You start to hear the sounds of the morning, the wind rustling the leaves, the chirping of the birds and that’s when you realize what day it is–Saturday! Cartoons! All week long you’ve been starved of cartoons, and now it is your time to feast! You throw off the covers, shove your feet in your slippers and sprint downstairs!

Grab that big bowl of C-3POs, adjust the antennae and plop down on the floor for your weekly dose of animated fun!

This week: Pandamonium

This is definitely one of the strangest and rarest cartoons featured here or anywhere for that matter. The first minute of the intro is spent just describing the backstory. They left out that the Panda’s names were Chesty, Timothy, and sadly Algernon. They could all combine into one panada-thingy called Poppapanda. Like I said really weird.

If I saw this when I was a kid, I don’t remember it at all. My friend reminded me of it when we were in high school and ever since then I can’t forget it even if I tried!

Do you remember Panadamonium?

21 thoughts on “Saturday Morning Cartoon: Pandamonium

  1. Egypt Urnash says:

    I remember watching this religiously. I’m not gonna watch this video and find out how embarrassed I should be about that.

  2. Benjamin says:

    I had no idea idea a show like this even existed. It’s even weirder then that cartoon series based on the rubix cube toy.

  3. Manny says:

    Yep, this is one of those toons that almost no one remembers, like The Mighty Orbots or Meatballs and Spaghetti, remember that one? And I remember liking the rubies cube show. Also the Mr. T cartoon was pretty fun.

    1. gabe says:

      Yep, I remember them. They are all on the list for future posts! 🙂

  4. Jay says:

    I definitely remember this cartoon… most of it was generic ’80s action/wackiness, but I remember being very freaked out by Poppapanda. What a bizarre show concept!

    1. gabe says:

      Just when you thought it could get any weirder, huh?

  5. Chris Sobieniak says:

    This cartoon aired on CBS during the 1982-83 season. Either I was watching another channel like NBC or did see this and completely forgot it since it wasn’t that memorable to me (some of those oddities like “The Dukes”). I think an episode or two showed up on VHS but that was it.

    Apparently this was one of Marvel Productions’ first efforts (which looked no different from anything else on TV then before they started hitting the Japanese studios like Toei for overseas toil). Another show they did for the same network was “Meatballs & Spaghetti”.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSKwP5p7qeU

    Apparently MGM distributed the show though I’m not sure if it’s still in their vaults, but it would’ve been interesting if they had the chance to release it somewhere on some platform around the time “Kung Fu Panda” was making the rounds.

    1. gabe says:

      Wow! I didn’t know this was Marvel! Crazy!

      1. Chris Sobieniak says:

        Especially since it feels nothing like when they did Dungeons & Dragons, G.I. Joe, Transformers, Muppet Babies and so-on.

        If you noticed the people involved in this, you’d realized most of them came from another studio who previously gave us Pink Panther, numerous Dr. Seuss specials and whatever else in the 60’s and 70’s, DePatie-Freleng Enterprise! One of DFE’s final productions was several shows for Marvel in the late 70’s.

        1. gabe says:

          Well, that explains a lot.

          1. Chris Sobieniak says:

            I’m glad to help!

          2. Chris Sobieniak says:

            Bothering to beat a dead horse over and over again sadistically, here’s the VHS cover of that cartoon for posterity (or lack of).
            http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/5104CJFAVDL._SS500_.jpg

            Noticed a lot of great people worked on this thing.

  6. Chris Sobieniak says:

    Someone just uploaded a CBS promo for ’em, here you go!
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVkBnEBkaPo

    1. gabe says:

      Wow. It really doesn’t look more enticing does it?

  7. Jett Perrobone says:

    I remember this cartoon! My memories of it are very vague, though (I was only 5 or 6 years old when it aired), but from what I recall, the pyramid pieces that the pandas collected were used by them like a “radar” to help them find other pieces.
    I’d love it if they’d release this cartoon onto DVD or something – I have a deep nostalgia for this show. :3

    1. gabe says:

      Wow! Great! So glad we could bring you a piece of your childhood back!

  8. Steve Domanski says:

    Pandamonium!?! Wow!!! I had -totally- forgotten this one!
    Sometimes nostalgia does safely belong in the memories though. 😉
    My friends a few years back were all excited about Thundercats coming to DVD. I was like… “you sure you wanna do that to yourself? You’re just gonna be sad when watch it.” It just doesn’t feel the same. You see all the flaws, the crappy acting…
    Gummi Bears still holds up though. 😉

    1. gabe says:

      Ha! Sometimes it is better to keep those things in the past 🙂 I wanna see cartoons that make me feel like those again!

  9. Max West says:

    I actually watched this show years ago as a child. I remember there used to be a website dedicated to the show, but it must be long gone as I can’t find it. A VHS tape was also put out containing at least one episode – good luck finding that.

    1. I have that VHS and have uploaded it to YouTube. https://youtu.be/bzPgcTYLKg4

  10. Mouse says:

    Wow, i totally remember this cartoon. I recall it was on just before dungeons and dragons cartoon, and i recall really liking it.

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