Peter Potamus (Hanna-Barbera) coming from Warner Archive

The Peter Potamus Show DVD news: DVD Plans for The Complete Series | TVShowsOnDVD.com »

1960s Hanna-Barbera is one of my favorite "guilty pleasures," and I've been waiting for this one for a long time. And check out this Instagram "unboxing" post -- there is a short clip of the original show opening, including Potamus doing the Ideal sponsor billboard via the "hippo hurrican holler," apparently remastered:

Instagram video by Warner Archive • Oct 4, 2016 at 6:21pm UTC »

Having watched these in reruns back in the 1970s, I think of Peter Potamus as the "other half" of the Magilla Gorilla show, since our local station in Chicago ran them both together under the Magilla Gorilla title. Magilla Gorilla (along with Punkin Puss and Ricochet Rabbit) was released on DVD ten years ago, but seemed incomplete to me until now. Ironically, Potamus might end up being handled with more care than the more well-known Magilla; it seems Warner Archive these days is a lot pickier about making sure they have decent elements before they release something, and when Magilla was released in 2006, it seemed like they used whatever masters of the various cartoons they had on the shelf. And the Magilla show opening and closing weren't even included (though both appeared later on the Saturday Morning Cartoons 1960s sampler sets).

The other cartoon segments are Breezly & Sneezly and Yippee, Yappee & Yahooey (aka Goofy Guards).

I'm looking forward to this one! (There is no release date announced yet, but according to the video, it sure looks like it's done and ready to go.)

 

The potamus of love? (with apologies to Steve Miller)

 

I wish they just had all the old Hanna Barbera cartoons streaming somewhere. It's getting hard to find anything more than 10 years old.

 

Not my favorite, for sure.
I remember that at the end of PP, he would say be sure to see the Magilla Gorilla show, and MG had the same plug for PP.

 

Coming out November 1. Now up for pre-order:

Peter Potamus Show, The (MOD) | »

 

I never saw the show. (too young). I know of the character via his appearances on Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law.

 

I don't know if you'd like it now, not having seen it as a kid. H-B stuff is kind of like that.

For me though, I've been waiting for this forever. I missed the first run, but when all the cartoons from the Magilla Gorilla and Peter Potamus shows were in reruns (under the Magilla Gorilla title) in Chicago in the 1970s, I was there watching it every day. One of my most wanted H-B series.

 

People forget that Peter Potamus was basically a steal of Joe E. Brown, a 1940s comedian noted for his huge mouth:



Back in those days, I think they could get away with basically satirizing a famous Hollywood celebrity and making a cartoon character out of their image and voice. Snagglepuss was Bert Lahr (the Cowardly Lion from Wizard of Oz), Top Cat was Phil Silvers (and the whole gang from the Sgt. Bilko Show), The Flintstones was essentially The Honeymooners... you can go on and on. More than one actor/comedian tried to sue Hanna-Barbera over similarities like this, but you can make a good argument that a satire is protected under free speech, plus the characters always had new names.

I didn't hate Peter Potamus, but I think a lot of their cartoons during this era had stories that basically just took up space inbetween the commercials. I think the truly unique Hanna-Barbera shows were the ones where they really made up an idea out of thin air, and some of those were interesting. (Although even Ruff & Reddy was closely inspired by HB's Tom & Jerry from MGM.)

 

The "hippo, hurricane holler".

 

Bert Lahr made enough noise about Snagglepuss's voice that eventually, they started adding a brief on-screen credit reading "Snagglepuss voice by Daws Butler" during Cocoa Krispies commercials featuring the character.

The best H-B stuff is the earliest. Up through Quick Draw McGraw they are pretty decent (if derivative). Through the superhero/adventure-oriented cartoon era I think they did OK, if not great. Then it falls apart and the 1970s stuff is (to me) pretty forgettable.

But some of these shows are dear to me because I watched them regularly as a kid, even in reruns.

 

Hong Kong Phoey was pretty great in the silly humor category in the 70s, but the superhero/adventure stuff was castrated by the handwringing contingent. The same reason the gun humor was cut out of Looney Tune reruns.