S Archives — Page 32 of 75 — The Cartoon Databank

Super Chicken was one of three segments in the half-hour show George of the Jungle. The other segments included Tom Slick, and the show’s feature segment George of the Jungle. Each of the segments was 6–7 minutes in length.

Millionaire playboy fowl, Henry Cabot Henhouse III fought crime in the guise of his masked alter ego, Super Chicken. He drank a special concoction he called Super Sauce to gain super powers, although what specific abilities he gained was difficult to discern as any special “abilities” weren’t readily apparent.

Henry was assisted by his faithful companion Fred, a none-too-bright lion of loyal service who wore a sweater monogrammed with a backward letter “F”. As often happened, if Fred expressed concern when danger loomed, Super Chicken was quick to remind him, “You knew the job was dangerous when you took it, Fred!”

The process of becoming Super Chicken quickly became familiar to those watching the show. When the service of Super Chicken was needed, Henry slipped into his super suit while Fred went off screen to prepare the Super Sauce (conveniently, a mixing bowl and the ingredients were always handy, regardless of their location). Fred returned after a few moments and presented the mixture, usually in a martini glass, to Henry. Henry drank the super sauce, made some comment on the quality or oddity of its flavor, then succumbed to a vigorous physical reaction.

The duo traveled in an egg shaped, jet aircraft called the Super-Coop. From his jet powered perch, Super Chicken occasionally let loose with his “cry in the sky”. The clucking battle challenge that went “Buck, ba-buck, ba-buck, ba-buck, ba-buck, bu-buuu, ba-buck, ba-buck, ba-buck,…” put evildoers everywhere on notice. In addition to his “super powers,” Super Chicken possessed an assortment of random, oddball gizmos — such as an oyster magnet, tear gas fountain gun pen, or a total destruct button — that just happened to be ideally suited for the problem at hand. Useful as the devices may have been, however, for Super Chicken they always backfired.

Super Chicken may not have been the most refined superhero in the history of the genre, but through the use of skill, luck, and the fortuitous intervention of the police, he always managed to get the job done. In the final analysis, isn’t that what really matters?

SuperTed wasn’t always super. He was created as an ordinary teddy bear, found faulty on the factory assembly line, then thrown away like a piece of rubbish into an old, dark storeroom. There he was found by a yellow skinned, green spotted space man named Spottyman who used cosmic dust to bring the teddy bear to life. Spottyman then took the bear to a magic cloud, where Mother Nature gave him special powers. In this way the bear became SuperTed, having only to utter a secret magic word in order to transform and access his special powers. From that day forward SuperTed and Spottyman teamed up to fight crime… although it turned out that Spottyman was a recurring victim of misfortune whom SuperTed had to be perpetually bail out of trouble.

SuperTed came equipped with jet powered shoes — and Spottyman with a jet powered backpack — in order to fly. Other than that, any special powers SuperTed had weren’t readily apparent. The only noticeable difference before and after SuperTed’s transformation was his costume, and perhaps a boost in self-confidence. His secret word was never revealed, but it’s noteworthy that it was never secretly uttered either. SuperTed always said he was going to say the secret word, but there was no indication that he said anything — when he transformed he simply unzipped and pealed off his outer layer of fur to reveal his costumed self underneath (all of which was accompanied by an impressive, thunderous light show).

Spottyman and SuperTed had two permanent bases from which they operated: a sprawling tree house located in a forest, and a circular space station orbiting Earth. To alert them of trouble, a video monitor carried the distress signal of anybody calling for help or, just as often, in a grand display of serendipity, it just happened that the two were in the same general area as the series’ perpetual villains, Texas Pete and his cronies.

Texas Pete was a no-good cowboy who, using a liberal stream of insults and threats, lead an effeminate skeleton named Skeleton and an overweight dimwit named Bulk to help carry out his evil plots. Despite gaining some temporary victories and causing a lot of trouble, Texas Pete and his gang were invariably over matched by the cute and cuddly purveyor of justice, SuperTed.

SuperTed adventured on for three seasons, comprised of 36 episodes that were approximately 6 1/2 minutes in length. In 1989, Hanna-Barbera Productions created a new series titled The Further Adventures of SuperTed, which aired for a single season.