PAC-MAN (TV SERIES)

'''Pac-Man''' was an animated TV series produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions, which aired on ABC from September 1982 to December 1983. Based upon the ''Pac-Man'' arcade game by Namco, reruns are now shown occasionally on Boomerang. The series is also available for purchase on the Xbox Live Marketplace for 160 Microsoft Points per episode.
The arcade game ''Pac-Land'' was based entirely on the cartoon, and drew significant influence from it as well. Also, the Tengen release of the original arcade game for the Nintendo Entertainment System features box art based on the cartoon.

Contents

Overview

Common themes

See also

External links

Overview

''Pac-Man'' followed the adventures of the title character 'Pac-Man' (voiced by Marty Ingels), his wife 'Mrs. Pepper Pac-Man' (voiced by Barbara Minkus), and their son 'Baby-Pac' (voiced by Russi Taylor; he is actually called "Pac-Baby" in this series). The family lives in 'Pac-Land', a place in which the geography and architecture seem to revolve primarily around spheres and sphere-like shapes. The Pac Family seems to spend a lot of their time outwitting their only known enemies, the "Ghost-Monsters:" 'Blinky', who was constantly nervous (voiced by Chuck McCann), 'Pinky', the hardcore street thug ghost (also voiced by Chuck McCann), 'Inky', the requisite dumb one of the group (voiced by Barry Gordon), 'Clyde', the main ghost-monster (voiced by Neilson Ross), and 'Sue', the only female (voiced by Susan Silo). Their leader is 'Mezmeron' (voiced by Allan Lurie), a mysterious Darth Vader-esque figure whose sole mission in life is to obtain the "Power Pellets" which give Pac-Man and the other inhabitants of Pac-Land their chomping abilities. (This should actually not be that difficult a task; Power Pellets are found nearly everywhere in Pac-Land, and serve as the ''deus ex machina'' in nearly every episode, as they just happen to be found where the Ghost-Monsters have the Pac Family cornered. He is actually trying to locate the forest where the pellets are grown, so he can control the source)

Common themes

For whatever reason, nearly everything in Pac-Land takes the shape of a sphere (or is round, at the very least). Everything from natural backgrounds to houses to cars to animals and even (or especially) the people assume the form of a ball.
Another recurring theme is the common use of "Pac-" as a prefix for verbs and famous or common existing nouns (an example: Pac-Hollywood, a town famous for its film studios). This is reminiscent of ''The Smurfs'' or ''The Snorks'', both animated series which replaced or altered several existing words with "Smurf" or "Snork," respectively. Pac-man himself is often referred to the nickname "Packy" by Pepper as a term of affection which unintentionally sounds like the racist term "paki".
In a typical episode, the ghost-monsters are eaten in the beginning, and their eyes fly back to Mezmeron's lava-lair closet to get new ghost suits and plot something evil.
Power Pellets (which were previously called "power pills", or "energizers") seem to be the focal point of nearly every episode, as Mezmeron and the Ghost-Monsters are intent upon finding them. In actuality, Power Pellets are plentiful and easy to find around Pac-Land. Although their primary purpose appears to be enabling the Pac-people to "chomp" Ghost-Monsters, Power Pellets also seem to be the staple of their diet.
It's interesting to note that when Pac-Man (or any other Pac-person, or Pac-animal) eats a power pellet, instead of turning blue (like in the video game series) the "Ghost-Monsters" (known as simply "monsters" in the original arcade game, and as simply "ghosts" in the Atari 2600 version) turn "purple with panic" after which they make an obvious note of their situation ("P-P-P-P-P-Pac Power!").
Other changes from the video games include the following:

★ ''Super Pac-Man'' (voiced by Lorenzo Music) is portrayed as a separate character who lives in a parallel dimension (and is called "Super-Pac").

★ Clyde is the 'head' ghost-monster, instead of Blinky (who is the first one out of the monster pen at the beginning of each level in the games); this is probably a reference to "Clyde" of the Ant Hill Mob from Wacky Races, another Hanna-Barbera series. Considering the gangster persona applied to Clyde and somewhat to Sue, Clyde may have been made the leader as a reference to Bonnie and Clyde (with Sue fitting the bill for Bonnie).

★ Ms. Pac-Man is called "Pepper".

★ When the ghosts catch up to Pac-Man in the early episodes, they trap him and "eat his skeleton", leaving him a disheveled version of himself. It was a pretty creepy visual for the predominantly young audience, and in future episodes, Pac-Man just appeared beat up rather than internally gobbled.

★ Sue (the only female ghost-monster) is now just a separate character and the fifth ghost monster. In Ms. Pac-Man, Sue replaced Clyde in an attempt to give Ms. Pac-Man a rival of her own. When she was around, Pepper was usually the one who chomped the Sue. Even though in the cartoon Sue is purple, in the arcade game she is orange, the same color Clyde is in the Pac-Man game.

See also

★ Ms. Pac-Man

★ Baby Pac-Man

★ Pac-Land

★ List of television shows based on video games

External links

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★ Sarcastic review of an episode of ''Pac-Man''