The All-New Popeye Hour debuted 9 September 1978 on the CBS Saturday-morning lineup. It was an hour-long animated series produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions, which tried its best to retain the style of the original comic strip (Popeye returned to his original costume and Brutus to his original name of Bluto), while complying with the prevailing content restrictions on violence. In addition to providing many of the cartoon scripts, Jack Mercer continued to voice Popeye, while Marilyn Schreffler and Allan Melvin became the new voices of Olive Oyl and Bluto, respectively. (Mae Questel actually auditioned for Hanna-Barbera to re-create Olive Oyl, but was rejected in favor of Schreffler.)
The All-New Popeye Hour ran on CBS until September 1981, when it was cut to a half-hour and retitled The Popeye & Olive Comedy Show. It was removed from the CBS lineup in September 1983, the year before Jack Mercer's death. These cartoons have also been released on VHS and DVD. While these cartoons were in production, CBS aired The Popeye Valentine Special: Sweethearts at Sea on February 14 (St. Valentine's Day, of course), 1979. In the United Kingdom, the BBC aired a half-hour version of The All-New Popeye Show, from the early 1980s to 2004.
