Pac Man (TV series)

Plot

The show follows the adventures of the title character, Pac-Man, his wife Pepper Pac-Man, their child Pac-Baby, their dog Chomp-Chomp and their cat Sour Puss. The family lives in Pac-Land, a place in which the geography and architecture seem to revolve primarily around spheres and sphere-like shapes. Most episodes of the series center around the ongoing battle between the Pac family and their only known enemies, the Ghost Monsters: Blinky, Inky, Pinky, Clyde, and Sue. They work for Mezmaron, a mysterious figure who resembles Darth Vader and acts similarly to Gargamel (from another Hanna-Barbera show The Smurfs). His sole mission is to locate and control the source of "Power Pellets", which serve as the primary food and power source for the city, and also as the deus ex machina in virtually every episode. The second (and final) season later introduces Super-Pac and Pac-Man's nephew P.J.

Influence

The show's initial success inspired ABC's rival CBS to create Saturday Supercade, which featured other video game characters from the golden age of video arcade games. The arcade game Pac-Land was based entirely on the cartoon, and Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures drew significant influence from it as well. Also, the Tengen release of the original Pac-Man arcade game for the Nintendo Entertainment System features box art based on the cartoon.

Season 2 (1983)

Aired as part of the The Pac-Man/Rubik, the Amazing Cube Hour.

Pac-Man Halloween Special

The Halloween special consisted of two segments from the show, "Pacula" and "Trick or Chomp". The special aired in primetime on ABC on October 30, 1982. It has been replayed on channels like Cartoon Network and Boomerang during Halloween in recent years.

Christmas Comes to Pacland

Christmas Comes to Pacland In this Christmas special, Pac-Man and family help Santa Claus (voiced by Peter Cullen) after crash-landing on Pac-Land (after the reindeer were startled by the floating eyes of the Ghost Monsters after Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man and Pac-Baby munched them). Mezmeron was the only character from the cartoon that is not in the special (although his lair which is covered in snow appears). It's been speculated that he was away for the holiday, but this hasn't been confirmed by the show's writers. It is shown every December on the Boomerang Christmas Party.

Crew

Broadcast history

Pac-Man aired on ABC Saturday Morning in the following formats:

During the first airing of the show, the large number of advertisers sponsoring it caused commercial breaks to be double their normal length. Later episodes featured normal commercial break times. Since the original run, reruns have turned up on the USA Cartoon Express on USA in the 1980s, Cartoon Network in the 1990s and Boomerang in 2005. The Christmas-themed episode currently airs each year as part of the Boomerang Christmas Party, an annual marathon of Christmas cartoons, but otherwise is not included in the channel's rotation. The show has also been aired a few times on Toonami. The series is also available for purchase on the Xbox Live Marketplace. In the United Kingdom it was first Broadcast on TVAM as a part of the Roland Rat show.

Home Media releases

In 1982, Worldvision Home Video Inc. (under Rainbow Products Ltd.) distributed a Pac-Man and Family VHS in Australia (catalogue number RCV 9019) and featured the episodes, Pacula, Trick or Chomp, Super Ghosts, The Pac-Man in the Moon, Invasion of the Pac-Pups, Journey to the Center of Pacland and the special Christmas Comes to Pacland. In 2012, Warner Archive released both seasons of Pac-Man on DVD in region 1 as part of their Hanna–Barbera Classics Collection. These are Manufacture-on-Demand (MOD) releases, available exclusively through Warner's online store or Amazon.com. The first season was released on January 31, 2012, followed by the release of the second season on September 11, 2012.