Saturday, January 18, 2014

Saturday Morning's Forgotten Heroes: Captain Caveman & The Teen Angels (1977)

Captain Caveman & the Teen Angels made their debut as part of Scooby's All-Star Laff-a-Lympics in 1977 in a clear case of a fish-out-of-water concept.

The Captain (Mel Blanc) had been frozen in ice until he was discovered by the Angels, bringing the "World's 1st superhero" into the 20th century. "Cavey" and the Angels also took part in the Laff-a-Lympics competitions as part of the Scooby Doobies, but the Captain seemed to be even more out of place here.

A few years later, the Captain was rebooted in his own time, the Stone Age, where he'd meet up with The Flintstones over on NBC, and would return to ABC in a backup feature on Flintstone Kids. Unfortunately, the Angels were never seen again.

Edit: 7/16/14: The episode, "Big Scare at the Big Top", has been deleted by YouTube due to a copyright issue. In its place, we offer the open, with narration by Gary Owens (Blue Falcon):



Rating: B.

2 comments:

magicdog said...

I remember watching the earlier series and it was OK. I can't help but wonder if the Teen Angels weren't originally pitched to be a teen singing group. Why else be called the Teen Angels (a classic R&R tune), be on the road in a huge van and solving mysteries with a caveman as a crime solving pal? Mystery Inc was supposed to be a band originally. Just a theory.

When Cavy appeared in Bedrock I just couldn't buy it. Cavy was a totally different caveman than the Flintstones. By keeping his old character and demeanor, he stood out like a sore thumb! Don't even get me started on Cavy Jr.!

hobbyfan said...

Joe Ruby & Ken Spears created both teams, but must've felt they didn't want to be burned again when their original concept for Scooby-Doo was discarded. The Teen Angels part, though, was a parody of Charlie's Angels, an ABC primetime hit.

I doubt that Ruby & Spears would've wanted Cavey, Jr., since they tried that tack with Fangpuss in season 2 of Fangface (on Plastic Man), and failed. Seems to me someone thought the Flintstone Kids needed a kid hero they could relate to.......