They just call on this big ham
[ In today's installment, Jabberjaw totally doesn't rip off a plot from the original Josie and the Pussycats. It also features the mandatory rip-off^W^W homage to Columbo that every cartoon in the 70s and early 80s did. ]
Episode Number: JBJ-10
Title: "Help, Help, It's the Phantom of the Kelp"
Original Airdate: 1976 November 13
Production Code: 84-10
Plot: The Phantom seeks control of the Aqua International Company by using monster kept seeds; The Neptunes know his real face and try to catch him, sneaking into the San Franaquan Country Club to get information.
Locations: San Franaqua.
Guest Characters: Master/Phantom, Minions, Bellhops, Police Officers, Police Chief, Aqua International Board of Directors, J B Parmalee, Security Robots, Club Members, Aqualiner captain.
Songs: ``Gonna Know It's Coming To You'' (performance, fragment), ``I Told You Once'' (chase)
Thoughts:
The Vitalizer Ray has the energy of ``a hundred centuries of sunlight'', which is why it can take seeds which have ``lain dormant for centuries'' and make them grow aggressively in seconds.
San Franaqua has its own Golden Gate Bridge and Bay Bridge.
Clamhead describes San Franaqua as looking ``like fairyland''.
The Neptunes are scheduled to play in the sky tower of the San Franaqua International Hotel.
The Master, also known as The Phantom, has a costume which really makes him look like a banana.
The monster kelp interrupts the Neptunes' first concert and also takes over the hotel.
Jabberjaw uses the monster kelp to swing down the hotel's atrium and crash into the Master/Phantom.
The Master/Phantom only wants the Neptunes after they accidentally see his face.
The Master/Phantom demands control of the Aqua International Corporation, making him relatively limited in his ambitions.
J B Parmalee, vice-president of Aqua International, is The Master/Phantom, another use of this dual-role gimmick.
Jabberjaw suggests they must be better than Sherlock Holmes, ``Sherlock Shark'', although I'd think some kind of ``Shark Holmes'' pun might work.
The Neptunes look up J B Parmalee on the hotel's directory, learning he's part of the San Franaqua Country Club and the San Franaqua Museum of Ancient Artifacts.
The Neptunes just sneak in to the San Franaqua Country Club to interrogate members. Clamhead disguies himself as a massage supervisor. Jabberjaw investigates a weightlifter while acting as Columbo.
The Phantom and a Minion walk past the shark-shaped hole in the wall created by Jabberjaw's fumbling around.
The San Franaqua Museum of Ancient Artifacts has apparently not noticed the theft of prehistoric seeds by The Master/Phantom.
The plan for catching the Phantom is to hold him down and take a picture of him without his mask.
The Phantom just has to have the monster kelp attack *one* Aqua International sealiner (not an aqualiner, this time) and then he can get around to disposing of the Neptunes. Others have noted the problems supervillains have with priorities.
The Neptunes escape the monster kelp by tying it in knots.
The concentrated-light ray-beam is able to make a Minion's beard grow enormously huge in seconds. This is an original theory of how beards grow.
The sealiner is rescued by the police through the use of immobilizer rays.
Bubbles keeps a monster kelp seed as souvenir; it's good for an affectionate daisy.
Do you suppose the residents of San Franaqua resent outsiders calling their dome ``Fraqua''?
Trivia: Brussels sprouts are the root vegetable highest in fiber content. Source: Molecular Gastronomy: Exploring The Science Of Flavor, Hervé This.
Currently Reading: The Path Betwen The Seas: The Creation Of The Panama Canal: 1870 - 1914, David McCullough.