The Great Grape Ape Show

The Great Grape Ape Show
The title card for The Great Grape Ape Show
Genre	Animation
Directed by	Charles August Nichols
Voices of	Bob Holt Marty Ingels
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of episodes	16
Production
Executive producers	William Hanna Joseph Barbera
Running time	30 minutes (10 minutes per segment)
Original release
Network	ABC
Release	September 6, 1975 – September 3, 1978

The Great Grape Ape Show was a Saturday morning cartoon produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions that was broadcast on ABC from 1975 to 1978.

Summary

The titular character is a 40-foot-tall purple gorilla (voiced by Bob Holt). His catchphrase is repeating his name twice ("Grape Ape, Grape Ape") after anything anyone says, usually as a form of agreement or acknowledgement of what was said. He travels the countryside with his canine pal Beegle Beagle (voiced by Marty Ingels), whom he calls "Beegley Beagley" and hits a lot. A hybrid of King Kong and Casper the Friendly Ghost, Grape Ape's immense size tends to initially shock and frighten those unfamiliar with him, and his presence alone has often terrified people and animals, causing them to run off screaming invariably: "YEOW! It's a gorill-ill-ill-ill-la!".

Grape Ape and his friend Beegle Beagle usually move in a small yellow van driven by Beegle Beagle with Grape Ape sitting on the roof. A recurring bit of business would be for him to 'rev up' the tiny vehicle like a child with a friction toy, then hop aboard as the van would start on its way.

Given his size, Grape Ape's sneezes were equivalent to a hurricane; and when he cried, which was sometimes when he was homesick for his family, his tears could cause flooding in areas.

Episodes

1. "That Was No Idol, That Was My Ape" (prod. #79-2)/"The All-American Ape" (prod. #79-1) (first aired 9/6/75)

2. "Movie Madness" (79-3)/"Trouble at Bad Rock" (79-4) (9/13/75)

3. "Flying Saucery" (79-5)/"Thar's No Feud Like an Old Feud" (79-6) (9/20/75)

4. "The Grape Race" (79-7)/"The Big Parade" (79-8) (9/27/75)

5 "A Knight to Remember" (79-9)/"S.P.L.A.T"* (79-10) (10/4/75)

6. "G.I. Ape" (79-11)/"The Purple Avenger" (79-12) (10/11/75)

7. "Grapefinger" (79-13)/"Return to Balaboomba" (79-21) (10/18/75)

8. "Amazon Ape" (79-15)/"Grape Marks the Spot" (79-16) (10/25/75)

9. "The Invisible Ape" (79-18)/"Public Grape No. 1" (79-19) (11/1/75)

10. "The Incredible Shrinking Grape" (79-17)/"What's a Nice Prince Like You Doin' in a Duck Like That?" (79-22) (11/8/75)

11. "Who's New at the Zoo" (79-14)/"The Indian Grape Call" (79-24) (11/15/75)

12. "A Grape is Born" (79-23)/"The First Grape in Space" (79-25) (11/22/75)

13. "S.P.L.A.T*'s Back" (Part 1) (79-20)/"S.P.L.A.T*'s Back" (Part 2) (79-26) (11/27/75**)

14. "To Sleep or Not to Sleep" (79-27)/"Olympic Grape" (79-28) (11/29/75)

15. "Ali Beagle and the 40 Grapes" (79-29)/"Grape Five-O" (79-31) (12/6/75)

16. "The Purple Avenger Strikes Again" (79-30)/"The Grape Connection" (79-32) (12/13/75)

^*Telecast at Noon (EST), Thursday afternoon, November 27, 1975, a Thanksgiving, as part of ABC's Thanksgiving Funshine Festival.

