Casper and the Angels is an American animated television series based on the Harvey Comics cartoon character Casper the Friendly Ghost, produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions and broadcast on NBC from September 22 to December 15, 1979.[1]
Casper the Friendly Ghost is a "guardian ghost" to two female Space Police officers named Mini (who is a rather ditzy redhead) and Maxi (who is a much more intelligent African-American woman with a very short temper) who patrol the Jetsons-style Space City on their flying motorcycles in the year 2179.[2]
They are joined by the rambunctious but good-hearted Hairy Scary, a large, shaggy, thousand year old ghost with a red nose and big bow tie who enjoys scaring people, especially villains and other troublemakers, but because he has a great deal of affection for his little pal Casper he, unlike most of their ghostly kind, tries to accept the fact that the gentle ghost does not like to scare people.
Less accepting, especially toward Mini and Maxi, are their fellow officers Nerdley and Fungo, a pair of bumbling, flying patrol car-driving male chauvinists who are always trying to prove that they are superior to their female counterparts, only to have their efforts undone by their own stupidity and cowardice.
The show was Hanna-Barbera's second attempt to cash in on the popularity of Charlie's Angels as well as the popularity of the motorcycle police drama CHiPs, the first being Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels on ABC.[3]
Twenty-six 15-minute segments shown as thirteen 30-minute episodes were produced, as well as two television specials Casper's Halloween Special and Casper's First Christmas.
The series was shown on Cartoon Network and Boomerang for a few years and rarely found on television since 2003 or even earlier. Some of the episodes can be found on YouTube.
Like many animated series created by Hanna-Barbera in the 1970s, the show contained a laugh track.
On September 5, 1995, Turner Home Entertainment released two volumes The Boo Zoo and Stars & Frights on VHS.[4] This release contained five episodes from the series. In addition, on August 22, 2000, Warner Home Video released Casper Saves Halloween on VHS, which contained the Halloween special as well as six 15-minute episodes of Casper and the Angels.