes, 1960-1961)

Series Sound Department
Marne Fallis	....	sound engineer (45 episodes, 1960)

Series Camera and Electrical Department
Jack Eckes	....	camera operator (48 episodes, 1960)
Jack Buehre	....	camera operator (14 episodes, 1960)
Bill Kotler	....	camera operator (8 episodes, 1960)

Series Animation Department
Vera McKinney	....	ink and paint artist (75 episodes, 1960)
Jules Engel	....	background artist / color artist (55 episodes, 1960)
Boris Gorelick	....	background artist (29 episodes, 1960)
Rosemary O'Connor	....	background artist (29 episodes, 1960)
Ervin L. Kaplan	....	artist / background artist (27 episodes, 1960)
Raymond Jacobs	....	layout artist / background artist (26 episodes, 1960)
Jane Philippi	....	checking (24 episodes, 1960)
Tom Baron	....	artist (18 episodes, 1960)
Jean Blanchard	....	artist (18 episodes, 1960)
Cal Dalton	....	artist (18 episodes, 1960)
C.L. Hartman	....	artist (18 episodes, 1960)
Ziggy Jablecki	....	artist (18 episodes, 1960)
Frank Onaitis	....	artist (18 episodes, 1960)
George Rowley	....	artist (18 episodes, 1960)
Lou Scheimer	....	artist (18 episodes, 1960)
Hal Sutherland	....	artist (18 episodes, 1960)
Evelyn Sherwood	....	checking / animation checker (17 episodes, 1960)
Volus Jones	....	animation director / animator (16 episodes, 1960)
Noel Tucker	....	layout artist / background artist (15 episodes, 1960)
Isadore Klein	....	animator (14 episodes, 1960-1961)
Ed Friedman	....	animation director (14 episodes, 1960)
Dick Hall	....	animator (13 episodes, 1960-1961)
Ken Hultgren	....	animation director / layout artist (13 episodes, 1960)
Moley McColley	....	checking (12 episodes, 1960)
Harvey Toombs	....	animation director / animator (12 episodes, 1960)
Wm. B. Pattengill	....	animator (11 episodes, 1960-1961)
Gerald Nevius	....	layout artist (11 episodes, 1960)
Izzy Ellis	....	animator (10 episodes, 1960)
John Garling	....	animator (10 episodes, 1960)
Bill Higgins	....	animator (10 episodes, 1960)
Sam Kai	....	animator (10 episodes, 1960)
Henry Lee	....	layout artist (10 episodes, 1960)
Casey Onaitis	....	animator (10 episodes, 1960)
Bud Partch	....	animator (10 episodes, 1960)
Barney Posner	....	animator (10 episodes, 1960)
Edwin Rehberg	....	animation director / layout artist (10 episodes, 1960)
Dave Weidman	....	background artist (10 episodes, 1960)
Ray Young	....	animator (10 episodes, 1960)
Irving Dressler	....	animator (9 episodes, 1960-1961)
Morey Reden	....	animator (9 episodes, 1960-1961)
Martin Taras	....	animator (9 episodes, 1960-1961)
Hugh Fraser	....	animation director (9 episodes, 1960)
Rudy Larriva	....	animation director (9 episodes, 1960)
Robert Givens	....	layout artist (8 episodes, 1960)
Tony Guy	....	animation director (7 episodes, 1960-1961)
Buf Nerbovig	....	checking (7 episodes, 1960)
Gerry Dvorak	....	animator (6 episodes, 1960-1961)
William Henning	....	animator (6 episodes, 1960-1961)
Sam Stimson	....	animator (6 episodes, 1960-1961)
Dante Barbetta	....	animator (5 episodes, 1960-1961)
Jack Ehret	....	animator (5 episodes, 1960-1961)
Al Pross	....	animator (5 episodes, 1960-1961)
Christine Decker	....	checking (5 episodes, 1960)
Vern Jorgensen	....	layout artist / background artist (5 episodes, 1960)
Jim Logan	....	animator (5 episodes, 1961)
Larry Silverman	....	animator (5 episodes, 1961)
Nick Tafuri	....	animator (4 episodes, 1960-1961)
Bruce Bushman	....	layout artist (4 episodes, 1960)
Connie Matthews	....	background artist (3 episodes, 1960)
Ruth Tompson	....	checking (3 episodes, 1960)
John Gentilella	....	animator (3 episodes, 1961)
George Germanetti	....	animator (3 episodes, 1961)
Eric Cleworth	....	animation director / animator (2 episodes, 1960)
Bill Keil	....	animation director / animator (2 episodes, 1960)
Paul Marron	....	checking (2 episodes, 1960)
Alan Zaslove	....	animation director (2 episodes, 1960)

