Skatebirds

Why fly when you can skate?^*

Skatebirds was an hour-long Saturday morning series from Hanna-Barbera, debuting on CBS on September 10, 1977 and running for sixteen episodes. It featured live actors in full-body costumes, with rollerskates built into the feet.

The Skatebirds were Knock Knock the woodpecker (voiced by Lennie Weinrib), Scooter the penguin (voiced by Don Messick), and Satchel the pelican (voiced by Bob Holt). They lived in a tree along with Baby Bird, a massive bird who had a room all to themselves; all we ever saw of them was their giant beak. The Skatebirds would perform comedy sketches, sing songs that taught life lessons, and try to escape the clutches of their roller skating arch-nemesis Scat Cat (voiced by Scatman Crothers). They would also introduce four different action segments:

• The Robonic Stooges: A cartoon that turned The Three Stooges into a trio of bumbling robotic superheroes.
• Wonder Wheels: A teenaged journalist named Willie fights crime with the help of a super powered motorcycle.
• Woofer & Wimper, Dog Detectives: Reruns of Clue Club, cut up and shortened to 10 minutes to give more focus to the dog characters.
• Mystery Island: A serialized live-action segment, in which three young people have crash landed on a mad scientist’s island and try to escape.

Skatebirds was an attempt to recapture the lightning of The Banana Splits, another Hanna-Barbera anthology that was a huge hit in the late 60s. Oddly enough, they got their hit…in The Robonic Stooges, which proved to be far more popular than everything else Skatebirds offered. It did so well that when the Skatebirds flew away on January 21, 1978, the rest of the season saw The Robonic Stooges getting its own half-hour timeslot in its place, with each episode airing two Stooges shorts and one Woofer & Wimper. (Reruns of Speed Buggy filled the rest of the gap.) Skatebirds would later resurface in a pared down half-hour form, keeping Mystery Island and Wonder Wheels, airing Sundays on CBS from 1979 to 1981. Still later, another half-hour version was made that kept Wonder Wheels and added The Robonic Stooges back in; this edited version has since intermittently rerun on USA, Cartoon Network, and Boomerang.

This page covers every segment except The Robonic Stooges, which has its own trope page. Has no relation to the 2021 video game Skatebird.

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Skatebirds provides examples of:

• By the Power of Grayskull!: When Willie transforms his bike, he shouts "This looks like a job for Won-won-won-won-won-won-won-won-won-won-won-won-wonder Wheels!"
• The Cape: Super Knock and Super Scat, two characters who look exactly like Knock Knock and Scat Cat but wear superhero costumes.
• Cats Are Mean: Somewhat downplayed with Scat Cat. While he is antagonistic and constantly chases the Skatebirds, he often participates in their songs and dances all the same.
• Compressed Adaptation: Woofer & Wimper, Dog Detectives, which were episodes of Clue Club cut down to half their original length.
• Cool Bike: Wonder Wheels, a high-tech motorcycle with a mind of its own.
• Distress Call: Knock Knock summons Super Knock by calling out his name; Scat Cat does the same for Super Scat.
• Edutainment Show: The Skatebirds would teach a different life lesson in each episode…listening to your parents, going to school, using good manners, etc. Every episode had a song about the lesson, and many of the birds’ accompanying skits would hinge on it as well.
• Eggshell Clothing: The Skatebirds’ friend Shelly lives in his green-spotted shell. He pops his head out of the shell to talk to them.
• Fake Band: The Skatebirds themselves, singing a song near the start and reprising it with added lyrics at the end.
• Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal: All three Skatebirds and Scat Cat qualify; they're all at least wearing something, but none of them appear to have heard of pants.
• Inconsistent Spelling: Knock Knock’s name is occasionally spelled with a hyphen. Scat Cat gets it the worst, with his name also spelled Scat-Cat, ScatCat, or even SkatCat. The board game keeps shifting back and forth between the latter two spellings.
• Inexplicably Identical Individuals: It's never explained why Super Knock and Super Scat look and sound exactly like their regular counterparts.
• Informed Attribute: Super Knock and Super Scat are supposedly superheroes, and certainly dress the part, but we never actually see them helping anyone. Whenever they’re called upon they completely ignore the Skatebirds & Scat Cat, proceeding to do their own thing. Comments they make imply they do perform heroics offscreen, though.
• Island of Mystery: Mystery Island, shock of all shocks. Home to a mad scientist, bird people, a ghostly pirate, and so much more.
• Mad Scientist: Dr. Strange, the results of whose experiments can be seen all throughout his island.
• Meaningful Name: Satchel the pelican, who has tons of stuff stored in his beak.
• Pelican Package Pouch: Satchel’s bill can store any item; he and the other characters are often seen taking something out or putting something in.
• People in Rubber Suits: The Skatebirds and Scat Cat in all their segments.
• Recycled Soundtrack: Its end credits theme was also the main theme of CB Bears, another Hanna-Barbera show that debuted on another network on the exact same day. It was later reused for the end credits of Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels in 1979.
• Robot Buddy: P.O.P.S. in Mystery Island. The heroes use his help, and Dr. Strange wants him all to himself.
• Sneeze of Doom: The Skatebirds’ friend Shelly has very destructive sneezes, knocking the other birds over and destroying their stuff.
• The "The" Title Confusion: Is it called Skatebirds, or The Skatebirds? The title screens and merchandise lacked the "The", while articles and advertisements tended to use it.
• Three Shorts: Became this with the late 80s half-hour edit. One Wonder Wheels episode was sandwiched between two Robonic Stooges episodes, with the Skatebirds’ singing and skits serving as bridges between them.
• What a Piece of Junk: When not saving the day as Wonder Wheels, Willie’s motorcycle appears to be a broken down, patched-up beater. His girlfriend Dooley is unaware of his secret identity, and often implores him to get rid of what she thinks is a barely-working bike.

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