Pound Puppies: The 1985 TV Special

The Pound Puppies TV Special features the debut of the Pound Puppies. The Pound Puppies meet Violet Vanderfeller and must return her to her owners while trying to get Bigelow's job back and avoiding two evil dognappers, Flack and Tubbs.

Plot
The TV Special starts when a girl dog named Violet Vanderfeller is chased by two dognappers, Flack and Tubbs, through the city streets. Violet finally escapes from the dognappers, but is caught by Nabbit. She is then thrown inside Nabbit's truck, where she meets Cooler, The Nose, and Scrounger, who are members of the Pound Puppies. Cooler defends Violet from Scrounger and the Nose when they laugh at her because she doesn't know what a pound is. The truck then stops at the City Pound.

At the City Pound, Bright Eyes, Howler, and Barkerville tell the other dogs that Cooler has returned. Meanwhile, Violet is introduced to Bigelow, who runs the City Pound, and Dr. Weston, who is the pound's veterinarian. Bigelow, seeing Cooler's high record of escapes, tells Nabbit to take Cooler to solitary confinement for the next 30 days. Fortunately, Cooler fools Nabbit and Bigelow by faking a serious disease and Dr. Weston plays along, telling Nabbit and Bigelow that Cooler is too sick to be taken to solitary confinement. As soon as Bigelow and Nabbit leave, Dr. Weston awards Cooler with a cheese-flavored dog bone and Cooler goes with the other Pound Puppies to their secret headquarters.

Cooler then introduces Violet to Barkerville, who is in charges of finding homes for puppies who want to be adopted. Violet asks them if they could help her and the two pups agreed. Suddenly, Bright Eyes sees the same two dognappers from earlier on surveillance camera. Cooler enlists Scrounger to keep the dognappers busy. Meanwhile, Bigelow gets a call from Mayor Fist and hastily cleans up his office.

Outside the City Pound, Flack and Tubbs sneak inside. Scrounger distracts Itchy and Snichey, Nabbit's twin guard dogs, by throwing a dog bone at them. Itchy and Snichey chased the dog bone and startled Flack and Tubbs, causing them to escape from the pound. Back in the Pound Puppies' HQ, Bright Eyes and Howler are assigned to locate Violet's home while Barkerville, Scrounger, and The Nose take four puppies home. At Bigelow's Office, Mayor Fist tells Bigelow that he is assigned to be a garbage man because the mayor's son, Arnold Fist, was sick and tired of cleaning up. Bigelow, horrified by the idea, pleads Mayor Fist to let him keep his job.

Elsewhere, Cooler treats Violet to dinner at the Kitchen, which was made by Louie. Violet tells Cooler that she was dognapped by Flack and Tubbs right in front of her owners, the Vanderfellers, while they were playing croquet. She also tells him that she escaped from Flack and Tubbs while they were writing a ransom note to the Vanderfellers. After Violet finished telling her story, Cooler, Violet, and Louie are then chased by Catgut, Nabbit, Itchy, and Snichey. After the Pound Puppies escaped, Bigelow and Mayor Fist saw the mess and the Mayor fires Bigelow.

Back in the HQ, Cooler tells the other Pound Puppies his plan. The plan is that the Pound Puppies should not only return Violet to her home but also get Bigelow's job back. As the Pound Puppies head outside the HQ, they are chased by Flack and Tubbs, who are chased by Bigelow and Nabbit, who are chased by the Mayor and Arnold Fist. Finally, the Pound Puppies reached Violet's home and were about to reunite her with her family when Flack and Tubbs once again take Violet. The Pound Puppies come to the rescue and save Violet.

Suddenly, the dognapper's van spins out of control and Flack and Tubbs where tossed out of the van and into a bush. The Van was about to head toward Violet, but Cooler steps in and saves her. Cooler is hit by the van and is knocked unconcious. As the other Pound Puppies worry that their leader is dead, Flack and Tubbs were arrested and, in a humorous confusion, Bigelow is given the credit for their capture. The Mayor congratulates Bigelow by giving him his job back.

The next day, Mayor Fist and Bigelow address the newsreporters about how they captured Flack and Tubbs. When one of the reporters asked Bigelow about Cooler's condition, Dr. Weston delivers the good news that Cooler survived the incident. The other Pound Puppies and Violet were happy to see their leader alive. Violet ask Cooler if they would meet again and Cooler tells her that they will go on a date together. After Violet leaves, the Pound Puppies resumed their mission on finding homes for puppies. Howler howls, ending the special.

Gallery
The Pound Puppies

Trivia

 * In 1985, Hanna-Barbera made an animated television special, which aired in syndication that October, paired with Star Fairies. Characters in the television special included the Fonzie-styled leader Cooler (voiced by Dan Gilvezan), the cheerleader Bright Eyes (voiced by Adrienne Alexander), and a dog with a very nasal like New York accent known only as "The Nose" (voiced by Jo Anne Worley), and the goofy inventor aptly named Howler (voiced by Frank Welker), who can only howl.


 * Two other dogs appeared in the special. They were the upper-class snob Barkerville (voiced by Alan Oppenheimer) and the garbage-can-digging Scrounger (voiced by Ron Palillo), who later appeared in the season 2 episode Garbage Night: The Musical. The three of them appeared briefly in a flashback in the episode Wagga Wagga. The Mayor (voiced by Sorrell Booke) made a cameo appearance in Bright Lights, Bright Eyes as one of the judges of the pet talent show, Mayor Fist.


 * This special was released on VHS in 1986 by Family Home Entertainment and is available on a DVD which comes with certain Pound Puppies toys.


 * The characters Bright Eyes (voiced by Adrienne Alexander), Howler (voiced by Frank Welker), and The Nose/Nose Marie (voiced by Jo Anne Worley) would be voiced by different actors in the regular series, although Adrienne Alexander and Frank Welker would return as Brattina and Catgut respectively.


 * This TV Special marks the Pound Puppies and Catgut's first appearances.


 * Sorrell Booke, the voice of Mayor Fist, was known for his role as Boss Hogg in the 1970's TV Series, the Dukes of Hazard.


 * The success of the special led to the creation of the TV Series.

Poll
What do you think of the Pound Puppies TV Special? I love it! It was great. A guilty pleasure. Meh. It was bad. I don't like it!