Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels

Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels is an American animated series produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions from September 10, 1977 to June 21, 1980 on ABC. The first and second seasons were originally broadcast as segments of the Scooby's All-Star Laff-A-Lympics block from 1977 to 1979 and the third season featured Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels in their own half-hour timeslot in 1980. This program aired in reruns on USA Network (via USA Cartoon Express) in the 1980s, on Cartoon Network from 1992 until 2000, and on Boomerang beginning in 2000.
==Overview==
Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels centers on the mystery-solving adventures of the Teen Angels—Brenda, Dee Dee, and Taffy—and their friend Captain Caveman (or Cavey for short), a prehistoric caveman whom the girls discovered and thawed from a block of ice. The concept and general plot for the show was seen as a parody of Charlie's Angels (which also aired on ABC). It also borrowed heavily from other Hanna-Barbera shows such as Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! and Josie and the Pussycats, among others. Captain Caveman was also on the "Scooby Doobies" team on Laff-A-Lympics.
Captain Caveman's powers include super-strength, a variety of useful objects hidden inside his fur, and a club that allows him to fly and from which pops out different tools he uses to fight crime. His trademark is his battle cry of "Captain CAAAAAVEMAAAAAAANNNN!" Captain Caveman's voice was provided by Mel Blanc.
The first and second seasons of the show remained part of Scooby's All-Star Laff-A-Lympics through 1979. Cavey and the girls also participated in sporting competitions as part of "The Scooby Doobies" team on the half-hour Laff-A-Lympics segment. In March 1980, Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels were given their own half hour show with 16 new episodes combined with reruns from 1977–1979. A total of 40 11-minute episodes were produced (16 in 1977–1978, 8 in 1978–1979 and 16 in 1980).
Like many animated series created by Hanna-Barbera in the 1970s, the show contained a laugh track created by the studio, one of their last productions to do so.
==Characters==
===Captain Caveman===
Captain Caveman (voiced by Mel Blanc) is the main character of the show. He is a caveman who is thousands of years old (his exact age is never disclosed). He can pull various objects from the long body hair that covers his entire body. He can also fly, but his flying power always seems to fail him at the worst possible moment. Sometimes he would attribute this mishap to an energy shortage ("Uh oh! Bad time for energy crisis." CRASH!), which was a pun on the gasoline rationing shortages of the late 1970s. He speaks in stereotypical "caveman-talk", replacing subject pronouns with their object equivalents and dropping articles such as "the" (for example, "Me know where bad guys are hiding."), and often mumbles the nonsense phrase "unga bunga". He also has a bad habit of occasionally eating large non-food objects in one gulp (i.e. bicycles, TV sets, safes, table lamps), and the Teen Angels occasionally have to stop him from eating potential clues that will help them to solve the mystery.
Captain Caveman's family was introduced during his later stints as part of the Flinstones comedy show. These episodes however, have either not been shown or heavily edited when aired on the Boomerang Network due to incidents of domestic violence in scenes where Captain Caveman clubs his wife on the head.
===Dee Dee Skyes===
Dee Dee Skyes (voiced by Vernee Watson) is the brains of the Teen Angels, is the group's sole African-American, and acts as their unofficial leader. Dee Dee and the rest of the Teen Angels found the frozen Captain Caveman and defrosted him. She wears her hair in an afro and usually wears a red turtleneck sweater with a blue skirt and red knee high boots. Both her dress style and her knack for solving mysteries make her similar to Velma Dinkley of Scooby Doo fame, while she also bears a resemblance to Valerie from Josie and the Pussycats.
===Brenda Chance===
Brenda Chance (voiced by Marilyn Schreffler) is a cowardly brunette who is always scared of the demons, monsters and phantoms that she encounters. She usually wears a pale pink top and a pair of hot pink flared trousers with a white belt.
===Taffy Dare===
Taffy Dare (voiced by Laurel Page) is the blonde member of the group, renowned for her cry of "Zowie!" whenever she comes up with a plan (or "Another Daffy Taffy Plan" as Brenda and Cavey would call it) to catch the culprits. In spite of her usually zany plans, Taffy is actually very capable and clever. She has the ability to sweet-talk Caveman into acting as bait for her plans to capture the culprit. She usually wears a green dress with matching shoes.