Series Music Department
Gordon Zahler	....	musical director (1 episode, 1960)

Production Companies

• King Features Syndicate
• Famous Studios (1960-1962)
• Gene Deitch Associates (GDA) (1960-1962)
• Halas and Batchelor Cartoon Films (1960-1962)
• Jack Kinney Productions (1960-1962)
• Larry Harmon Pictures Corporation (1960-1962)
• Rembrandt Films (1960-1962)
• TV Spots (1960-1962)

Distributors

• Firestone Film Syndication Ltd. (1960-1979)
• Gold Key Entertainment
• King Features Entertainment
• Office de Radiodiffusion Télévision Française (ORTF) (1967) (France) (TV)
• Radio Tokyo Television (1960) (Japan) (TV)

Other Companies

• Ryder Sound Services  sound recording

Also Known As:

Popeye el marino (Argentina) [es]

Runtime:

Argentina:30 min | USA:30 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Iceland:L | USA:TV-G | Argentina:Atp | Brazil:Livre

Company:

King Features Syndicate

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "South Park: Towelie (#5.8)" (2001)

Popeye Comes To Television

After some 24 years in theatrical shorts, the longest tenure of any running cartoon character to that time, Popeye was curiously stricken from Paramount Pictures' cartoon cast. However, King Features, owner of the character, revived the spinach-eating sailor man and friends for a series of televisions shorts, totaling some 220 cartoons farmed out to Paramount Pictures, Larry Harmon/UPA, Jack Kinney Studios, William Snyder & Gene Deitch, and Total Television.

These television cartoons "updated" Popeye's world by mixing 1960-topical suburban settings with use of characters, such as the Sea Hag and King Blozo, who came from the original E.C. Segar comics but were never used in Popeye's theatrical shorts; also brought in for several shorts were the Goons, hulking mute characters first seen in the 1930s, and Eugene The Jeep, another revival from the 1930s comic strip. Character designs were also changed to reflect the "back to the future" quality of the shorts, particularly in the design of Olive Oyl, while some new characters were introduced, notably Olive's troublesome niece Diesel Oyl, a female counterpart to Popeye's four nephews (curiously not revived from the 1940s-50s cartoons).

The different studios used made for an uneven quality to the cartoons. Some of the best animation came from the Snyder-Deitch shorts, especially those which utilized Britain's famous Halas & Batchelor animation studios, while the best character gags often came from the Harmon/UPA shorts, which sometimes used background music first used for Mr. Magoo cartoons.

Paramount and Kinney released the highest number of cartoons, and the differences in style and intangibles were striking. The Kinney cartoons strove to be funny, and often were, but suffered from inconsistent character designs (Ken Hultgren was the animator most frequently used and his character designs were periodically the sloppiest of the series) as well as some of the weakest soundtracks of the series, re-using the sound FX library used for "Rocky & Bullwinkle."

The Paramount shorts, meanwhile, had by far the best production values of all, in character designs, backgrounds, sound FX, and in the use of Winston Sharples' background scores; some of the animation was also quite good, even in the budget-crunched era of that time.

Given the enormity of quantity and the differing studios involved, the quality of stories tended to differ, but overall the scripts were engaging and sometimes genuinely brilliant, such as the Paramount short "It Only Hurts When They Laughs," a hilarious takeoff on Popeye and Brutus' long-running feud over Olive. The Paramount shorts tended to be the most melodramatic of the show and worked very well as such; particularly effective here was the Paramount short's treatment of Olive, who is by no means the damsel-in-distress so often portrayed in the past. Here Olive gets substantialy to flex her own muscle, such as in "A Poil For Olive Oyl," when she spots the Sea Hag sending swordfish in pursuit of Popeye at the ocean floor and downs a can of spinach for the strength to finish off Haggie. Popeye for his part had shown a mild chauvinism in 1940s and '50s cartoons (such as the hilarious 1956 short "Car-razy Drivers") but here recognizes his love's own strength and actually encourages it, in "Hamburgers A-weigh" when, after using spinach to acquire Superman-esquire power (a favorite cliché of the Popeye series from the late 1930s onward), feeds a large swig to Olive to give her the same power, so she can fight off the Sea Hag - Popeye being too much of the gentleman to strike a woman, even if it is the Sea Hag.

The 1960s shorts build on the strengths of the 1940s and '50s shorts and remain engaging cartoons in the long-running series.