The All New Popeye Hour

Did You Know?

• The first DVD featuring the series was released on May 16, 2000, by Rhino Home Video with eighteen segments.
• As of 2026, the series has not received a complete series DVD box set.
• Warner Home Video released Popeye & Friends - Volume One, a single DVD with eight unedited episodes.

Production

The show was produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions, which aimed to retain the style of the original Thimble Theatre comic strip while adhering to content restrictions on violence. Characters included Popeye, Bluto, Olive Oyl, Wimpy, Swee'Pea, Poopdeck Pappy, Eugene the Jeep, and Popeye's quadruplet nephews. Popeye's outfit reverted to his original blue sailor's uniform, though his white hat kept the Dixie cup style from his United States Navy uniform.

Bluto's name was restored after having been changed to Brutus in the early 1960s due to a rights misunderstanding; Olive Oyl also returned to her 1930s look. Initially, the series had three segments: Popeye, Popeye's Treasure Hunt, and Dinky Dog, a non-Popeye segment about a large sheepdog that later spun off into its own show. In 1979, The Popeye Sports Parade was added. Because of restrictions on violence, Popeye did not throw punches but instead lifted Bluto with his hands or machinery and hurled him away.

This was the last series in which Jack Mercer voiced Popeye; he died on December 4, 1984, fifteen months after the show's cancellation. Unlike most Hanna-Barbera series of the 1970s, it had no laugh track. Each episode included a PSA interstitial called a Safety Tip or Health Tip, covering topics such as washing hands, brushing teeth, nutrition, crossing the street, sunburn protection, and spray paint safety. Some Safety Tips featured an anthropomorphic wolf named Mr. No-No who engaged in dangerous activities like consuming toxic substances, drinking alcohol, smoking, and recreational drug use, often involving Pipeye, Peepeye, Poopeye, and Pupeye until stopped or turned away by Popeye.

During the series' run, CBS aired the half-hour special The Popeye Valentine Special: Sweethearts at Sea on February 14, 1979.

Voice cast

Jack Mercer reprised his role as Popeye and also voiced Poopdeck Pappy, Pipeye, and Peepeye. Marilyn Schreffler became the new voice of Olive Oyl, as Mae Questel declined due to scheduling conflicts; Schreffler also voiced the Sea Hag, Swee'Pea, Alice the Goon, Poopeye, and Pupeye. Allan Melvin voiced Bluto. Other cast members included Julie Bennett as Monica, Daws Butler as Wimpy, Jackie Joseph as Sandy, Don Messick as Eugene the Jeep, Frank Nelson as Uncle Dudley, Hal Smith as Col. Crumb, John Stephenson as Mr. No No, Frank Welker as Dinky, and Jo Anne Worley as Sgt. Bertha Blast. Additional voices were provided by Roger Behr, Ted Cassidy, Richard Erdman, Joan Gerber, Ross Martin, Virginia McSwain, Pat Parris, Barney Phillips, Jane Roberts, William Schallert, Jean Vander Pyl, Janet Waldo, and Lennie Weinrib.