Western Animation / Popeye the Sailor (TV Series)

After the theatrical Popeye shorts came to a close in 1957, the rights to them were sold to television syndicator Allied Artists Production (a.a.p.) and began airing on television, becoming very popular, and therefore very lucrative for a.a.p. However, King Features Syndicate, the owner of Popeye, wasn't getting any additional money off of the syndication fees because of the terms of the original license to Paramount.

So they commissioned their own line of original Popeye cartoons with Al Brodax as the executive producer, titled simply Popeye The Sailor. King Features then outsourced all the works to various animation studios.^note  in order from most shorts to fewest: Jack Kinney Productions made 101 shorts, Paramount Cartoon Studios (formerly Famous Studios) made 63, Rembrandt Films made 28 (with 6 of them subcontracted to Halas and Batchelor), Larry Harmon Pictures made 18, and Gerald Ray Studios made 10 Altogether, a total of 220 shorts, less than six minutes each, were made in just two years across 1960 and 1961. Despite low budgets and widely varying animation quality, it's still very impressive, considering that the theatrical Popeye run had 232 shorts made over 24 years in comparison. (Or 220 if you exclude all the clip shorts and remakes)

Unlike later Famous Studio Popeye shorts, which focus on just Popeye, Olive, Bluto and their love triangle stories, these shorts had a wider range of stories, from Popeye doing mundane things like fishing to him going undersea to discover a lost land. Or sometimes it's just plain weird. This series also introduced a number of characters originally appeared in the comics, most notably Sea Hag, Alice the Goon, O.G. Wotasnozzle, and Rough House. Also notably that Bluto was called Brutus for this series, as King Features forgot that the Bluto character actually originated in the comic strip (even if it was only one story arc) and not the theatrical shorts.

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This series provides examples of:

