The Great Grape Ape Show Information

The Great Grape Ape Show is a Saturday morning cartoon produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions that was broadcast on ABC from 1975 to 1978.

Summary

The title character is a 40-foot-tall purple gorilla (voiced by Bob Holt) with the mind of a child. His catch phrase is saying his name twice ("Grape Ape, Grape Ape") after anything anyone says, usually as a form of agreement or acknowledgement of what was said. He travels the countryside with his canine pal Beegle Beagle (voiced by Marty Ingels), whom he calls "Beegly Beagly". Grape Ape's immense size tends to initially shock and frighten those unfamiliar with him, and his presence alone has often terrified people and animals, causing them to run off screaming invariably: "YEOW! It's a gorill-ill-ill-ill-la!". In one instance, a signpost reacted similarly, flipping out multiple segments of wood as the protaganists read the above reaction from it, after which it folded itself up and left in great haste.

Grape Ape and his friend Beegle Beagle usually move in a small yellow van driven by Beegle Beagle with Grape Ape sitting on the roof. A recurring bit of business would be for him to 'rev up' the tiny vehicle like a child with a friction toy, then hop aboard as the van would start on its way.

Given his size, Grape Ape's sneezes were equivalent to a hurricane; and when he cried, which was sometimes when he was homesick for his family, his tears could cause flooding in areas.

Episodes

1. "That Was No Idol, That Was My Ape" (prod. #79-2)/"The All-American Ape" (prod. #79-1) (first aired 9/6/75)

2. "Movie Madness" (79"3)/"Trouble at Bad Rock" (79"4) (9/13/75)

3. "Flying Saucery" (79"5)/"Thar's No Feud Like an Old Feud" (79"6) (9/20/75)

4. "The Grape Race" (79"7)/"The Big Parade" (79"8) (9/27/75)

5 "A Knight to Remember" (79"9)/"S.P.L.A.T"* (79"10) (10/4/75)

6. "G.I. Ape" (79"11)/"The Purple Avenger" (79"12) (10/11/75)

7. "Grapefinger" (79"13)/"Return to Balaboomba" (79"21) (10/18/75)

8. "Amazon Ape" (79"15)/"Grape Marks the Spot" (79"16) (10/25/75)

9. "The Invisible Ape" (79"18)/"Public Grape No. 1" (79"19) (11/1/75)

10. "The Incredible Shrinking Grape" (79"17)/"What's a Nice Prince Like You Doin' in a Duck Like That?" (79"22) (11/8/75)

11. "Who's New at the Zoo" (79"14)/"The Indian Grape Call" (79"24) (11/15/75)

12. "A Grape is Born" (79"23)/"The First Grape in Space" (79"25) (11/22/75)

13. "S.P.L.A.T's Back" (Part 1) (79"20)/"S.P.L.A.T's Back" (Part 2) (79"26) (11/27/75*)

14. "To Sleep or Not to Sleep" (79"27)/"Olympic Grape" (79"28) (11/29/75)

15. "Ali Beagle and the 40 Grapes" (79"29)/"Grape Five-O" (79"31) (12/6/75)

16. "The Purple Avenger Strikes Again" (79"30)/"The Grape Connection" (79"32) (12/13/75)

^*Telecast at Noon (EST), Thursday afternoon, November 27, 1975, a Thanksgiving, as part of ABC's Thanksgiving Funshine Festival.

Credits

Executive Producers: William Hanna and Joseph Barbera

Director: Charles A. Nichols

Voices: Joan Gerber, Virginia Gregg, Bob Hastings, Bob Holt, Marty Ingels, Allan Melvin, Don Messick, Alan Oppenheimer, Hal Smith, John Stephenson, Lurene Tuttle, Lennie Weinrib, Frank Welker, Paul Winchell

Broadcast history

The show was originally broadcast as a segment of The New Tom and Jerry/Grape Ape Show during the 1975"76 season; for the 1976"77 season, the show became The Tom and Jerry/Grape Ape/Mumbly Show, and in 1977"78, The Great Grape Ape Show became its own half-hour show on Sunday mornings. Thirty-two 10-minute installments of Grape Ape were made; two were aired per 30-minute episode. Grape Ape also appeared as a member of "The Yogi Yahooeys" team on Scooby's All-Star Laff-A-Lympics and Scooby's All-Stars from 1977 to 1979. Grape Ape would often team up with Yakky Doodle. In Britain, the BBC ran the Great Grape Ape with the cartoon series Bailey's Comets during 1977/78. The Tom & Jerry show also appeared elsewhere in the BBC schedules, whereas the other part of the U.S. Saturday fare, "Mumbly", was shown by ITV.

In the 1980s, repeats of The Great Grape Ape Show were shown on USA Cartoon Express; they were later restored and run on Cartoon Network and can also be seen on Boomerang, often as part of the Boomerang Zoo package. The full half-hour version was not shown on Boomerang until November 22, 2012.

Other appearances

• Grape Ape had his own short lived comic book series called The Great Grape Ape that ran 2 issues in 1976 published by Charlton Comics. He also appeared in Laff-A-Lympics #1-#11 and #13 as well as TV Stars #1. Both titles were published by Marvel Comics in 1978"79. He also appeared in Hanna Barbera Presents #6 published by Archie Comics in 1996. Outside of these American comics, Grape Ape was featured in three annual comics published in England from 1978 through 1980.
• Grape Ape appeared in the Laff-A-Lympics on the Yogi Yahooies. His size varies on the show, sometimes being his normal 40 feet and other times about 6"10 feet.
• In the Dexter's Laboratory episode "Chubby Cheese," Grape Ape (voiced by Jeff Bennett) was among the animatronic Hanna-Barbera characters in the animatronic show as he closes out Chubby's song.
• Grape Ape also made a cameo in an episode of The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy called "Giant Billy and Mandy All Out Attack".
• Grape Ape and Beegle Beagle make a cameo in a 2012 MetLife commercial entitled "Everyone".
• Grape Ape was featured in the episode "Grape Juiced" of Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law.
• In the Robot Chicken episode "I'm Trapped," Grape Ape is seen dead and a crowd of policemen are around his body and realise that they didn't hear the G in his name, which would explain why they shot him.

DVD release

The episodes "The All Americian Ape" and "That Was No Idol, That Was My Ape" are available on the DVD Saturday Morning Catoons 1970's Vol. 2.

In other languages

• (Brazilian)