Goofy and Max.

GOOF TROOP

Original Medium: TV animation
Produced by: Disney
First Appeared: 1992
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Following its success with DuckTales, based on Carl Barks's Uncle Scrooge, Disney naturally started looking at other old properties that might be adapted into half-hour TV cartoons. Chip'n'Dale and the cast of The Jungle Book needed serious contortion before Rescue Rangers and TaleSpin, respectively, could be made from them; but Goofy easily lent himself to adaptation …

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… into Goof Troop. As early as the 1950s, he'd played a similar role, suburbanite George Geef.

Goof Troop debuted April 15, 1992, on The Disney Channel, but that pilot wasn't followed up with a regular series until September. The 7th of that month was the day it became part of The Disney Afternoon, a syndicated package that has, over the years, included Gummi Bears, Darkwing Duck and many other Disney half-hours. Five days later (same day The Little Mermaid was first seen as a half-hour), it joined ABC's Saturday morning line-up.

Goofy's role in this series wasn't a precise reprise of George Geef, nor was his son, Maximillian Goof, an exact copy of the Geef boy. But both were similar enough to give the show a comfortably familiar feel, even while it did a reasonable job of reflecting suburban life of the 1990s.

One point of difference is that George never met the perennial Disney villain known variously as Bootleg Pete, Pegleg Pete, Black Pete, Sneaky Pete, Big Bad Pete, and recently, just plain Pete. Here, he's Goofy's next-door neighbor, Peter "Pete" Pete. His wife's name is Peg (no doubt a reference to one of her hubby's former first names) and they have a precocious 5-year-old daughter named Pistol in addition to their son PJ (Pete Jr.), who is best friends with Max Goof. PJ and Max are both approaching puberty, but not quite there yet. The Goof and Pete families live in a typical American suburb called Spoonerville. Their respective dads tolerate each other only because of their sons' friendship. To illustrate the contrast between the two families, the Goofs have a cat named Waffles and the Petes have a dog named Chainsaw.

In this series, Goofy was voiced by Bill Farmer (Horace Horsecollar) and Pete by Jim Cummings (Bonkers). Max was Dana Hill (Marvin) and PJ was Rob Paulsen (Yakko Warner). Peg was April Winchell (Baby Herman) and Pistol was Nancy Cartwright (Bart Simpson). Both pets were voiced by Frank Welker (Dynomutt).

Goof Troop continued to be seen daily in syndication and Saturday on ABC, for the next couple of years, with reruns appearing afterward on The Disney Channel. There were 78 regular episodes plus a half-hour special, A Goof Troop Christmas. The latter exists in two different versions. Both lead with a new segment titled "Have Yourself a Goofy Little Christmas", but the first, aired December 5, 1992, uses two old theatrical cartoons as back-ups and the second, aired December 11, 1993, uses three different ones. Both versions were syndicated. Another Christmas-themed Goofy cartoon short, still using the Goof Troop scenario (but set a few years earlier, with a younger Max), was included as one of three segments of the 1999 video release, Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas.

In fact, the setting seems to have grafted itself firmly onto the current interpretation of the Goofy character. Max and Pete both appear prominently in A Goofy Movie (released to theatres April 7, 1995) and An Extremely Goofy Movie (released on video February 29, 2000). More than likely, the additions to Goofy's entourage are permanent, whether or not the Goof Troop title is used.

— DDM

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Text ©2004-07 Donald D. Markstein. Art © Walt Disney Co.