• Bamboo Technology: In "Have Time, Will Travel", Popeye got Olive a Do-it-yourself Time Machine kit (much to his surprise) which consists of nothing but woodsticks!
• Baseball Episode: The shorts "Battery Up".
• Beatnik: Both Brutus and Olive become one in "Coffee House". Popeye eventually wins Beatnik Olive back by eating "cultured" spinach though.
• Big Ball of Violence: Seen in "I Bin Sculped", "Popeye's Junior Headache", "the Big Sneeze", "Jeopardy Sheriff", and "Coach Popeye".
  • "Muskels Shmuskels" and "Caveman Capers" feature a version where you can roughly make of what's going on.
• Black Dot Pupils: Most characters have this. In Paramount's shorts, Popeye and Olive may have Black Bead Eyes instead when they're far away from the camera. ^note Which is actually intentional, as the character sheet made by them specifically note the artist to do so
• The Butler Did It: Popeye said this word for word in "Where there's a Will" and he's right. As it was Brutus in disguise, who's trying to keep Popeye out of the will's fortunes.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall:
  • In "After the Ball Went Over", Popeye directly call out the writer at the end of the shorts.
  • A literal case in "Battery Up", A baseball ball hit the viewer's screen. Making it become pitch black for a few second before the camera zoom out to reveal a TV with broken screen. Then Popeye came to replaced it and apologized the viewers.
• The Cameo: Two instances from The Beatles cartoon (also an Al Brodax production): a Popeye framed picture appears on a coffee house wall in "I Don't Want To Spoil the Party" (it was culled from an Andy Warhol piece called "Saturday Morning Popeye"), and Swee'Pea appears in "Tell Me What You See."
• Canon Foreigner: Olive's niece, Diesel Oyl, is this. She only appears in three shorts throughout the series.^note "Popeye's Junior Headache", "The Mark of Zero", and "Coach Popeye"
• Cheer Them Up with Laughter: Popeye and his rival Brutus vie for a job at a zoo where Olive is the head keeper. To get the job, they have to make a lugubrious hyena laugh. Predictably enough, Popeye is the one to succeed.
• Comedic Spanking: Sea Hag got one in "Sea Hagracy". From Popeye, no less!
• Comic-Book Adaptation: Some shorts, like "Me Quest for Poopdeck Pappy" and "Myskery Melody", are actually an adaptation of a comic strip.
• Cross Dresser:
  • Popeye did crossdress as an old woman once in "What's News".
  • Brutus also did crossdress as an old lady in "Magic Mirror"
• Depending on the Artist: Due to the show having various animation studios work on it, and each studio have their own set of animation directors meant the character's looks can be very different from one short to another.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: "Hits and Missiles" and "Barbecue for Two" were the first two shorts produced for the series, (by Paramount and Jack Kinney, respectively) and it shows:
  • "Hit and Missiles"
    • The opening credit used Paramount's theatrical Popeye opening music, and only have two credit roles, producer and director. Unlike other Paramount shorts where it exclude the producer role but add credit role for story, scenics, music, and animation.
    • Olive retains her design and clothing from late Famous Studio shorts instead of the mix between her hairdos and her classic clothes she had for the rest of the series.
    • Wimpy also has grey clothing and hat. Instead of black jacket with brown pants and hat.
  • "Barbecue for Two"
    • The opening credit also used Paramount's theatrical opening music and their spinach fanfare music. and it has a custom background instead of a red background they use for the rest of their episodes.
    • All characters have their design based on their comic looks. With the exception of Brutus, whose design is almost the same as the rest of the series. Also he didn't actually have a name for this shorts. (Popeye tempted him by calling him "Junior" which he responded by roaring. Otherwise no one says his name.) Likely because the studio wasn't sure about the name at the time.
    • The episode features a custom-made The End card.
• Episode Title Card: There are several card designs across all the shorts.
  • Paramount used a simple title card with yellow text on a dark blue background, except in "Amusement Park".
  • Similarly, Larry Harmon and Gerald Ray also used simple texts on a plain background with small differences.
  • Jack Kinney and Rembrandt have custom-made title cards for each shorts.
    • Rembrandt shorts that were animated by Halas and Batchelor feature title cards similar to Paramount instead.
• Eyes Always Shut: Wimpy retains this, but occasionally have his eyes open wide when shocking or surprised.
• Grocery Store Episode: "The Super Duper Market" takes place in a giant supermarket visited by Popeye, Olive and Wimpy. It is so big that one customer had been stuck in there for fifteen years trying to find the exit.
• Limited Animation: As expected from an animated series made for TV in 1960.
• Limited Wardrobe: Most of the time all the characters wear the same clothes, with a few exceptions.
• Mythology Gag:
  • "Paper Pasting Pandemonium" have Popeye and Brutus pasting room wallpapers for Olive. On one occasion, Brutus accidentally pick up a newspaper that's full of Popeye comics instead.
    Brutus: Hey, this paper is funny!
    Popeye: Because it's the funny paper!
  • In "Fleas a Crowd", Popeye is performing his flea actors' show from Thimble Theatre.
  • Swee' Pea was very bored and seems unhappy in "The Baby Contest", so Popeye tried to cheer him up with his own comic book. But Swee' Pea is not pleased by this.
    Popeye: Me own favorite comics! Swee' Pea is really sick.
• Non-Standard Character Design: Some shorts done by Rembrandt feature characters that are very different design-wise compared to Popeye and Olive.
• One-Episode Fear: Kind of. In "Scairdy Cat" Brutus make a "Fear Gas" that make anyone whiffs it become weak and scared of anything for a short time. He use it on Popeye throughout the shorts to take advantage of him. It lose its effect after Popeye eats his spinach however.
• Recycled Animation: Paramount's and Jack Kinney's shorts sometimes have this trope.
  • The spining star opening animation was repurposed from the Famous Studios run.
• Recycled Soundtrack:
  • The shorts made by Paramount reused music from their theatrical shorts, composed by Winston Sharples. Including the spinach fanfare music ^note  Which make their shorts stand out from the rest. As they're are the only studio to consistently used their own fanfare instead of the one composed specifically for the show: Rembrandt Films sometimes used their own, slower-tempo fanfare, while Jack Kinney used Paramount's spinach fanfare and theatrical opening music as noted in Early-Installment Weirdness. and the theatrical Popeye opening music once in "Hits and Missiles".
  • Gerald Ray also uses stock soundtracks, even using ending music piece from Paramount and Rembrandt.
• Running on the Spot: Popeye did this a few times. Shorts by Rembrandt sometimes have him spinning just one leg before he sprint.
• Stock Footage:
  • Paramount loves to utilize this trope. Especially the ending animation of Popeye singing from "Hits and Missiles" was used for most shorts that have Popeye singing at the end. Though sometimes this became Recycled Animation as he was given a new coat of paint to match how he actually looked in the shorts.
  • Jack Kinney also has a fair share of stock animations. Most notably in shorts center around time travels and storybook telling.
• Wouldn't Hit a Girl: This still applies to Popeye. (and thus Olive has to step in his place when necessary)
  • Subverted then inverted in "Sea Hagracy" While Popeye did said it ain't polite to hit a girl, he didn't says he can't spank one! Then at the end of the shorts, Popeye did strike back to her after fed up with her attacks.
  • Inverted in "The Green Dancin' Shoes", We clearly see Popeye fighting and punching Sea Hag on-screen. Though one could argue that it's a fairy tale so it's not actually Popeye who punched Sea Hag.