Chuck Norris: Karate Kommandos is an American animated television series that originally aired in 1986 as a syndicated five episode mini-series. It was created by and starred Chuck Norris as himself, and produced by Ruby-Spears Productions. Re-runs of the cartoon have occasionally aired on Boomerang and Adult Swim.
Maps, Directions, and Place Reviews
Plot
This fictionalized version of Chuck Norris is a United States government operative with a team of "radically diverse" warriors known as the Karate Kommandos. Together, they fight against the organization VULTURE (it was never revealed what VULTURE was short for) led by The Claw and his right-hand man Super Ninja.
Production
The series follows the framing device of Mister T (also a Ruby-Spears production). At the beginning of each episode, a live action segment with Norris, usually at a gym or martial arts studio, is shown to explain what is going on. At the end of each episode, Norris narrates a moral lesson for the audience to learn.
Characters
Karate Kommandos
The team includes:
- Chuck Norris (voiced by himself) - The leader of the Karate Kommandos.
- Pepper (voiced by Kathy Garver) - A technology expert and mechanic.
- Reed (voiced by Sam Fontana) - Chuck's young apprentice and Pepper's brother.
- Kimo (voiced by Keone Young) - A samurai warrior.
- Tabe (voiced by Robert Ito) - A sumo champion.
- Too Much (voiced by Mona Marshall) - Chuck's young ward.
VULTURE
- Claw (voiced by Bill Martin) - The leader of VULTURE who serves as the primary antagonist of the series. Claw has a metal claw for a right arm.
- Super-Ninja (voiced by Keone Young) - A ninja who is Claw's right-hand man.
Episodes
DVD release
On April 1, 2011, Warner Archive released Chuck Norris: Karate Kommandos: The Complete Series on DVD in region 1 as part of their Hanna-Barbera Classics Collection. This is a Manufacture-on-Demand (MOD) release, available exclusively through Warner's online store and Amazon.com.
Production credits
- Executive Producers: Joe Ruby and Ken Spears
- Directors: Charles A. Nichols, John Kimball
- Producer: Larry Huber
- Story Editor: Dan DiStefano
- Assistant Story Editor: Ted Field
- Production Design Supervisor: John Dorman
- Storyboard Supervisor: Brian Chin
- Story Direction: Dick Sebast, XAM! Productions, Inc., Jaime Diaz
- Background Design Supervisor: Tom Minton
- Background Design Artists: Ted Blackman, Teresa Birch, Leo Swenson
- Character Design Artists: Tim Burgard, Noreen Beasley, Jaime Diaz
- Character Design Supervisor: Jim Woodring
- Main Model Design: Duncan Marjoribanks
- Vehicle and Prop Design: Steve Swaja
- Design Coordinators: Sharon McGinnis, Dana Napolitano, Laura Rubenstein
- Creative Consultants: Doug Wildey, Alfredo Alcala, Jack Kirby, Gil Kane
- Titles: Bill Hogan
- Models Supervision: Alan Huck
- Models: Tom Hickson, Alice Hamm, Julie Zakowski
- Starring the Voice of: Chuck Norris
- Featuring the Voices of: Robert Ito, Sam Fontana, Rodney Kageyama, Bill Martin, Bob Ridgely, Michael Chain, Kathy Garver, Mona Marshall, Alan Oppenheimer, Linda Gary, James Avery, Keone Young
- Voice Director: Michael Hack
- Background Supervision: Eric Semones
- Background Artists: Dennis Durrell, James Hegedus, Jim Hickey, Eric Semones
- Color Key: Dene Ann Ross
- Graphics: Iraj Paran, Tom Wogatzke
- Production Supervisor: Loretta High
- Studio Manager: Jeffrey M. Cooke
- Assistants to the Executive Producers: Melinda Diner, Jeanne Silveri
- Production Assistants: Lynne Batchelor, Paul Gorniak, Debby Ruby, Maria-Elena Guereca, Susie Feldstein, Lisa Schneider, Diorena Rock
- Executive in Charge of Post Production: Chip Yaras
- Associate Producer: Stacy McLaughlin
- Music Composed and Conducted by: Udi Harpaz
- Music Editors: Charles Inouye, Frank Fitzpatrick, Darryl Duran
- Effects Editors: Willie Allen, Golden Felton, Ralph White, Martina Young
- Re-Recording Mixer: Sergio Reyes
- Negative Consultant: Mary Duerrstein
- (c) 1986 RUBY-SPEARS ENTERPRISES, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Comic book
There was also a comic book series published by Star Comics, an imprint of Marvel Comics which produced comic books aimed at young children. Steve Ditko provided the art. Issue #1 found Too-Much daydreaming in class about being as great a martial artist as Chuck Norris, even taking down the Super Ninja singlehandedly. Without warning, Too-Much's teacher calls on him to give his book report (which, being Too-Much, he hasn't even started) on James Clavell's The Children's Story. Then Too-Much, his classmates, and their teacher taken hostage by the Klaw's ninjas...who demand the Super-cruiser in return for their release. The Super-cruiser, which looks like a U-Haul truck, is a new anti-terrorist weapon created by Norris for the government. Pepper drives the Super-cruiser to the school, where she and her trusty dog take on the ninjas...while Chuck himself barges into the classroom and knocks out more of the ninjas. One of the ninjas tries to shoot Norris, who stops the bullet with a copy of The Children's Story; he then sells Too-Much a bill of goods about what a great book this is, while police haul the ninjas off to jail.
Action figures
To coincide with the airing of the show, Kenner Products made a set of action figures based on the main characters of the show. Kenner also made many accessories, including weapons and vehicles, to go along with the figurines.
Popular culture
- The show gets a mention in episode 23 of Space Dandy.
- The show is parodied in the 2012 CGI series version of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles via a fictional cartoon show named Chris Bradford's 2 Ruff Krew, starring and produced by Chris Bradford, himself a parody of Chuck Norris. This fictional series is first featured in the 4th season episode "The Weird World of Wyrm".
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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