Remember Shmoo?

As a friend and I were leaving Buffalo Wild Wings last night, I glanced inside the claw crane machine and saw a rather cute little fellow that resembled Shmoo – only this guy was blue and didn’t quite have the same bowling pin shape.

“What is Shmoo?” my friend said.

“You don’t remember Shmoo – the cartoon character? He sort of looked like a ghost.”

“Never heard of him. I think you’re making this up.”

“I’m so going to Google it when I get home and then blog about it tomorrow.”

I found all sorts of information, pictures and video clips. I didn’t know that Shmoo actually first appeared in the Li’l Abner comic strip in 1948 which lead to Shmoo-mania according to a couple of websites I visited. He even appeared with Li’L Abner in a print advertisement for US Savings Bonds in 1949.

In the late 70s, Hanna-Barbera Productions produced The New Shmoo for NBC. Apparently Fred and Barney from the Flintstones had a few run-ins with Shmoo as well. And to bring everything full circle, Shmoo even has three Facebook pages. There’s a fan page for The New Shmoo (yes I clicked on “Like”) and one called “i remember the new shmoo” and one simply called “Shmoo.”

There’s quite a bit of Shmoo memorabilia available. You can buy books, such as The Short Life and Happy Times of The Shmoo (which seems like a rather odd title given how long Shmoo has been around). You can even buy a hardback book called Al Capp’s Complete Shmoo: the Comic Books.

And what coffee mug collection would be complete without an I Love Shmoo coffee mug? If the heart wasn’t pink, I would so order one.

Thanks to YouTube, we can even watch the intro to the show:

I don’t remember a lot about Shmoo, which is probably apparent if you go back to the top of the post and look at the photo I took of the blue character who I thought looked a lot like Shmoo. I do remember him saying “Uhhhhhh Ohhhhhhhh” a lot. And I remember him transforming into different objects to help the three crime fighting teens he hung out with. But that’s about it. Do you remember anything else about him?