King Koopa's Kool Kartoons

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King Koopa's Kool Kartoons
Title card
General information
Format	Children's television series
Director(s)	Stephen J. Abramson
Writer(s)	Christopher Brough Jack Hanrahan Eleanor Burian-Mohr
Starring	Christopher Collins Patrick Pinney
Country of origin	United States of America
Original language	English
Seasons	1
Episodes	65
Production
Production company	DIC Entertainment Fox Television Studios
Runtime	30 minutes
Broadcast
First aired	September 11, 1989[?]
Last aired	November 20, 1989[?]
Status	Canceled
Chronology
Related programs	The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!

King Koopa's Kool Kartoons was a live-action children's television show created by DIC Entertainment as a spinoff of the company's previous show, The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! The format of the series is comparable to Bozo the Clown's television show. King Koopa hosted the show and was originally played by Christopher Collins (later Patrick Pinney) inside a rubber suit as the show's emcee. The King Koopa suit resembled the same suit worn by him in Mario Ice Capades, the most notable difference being the mask. Koopa's appearance and demeanor were based on his role in The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! At the end of the show, King Koopa gave away prizes such as the Power Glove.

Broadcast and run

The show's run began in the latter half of 1989. Each episode of King Koopa's Kool Kartoons lasted for 30 minutes and aired during the after-school afternoon time slot starting at 4:30 p.m. KTTV Fox 11 broadcasted the show to the Southern California region alone, during late afternoon time slots between 4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m., possibly to gauge the title's popularity before expanding. However, the production of the series ended after its first season. The show was nominated for a Los Angeles Area Emmy Award in the category "best children/youth program." All episodes were produced over the course of 13 weeks, and there was a total of 65 episodes aired.

Later, the show was broadcast for audiences in the United Kingdom in 1990 through The Children's Channel.

Episode format

Like The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! before it, King Koopa's Kool Kartoons followed a set format for each episode. After the prerecorded introduction, the show transitioned to the show's set, where King Koopa began hosting in front of a live audience of children called King Koopa's Troopas. The show's tech crew are dressed similarly to the Troopas when they appear.

Introduction

The prerecorded introduction features King Koopa, his pet Ratso, and his Troopas strutting down a Los Angeles street towards a television studio. The king and his minions sing the theme song (see below). As they pass a crowd of stunned people, one of the older Troopas puts a Koopa mask on a child in the crowd who proceeds to follow them. When they arrive at the doorway, a bewildered guard attempts to block their entry, and Koopa pulls the whistle from his mouth. Entering the set of a clown's studio as an episode of his show is filming, Koopa and his children proceed to take over the show. Koopa pushes the cameraman away and proceeds to confront the clown, who panics. After the clown attempts to win Koopa's favor through roses and a balloon, Koopa pops the balloon with his claw, scaring him away. The previous audience having left, King Koopa's Troopas are free to fill in the seats. Koopa glares at the screen as he screams, "It's my show now!" The screen turns black as he points his scepter at the screen and cries, "BAH!"

Theme song

The show's theme song was composed by Haim Saban. Below are the song's lyrics. Words in parentheses are sung by King Koopa's Troopas. The words outside the parentheses are sung by Koopa.

Creepa!

Who calls you a nincompoopa?
Koopa
I'm the pain who plays the game
And knocks you for a loopa.

I'm Koopa, Koopa
(He's Koopa, Koopa)

Koopa! Koopa!
King of the afternoons!
(He's Koopa, Koopa)

I'm Koopa, Koopa
(It's Koopa, Koopa)

Koopa! Koopa!
King of the cartoons! I've got the show you'd better watch.
Even when you're grounded.

This is one show I would love
Baby you'll be hell-yoopa,

("Koopa! Koopa!")

King Koopa, Koopa.

King Koopa (screams): It's my show now! BAH!

The studio

Koopa's set with art of Luigi on the wall

At this point, the show focused on the studio, where Koopa sat behind a desk in front of his audience of Troopas. The Troopas wore helmets and T-shirts with Koopa Troopa printings on them. The audience members were allowed to keep their shirts after filming. Behind the host was a piece of a wall upon which hung pictures of Mario, Luigi, and Princess Toadstool as they appeared in the animated segments of The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! As the show's emcee, he read fan mail and hosted quizzes. These quizzes were open to any child viewer, as responses were sent into the show via the mail.

In some available scenes, a man dressed in a red shirt and suspenders can be seen in the audience. Some sources have claimed this was meant to be Mario, placed in the crowd by the show producers, though this is unconfirmed.

Throughout each episode, King Koopa played cartoons from the 1920s and 1930s that were in the public domain, such as the Rainbow Parade series. However, some airings seemingly aired media still under copyright, such as The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! and Muppet Babies.

Credits

At the end of the half-hour, the credits appeared in front of another prerecorded segment.

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Known cartoons

Public domain works

All public domain cartoons aired had their opening titles and credits removed.

• Molly Moo-Cow and the Indians (Rainbow Parade, 1935)
• All's Well (Gabby, 1941)

Used under copyright license

• The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!
• Muppet Babies

Controversy

Controversy arose regarding King Koopa's first actor, Christopher Collins. Several claims (some of which being unverified) allege inappropriate behaviors from Collins throughout his tenure, such as making sexually suggestive comments to women in the production staff and making racist remarks towards children in the audience. This culminated to his eventual firing after he yelled at the audience of children during an altercation involving his son being overwhelmed by the other kids. In one episode (which has partial footage available online), Collins is heard yelling, "Where're you from? Biafra?!" during a live airing; while unconfirmed, this was reportedly directed towards a group of African-American children. Collins noticeably begins slurring speech following this, with the camera quickly shifting to commercial break. A common rumor has circulated online that Collins threatened a child on the show, saying, "I know where you live!"; however, footage of a similar scene was eventually discovered, and it was merely a scripted gag.

Patrick Pinney was hired to replace Collins as the actor to play King Koopa. Despite controversy, feedback on the show was generally very positive, though a concerned parent was published in the Los Angeles Times saying King Koopa was frightening to younger audiences and its "dirty underwear" segment was "disgusting."

Cancellation

According to show writer Christopher Brough, the show was canceled due to a letter from the then-president of The Walt Disney Company, Michael Eisner, to the then-president of 20th Century Studios, Barry Diller. Said letter allegedly stated that the show "undermined the morals of its live, youthful audiences."

Gallery

• 

  Title card

• 

  King Koopa starting a quiz

• 

  King Koopa close-up

• 

  Koopa, with his audience of Troopas