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Bananaman (TV series)

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Bananaman
Title card
Genre
Created bySteve Bright
Starring
Theme music composerDave Cooke
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Original languageEnglish
No. of series3
No. of episodes40[1]
Production
ProducerTrevor Bond
Running time5 minutes
Original release
Network
Release3 October 1983 (1983-10-03) –
4 March 1986 (1986-15-04)

Bananaman is a British animated comedy series which ran from 3 October 1983 to 15 April 1986. It was based on the comic strip character Bananaman and each of the show's roughly five-minute episodes featured the voices of The Goodies (Tim Brooke-Taylor, Graeme Garden and Bill Oddie).[2][3]

Parts of the character were changed for the series: he was now called Eric Twinge (rather than Eric Wimp), had a distinctive banana-shaped hairstyle rather than punk stubble, and had a love interest (only when transformed) in the form of Fiona, a newsreader.[4][5]

"This is 29 Acacia Road. And this is Eric, the schoolboy who leads an amazing double life. For when Eric eats a banana, an amazing transformation occurs. Eric is Bananaman, ever alert for the call to action!"

- opening narration

When Danger Mouse first aired on Nickelodeon in America, Bananaman was shown after it to round out the show to a half hour.

Cast

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Written by Bernie Kay. Produced by Trevor Bond. Directed by Terry Ward.

Series guide

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  • Series 1: 3 October[6] – 11 November 1983[7] - 12 episodes
  • Series 2: 4 October[8] – 19 December 1984[9] - 13 episodes
  • Series 3: 7 January – 15 April 1986[10] - 15 episodes

"Memory Lane" episode from series 2 was not broadcast until June 1988 but was made alongside series 2.

Episodes

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Series 1 (1983)

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No. overall Series no. Title Original air date
1 1 "Bananaman Meets Dr. Gloom" 3 October 1983
2 2 "The Big Breakout" 7 October 1983
3 3 "Ice Station Zero" 10 October 1983
4 4 "The Alien Planet" 14 October 1983
5 5 "The Kidnap Caper" 17 October 1983
6 6 "House on Hangman's Hill" 20 October 1983
7 7 "Destination Danger" 24 October 1983
8 8 "Wall of Death" 27 October 1983
9 9 "Jaws of Steel" 31 October 1983
10 10 "Banana Kid" 4 November 1983
11 11 "Auntie's Back in Town" 7 November 1983
12 12 "Tunnel of Terror" 11 November 1983

Series 2 (1984)

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No. overall Series no. Title Original air date
13 1 "Mystery at the Old Mine" 4 October 1984
14 2 "Lost Tribe of the Tapiocas" 11 October 1984
15 3 "Trouble at the Mill" 18 October 1984
16 4 "The Web of Evil" 25 October 1984
17 5 "The Mummy's Curse" 1 November 1984
18 6 "The Night Patrol" 8 November 1984
19 7 "Fog of Fear" 15 November 1984
20 8 "A Tank Full of Trouble" 22 November 1984
21 9 "Double Trouble" 29 November 1984
22 10 "The Last Banana" 5 December 1984
23 11 "Intergalactic Olympics" 12 December 1984
24 12 "Memory Lane" 15 June 1988
25 13 "The Final Orbit" 19 December 1984

Series 3 (1986)

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No. overall Series no. Title Original air date
26 1 "Disaster at Devil's Cove" 7 January 1986
27 2 "Night of the Nerks" 14 January 1986
28 3 "The Snowman Cometh" 21 January 1986
29 4 "Pirate TV Station" 28 January 1986
30 5 "Battle of the Bridge" 4 February 1986
31 6 "Harbour of Lost Ships" 11 February 1986
32 7 "Visibility Zero" 18 February 1986
33 8 "Battle of the Century" 25 February 1986
34 9 "The Perils of Ping Pong" 4 March 1986
35 10 "The Great Air Race" 11 March 1986
36 11 "Cavern of the Lost" 18 March 1986
37 12 "Clown Capers" 25 March 1986
38 13 "Banana Junction" 1 April 1986
39 14 "The Crown Jewel Caper" 8 April 1986
40 15 "Operation Total" 15 April 1986

Reception

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Bananaman was a popular cartoon and is one of the most well-known British superheroes. Taken from the DC Thomson comic entitled Nutty, it was made into a TV animated series of 40 five-minute episodes by Terry Ward of Flicks Films Ltd.[11]

References

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  1. ^ Rosser, Michael; Wiseman, Andreas (18 March 2014). "'Live action' Bananaman planned". Screendaily.com. Archived from the original on 25 August 2024.
  2. ^ Rosser, Michael. "'Live action' Bananaman planned | News | Screen". Screendaily.com. Retrieved 13 December 2019.
  3. ^ Erickson, Hal (2005). Television Cartoon Shows: An Illustrated Encyclopedia, 1949 Through 2003 (2nd ed.). McFarland & Co. pp. 111–112. ISBN 978-1-4766-6599-3.
  4. ^ Rowney, Jo-Anne (27 October 2017). "Bananaman is back - the Man-of-Peel returns in live action debut". The Mirror. Archived from the original on 29 December 2017.
  5. ^ Kamen, Matt (13 January 2016). "Bananaman: The Musical heading to theatres. Yes, really". Wired UK. Archived from the original on 13 May 2017.
  6. ^ "Bananaman - BBC One London - 3 October 1983". Genome.ch.bbc.co.uk. 3 October 1983. Archived from the original on 20 October 2014.
  7. ^ "Bananaman - BBC One London - 11 November 1983". Genome.ch.bbc.co.uk. 11 November 1983. Archived from the original on 20 October 2014.
  8. ^ "Bananaman: Mystery at the Old Mine". Genome.ch.bbc.co.uk. 4 October 1984. Archived from the original on 18 November 2023.
  9. ^ "Bananaman: The Night Patrol". Genome.ch.bbc.co.uk. 19 December 1984. Archived from the original on 24 April 2018.
  10. ^ "Bananaman: Operational Total". Genome.ch.bbc.co.uk. Archived from the original on 18 November 2023.
  11. ^ Murray, Chris (15 March 2017). The British Superhero. University Press of Mississippi. ISBN 978-1-4968-0740-3. Retrieved 12 April 2019 – via Google Books.
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