I'm even breathing

[austin_dern]

[ Resuming my episode-guide-prep-watching: I learn with certainty just when Jabberjaw is set, and become reasonably confident of the year of Jabberjaw's birth, and I try to not feel ashamed of myself for learning that. ]

Episode Number: JBJ-4
Title: "Run, Jabber, Run"
Original Airdate: 2 October 1976
Production Code: 84-3
Plot: Secret agents build a mechanical man to deliver microfilm which Jabberjaw accidentally swallows. Trying to capture the leaders of the secret conspiracy Jabberjaw must enter the Undersea Olympics and win the Obstacle Course.
Locations: Oysteralia.
Guest Characters: Dr Chemo, Maximus, Mechanical man, Mr Z, Pedestrian, Police Officer, Inspector Neville, Nurse, Announcer, Reporter.
Songs: ``There's a Mountain of Time'' (chase), ``I Told You Once'' (performance, fragment)

Thoughts:
The Neptunes have a gig at the Olympic Village. Oysteralia is ``down under''.

Jabberjaw had to travel as luggage.

The mechanical man is to win the Olympics' Underwater Obstacle Race in order that Mr Z will know him as the agent with the microfilm. I would think there are less attention-drawing ways to deliver microfilm.

Jabberjaw is ejected from the Olympic Village by the first Shark Ejector device.

Biff says they must check in to their hotel and report the microfilm discovery; however, Jabberjaw discovered the microfilm while trying to find their reservations.

The police know about Jabberjaw has the microfilm (naming all the members of a worldwide criminal conspiracy) before the Neptunes call them, but are in no rush to actually pick up the microfilm.

Jabberjaw is snuck out of the Olympic Village Hotel (after swallowing the microfilm) in a hideous pink-and-yellow dress.

Shelly tells the nurse Jabberjaw is 15 feet tall, 10 years old, and weighs 1600 pounds. Jabberjaw is assigned to room 314.

A remote-TV unit is used to find the microfilm inside of Jabberjaw. A radio, license plate,tire, harmonica, and yo-yo are spotted inside his belly.

Dr Cheemo and Maximus's heads spin freely during the chase.

They still use X-Rays in the future.

There's a reference to the Queen Mary.

The new plan to capture Mister Z is to have Jabberjaw win the Undersea Obstacle Race.

These are the Undersea Olympics of 2076; they are introduced by a Howard Cosell-ish announcer.

Jabberjaw runs through the High Hurdles, the Toboggan Race, the Figure-Skating Event, and the Obstacle Race.

Jabberjaw believes his Olympics wins willgain him ``respect at last''.

The microfilm is discovered as one of Jabberjaw's fillings, suggesting shark dentistry is considerably advanced from modern techniques.

Trivia: Alfred Nobel dated his will, which established his prizes, 27 November 1895. Source: Remaking The World: Adventures In Engineering, Henry Petroski.

Currently Reading: No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front In World War II, Doris Kearns Goodwin.

Comments

[seawasp]

I only saw a few pieces of Jabberjaw, and never realized it was set in the future.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

No? Huh. Its future setting was really what attracted me to the show in the first place; I seem to have been a sucker for any cartoon that presented itself as being set in the future. I'd have thought the slightly recycled Jetsons designs for things like aquacars established the setting, although thinking about it they didn't appear so very often.

That the show had a fair bit of undersea stuff also appealed to me, but I'm the freak kid who liked Aquaman, if you can imagine.

I'm a little surprised to learn that Hanna-Barbera didn't put it in an indistinctly-far future and instead tied it down to a century past the production/airing dates.