Home Entertainment Review: Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels: The Complete Series (Warner)

The 1970s had no shortage of Teen Detectives. Groovy adolescents solving mysteries were all the rage. Scooby-doo and the gang, Josy and the Pussy Cats, Jabber Jaw and his band of misfits—all of them “medaling kids.” One gang of sleuths that few people know of are the Teen Angels (Brenda, Taffy, and DeeDee) and their beloved friend, Captain Caveman. As with any of the shows, Captain Caveman is an idiotic, but lovable sidekick to the hip young teens that solve all the mysteries. Caveman often eats the clues, fumbles an arrest, or otherwise almost wrecks the gangs chances of solving the mystery while letting out his battle cry: CAPTAIN CAVEMA-A-A-A-AN!

The show does not live up to Scooby-Doo, however, because it lacks originality. It follows the same stereotypes as all the other Hannah-Barbara mysteries. Unfortunately, the characters are not nearly as memorable and the “lead,” Cap himself is mostly annoying. The mysteries are all poorly written, easy to solve, and forgettable. Perhaps most annoying is the use of “screen swipes” every 30 seconds or so to change the scenery. The flow of the show gets better as the series goes along, but the characters are still only bearable at best. The character’s history is certainly the more exciting story to all of this.

Captain Caveman is based (at least in design) on Rock and Gravel Slagg from Wacky Races.  The character is voiced by voice legend Mel Blanc who is best remembered for his work with Warner Bros. as the voices of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Tweety Bird, Sylvester the Cat, Yosemite Sam, Foghorn Leghorn, Marvin the Martian, Pepé Le Pew, Speedy Gonzales, the Tasmanian Devil and many of the other characters from the Looney Tunes as well as Barney Rubble from the Flintstones. Caveman eventually became a Flintstones character as they said that Captain Caveman actually lived in Bedrock. The character was used again when as the children’s favorite Super Hero on The Flintstone Kids.

The DVD has no special features. All that it contains are the sixty episodes of the three season spanning children’s series. For someone who grew up watching Captain Caveman this may be a really nice treat. As for me, I give it 3 out of 5 stars.