The Great Grape Ape Show

The Great Grape Ape Show
The title card for The Great Grape Ape Show
Genre Animation
Comedy
Directed by Charles August Nichols
Voices of Bob Holt
Marty Ingels
Theme music composer Hoyt Curtin
Composer(s) Hoyt Curtin
Country of origin United States
Original language(s) English
No. of episodes 16
Production
Executive producer(s) William Hanna
Joseph Barbera
Running time 30 minutes (10 minutes per segment)
Production company(s) Hanna-Barbera Productions
Distributor Warner Bros. Television Distribution
Release
Original network ABC
Original release September 6, 1975 – September 3, 1978

The Great Grape Ape Show is a 30-minute Saturday morning animated series produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions and broadcast on ABC from September 6, 1975 to September 3, 1978.

Summary

The title character is a 40-foot purple gorilla (voiced by Bob Holt) with the mind of a child. His catch phrase is saying his name twice ("Grape Ape, Grape Ape") after anything anyone says, usually as a form of agreement or acknowledgement of what was said. He travels the countryside with his canine pal Beegle Beagle (voiced by Marty Ingels), whom he calls "Beegly Beagly".

Grape Ape's immense size tends to initially shock and frighten those unfamiliar with him, and his presence alone has often terrified people and animals, causing them to run off screaming invariably: "YEOW! It's a gorill-ill-ill-ill-la!". In one instance, a signpost reacted similarly, flipping out multiple segments of wood as the protagonists read the above reaction from it, after which it folded itself up and left in great haste.

Grape Ape and his friend Beegle Beagle usually move in a small yellow van driven by Beegle Beagle with Grape Ape sitting on the roof which can support his weight. A recurring bit of business would be for him to 'rev up' the tiny vehicle like a child with a friction toy, then hop aboard as the van would start on its way. Also, Grape Ape's steps would often bounce Beegle into the air, where his legs would keep walking without breaking stride.

Given his size, Grape Ape's sneezes were equivalent to a hurricane; and when he cried, which was sometimes when he was homesick for his family, his tears could cause flooding in areas.

Episodes

Nº Titles / Production # Air date
1 "That Was No Idol, That Was My Ape" (79-2) / "The All-American Ape (79-1)" 1975-09-06
2 "Movie Madness" (79-3) / "Trouble at Bad Rock" (79-4) 1975-09-13
3 "Flying Saucery" (79-5) / "There's No Feud Like an Old Feud" (79-6) 1975-09-20
4 "The Grape Race" (79-7) / "The Big Parade" (79-8) 1975-09-27
5 "A Knight to Remember" (79-9) / "S.P.L.A.T." (79-10) 1975-10-04
6 "G.I. Apel" (79-11) / "The Purple Avenger" (79-12) 1975-10-11
7 "Grapefinger" (79-13) / "Return to Balaboomba" (79–21) 1975-10-18
8 "Amazon Ape" (79-15) / "Grape Marks the Spot" (79-16) 1975-10-25
9 "The Invisible Ape" (79-18) / "Public Grape No. 1" (79-19) 1975-11-01
10 "The Incredible Shrinking Grape" (79-17) / "What's a Nice Prince Like You Doing in a Duck Like That?" (79-22) 1975-11-08
11 "Who's New at the Zoo" (79-14) / "The Indian Grape Call" (79-24) 1975-11-15
12 "A Grape Is Born" (79-23) / "The First Grape in Space" (79-25) 1975-11-22
13 "S.P.L.A.T.'s Back (Part 1)" (79-20) / "S.P.L.A.T.'s Back (Part 2)" (79-26) * 1975-11-27
14 "To Sleep or Not to Sleep" (79-27) / "Olympic Grape" (79-28) 1975-11-29
15 "Ali Beagle and the 40 Grapes" (79-29) / "Grape Five-O" (79-31) 1975-12-06
16 "The Purple Avenger Strikes Again" (79-30) / "The Grape Connection" (79-32) 1975-12-13

*Telecast at Noon (EST), Thursday afternoon, November 27, 1975, a Thanksgiving, as part of ABC's Thanksgiving Funshine Festival.

Credits

Executive Producers

Director

Voices

Broadcast history

The Great Grape Ape Show was broadcast in these following formats on ABC:

The show was originally broadcast as a segment of Tom and Jerry/Grape Ape Show during the 1975–76 season; for the 1976–77 season, the show became Tom and Jerry/Grape Ape/Mumbly Show, and in 1977–78, The Great Grape Ape Show became its own half-hour show on Sunday mornings. Thirty-two 10-minute installments of Grape Ape were made; two were aired per 30-minute episode.

Grape Ape also appeared as a member of "The Yogi Yahooeys" team on Scooby's All-Star Laff-A-Lympics / Scooby's All-Stars from 1977 to 1979 and would often team up with Yakky Doodle in sporting competitions. In Britain, the BBC ran the Great Grape Ape with the cartoon series Bailey's Comets during 1977/78. The Tom & Jerry show also appeared elsewhere in the BBC schedules, whereas the other part of the U.S. Saturday fare, "Mumbly", was shown by ITV.

In the 1980s, repeats of The Great Grape Ape Show were shown on USA Cartoon Express; they were later restored and run on Cartoon Network and can also be seen on Boomerang, often as part of the Boomerang Zoo package. The full half-hour version was not shown on Boomerang until November 22, 2012.

Like many animated series created by Hanna-Barbera in the 1970s, the show contained a an inferior laugh track created by the studio.

Home Media releases

The episodes "The All American Ape" and "That Was No Idol, That Was My Ape" are available on the DVD Saturday Morning Cartoons 1970's Vol. 2. No news of a complete series release from Warner Archive.

Other appearances

The Great Grape Ape battles a Dinosaurian construction vehicle. From The Great Grape Ape #2.

In other languages

References

  1. ↑ http://www.tonystrading.co.uk/galleries/annuals/greatgrapeape.htm

External links

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