The plot was simple….a small white “ghost looking” creature helped three teenage comic book writers solve horrific mysteries.  You know…the kind of thing that happens every day!  What you might not realize is that the Shmoo was actually a lift from the popular Li’l Abner comic strip created by Al Capp.

Shmoo was a selfless, shape-changing, virtually anything kind of creature (think the Genie from Alladin, but only capable of saying “Shmoo”) and if you happened to see this Saturday morning cartoon from Hanna Barbara that ran from 1979-1980 you would have been justified in thinking that maybe the premise of the show was a little too much like the Scooby-Doo Mysteries, and you would be right….it was almost like they could lift scripts from Scooby…take out Shaggy and Scooby’s sniveling, put in some random Shmoo shape changing and *poof* instant new cartoon hit.

But the adventures of Mickey, Billy Joe, and Nita just never seemed as dire or hair raising with the “swiss army knife” like powers of Shmoo, and even the villains didn’t seem as frightening as what Mystery Inc. had to face each week. Here is the episode listing and the titles kind of speak for themselves:

Now even though his original cartoon didn’t last long, Hanna Barbara didn’t give up on the little guy.  He was very quickly teamed with cartoon icons Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble in a 90 minute cartoon package called Fred and Barney meet the Shmoo.    And I did enjoy the show’s musical numbers where Shmoo would transform himself into a white bouncing ball to let all of us sing along.

When I was a kid I was a huge fan of the show, and would take white bath towels, put stuffed animal eyes on them and hope they would come to life. Because who couldn’t use a magical shape shifting, monster defeating, marshmallow for a pal.

https://youtu.be/G1ViX0Gx3I0

Did you solve mysteries and sing along with the Shmoo?