| Shirt Tales | |
|---|---|
 Season 1 title card | |
| Genre | |
| Created by | Janet Elizabeth Manco(original characters) |
| Directed by |
|
| Voices of | |
| Theme music composer | Hoyt Curtin |
| Opening theme | "Shirt Tales" |
| Ending theme | "Shirt Tales"(Instrumental) |
| Composer | Hoyt Curtin |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| No. of seasons | 2 |
| No. of episodes | 23 (46 segments) |
| Production | |
| Executive producers | |
| Producers |
|
| Editor | Gil Iverson |
| Running time | 22 minutes (11 minutes per segment) |
| Production company | Hanna-Barbera Productions |
| Original release | |
| Network | NBC |
| Release | September 18, 1982 (1982-09-18) – November 19, 1983 (1983-11-19) |
Shirt Tales are characters that were created in 1980 by greeting card designer Janet Elizabeth Manco and were featured onHallmark Cards greeting cards. The characters were adapted into a 1982–1983animated series for television, byHanna-Barbera Productions, which aired onNBC.[1]
Shirt Tales are also featured on T-shirts, stuffed toys, and other merchandise inJapan since 1980.
Hallmark Cards released the homonymous line ofgreeting cards with animal characters wearing T-shirts upon which was a message. Those cards were among Hallmark's best sellers at that time, which led the company to team withHanna-Barbera Productions to adapt theShirt Tales into aSaturday morning cartoon, which premiered onNBC on September 18, 1982.[2] The card line remained, but it faded shortly after the show leftbroadcast television in 1985.[3]
The animatedShirt Tales cartoon featuredTyg Tiger (in orange),Pammy Panda (in pink),Digger Mole (in light blue),Rick Raccoon (in red), andBogey Orangutan (in green) (so-called because he spoke using aHumphrey Bogart-style voice). They lived in Oak Tree Park and wore shirts that flashed various brightly lit messages which reflected the characters' thoughts. They spent their time teasing the park custodian, Mr. Dinkel, and battling crime in and out of their hometown of Mid City. They zipped around the world in a vehicle known as the STSST (Shirt Tales'SuperSonic Transport) which could operate as a car, jet, boat, submarine, and other forms of transportation. Though most law enforcement agencies like the unnamed Commissioner knew of the Shirt Tales as crime fighters by reputation, few people seemed aware that they were talking animals—including Mr. Dinkel, whom the group often had to trick to keep their secret safe.
Each episode was divided into two 11–minute segments. After the success of the thirteen episodes in Season 1, ten episodes were created for Season 2. However, the show was semi-rebooted andKip Kangaroo (in light yellow) was added to the cast of characters without context for her joining the Shirt Tales. There is also a difference in leadership among the Shirt Tales, in which for the first season Rick appeared to be the de facto leader, but in the second season is instead Tyg. Several stories in Season 2 either omit Rick altogether or give him a minor role in the story. The second season also added some superhero elements to the dynamic of the group as well, most notably the color of all their T-shirts changing to a bright red color when "Shirt Tale Time" is called for.
Following the initial run onNBC,Shirt Tales aired onCBS during the 1984–1985Saturday morning season, replacingThe Biskitts in their time slot. CBS aired selected episodes from its two-season NBC run until March 23, 1985, whenThe Biskitts were returned to the time slot for the rest of the 1984–1985 season.
On March 23, 1985,Shirt Tales was pulled from broadcast television for good, and the Hallmark franchise faded not long after as well. The show continued for a number of years as part ofUSA Network'sCartoon Express block and onCartoon Network, but also continues to be broadcast in selected countries around the world on various networks, includingBoomerang.
In Japan,Shirt Tales was premiered and aired onTV Tokyo since early 1988.
