Pac Power: Pac-Man's surreal cartoon world

The Pacman cartoon show of the early 80's featured talented voice acting and 'trippy' sound effects and tunes meant to convey the feel of early arcade games.

The series starred Mezmeron, a Darth Vader-like giant who sends his bumbling ghost monsters to find Pacland's secret 'Power Forest' of power-pellet trees, so he can 'control unlimited Pac Power' and take over Pacland. Pacman works as cheif of security at the Power Forest, where he usually loafs around until the ghost monsters show up somewhere to cause trouble with their endless schemes of finding the Power Forest. Pacman's family (and even their round pets) actually eat the ghost monsters when they have Pac Power from consuming power pellets, with the ghost monsters' eyes running off to re-wardrobe like in the video game. If the ghost monsters 'chomp' Pacman, he deflates and would apparently die if he doesn't quickly find some power pellets to re-energize. Mezmeron nearly destroys Pacland several times, and in one episode based on the Rip Van Winkle fable it shows what Pacland would have been like if they'd succeeded. One of the ghost monsters is able to change into different forms and another is able to pull anything including the kitchen sink out of a pouch in his ghost suit to use against Pacman.

Saucy Ms. Pacman (from the Pacman arcade sequel, "Ms. Pacman") usually goes by the nickname her huspand calls her, 'Pepper'. Their child, Pac Baby, is from a rare pinball+arcade game called "Baby Pacman", who was also seen in the 'Act 3' intermission of "Ms. Pacman". Season 2 guest-stars Super Pac and Pac Junior, from the games "Super Pacman" and "Jr. Pacman". Super Pac is a soppish, self-assured pac-hero from outter space who was voiced by the same actor who did Garfield in the "Garfield and Friends" TV show. Pac Junior is a hip late-teen who drives a motorcycle instead of the tricycle shown in the game.

The animation for the second season intro is new. In the early 90's, I collected Pacman (as well as Q*Bert and other game characters) when there were literally tons of it showing up in the thrift stores. The collection quickly grew into many shelves, filled with every item imaginable in multiple varieties. When Pacmania, or 'Pacman Fever' hit in the early 80's, the Pacman characters for several years became the most celebrated character icons ever, more than Disney or all other characters combined. The number of Pacman items and novel ways of depicting the characters from the game was truly infinite. The last big arcade hit I remember, before home gaming replaced the public arcade, was the Street Fighter 2 frenzy, because someone I knew who was really into it won a local championship. I lost interest in the extremely violent arcade games that followed like Mortal Combat, etc.

"Pac-Man" lasted for two seasons from 1982 to 1984 on ABC Saturday morning and was the first regular tv cartoon program that was based on a video game. "Saturday Supercade" premiered on CBS in 1983, "Pole Position" premiered on CBS in 1984, and "The Super Mario Brothers Supershow" premiered in syndication around 1985.

voices:
Pac-Man: Marty Ingles
Ms. Pac-Man (Pepper): Barbara Minkus
Baby Pac: Russi Taylor
Chomp Chomp the dog: Peter Cullen
Sourpuss the cat: Frank Welker

Mezmaron: Allen Lurie
Clyde: Neil Ross
Inky/Pinky: Chuck McCann
Sue: Susan Silo

PJ: Darryl Hickman
Super Pac: Lorenzo Music

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"Don't chew gum on camera. Don't whistle. You may kiss Bob Barker but please don't kill him." -announcer Johnny Olson briefing the audience of potential contestants for "The Price is Right"