December 1975 - Aged 11

Every generation of kids growing up, love their TV and especially the cartoons.  Each generation is also very protective of their characters and reckon they have the best Super Heroes.  We had some classic shows in the 70’s, The Hair Bear Bunch, Inch High Private Eye, the Pink Panther Show, Wacky Races, Top Cat and Hong Kong Phooey.  

I think the only fair way to decide the best Super Hero of say the 70’s and 80’s is to have a FIGHT.  “In the blue corner, representing kids of the 70’s, Hong Kong Phooey” and “In the red corner, representing kids of the 80’s, DangerMouse”.  As I was a kid of the 70’s, I’d got to hope that HKP gave DM a good hiding.

Hong Kong Phooey was the secret alter ego of Penrod Pooch, or Penry (sometimes mispronounced "Henry"), a ‘mild-mannered’ police station janitor. Hong Kong Phooey was supposedly a master of kung fu and other martial arts. He worked with Sergeant Flint (‘Sarge’) and Rosemary, the telephone operator, who had a crush on him. After Rosemary takes a call and explains the crime, Penry runs into a filing cabinet (and always get stuck) to transform himself into Hong Kong Phooey. He usually enters the lower drawer as Penrod and leaves the upper one as Hong Kong Phooey. Phooey gets into his Phooeymobile and uses the ‘bong of the gong’ to turn it into whatever sort of vehicle best suits the occasion. He finds the thieves committing their crime but his faithful companion Spot (the Police Cat) is usually the one who finds a way to capture the criminals and foil their crime. Because Hong Kong is the reputed superhero, every time Spot saves the day, everyone else (including Phooey) credits Hong Kong Phooey with being the hero. 

DangerMouse is a British mouse who works as a secret agent.  The hero wore a rakish eye patch and his chest was prominently emblazoned with the initials 'DM'.  He was the greatest secret agent in the world. He spoke 34 languages fluently, including some extraterrestrial ones. He regularly balanced himself on his index finger and bounced up and down on it. Ernest Penfold was a timid, bespectacled hamster. Penfold stood just over half the height of DangerMouse, and always wore thick round glasses and a blue suit with a white shirt and a yellow and black stripy tie. He was the sidekick of DangerMouse, whom he called ‘Chief’. He was of a cowardly nature and became terrified at any sign of danger. He was often captured or got himself into other dangerous situations before needing to be rescued by DangerMouse. His main catchphrase was "Crumbs DM!" and others included "Ooh-eck!", "Ooh-Fiddle!" and "Ooh-Carrots!” all said when things went wrong.