Production credits

• Executive Producers: William Hanna and Joseph Barbera
• Directed by: Charles A. Nichols
• Creative Producer: Iwao Takamoto
• Recording Director: Gordon Hunt
• Assistant Recording Director: Maxine Hoppe
• Story: Tom Dagenais, Joel Kane, Jack Mendelsohn, Ray Parker, Duane Poole, Dick Robbins
• Storyboard Direction: Don Sheppard, Paul Sommer, Tom Yakutis
• Voices: Joan Gerber, Virginia Gregg, Bob Hastings, Bob Holt, Marty Ingels, Allan Melvin, Don Messick, Alan Oppenheimer, Hal Smith, John Stephenson, Lurene Tuttle, Lennie Weinrib, Frank Welker, Paul Winchell
• Production Design: Bob Singer
• Production Supervisor: Victor O. Schipek
• Graphics: Iraj Paran
• Musical Director: Hoyt Curtin
• Musical Supervisor: Paul DeKorte
• Layout Unit Manager: Owen Fitzgerald
• Layout: Pete Alvarado, Dale Barnhart, Bob Givens, Alex Ignatiev, Bill Lignante, Dan Noonan, Tony Rivera, Terry Slade
• Animation Supervisor: Jerry Hathcock
• Animation: Steve Clark, Izzy Ellis, Hugh Fraser, Bob Hathcock, Bill Hutten, Lou Kachivas, Tony Love, Don Patterson, Ed Parks, Morey Reden, Ken Southworth, Bob Trochim, Russ Von Neida, Ken Walker
• Technical Supervision: Frank Paiker
• Checking and Scene Planning: Evelyn Sherwood
• Ink and Paint Supervision: Billie Kerns
• Xerography: Robert "Tiger" West
• Background Supervision: Fernando Montealegre
• Backgrounds: Fernando Arce, Bill Proctor, John Currin
• Sound Direction: Richard Olson, Bill Getty
• Supervising Film Editor: Larry Cowan
• Editors: Pat Foley, Joe Sandusky, James Yaras, Richard Allen, Terry Moore
• Negative Consultant: William E. DeBoer
• Post Production Supervision: Joed Eaton
• Production Manager: Jayne Barbera
• Camera: Curt Hall, Roy Wade, Ron Jackson, George Epperson
• A HANNA-BARBERA PRODUCTION

Broadcast history

The show was originally broadcast as a segment of The New Tom and Jerry/Grape Ape Show during the 1975–76 season; for the 1976–77 season, the show became The Tom and Jerry/Grape Ape/Mumbly Show, and in 1977–78, The Great Grape Ape Show became its own half-hour show on Sunday Mornings. Thirty-two 10-minute installments of Grape Ape were made; two were aired per 30-minute episode. Grape Ape also appeared as a member of "The Yogi Yahooeys" team on Scooby's All-Star Laff-A-Lympics and Scooby's All-Stars from 1977 to 1979. Grape Ape would often team up with Yakky Doodle. In Britain, the BBC ran the Great Grape Ape with the cartoon series Bailey`s Comets during 1977/78. The Tom & Jerry show also appeared elsewhere in the BBC Schedules. Where as the other part of the U.S. Saturday fare "Mumbly" was shown by ITV.

In the 1980s, repeats of The Great Grape Ape Show were shown on USA Cartoon Express; they were later restored and run on Cartoon Network and can also be seen on Boomerang, often as part of the Boomerang Zoo package (the full half-hour version has yet to be seen on the network).

Other Appearances

• Grape Ape appeared in the Laff-A-Lympics on the Yogi Yahooies. His size varies on the show, sometimes being his normal 40 feet and other times about 6–10 feet.
• In the Dexter's Laboratory episode "Chubby Cheese," Grape Ape (voiced by Jeff Bennett) was among the animatronic Hanna-Barbera characters in the animatronic show as he closes out Chubby's song.
• In the Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy episode "Giant Billy & Mandy All Out Attack", Cragera talks about a fight he had with Grape Ape, which ends with Grape Ape's head shoved into a volcano.
• Grape Ape and Beegle Beagle appeared in the Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law episode "Grape Juiced" with Grape Ape voiced by John Michael Higgins and Beegle Beagle voiced by Doug Preis. In that episode, Grape Ape is accused of using steroids at the recent Laff-A-Lympics. Later on in that episode, it was revealed that Grape Ape is the father of Gigi's child.
• Grape Ape appeared in the Robot Chicken episode "I'm Trapped." After Grape Ape was killed, a police officer looks at his wallet and sees that his name is Grape Ape. He then asks if the other police officers heard the G in his name.

The Great Grape Ape in other languages

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External links

• The Great Grape Ape at IMDb
• Template:Tv.com show
• Tom & Jerry's mid-'70s co-stars