The Whoopee Years - Cheeky Weekly Characters in the Popularity Polls - part 6

The previous post in this series concluded with the Top Ten results printed in the issue dated 02 October 1982.

A Top Ten voting coupon was printed in the comic dated 30 October 1982, and the next results were published in the 06 November 1982 edition.

As has become customary in this series of posts, we'll first examine those features which ended between the previous poll results and the latest...

START_DATE	END_DATE	CE_ELEMENT
18-SEP-82	09-OCT-82	Toby's Animal Rescue Service booklet

These are the features that started between the two poll results...

START_DATE	END_DATE	CE_ELEMENT
16-OCT-82	16-OCT-82	Microchip Badge Giveaway
23-OCT-82	30-MAR-85	Snack-Man
06-NOV-82	06-NOV-82	Pa Bumpkin's Countryside Spot-The-Difference
06-NOV-82	06-NOV-82	Teach Your Family The Firework Code

Three one-offs are joined by David Mostyn's arcade game-inspired Snack-Man, whose grub-grabbing adventures went straight onto the comic's front cover, so the editor must have been confident that kids would enjoy the strip.

As usual, to understand the full contents of the comic at that point, we'll just remind ourselves of the features that were ongoing at the time...

START_DATE	END_DATE	CE_ELEMENT
09-FEB-80	25-JUN-83	Smiler
09-FEB-80	12-JAN-85	Cover Feature
09-FEB-80	30-MAR-85	Bookworm
09-FEB-80	30-MAR-85	Bumpkin Billionaires
09-FEB-80	30-MAR-85	Calculator Kid
09-FEB-80	30-MAR-85	Frankie Stein
09-FEB-80	30-MAR-85	Lolly Pop
09-FEB-80	30-MAR-85	Mustapha Million
09-FEB-80	30-MAR-85	Paddywack
09-FEB-80	30-MAR-85	Stage School
09-FEB-80	30-MAR-85	Sweeny Toddler
09-FEB-80	30-MAR-85	Toy Boy
16-FEB-80	30-MAR-85	Chip
01-MAR-80	19-JAN-85	Top Ten voting coupon
10-MAY-80	09-MAR-85	Top Ten Results
01-NOV-80	27-OCT-84	Guy Fawkes Mask
21-MAR-81	27-NOV-82	Whoopee It's Quiz Time
09-MAY-81	25-JUN-83	Robot Granny
12-SEP-81	25-JUN-83	Tom Horror's World
31-OCT-81	05-NOV-83	Guy Fawkes Supermask
02-JAN-82	25-JUN-83	Teacher's Pets
27-MAR-82	25-JUN-83	Little Ed
01-MAY-82	25-JUN-83	Beaky
01-MAY-82	25-JUN-83	Kids of Class Five
01-MAY-82	25-JUN-83	Smile-In
01-MAY-82	25-JUN-83	Whoopee Winners
22-MAY-82	25-JUN-83	Cheeky (second run)

Stage School, Mustapha Million and Calculator Kid continued essentially unchanged from their Cheeky Weekly days. Gran was still in her 'Robot' phase as far as the title of her strip was concerned (she had of course always been a mechanical synthetic human). Paddywack had suffered a reversal of fortune since his erstwhile Whoopee cover-star status and was by now reduced to a half-page per week. Cheeky was faring just a little better, occupying one page per issue, although when compared to his former 5-page per week Whoopee presence this was a considerable comedown.

Let's look at the 06 November 1982 results...

Stage School seem to be enjoying something of a resurgence, having moved up from 5th place last time to 3rd position, the highest they've ever reached.

Poll Date	Feature	Position
10/05/80	Stage School	8
15/11/80	Stage School	6
20/06/81	Stage School	10
20/02/82	Stage School	7
07/08/82	Stage School	8
21/08/82	Stage School	10
02/10/82	Stage School	5
06/11/82	Stage School	3

Mustapha Million's previously slow descent through the rankings has accelerated, dropping from 4th to 7th place.

Poll Date	Feature	Position
10/05/80	Mustapha Million	1
15/11/80	Mustapha Million	1
20/06/81	Mustapha Million	1
20/02/82	Mustapha Million	3
07/08/82	Mustapha Million	4
21/08/82	Mustapha Million	4
02/10/82	Mustapha Million	4
06/11/82	Mustapha Million	7

Calculator Kid reaches his lowest point so far, at number 8.

Poll Date	Feature	Position
10/05/80	Calculator Kid	4
15/11/80	Calculator Kid	2
20/06/81	Calculator Kid	5
20/02/82	Calculator Kid	4
07/08/82	Calculator Kid	6
21/08/82	Calculator Kid	5
02/10/82	Calculator Kid	6
06/11/82	Calculator Kid	8

Gran makes a surprise re-entry at number 10, only the second time that the aged automaton has achieved a place among the upper echelon of Whoopee characters.

