Pac-Man (TV series)

Infobox Television
bgcolour = #E0A03C
show_name = Pac-Man


caption = The Pac Family
format = Animation
runtime = 30 minutes
creator =
executive_producer = William Hanna and Joseph Barbera
starring = Marty Ingels
Barbara Minkus
Russi Taylor
Chuck McCann
Barry Gordon
Neilson Ross
Susan Silo
Allan Lurie
country = United States
network = ABC
picture_format=
audio_format = stereo
first_aired = September 25, 1982
last_aired = September 1, 1984
num_seasons = 2
num_episodes = 43
List of Pac-Man episodes
imdb_id =

"Pac-Man", also known as "Pac-Man: The Animated Series", is an animated TV series produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions and based upon the popular "Pac-Man" arcade game by Namco, which aired on ABC from September 25, 1982 to September 1, 1984. During the first airing of the show, the large number of advertisers sponsoring it caused commercial breaks to be double their normal length. Later episodes featured normal commercial break times.

The arcade game "Pac-Land" was based entirely on the cartoon, and "" drew significant influence from it as well. Also, the Tengen release of the original arcade game for the Nintendo Entertainment System features box art based on the cartoon.

Overview

"Pac-Man" follows the adventures of the title character Pac-Man (voiced by Marty Ingels), his wife Mrs. Pepper Pac-Man (voiced by Barbara Minkus), and their child Pac-Baby (voiced by Russi Taylor). They also had two pets, Chomp-Chomp the Dog (voiced by Frank Welker) & Sour Puss the Cat (voiced by Peter Cullen). The family lives in Pac-Land, a place in which the geography and architecture seem to revolve primarily around spheres and sphere-like shapes.

Most episodes of the series center around the ongoing battle between the Pac family and their only known enemies, the Ghost Monsters: Blinky (Chuck McCann), Pinky (Chuck McCann), Inky (Barry Gordon), Clyde (Neil Ross), and Sue (Susan Silo). The leader of the Ghost Monsters is Mezmeron (Allan Lurie), a mysterious figure bearing a likeness to Darth Vader. His sole mission is to locate and control the source of "Power Pellets", which serve as the primary food and power source for the city, and also as the "deus ex machina" in virtually every episode.

Common themes

For whatever reason, nearly everything in Pac-Land takes the shape of a sphere (or is round, at the very least). Everything from natural backgrounds to houses to cars to animals and even (or especially) the people assume the form of a ball.

Another recurring theme is the common use of "Pac-" as a prefix for verbs and famous or common existing nouns (an example: Pac-Hollywood, a town famous for its film studios). This is reminiscent of "The Smurfs" or "The Snorks", both animated series which replaced or altered several existing words with "Smurf" or "Snork," respectively.(In fact, the series was referred to as "Pac-Smurfs" around the Hanna-Barbera studio. Fact|date=February 2008) Pac-man himself is often referred to the nickname "Packy" by Pepper as a term of affection which unintentionally sounds like the racist term "paki".

In a typical episode, the ghost-monsters are eaten in the beginning, and their eyes fly back to Mezmeron's lava-lair closet to get new ghost suits and plot something evil.

Power Pellets (which were previously called "power pills", or "energizers") seem to be the focal point of nearly every episode, as Mezmeron and the Ghost-Monsters are intent upon finding them. In actuality, Power Pellets are plentiful and easy to find around Pac-Land. Although their primary purpose appears to be enabling the Pac-people to "chomp" Ghost-Monsters, Power Pellets also seem to be the staple of their diet(as well as the city's source of power in general)

It's interesting to note that when Pac-Man (or any other Pac-person, or Pac-animal) eats a power pellet, instead of turning blue (as in the video game series) the "Ghost-Monsters" (known as simply "monsters" in the original arcade game, and as simply "ghosts" in the Atari 2600 version) turn "purple with panic" after which they make an obvious note of their situation ("P-P-P-P-P-Pac Power!").

Other changes from the video games include the following:

* "Super Pac-Man" (voiced by Lorenzo Music) is portrayed as a separate character who lives in a parallel dimension called the Super Time Warp Space Home (and is called "Super-Pac").
* Clyde is the 'head' ghost-monster, instead of Blinky (who is the first one out of the monster pen at the beginning of each level in the games); this is probably a reference to "Clyde" of the Ant Hill Mob from Wacky Races, another Hanna-Barbera series. Considering the gangster persona applied to Clyde and somewhat to Sue, Clyde may have been made the leader as a reference to Bonnie and Clyde (with Sue fitting the bill for Bonnie).
* Ms. Pac-Man is called "Pepper".
* When the ghosts catch up to Pac-Man in the early episodes, they trap him and "eat his skeleton", leaving him a disheveled version of himself. It was a pretty creepy visual for the predominantly young audience, and in future episodes, Pac-Man just appeared beat up (Or in a weakened state) rather than internally gobbled.
* Sue (the only female ghost-monster) is now just a separate character and the fifth ghost monster. In Ms. Pac-Man, Sue replaced Clyde in an attempt to give Ms. Pac-Man a rival of her own. When she was around, Pepper was usually the one who chomped the Sue. Even though in the cartoon Sue is purple, in the arcade game she is orange, the same color Clyde is in the Pac-Man game.
* The ghosts all wear hats or (in Sue's case) earrings. (Possibly so the animators/painters could tell the ghosts apart)
* Pinky and Inky had abilities the other ghost monsters did not. Pinky was able to alter his shape. For instance he changed into an inflatable rubber raft to travel on a body of water. Inky was able to produce many supplies and items from his clothing. Inky is even able to retrieve items larger than himself. An example of this is when he took a very long ladder out of his clothing to climb a wall to escape from Pac-Man. This ability is similar to Hammerspace. Each of the ghosts have a distinct personality. Aside from Clyde and Sue's afforementioned personalities, Inky is the stupid one, Blinky is the cowardly one and Pinky is the tough one.
* In the second season, besides Super-Pac, Pac-Man's nephew P.J. appears semi-regularly on the show.

Broadcast history

"Pac-Man" aired on ABC Saturday Morning in the following formats:

* "The Pac-Man/Little Rascals/Richie Rich Show" (September 25, 1982-September 3, 1983)
* "The Pac-Man/Rubik, the Amazing Cube Hour" (September 10, 1983-September 1, 1984)

Since the original run, reruns have turned up on the "USA Cartoon Express" in the 1980s and Boomerang in 2005. The series is also available for purchase on the Xbox Live Marketplace for 160 Microsoft Points per episode.

Christmas comes to Pac-Land

In this Christmas special, Pac-Man and family help Santa Claus after crash-landing on Pac-Land (after the reindeer were startled by floating eyes of the Ghost Monsters after Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man and Pac-Baby munched them). Mezmeron was the only character from the cartoon that is not in the special. It is shown every December on the Boomerang Christmas party.

ee also

* Ms. Pac-Man
* Baby Pac-Man
* Pac-Land
* List of television shows based on video games

External links

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* [http://www.x-entertainment.com/messages/609.html Sarcastic review of an episode of "Pac-Man"] at X-Entertainment