The Plastic Man Comedy/Adventure Show (1979–1981)

The adventures of the original stretchable superhero and various other characters.

Stars:

Michael Bell, Jack Baker, Melendy Britt

Cast

Credited cast:
Michael Bell	...	Plastic Man (voice)
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Jack Baker	...	Sunstroke (voice) (as John Anthony Bailey)
Melendy Britt	...	Penny (voice)
Johnny Brown	...	Splashdown (voice)
Peter Cullen	...	Mighty Man (voice)
Bobby F. Ellerbee	...	Cosmo (voice)
Al Fann	...	Rickety Rocket (voice)
John Stephenson	...	Additional Voices (voice)
Dee Timberlake	...	Venus (voice)
Frank Welker	...	Fangface (voice)

Storyline

In this series, we see the adventures of Plastic Man, a man who was doused with acid which gave him the ability to manipulate his molecular structure to stretch and shape his body to any shape he wants. Now with two regular partners, he battles crime around the world. We also have the adventures of Mighty Man, a tiny superhero who fights crime with help of Yukk, the world's ugliest dog. We also have the adventures of Rickety Rocket, an artificially intelligent ship hand built by an team of African American detectives in a future time.

---

Plot Keywords:

superhero | punctuation in title | dc comics | based on comic | slash in title | 

---

Genres:

Adventure | Animation | Family

---

Certificate:

TV-G

Details

Official Sites:

DC Comics - Secret Files (863K pdf)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Company Credits

Production Co:

Ruby-Spears Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

120 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

Plastic Man is actually a rubber man. He got his name because there was already a hero owned by MLJ (now Archie Comics) called 'Flexo the Rubber Man' at the time that Plastic Man made his debut in the 1940s.

---

Connections

Referenced in South Park: Kyle Sucks Cartman's Balls - The Trilogy (2008)

User Reviews

THIS is Plastic Man? Not by a longshot!

Anybody fooled into thinking that this show is the adventures of Plastic Man-think again!!!

First, some vital info:

Plastic Man was created in 1941 by Jack Cole and first appeared in Police Comics #1 (August 1941), published by Quality Comics (itself later purchased by DC Comics). He was a crook named Eel O'Brien, who while trying to rob a chemical company, fell into a vat of experimental acid after being shot. Running away from the building, he fell unconscious, and was found and revived by a group of monks; while recuperating, he found out that he had these amazing stretchy powers, and decided to do good instead of doing bad. After getting Woozy Winks as a sidekick, he fights crime in a series of quirky, offbeat and surreal slapstick adventures-NOT the idiotic and dumb ones as seen in this TV show. He also did not ever meet or have adventures with Penny (although I must admit, now that I know that the current Plastic Man is the son of the original character seen in this show, having Penny as a girlfriend/wife doesn't seem like a bad idea!) or Hula-Hula (an insulting slur on Polynesian people), nor did he have a Plasticmobile or a Plastiplane. It would have been better if the writers had actually tried to read the original stories-they were reprinted up the yingyang since 1965, for frack's sakes-but they didn't, and we have this silly show that's not as funny as the original comic books, complete with a sidekick that makes Woozy Winks look like Dr. Watson.

Let's hope that Warner Bros. Animation can create a new show based on the original characters, situations, AND quirky, offbeat and surreal slapstick the character is known for, and not the nonsense seen in this show.