Poll Date	Feature	Position
10/05/80	$6,000,000 Gran	7
06/11/82	Robot Granny	10

Cheeky and Paddywack remain consistent in failing to make any impression among the top ten placings.

My examination of the fortunes of the ex-Cheeky Weekly funny folk in the Whoopee Top Ten polls continues in part 7.

Back to part 5

A Plug for Gran

Peter Gray has posted some photos of the fantastic models created by Spencer Jordan. Among the sculptures of comic superstars is an excellent rendition of 6 Million Dollar Gran. This is the only time you'll see Gran alongside Plug from the Bash Street Kids.

The Whoopee Years - Cheeky Weekly Characters in the Popularity Polls - part 5

The previous post in this series concluded with the Top Ten results printed in the issue dated 21 August 1982...

As promised on the page above, another Top Ten voting coupon was printed a week later, and also in the 25 September 1982 issue. The next results were published in the 02 October 1982 edition.

To understand what features were appearing in the comic between the previous results and those of 02 October 1982, let's first examine those that had ended between the two dates, which could be seen as the features being culled for failing to garner sufficient votes in the intervening period...

START_DATE	END_DATE	CE_ELEMENT
14-AUG-82	04-SEP-82	4 Comics Ring-A-Round Challenge
01-MAY-82	25-SEP-82	Frankie's Monster Awards
01-MAY-82	25-SEP-82	Jimmy Fixit

Jimmy evidently couldn't fix it to stay in the comic. The 4 Comics Ring-A-Round Challenge was a promotional feature that ran for four weeks...

...I wonder if there was a hidden agenda behind this promotion and the IPC staff undertaking the calls were instructed to also quiz the readers about their likes and dislikes within the comics.

There was only one feature that started between the poll results...

START_DATE	END_DATE	CE_ELEMENT
18-SEP-82	09-OCT-82	Toby's Animal Rescue Service booklet

Not very many changes at all - so what were the ongoing features?...
  

START_DATE	END_DATE	CE_ELEMENT
09-FEB-80	25-JUN-83	Smiler
09-FEB-80	12-JAN-85	Cover Feature
09-FEB-80	30-MAR-85	Bookworm
09-FEB-80	30-MAR-85	Bumpkin Billionaires
09-FEB-80	30-MAR-85	Calculator Kid
09-FEB-80	30-MAR-85	Frankie Stein
09-FEB-80	30-MAR-85	Lolly Pop
09-FEB-80	30-MAR-85	Mustapha Million
09-FEB-80	30-MAR-85	Paddywack
09-FEB-80	30-MAR-85	Stage School
09-FEB-80	30-MAR-85	Sweeny Toddler
09-FEB-80	30-MAR-85	Toy Boy
16-FEB-80	30-MAR-85	Chip
01-MAR-80	19-JAN-85	Top Ten voting coupon
10-MAY-80	09-MAR-85	Top Ten Results
01-NOV-80	27-OCT-84	Guy Fawkes Mask
21-MAR-81	27-NOV-82	Whoopee It's Quiz Time
09-MAY-81	25-JUN-83	Robot Granny
12-SEP-81	25-JUN-83	Tom Horror's World
31-OCT-81	05-NOV-83	Guy Fawkes Supermask
02-JAN-82	25-JUN-83	Teacher's Pets
27-MAR-82	25-JUN-83	Little Ed
01-MAY-82	25-JUN-83	Beaky
01-MAY-82	25-JUN-83	Kids of Class Five
01-MAY-82	25-JUN-83	Smile-In
01-MAY-82	25-JUN-83	Whoopee Winners
22-MAY-82	25-JUN-83	Cheeky (second run)

Mustapha Million, Calculator Kid and Stage School, all of which had secured places in all 6 previous Top Ten polls, continued unchanged. Gran was still in her Robot Granny guise, Paddywack's former whole page strips had been cut back to a half page each week as of the comic dated 21 August 1982, and Cheeky was still enjoying the full page outings he was afforded during the initial phase of the second run of his eponymous feature.

So what was the readers' verdict on the comic's contents in the next set of results, published in the 02 October 1982 edition?...

Mustapha Million, who had topped the first three polls, was making a slow, elegant descent through the ranking, although maintaining 4th position for the 3rd time.

Poll Date	Feature	Position
10/05/80	Mustapha Million	1
15/11/80	Mustapha Million	1
20/06/81	Mustapha Million	1
20/02/82	Mustapha Million	3
07/08/82	Mustapha Million	4
21/08/82	Mustapha Million	4
02/10/82	Mustapha Million	4

Stage School continued to bounce around the lower half of the popularity stakes, this time coming in at number 5, their highest position so far.
  

