Chuck Norris: Karate Kommandos (1986) - "Deadly Dolphin" w/ Patrick Woodall

The Pilot Project

Patrick Woodall (Adam Ruins Everything, Plus One) returns to help us take on Chuck Norris: Karate Kommandos, the 1986 cartoon where Chuck leads a band of martial artists to fight the evil Claw, Super Ninja, Angelfish and their band of evil ninjas. Plus dolphins!

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Watch: Tubi
Aired: September 15, 1986

Episode Run: 5 Episodes

Directed by: John Kimball (Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979), Darkwing Duck (1991) and Chip 'n' Dale Rescue Rangers (1988)), Charles A. Nichols (Charlotte's Web" (1973), "Pinocchio" (1940))

Written By: Michael Maurer and Dorothy Middleton

Produced by: Larry Huber (Danger Rangers (2003), ChalkZone (2002) and Dexter's Laboratory (1996))

Composed by: Udi Harpaz

Official Description: Chuck Norris is an operative for the United States government who has a team consisting of Pepper, a technological genius, Kimo, a Samurai warrior, Reed, his apprentice, Tabe, a Sumo warrior, and Too Much, the young ward. Together they foil the plans of The Claw and his right hand man, The Super Ninja.

Cast:

Sam Fontana ... Reed (voice)

Kathy Garver ... Pepper (voice)

Robert Ito ... Tabe (voice)

Bill Martin ... Claw (voice)

Chuck Norris ... Chuck Norris (voice)

Alan Oppenheimer... President (voice)

Keone Young ... Super Ninja (voice)

Episode Description: Angel Fish kidnaps Dr. Sanford, the architect behind the creation of Sea Lab, so that the Claw can infiltrate it and control the world's oceans. It is up to Chuck Norris and his team of Karate Kommandos to stop them.

September 1986

• The #1 song that week was “Take My Breath Away" By Berlin

• The #1 movie for the week was "Blue Velvet" By David Lynch The film concerns a young college student who, returning home to visit his ill father, discovers a severed human ear in a field that leads to his uncovering a vast criminal conspiracy and entering a romantic relationship with a troubled lounge singer.

• The #1 tv show was The Cosby Show, followed by Family Ties and Cheers

• Space Shuttle Challenger blew up 73 seconds after take-off, killing all 7 crew members. Tens of thousands of school-age children were watching the flight live because teacher Christa McAuliffe was a member of the crew.

• The term “Going postal” originated from a mass shooting committed by a US Postal Service employee, Patrick Sherrill, in an act of workplace rage. Fourteen people were killed in the rampage.

• The USSR’s Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant reactor # 4 had a mishap, giving radiation poisoning to an estimated 500,000 to 6,000,000 people. The remaining three reactors continued to operate until 1991, 1996 and 2000 respectively. The USSR created and distributed a forged letter that “exposed” the US government “conspiracy” to overstate the seriousness of Chernobyl meltdown

• ‘The Wave’ was first brought to worldwide attention during the 1986 FIFA World Cup in Mexico

• The year we found out that last year’s Dallas TV show entire season was just Bobby Ewing’s (Patrick Duffy) dream (Who Shot JR)

Fun Facts

• 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

• 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".

• The Karate Komando comic book was penned by the creator of Spider-man and Dr Strange, steve ditko

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