Jabberjaw (TV series)


 * This article is about the TV series. For the main title character, see Jabberjaw.

Jabberjaw is an American animated mystery comedy TV series produced by Hanna-Barbera (H-B) for ABC's Saturday morning children's programming. It ran in 1976, airing 16 episodes that spanned one season. It was the ninth Scooby-Doo "clone" series.

The series centres on Jabberjaw, a 15-foot amphibious great white shark and the drummer for The Neptunes, a rock group made up of four teenagers: Biff, Shelly, Bubbles and Clamhead. They live in an underwater civilization in the year 2076, and travel to various underwater cities where they encounter and deal with assorted megalomaniacs and supervillains who want to conquer the undersea world.

The entire series has been released on DVD.

Development
As with the majority of Hanna-Barbera cartoons in the 1970s, the format of the series is similar to shows such as Scooby-Doo, Josie and the Pussycats, and Speed Buggy, the latter two of which are also similar to Scooby-Doo. The series is also inspired by the overall shark mania of the 1970s caused by the then-recent success of the 1975 film Jaws.

Music
The music was composed by Hoyt Curtin.

Cast

 * Frank Welker as Jabberjaw
 * Tommy Cook as Biff
 * Pat Parris as Shelly
 * Julie McWhirter Dees as Bubbles
 * Barry Gordon as Clamhead

Legacy
Although the series was considered to be a cash-in to Scooby-Doo, the title character of Jabberjaw would make another appearance in 1977's Laff-A-Lympics, where he is one of the show's guest announcers and referee in some episodes.

In 2021, Jabberjaw and the Neptunes appear in the Jellystone! series on HBO Max (later rebranded as Max), in which Jabberjaw is female in the show's continuity.

In popular culture

 * In the Robot Chicken skit "JJ's Summer Vacation" of the episode "Things Look Bad for the Streepster," the Neptunes suggest Jabberjaw to go on a vacation to relax. Although Jabberjaw assumes the gang is using it as an excuse to replace him, he obliges and ventures into the sea. After encountering a not so friendly shark and a "go go dancer" (which is a diver in a cage), Jabberjaw runs into the cast of Jaws, accidentally giving one of the cast a "Shark BJ" trying to get on the boat. He is then killed the same way the shark is killed in Jaws, having a helium tank blown up in his face. The Neptunes are worried about Jabberjaw but are happy with their new drummer; the not so friendly shark Jabberjaw ran into earlier.