Jabberjaw

As the other reviews have already pointed out, this show stole most of its ideas. The theme song is even stolen from Match Game. They always go to some town that has a name with a water pun in it and that gets old real fast. They even go as far as stealing characters from other shows, episode two has a Zorak clone. I wish I had more hands so I could give this show four thumbs down.

Throughout the mid to late 1970's,producers William Hanna and Joesph Barbera were the forefront of children's programming and had some of most successful shows ever devised for Saturday Mornings. Unlike their counterparts over at Filmation,they were ahead of the competition bringing a variety of shows that were especially designed for children as well as adults to enjoy. There were some that were very interesting to watch and for one "Jabberjaw" is one of them. On the same premise as another Hanna-Barbera cartoon about a talking car like "Speed Buggy", this premise consisted of a talking great white shark who could walk upright and was always getting into mischief. If you listen to the voice of Jabber it sounds just like Curly of "The Three Stooges",but it was really Frank Welker who did numerous voiceovers for various characters including Dino,and Scooby Doo. He always protected a bunch of kids called "The Neptunes" who were the equals of Scooby Doo but had a rock and roll band under the sea. I watch this show tremendously and the reruns can be seen on Cartoon Network. I really love the person who did the voice of Shelly,but if you looked closely,it does looked like Seinfeld's Julia-Louis Dreyfuss(as a teenager) in an animated cartoon.

This show really sucked. It was another horrible "Scooby-Doo" ripoff show (something Hanna-Barbera did A LOT in the 1970's), execpt instead of a Great Dane for a title character, we have a Shark (but a really lame shark at that) who is protecting a band called "The Neptunes" (They do have a bit in common to our well known sleuths on "Scooby-Doo"), and in the process, they all solve mysteries. But the worst thing about this show is how Jabberjaw uses Rodney Dangerfield's signature "No Respect!" line, and Curly Howard's signature "Nyuk-Nyuk" line. What is up with that? Why didn't Dangerfield sue? Why didn't the Howard family sue (If these were my lines, I'd be taking Hanna-Barbera to court)? I guess that's a question for another time.

Bottom line: This show sucks.

All through the 70s Hanna-Barbera released cartoons with the same format(adventure,music,and mysteries). Jabberjaw lasted only a year (1976-1977) and aired reruns the following year. This cartoon was like Scooby Doo except it is set to be underwater and they are a musical band which the star of the show is the drummer. I don't know what Bill and Joe were thinking when they created this cartoon but it sucks. It's strictly a copycat of Josie & The Pussycats and Scooby doo. A guy that's the leader,two girls,and the star's sidekick buddy. Not only Jabber there was the Amazing Chan Clan,Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kids,the Partridge family A.D. bulls*** etc. These cartoons didn't last long and wasn't original. Hanna-Barbera most successful mystery,adventure,music cartoon will always be Josie & The Pussycats.

An example of a low point in Saturday morning cartoons, this particular series lumped together several concepts into a mess of show. Jabberjaw (capitalizing on the popularity of the movie "Jaws") is a talking shark who sounds like Curly Howard (leading the way for other insipid Three Stooges-inspired cartoons, including "The Three Robotic Stooges") and who mutters "I get no respect" (a nod to Rodney Dangerfield?). He travels with a band "The Neptunes" (like "Josie and the Pussycats" and countless other H-B cartoons) in a futuristic undersea realm (Sealab 2020) taking on various villains' nefarious schemes ("Scooby Doo, Where Are You", etc.).

Thanks to Turner's Boomerang channel for reminding me how much I hated this cartoon as a kid. It was around this time that I realized that my favorite cartoons were "Looney Tunes" and "Rocky and Bullwinkle" - cartoons that were made in previous decades aimed at general audiences and not patronizing to kids.