Poll Date	Feature	Position
10/05/80	Stage School	8
15/11/80	Stage School	6
20/06/81	Stage School	10
20/02/82	Stage School	7
07/08/82	Stage School	8
21/08/82	Stage School	10
02/10/82	Stage School	5

Calculator Kid was, apart from the heights he hit in the second poll, hovering around the mid-point - a creditably consistent performance.

Poll Date	Feature	Position
10/05/80	Calculator Kid	4
15/11/80	Calculator Kid	2
20/06/81	Calculator Kid	5
20/02/82	Calculator Kid	4
07/08/82	Calculator Kid	6
21/08/82	Calculator Kid	5
02/10/82	Calculator Kid	6

Gran, who had registered at number 7 in the first post-Cheeky-merge poll results, had since been conspicuously absent from the top ten, despite her May 1981 relaunch as Robot Granny.

Poll Date	Feature	Position
10/05/80	$6,000,000 Gran	7

Neither Paddywack nor Cheeky had appeared among the top ten in any of the polls, despite the considerable efforts made to devise a format that would propel our toothy pal into the most popular features.

My examination of the fortunes of the ex-Cheeky Weekly funny folk in the Whoopee Top Ten polls continues in part 6.

Back to part 4

The Whoopee Years - Cheeky Weekly Characters in the Popularity Polls - part 4

Some might be of the opinion that to print another set of Top Ten results in the 21 August 1982 edition of Whoopee!, just 2 weeks after the previous Top Ten, was a bit premature. The editor was clearly keen to stimulate responses to the voting coupons, which would be printed 7 times during 1982, so probably felt that the appearance of another list of lucky recipients of the £2 on offer to those fortunate enough to have their completed coupon drawn from whatever receptacle they were stored in would persuade more readers to send in their preferences.

In view of the short amount of time between these results and the previous ones, in this post I won't do my usual analysis of the enders/starters/ongoing strips.

Despite the brief interval between the two sets of results, there had been some movement by our ex-Cheeky Weekly chums...

Whoopee! 21 August 1982

Mustapha Million continued to be the most popular character from Cheeky Weekly (although having slipped from the premier position which he'd occupied on 2 previous occasions), retaining his 4th place, but Calculator Kid had moved up one notch, to secure 5th position. However, the kids of Stage School hadn't been as fortunate, slipping from number 8 to number 10. Yet again Gran, Paddywack and poor old Cheeky failed to make an impression on the top 10.

My examination of the fortunes of the ex-Cheeky Weekly funny folk in the Whoopee Top Ten polls continues in part 5.

Back to part 3

The Whoopee Years - Cheeky Weekly Characters in the Popularity Polls - part 3

The previous post in this series concluded with the Top Ten results printed in the issue dated 20 February 1982...

The next results appeared in the 07 August 1982 edition. Top Ten voting coupons had by then been printed in the 29 May, 26 June and 31 July comics (clearly the votes sent in response to the latter coupon would have been received too late to be included in the 07 August results). Small voting coupons also appeared on most Whoopee Chit-Chat letters pages - readers were asked to complete and return the coupon when responding to the participation features.

To understand what features were appearing in the comic between the previous results and those of 07 August 1982, let's first examine those that had ended between the two dates, which could be seen as the features being culled for failing to garner sufficient votes in the intervening period...

START_DATE	END_DATE	CE_ELEMENT
06-FEB-82	27-FEB-82	Go to the Pictures - Free
20-FEB-82	06-MAR-82	Enter For Frankie's Monster Awards
28-MAR-81	27-MAR-82	Mother's Day Messages
28-NOV-81	03-APR-82	The Spectacular Adventures of Willie Bunk
08-NOV-80	24-APR-82	Blinketty Blink
13-MAR-82	24-APR-82	Fun-Fear
09-FEB-80	24-APR-82	Smiler's Smile-In
10-JAN-81	24-APR-82	The Cavers
09-FEB-80	24-APR-82	Whoopee Chit-Chat
03-OCT-81	24-APR-82	Willie Bunk
30-JAN-82	15-MAY-82	It's Cheeky (second run)
01-MAY-82	22-MAY-82	Crazy Graffiti book
24-JUL-82	31-JUL-82	Bullseye Game instructions
24-JUL-82	07-AUG-82	Bullseye Game

A significant loss for me in this period is the antedeluvian antics of The Cavers, but clearly my enjoyment of the strip wasn't shared by enough readers to prevent it from being curtailed. Willie had done a bunk, both in his Willie Bunk (new strips) and The Spectacular Adventures of Willie Bunk (occasional reprint) guises. Fun-Fear was also a reprint, returning in March 1982 as an occasional filler pending the comic's revamp in May. You'll notice that 6 features, including participation pages Whoopee Chit-Chat and Smiler's Smile-In, came to an end in the 24 April 1982 issue. This was because the following edition announced itself as having a 'new look', sported a new, two-coloured title design and included '3 fantastic new stories', which appear on the table of features starting between the poll results...But before we look at that, I'll mention that the toothy funster's turbulent post-Whoopee-merge career underwent yet another refashioning as It's Cheeky (a second run for him with that title), ended 2 weeks after the comic's new look was introduced.