| No. overall | No. in season | Title | Written by | Original release date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | "The Case of the Golden Armor" | Bob Ogle | September 18, 1982 (1982-09-18) |
| "Crumbling's Circus Caper" | Tom Dagenais | |||
| 2 | 2 | "The Game Masters" | Jim Ryan | September 25, 1982 (1982-09-25) |
| "Shirt Napped" | Tom Dagenais | |||
| 3 | 3 | "The Big Foot Incident" | Bob Ogle | October 2, 1982 (1982-10-02) |
| "Elephant on the Loose" | Tom Dagenais | |||
| 4 | 4 | "Horsin' Around" | Bob Ogle | October 9, 1982 (1982-10-09) |
| "Mission Mutt" | Jim Ryan | |||
| 5 | 5 | "Vacation for Dinkel" | Jim Ryan | October 16, 1982 (1982-10-16) |
| "Wingman" | Tedd Anasti | |||
| 6 | 6 | "The Humboldt Ghost" | Bob Ogle | October 23, 1982 (1982-10-23) |
| "Figby, the Spoiled Brat Cat" | Hank Saroyan | |||
| 7 | 7 | "Digger Runs Away" | Tedd Anasti | October 30, 1982 (1982-10-30) |
| "The Commissioner Is Missing" | Misty Stewart | |||
| 8 | 8 | "Raiders of the Lost Shark" | Jim Ryan | November 6, 1982 (1982-11-06) |
| "The Terrible Termites" | Tedd Anasti | |||
| 9 | 9 | "Moving Time" | Tom Ruegger | November 13, 1982 (1982-11-13) |
| "Back to Nature" | Gary Stamm | |||
| 10 | 10 | "Save the Park" | Tom Dagenais | November 20, 1982 (1982-11-20) |
| "Pam-dora's Box" | William Hasley | |||
| 11 | 11 | "Hapless Hound" | John Graham | November 27, 1982 (1982-11-27) |
| "The Very Buried Treasure" | Janis Diamond, Allan Heldfond | |||
| 12 | 12 | "Nearsighted Bear" | Janis Diamond, Allan Heldfond | December 4, 1982 (1982-12-04) |
| "The Magical Musical Caper" | Jim Ryan | |||
| 13 | 13 | "Dinkel's Ark" | Tom Dagenais | December 11, 1982 (1982-12-11) |
| "The Duke of Dinkel" | Tom Ruegger | |||
| No. overall | No. in season | Title | Written by | Original release date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 14 | 1 | "Bogey Goes Ape" | Glenn Leopold | September 17, 1983 (1983-09-17) |
| "The Rain, the Park and the Robot" | Glenn Leopold, Cliff Roberts | |||
| 15 | 2 | "Digger's Three Wishes" | Bob Ogle | September 24, 1983 (1983-09-24) |
| "Digger's Double" | ||||
| 16 | 3 | "Kip's Dragon" | David Detiege | October 1, 1983 (1983-10-01) |
| "Double Exposure" | Jim Ryan | |||
| 17 | 4 | "Taj Mahal Tyg" | Glenn Leopold, Cliff Roberts | October 8, 1983 (1983-10-08) |
| "Brass Bogey" | Bob Ogle | |||
| 18 | 5 | "The Outer Space Connection" | Janis Diamond | October 15, 1983 (1983-10-15) |
| "The Forbidden Island" | John Bates | |||
| 19 | 6 | "Saturday Night Shirt Tales" | Cynthia Friedlob,John Semper | October 22, 1983 (1983-10-22) |
| "Dinkel's Buddy" | Alan Burnett, Jeff Segal | |||
| 20 | 7 | "Pleasure Valley" | Dan DiStefano | October 29, 1983 (1983-10-29) |
| "The Ghost Out West" | David Detiege | |||
| 21 | 8 | "T.J.'s Visit" | David Detiege | November 5, 1983 (1983-11-05) |
| "The Big Set-up" | Jim Ryan | |||
| 22 | 9 | "Kip's Toy Caper" | Cynthia Friedlob, Glenn Leopold, Cliff Roberts, John Semper | November 12, 1983 (1983-11-12) |
| "Dinkel's Gift" | Alan Burnett, Jeff Segal | |||
| 23 | 10 | "Mayhem on the Orient Express" | Cynthia Friedlob, John Semper | November 19, 1983 (1983-11-19) |
| "The Cuckoo Count Caper" | ||||
There were also two musical book-and-record sets released byK-tel International under the "Castle Rock" imprint:A Song Saves the Park, andSunrise Surprise. However, both sets use sound-alikes for the voices, and are presented differently from typical read-alongs.
In 1986, aVHS release of the series was issued byWorldvision Home Video and Kids Klassics, it contained the first full-length episode from Season 2 and the first segment of another episode from that season.
On September 16, 2014,Warner Archive releasedShirt Tales: The Complete Series on DVD in Region 1 as part of theirHanna–Barbera Classics Collection.[4]