Hong Kong Phooey

Hong Kong Phooey
Title Card for Hong Kong Phooey
Genre	Cartoon Animation Comedy
Created by	Hanna-Barbera
Directed by	William Hanna Joseph Barbera
Starring	Hong Kong Phooey
Voices of	Scatman Crothers Joe E. Ross Kathy Gori Don Messick Sean B. Pasternak
Theme music composer	Hoyt Curtin
Country of origin	United States
Language(s)	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	16 (31 Sub-episodes)
Production
Producer(s)	William Hanna Joseph Barbera Iwao Takamoto
Running time	30 Minutes (Approx.)
Production company(s)	Hanna-Barbera Productions
Broadcast
Original channel	ABC
Original run	September 7, 1974 (1974-09-07) – September 4, 1976 (1976-09-04)
Status	Ended
Chronology
Related shows	Laff-A-Lympics CB Bears

Hong Kong Phooey is a 16-episode (31 shorts) Hanna-Barbera animated series that first aired on ABC Saturday morning from September 7, 1974 (1974-09-07) to September 4, 1976 (1976-09-04). The star, Hong Kong Phooey, is the secret alter ego of Penrod Pooch, or Penry (sometimes mispronounced "Henry")^[1], a "mild-mannered" police station janitor. Although Penry/Phooey appears to be the only anthropomorphic dog in the entire city where the series is set, no one ever connects his two identities.

Synopsis

The series stars Hong Kong Phooey, the “number one super guy” who travels about the city in his “Phooeymobile”, fighting crime with the aid of his manual, The Hong Kong Book Of Kung Fu.^[2] The stories begin at the police headquarters, where Hong Kong Phooey's alter ego, Penry, works as a mild-mannered janitor under the glare of Sergeant Flint ("Sarge"). Also at the police station is Rosemary, the telephone operator, who has a crush on Hong Kong Phooey. After Rosemary gets a call and explains the crime, Penry runs into a filing cabinet and (always getting stuck) transforms himself into Hong Kong Phooey.

Despite the theme song, Hong Kong Phooey is a classic screw-up, and often fails to save the city only to be saved by his sidekick cat, Spot (who's striped, naturally). Hong Kong Phooey is a respected superhero who always gets full credit for Spot’s success.

A running gag is that Hong Kong Phooey is such a respected hero that when his incompetence caused him to crash into, harm, or otherwise inconvenience a civilian, the passerby declares what an honor it was to have so interacted with "the great Hong Kong Phooey." For example, he drives the Phooeymobile through some wet cement, splattering the workers, who say that it was an honor to have a whole day's work ruined by "the great Hong Kong Phooey."

Details

Hong Kong Phooey was voiced by Scatman Crothers. Sergeant Flint was voiced by Joe E. Ross, best known as Officer Gunther Toody in the early 60's TV series Car 54, Where Are You?. As Flint, Ross revived Toody's famous "Oooh! Oooh!" exclamation. Sergeant Flint was very similar both in voice and appearance to Botch, assistant zoo-keeper at the Wonderland Zoo on Help! It's the Hair Bear Bunch.

Like many Hanna-Barbera shows from this era, Hong Kong Phooey was originally broadcast with a laugh track. In the episode "Comedy Cowboys," several new cartoon characters (Honcho, The Mysterious Maverick, and Posse Impossible) appeared and helped to clear Hong Kong of a crime he didn't commit. Posse Impossible found their way onto The CB Bears Show.

Theme song

The show’s theme song, titled Hong Kong Phooey, was written by Chester Stover, Watts Biggers, Treadwell Covington, and Joseph Harris. The song was sung by Scatman Crothers.

"Hong Kong Phooey, number one super guy.
Hong Kong Phooey, quicker than the human eye.
He's got style, a groovy style,
and a car that just won't stop.
When the going gets tough, he's really rough,
with a Hong Kong Phooey chop (Hi-Ya!)
Hong Kong Phooey, number one super guy.
Hong Kong Phooey, quicker than the human eye.
Hong Kong Phooey, he's fan-riffic (gong!)"^[3]

A cover of the show’s theme song, performed by Sublime, is included on the 1995 tribute album Saturday Morning: Cartoons' Greatest Hits, produced by Ralph Sall for MCA Records.

Episode guide

DVD release

On August 15, 2006, Warner Home Video released the complete series on DVD in Region 1.

Voices

• Scatman Crothers - Hong Kong Phooey/Penrod "Penry" Pooch
• Kathy Gori - Rosemary
• Joe E. Ross - Sergeant Flint
• Don Messick - Spot
• Sean B. Pasternak - Lieutenant Bumbles

Hong Kong Phooey in other languages

• Brazilian Portuguese: Hong Kong Fu
• Spanish: Hong Kong Phooey (the title character is voiced by Julio Lucena)
• German: Hong Kong Pfui
• Japanese: ほえよ! 0011 (Hoeyo! 0011)
• Swedish: Hong Kong Phooey (also known as "Karate-Klanten" in comic version)
• French: Hong Kong Foufou
• Portuguese: Hong Kong Phooey

Other Media

With a copyright of 2001, Alan Lau in conjunction with Wildbrain.com produced a flash animation webshow cartoon which was prominently featured on CartoonNetwork.com, and can still be found there. While Penry appears identical to the original incarnation, Hong Kong Phooey is a much larger, cut, and highly competent and skilled fighter without Spot the cat.

Hong Kong Phooey faces off against and easily defeats evil anthropomophic animals; a trio of rabbits, what appears to be a crane, and a reptilianoid. At the end he morphs back to Penry with a smile and sparkle in his eye.

Film

On July 12, 2009, it was announced that David A. Goodman had been hired to pen a Hong Kong Phooey film.^[4] Alex Zamm is set to direct and Broderick Johnson, Andrew Kosove, Brett Ratner, and Jay Stern are producing.^[5] On July 31, 2009, it was announced that Warner Bros. will release the Hong Kong Phooey film, with co-financing from Alcon Entertainment (Johnson and Kosove's production company) and Hanna-Barbera Productions (an in-name-only unit of Warner Bros. Animation).

Music

In the Moldy Peaches song "Nothing Came Out", they reference Hong Kong Phooey. "I want you to watch cartoons with me. He-man, Voltron and Hong-Kong-Phooey".

See also

• List of works produced by Hanna-Barbera
• List of Hanna-Barbera characters

References

External links

• Hong Kong Phooey at the Internet Movie Database
• Hong Kong Phooey at TV.com
• Big Cartoon DataBase: Hong Kong Phooey
• Hong Kong Phooey – Profile on Hong Kong Phooey
• InternationalHero Hong Kong Phooey tribute
• Wingnut Toons episode list
• Warner Bros. - Hong Kong Phooey on DVD - The Official Site
• Hong Kong Phooey Fanriffic Zone (featuring an interview with Kathy Gori - voice of Rosemary the telephone operator)
• Cartoon Network: Dept. of Cartoons: Hong Kong Phooey - cached copy from Internet Archives
• Cartoon Network Flash Animation