==Cast==
*Mel Blanc as Captain Caveman
*Laurel Page as Taffy Dare
*Marilyn Schreffler as Brenda Chance
*Vernee Watson-Johnson as Dee Dee Sykes
==Episodes==
===Season 1===
1. The Kooky Case of the Cryptic Keys
2. The Mixed-Up Mystery of Deadman's Reef
3. What a Flight for a Fight
4. The Creepy Case of the Creaky Charter Boat
5. Big Scare in the Big Top
6. Double Dribble Riddle
7. The Crazy Case of the Tell-Tale Tape
8. The Creepy Claw Caper
9. Cavey and the Kabuta Clue
10. Cavey and the Weirdo Wolfman
11. The Disappearing Elephant Mystery
12. The Fur Freight Fright
13. Ride 'Em Caveman
14. The Strange Case of the Creature from Space
15. The Mystery Mansion Mix-Up
16. Playing Footsie with Bigfoot
===Season 2===
1, Disco Cavey
2. Muscle-Bound Cavey
3. Cavey's Crazy Car Caper
4. Cavey's Mexicali 500
5. Wild West Cavey
6. Cavey's Winter Carnival Caper
7. Cavey's Fashion Fiasco
8. Cavey's Missing Missile Miss-tery
===Season 3===
1. The Scarifying Seaweed Secret
2. The Dummy
3. Cavey and the Volcanic Villain
4. Prehistoric Panic
5. Cavey and the Baffling Buffalo Man
6. Dragonhead
7. Cavey and the Murky Mississippi Mystery
8. Old Cavey in New York
9. The Albino Rhino
10. Kentucky Cavey
11. Cavey Goes to College
12. The Haunting of Hog's Hollow
13. The Legend of Devil's Run
14. The Mystery of the Meandering Mummy
15. The Old Caveman and the Sea
16. Lights, Camera … Cavey!
==In Other Media==
*In November 1980, Captain Caveman began to star in segments of his own on The Flintstone Comedy Show, one of many spin-offs of Hanna-Barbera's popular prime-time show The Flintstones, often in a role similar to that of Superman. Captain Caveman worked at The Daily Granite newspaper with Wilma Flintstone and Betty Rubble. His "secret identity" was Chester, the office boy. To disguise himself as Chester, Captain Caveman wore a pair of glasses and a tie. Despite the simplicity of his disguise, he required a coat rack and an elaborate transformation sequence to become Captain Caveman.
*In 1986, Captain Caveman appeared in a backup segment of The Flintstone Kids called Captain Caveman and Son with his son, Cavey Jr. (voiced by Charles Adler). In this case he appeared on a show-within-a-show that the younger versions of Fred, Barney, Wilma, and Betty enjoyed watching; the Captain's mumbled "unga bunga" became a catchphrase that the kids would shout before watching each "episode" of the show. The show would involve a lesson the Flintstone kids were trying to learn in the prologue. The whole "secret identity" idea was also ignored or forgotten.
*A very similar pair of characters, the Slag Brothers, made an appearance in the earlier Hanna-Barbera series Wacky Races.
*In the Pinky and the Brain episode "The Luck of Pinky", Captain Caveman makes a cameo appearance as a small statue.
*Captain Caveman later appeared in the Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law episode "The Evolutionary War" with Captain Caveman voiced by Chris Edgerly and Cavey Jr. voiced by Maurice LaMarche. His son Cavey Jr. was teased at school because his existence proved the Theory of Evolution.
*Captain Caveman appeared in the Robot Chicken episode "Ban on the Fun" voiced by Breckin Meyer. In a segment that parodies the Laff-A-Lympics in the style of the Munich massacre, Captain Caveman and Shaggy Rogers confront Daisy Mayhem and Captain Caveman blows her up with the wrong club.
*Captain Caveman appeared as an enemy in the 8-bit computer game Renegade III: The Final Chapter.
*In the Halloween 2008 episode of Homestar Runner, Homsar disguises himself as Captain Caveman. He then exclaims "Daaa!! AaAah'm the Captain Caveman of the graveyard train!"
*In the Family Guy episode named "Perfect Castaway", Peter expresses how much he misses Captain Caveman, and vows that he will see him again once he gets off the island.
*Captain Caveman also makes a cameo appearance in an episode of Adventure Time with Finn and Jake where he is seen as a stuffed doll in Finn's room.
*Captain Caveman appears in the Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated episode "Mystery Solvers Club State Finals" voiced by Jim Cummings. He and the Teen Angels appear alongside other Hanna-Barbera detective teams in a fever dream of Scooby-Doo's. When the teenage sleuths are kidnapped by Lord Infernacus, it's up to their sidekicks to save them.
*FC Barcelona Skipper Carles Puyol is often nicknamed "Captain Caveman" by sections of the English-language international media on account of his shaggy long hair, rugged facial features and impetuous playing style.
*In Scooby-Doo! Mask of the Blue Falcon, there is someone that dresses up as Captain Caveman in a Hanna-Barbera convention.
==Home release==
On July 23, 2013, Warner Archive released Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels: The Complete Series on DVD in region 1 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.
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