This is the promised list of features starting between the poll results...

START_DATE	END_DATE	CE_ELEMENT
27-MAR-82	25-JUN-83	Little Ed
01-MAY-82	25-JUN-83	Beaky
01-MAY-82	25-SEP-82	Frankie's Monster Awards
01-MAY-82	25-SEP-82	Jimmy Fixit
01-MAY-82	25-JUN-83	Kids of Class Five
01-MAY-82	25-JUN-83	Smile-In
01-MAY-82	25-JUN-83	Whoopee Winners
22-MAY-82	25-JUN-83	Cheeky (second run)

David Mostyn's Little Ed was actually introduced just over a month ahead of the May '82 revamp, and was a lively, fun strip, with the titular character (Ed being short for Editor) devising different genres of story each week and instructing the artist (whose hand and pen were seen in the strip) on how the narrative should progress. Maybe this strip was influenced by the real Whoopee editor's struggles with its contents. Of the features commencing on 01 May, Beaky was a rather tedious strip, possibly inspired by Rod Hull's aggressive avian associate, concerning a large bird, Jimmy Fixit was entirely forgettable (its association, by reason of its title, with a certain TV programme of the time is now extremely unfortunate), and Kids of Class Five was a quite diverting series, which veered more towards the dramatic than the humorous, and bore similarities to the long-running Grange Hill TV drama (the subject of an earlier IPC title and a later spin-off, prequel strip in the publisher's School Fun). The editor presumably felt that a non-humour strip was necessary to replace the similarly dramatic Willie Bunk, although the arrival of the Kids brought to a total of 3 the number of school-based stories (Stage School and Teacher's Pets were also running at this point) and possibly risked alienating readers who sought refuge from educational matters in their leisure reading. Cheeky's fortunes underwent another overhaul 3 weeks after the above-mentioned 'new look' issue, as his strip reverted to being titled Cheeky, but maintained, for the period in question, its one-page-a-week footprint.

What strips/features were ongoing?...

 

START_DATE	END_DATE	CE_ELEMENT
09-FEB-80	25-JUN-83	Smiler
09-FEB-80	12-JAN-85	Cover Feature
09-FEB-80	30-MAR-85	Bookworm
09-FEB-80	30-MAR-85	Bumpkin Billionaires
09-FEB-80	30-MAR-85	Calculator Kid
09-FEB-80	30-MAR-85	Frankie Stein
09-FEB-80	30-MAR-85	Lolly Pop
09-FEB-80	30-MAR-85	Mustapha Million
09-FEB-80	30-MAR-85	Paddywack
09-FEB-80	30-MAR-85	Stage School
09-FEB-80	30-MAR-85	Sweeny Toddler
09-FEB-80	30-MAR-85	Toy Boy
16-FEB-80	30-MAR-85	Chip
01-MAR-80	19-JAN-85	Top Ten voting coupon
10-MAY-80	09-MAR-85	Top Ten Results
01-NOV-80	27-OCT-84	Guy Fawkes Mask
21-MAR-81	27-NOV-82	Whoopee It's Quiz Time
09-MAY-81	25-JUN-83	Robot Granny
12-SEP-81	25-JUN-83	Tom Horror's World
31-OCT-81	05-NOV-83	Guy Fawkes Supermask
02-JAN-82	25-JUN-83	Teacher's Pets

Calculator Kid was carrying on with the format established way back in Cheeky Weekly, helmed as ever by the always-reliable Terry Bave. Stage School was also unchanged from its early days in the toothy funster's comic. Paddywack, who had enjoyed a run of full-page stories following his stint on the front cover, was finding his strip reduced to just half a page with increasing regularity. Gran was continuing in her Robot Granny phase which had been introduced following her failure to return to the top ten after dropping out as $6,000,000 Gran in the 15 November 1980 poll results, and Mustapha Million carried on, as generous as ever.

So what was the readers' verdict as reflected in the 07 August 1982 results?...

Mustapha had slipped from 3rd to 4th position. Calculator Kid had dropped 2 places from number 4 to number 6. The kids of Stage School were down from 7th to 8th place. Gran, Paddywack and Cheeky again failed to register anywhere among the top ten.

My examination of the fortunes of the ex-Cheeky Weekly funny folk in the Whoopee Top Ten polls continues in part 4.

Back to part 2