Description

Hong Kong Phooey is an American animated television series produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions and originally broadcast on ABC. The original episodes aired from September 7 to December 21, 1974, and then in repeats until 1976. The show was brought back in reruns in 1978 and 1981, and was included in the USA Network’s Cartoon Express block throughout the 1980s. The main character, Hong Kong Phooey, is the clownishly clumsy secret identity of Penrod “Penry” Pooch, working at a police station as a “mild-mannered” janitor under the glare of Sergeant Flint, nicknamed “Sarge”.

Penry disguises himself as Hong Kong Phooey by jumping into a filing cabinet – in so doing he always gets stuck, and is freed by his striped pet cat named Spot – and once disguised, gets equipped with the “Phooeymobile” vehicle that transforms itself into a boat, a plane or a telephone booth, depending on the circumstances.

In fighting crime, he relies on his copy of The Hong Kong Book of Kung Fu, a correspondence-course martial-arts instruction handbook. However, his successes are only either thanks to Spot, who provides a solution to the challenges, or the direct result of a comically unintended side effect of his efforts. The humour of the incompetence of Hong Kong Phooey is a recurring theme of each episode.

Each episode begins with Rosemary, the somewhat ditzy telephone operator, getting a call about a crime which she explains to Sergeant Flint. Penry, the janitor, overhears the conversation and proceeds to transform himself into the crime-fighting canine (on whom Rosemary has a crush) by slipping into the hidden room behind the vending machine, then jumping into the bottom drawer of his filing cabinet, getting stuck, and, with help from Spot, coming out of the top drawer. Sometimes Spot is annoyed by Hong Kong Phooey for his bumbling and always has to save Hong Kong Phooey for almost screwing up.

After sliding behind an ironing board to the floor below, he bounces off an old sofa, through an open window, into a dumpster outside, and emerges driving his Phooeymobile. Even when he crashes into, harms, or otherwise inconveniences a civilian, the passer-by feels honoured, as opposed to being annoyed or embarrassed, when they see who did it. One example was when he drove the Phooeymobile through wet cement, splattering the workers: they responded that it was an “honour to have a whole day’s work ruined by the great Hong Kong Phooey”. Despite his blatant lack of talent or intelligence, Hong Kong Phooey is feared by criminals and admired by citizens, but annoys Sergeant Flint, who sees him only as a hindrance to the police, and as evidenced in the final episode “Comedy Cowboys”, Flint takes pleasure in arresting the framed hero (though he is later exonerated). Sometimes Sergeant Flint does admire Hong Kong Phooey for helping them catch the bad guys and bringing them to justice.

The final episode, “Comedy Cowboys”, was intended as a backdoor pilot for a new series. In this two-part episode, several new cartoon characters, who are named Honcho, The Mystery Maverick, and the Posse Impossible, appear and help to clear Hong Kong Phooey of a crime. These characters later appear in their own continuing segment, “Posse Impossible” on CB Bears. Like many animated series created by Hanna-Barbera in the 1970s, the show uses the limited Hanna-Barbera laugh track.