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 A. 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!". The only exception to this was the character Rosie O'Lady (voiced by Janet Waldo), who appeared in Episode 11, "The Indian Grape Call". When asked by Beagle why she didn't yell in fear like everyone else did upon seeing Grape Ape, she simply said, "You've see one 40-foot purple ape, you've seen them all."

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.

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.

Episodes

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

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

Voice cast

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
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