Jabberjaw

Jabberjaw
Format	Animated Series
Genre	Science Fiction, Comedy, Mystery
Creator	Joe Ruby Ken Spears
Production Company(s)	Hanna-Barbera Productions
Runtime	23 minutes
Production
No. of seasons 1
No. of episodes 16
Longevity
Premiere September 11, 1976
Finale September 3, 1977
Status Ended

Jabberjaw is a Saturday morning animated series created by Joe Ruby and Ken Spears and produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions. Sixteen 30-minute episodes of Jabberjaw were produced, which aired on ABC Saturday Morning from September 11, 1976, to September 3, 1977. The episodes were then rebroadcast as reruns on Sunday Morning from September 11, 1977, to September 3, 1978. In the 1980s, reruns resurfaced on USA network's "Cartoon Express" and from 1992 to 2000 the series aired on Cartoon Network. From 2000 until 2023, the series had aired on Cartoon Network's sister network Boomerang, but only aired occasionally.

The series will rerun on Discovery Family on September 14, 2024.

Overview

The title character is a 15-foot tall talking, air breathing, anthropomorphic great white shark (voiced by Frank Welker, imitating Curly Howard of the Three Stooges) who plays the drums in a rock band called The Neptunes. The Neptunes are a rock group made up of four teenagers — Biff, Shelly, Bubbles and Clamhead — who live in an underwater civilization.

Jabberjaw and The Neptunes travel to various underwater cities where they encounter and deal with diabolical villains who want to conquer the undersea world.

Per a great deal of Hanna-Barbera's output in the 1970s, the format and writing for Jabberjaw was similar to that of Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!, Josie and the Pussycats and Speed Buggy. The series also drew inspiration (in the use of a shark as a character) from the overall shark mania of the 1970s and the then-recent film Jaws. It also shared The Flintstones' penchant for making use of puns as the names of locations, people, etc., in this case, ocean-themed puns (such as "Aqualaska" instead of Alaska).

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

Characters

Jabberjaw

Jabberjaw (voiced by Frank Welker) is an air-breathing, anthropomorphic great white shark whose voice and mannerisms were similar to Curly Howard of the Three Stooges. Jabberjaw found it hard to get respect in a society where "shark ejector" (robots that would guard various buildings or cities against sharks being allowed to enter) were commonplace, prompting him to frequently utter his catchphrase (borrowed from the late comedian Rodney Dangerfield): "No respect!" Jabberjaw is the band's drummer.

Biff

Biff (voiced by Tommy Cook) is an athletic, brown-haired young man who is the band's guitar player and level-headed leader who books all the gigs, similar to Scooby-Doo's Fred and Josie and the Pussycats' Alan and he has a crush on shelly.

Shelly

Shelly (voiced by Patricia Parris) is a dark-haired young woman who plays tambourine for The Neptunes. Shelly is attractive, intelligent, haughty and abrasive (like Josie and the Pussycats' Alexandra) and while she holds a great deal of contempt for Jabberjaw (or "blubberhead" as she calls him), she does have some fondness for him deep down and occasionally shows it. Also, she's sometimes irritated by Bubbles' idiocy.

Bubbles

Bubbles (voiced by Julie McWhirter) is a girl with blonde, curly hair who plays keyboard for The Neptunes. She is extremely ditzy and dimwitted, has a cute giggle, similar to Josie and the Pussycats' Melody. Shelly sometimes nicknames her "Ding-a-Ling" or "Bubblehead". Her voice and mannerisms are similar to Gracie Allen, wife of George Burns. Whenever she volunteers to help, she usually ends up messing it up.

Clamhead

Clamhead (voiced by Barry Gordon) is a young man who plays bass for The Neptunes. His catchphrases are crying out "Abba-abba-abba!" and "Wowee-wow-wow!" whenever he gets excited. Clamhead is Jabberjaw's best friend, and bears a strong resemblance to Scooby-Doo's Shaggy, Speed Buggy's Tinker, and Josie and the Pussycats' Alexander.

