Popeye the Sailor

This is about the 1960 show. For other programs starring Popeye, see Popeye

Popeye the Sailor
Premiere	June 10, 1960
Finale	April 23, 1963
Creator	E.C. Segar (characters)
Network/Provider	Syndication
Style	5.5-minute children's animated comedy
Company	King Features Syndicate, Paramount Cartoon Studios, Format Films, Larry Harmon Pictures, Gerald Ray Studios (TV Spots), Rembrandt Films Halas & Bachelor Studios
Seasons	1
Episodes	220 (List of episodes)
Origin	USA

Popeye the Sailor is a children's animated comedy that aired in syndication. It was the first series based on Popeye, and featured the first Popeye cartoons created for television. The series was started because the theatrical Popeye cartoons produced by Famous Studios were running successfully on TV, but King Features Syndicate, who created the original comic strip, were not receiving profits from the TV showings, so they created their own new shorts to run on TV. Because they wanted to get a lot of shorts created in a short amount of time, executive producer Al Brodax hired five different studios to create the shorts.

Of note, Bluto, who was a muscular antagonist to Popeye in the Famous Studios shorts (having joined the Navy in the cartoon Seein' Red, White 'n' Blue), was redesigned in civvies, was made pudgy and renamed Brutus. He was renamed as such in the Thimble Theater comic strip. The name change was necessitated because King Features executives mistakenly assumed that Famous Studios parent Paramount Pictures had owned the rights to the name Bluto due to a lack of research by King Features, which later learned that they owned the name Bluto due to the character first being created for Thimble Theater.

Note that the episodes originally ran in half-hour blocks of four episodes, but the original order they ran in and airdates are not known, so all of the 5.5-minute segments are listed individually by the year they were produced.

Cast

Actor	Character	Duration
Main Cast
Jack Mercer	Popeye	1	2	3
Mae Questel	Olive Oyl	1	2	3
Jackson Beck	Brutus	1	2	3

Seasons

Season	Premiere	Finale	#
Syndication
Season One	1960	—	175
Season Two	1961	—	41
Season Three	1962	—	4

In-Depth

• At a Glance: Additional information about the series

DVD Releases

(WA)--Through Warner Archive.

External Sites

• Popeye the Sailor on IMDb