King Koopa's Kool Kartoons (partially found live-action "Super Mario Bros." spin-off TV series; 1989-1990)

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Screenshot from the intro.

Status: Partially Found

King Koopa's Kool Kartoons was a local television live-action Bozo the Clown-esque spin-off of DIC Entertainment's Super Mario Bros. Super Show! hosted by King Koopa (portrayed by Christopher Collins in 1989 and later Pat Pinney, both in a rubber costume and modified appearance-wise to be more believable for a live-action show). Koopa would interact with a live audience of children (called "King Koopa's Troopas"), showcase public-domain cartoons from the 1920s and 1930s that were in no way related to the Mario franchise and would have segments that played in between clips, such as a segment of Koopa reading fan-mail, a segment with a character named Mr. Mean Jeans, (played by Jack Hanrahan) and a joke segment. The show ended with Koopa telling the audience to be a Good Koopa or he would “Koopa Youpa.”

It was distributed by Fox Television Stations and was aired in Southern California on Los Angeles Fox owned-and-operated station KTTV 11 in the fall of 1989 on after-school afternoons at 4:30 PM. KTTV Fox 11 was a test market to gauge the show's popularity with children before potentially expanding it. However, there are newspapers showing air times for the show in Arizona. According to a commenter on a RetroJunk article about the post, it briefly aired on The Children’s Channel in the UK; however, there is not much evidence to back that claim.

In 1990 Saban Entertainment, also under the name Balanga Music, submitted copyrights for the opening and ending themes of the show. The copyrights state that the music and lyrics of both songs were made in 1989 by Saban Productions, with the document King Koopa's kool kartoons : closing theme, King Koopa's song., number PA0000532147, specifically mentioning the closing theme's music being made by Haim Saban and Shuki Levy. The documents also state the show having started airing on September 11th, 1989.[1]

The LinkedIn page of Eleanor Burian-Mohr, a writer for several DiC Entertainment shows such as The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!, lists King Koopa as a show she wrote for. Eleanor Burian-Mohr was contacted and had a large amount of information about the show. She also owned a Koopa Troopa helmet from the show.

Availability

Due to its poor reception and the show's failure to catch on, the show appears to have never received a home media release and little footage of the show is available online. [2] The show completely vanished after it's run until in 2005, RetroJunk user MIaconoSP uploaded the intro and a few seconds from the beginning of one episode. He claimed to have recorded two episodes and saved them onto his computer but, for unknown reasons, he never posted them online and there isn't a chance he ever will since he seems to have vanished off the internet not giving any news since 2006.

As of now, the show has yet to be officially re-released, and it is likely that either DiC (now owned by Wildbrain) or Fox 11 (KTTV) has the mastertapes of the show in their archives. Some contacts were made to Fox 11 by LMW user Shane Rollins, but when a response was given, a staff member claims that they don't have access to archives that old at KTTV/KCOP.

On August 4th, 2018, user Neeel uploaded 49 seconds of footage onto his YouTube channel. The footage was a part of a Thanksgiving marathon for Fox Kids in 1989.

In May 2022, user Sfphiynckxs posted 3 different cutaway clips on r/lostmedia, which were then uploaded to YouTube by Starcrytas.

Gallery

Images

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Footage

The intro and credits for an episode.

49 seconds of footage from King Koopa's Kool Kartoons.

56 seconds of footage about a Vegetable Theater (originally posted on Reddit).

Advertisement for King Koopa's Kool Kartoons (originally posted on Reddit).

Another clip of King Koopa's Kool Kartoons (originally posted on Reddit).

A two-minute clip of the show.

The "I know where you live" clip. (start at 2:43)

Two clips from the show.

Two additional clips from the show.

Videos

SeedButter's video on the subject.

Thomas Game Doc's video on the subject.

Blameitonjorge's video mentioning the subject (1:17)

Trivia

  • For a while, it was said that the show was cancelled after King Koopa was shown reading a negative letter from a young viewer and then saying "OK, kid, you can say whatever you want about me, but remember... I know where you live". It was considered by many as an made-up urban legend, however in November 6, 2023 a clip where he said "I know where you live" was found, though it wasn't said to the viewer but to a fictional character named Arthur.

See Also

References

  1. ↑ King Koopa's kool kartoons : closing theme, King Koopa's song., PA0000532146, (27 March '90); King Koopa's kool kartoons : closing theme, King Koopa's song., PA0000532147, (27 March '90); King Koopa's kool kartoons : opening theme, King Koopa's song., PA0000532144, (27 March '90); King Koopa's kool kartoons : opening theme, King Koopa's song., PA0000532145, (27 March '90), United States Copyright Office Retrieved 29 Apr '22
  2. ↑ RetroJunk article on the show. Retrieved 06 Oct '13
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