Cast

• Tommy Cook - Biff
• Barry Gordon - Clamhead
• Julie McWhirter - Bubbles
• Patricia Parris - Shelly
• Frank Welker - Jabberjaw

Episodes

1. "Dr. Lo Has Got to Go"
2. "There's No Place Like Outer Space"
3. "Atlantis, Get Lost"
4. "Run, Jabber, Run"
5. "The Sourpuss Octopus"
6. "Hang onto Your Hat, Jabber"
7. "The Great Shark Switch"
8. "Claim Jumped Jabber"
9. "Ali Jabber and the Secret Thieves"
10. "Help, Help, It's the Phantom of the Kelp"
11. "No Helpin' the Sculpin"
12. "The Bermuda Triangle Tangle"
13. "Malice in Aqualand"
14. "The Fast Paced Chase Race"
15. "The Piranha Plot"
16. "There's No Heel like El Eel"

Other Appearances

• Jabberjaw made a special guest appearance at a celebrity roast honoring Fred Flintstone on the CBS TV-special Hanna-Barbera's All-Star Comedy Ice Revue (1978).
• Jabberjaw made special appearances as a guest announcer on Scooby's All Star Laff-A-Lympics (1977) and Scooby's All-Stars (1978).
• Jabberjaw made some comic book appearances. Such as Laff-A-Lympics issues No. 10 and No. 12 in 1978 and 1979. Hanna Barbera Presents No. 6 in 1995, and Cartoon Network Presents No. 23 in 1999.
• Jabberjaw appeared in Yogi's Treasure Hunt in the episode, "Goodbye Mr. Chump".
• Jabberjaw made a guest appearance in the Adult Swim animated television series Sealab 2021 in the episode, "Return of Marco" (2004), where he was one of the many sharks impaled with spears by the underwater cave tribe called The Snarkells.
• Jabberjaw appeared later still in sporadic appearances on Cartoon Network's Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law (2002) where the Neptunes were accused of stealing Shouyu Weanie's (portrayed by the Chan Clan) song. It is also referenced that in the late 1990s, Jabberjaw was briefly engaged to budding filmmaker Madeline Austin-Kulat. In this show, Frank Welker reprises his role of Jabberjaw and also voices Biff.
• Clamhead made another appearance in the episode "Identity Theft" where he was voiced by Steve Blum.
• Jabberjaw also appeared on Cartoon Network (and later Boomerang) in a music video set to Pain's "Jabberjaw (Running Underwater)" with Jabberjaw and The Neptunes portrayed as a ska band, with the group dressed in modern clothing. In this version, Biff is the lead guitar and singer wearing a bowling shirt and jeans, Shelly is now dressed in a tank top and jeans and plays bass guitar & assists on vocals, Bubbles is dressed in a black top with a Catholic schoolgirl-style skirt and Mary Jane shoes and still plays the keyboard, and Clamhead is dressed in an updated version of what he wore in the original series and plays the trumpet & also assists on vocals. Jabberjaw still plays the drums and has a goatee and a nose ring.
• Another music video for Jabberjaw aired on Cartoon Network and Boomerang featuring a short story with the Jabberjaw characters animated in 3D escaping a lunch box decal and waging battle with evil robots and an eel. The punk rock-inspired song is performed by the band Pain. The track was released in 1999 on 7" EP, and 2007 on CD-EP, by independent record label Springman Records.
• Jabberjaw appears in the Scooby-Doo special Night of the Living Doo, trying to take out the gang in order to get his respect.
• Jabberjaw makes a cameo in the Johnny Bravo episode "Johnny Goes Hollywood".
• Jabberjaw and his team appear in the Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated episode The Mystery Solvers State Finals alongside other Hanna-Barbera mystery teams in a fever dream of Scooby-Doo's. This time, Jabberjaw was unable to breathe on land without being moisturized. Frank Welker reprised the role of Jabberjaw.
• Jabberjaw appears in the MetLife commercial, "Everyone," which aired during the Super Bowl XLVI commercial breaks.
• Jabberjaw will appear in Jellystone, now portrayed as a female character.

Home Release

On February 15, 2011, Warner Archive released Jabberjaw: The Complete Series on DVD as part of their Hanna–Barbera Classics Collection. This is a Manufacture-on-Demand (MOD) release, available exclusively through Warner's online store and Amazon.com.

Hanna-Barbera Series

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