The adventures of the video game character and his family.

An early example in a wave of cartoons based on products, this show derived it's characters and basic story from the wildly popular video game of the same name. Each episode followed the same basic plot, with little variation: Pac-Man and his family would be menaced by the ghosts until, just when things were looking grim, one of the Pac-family would chomp some power pills and save the day.—Jean-Marc Rocher <[email protected]>

Video games enjoyed a boom in popularity during the early 1980s. One of the most memorable characters was Pac-Man, a friendly, carefree yellow creature who ran around in a maze, chomping dots and pieces of fruit (or other treats). However, four ghost monsters Inky, Blinky, Pinky and Clyde teamed to menace Pac-Man; it was only through the use of special power pellets that our hero could turn the tables and defeat the ghost monsters. Pac-Man was a phenomenal success, with high school and college-aged students spending hours at their local arcade, mastering the video game and its patterns. A full line of merchandise items from clothing and school supplies to children's Book-and-Record sets and a breakfast cereal(!) selling by the truckload. A feminine version of the game, Ms. Pac-Man (complete with a female ghost monster, Sue), proved just as popular. In 1982, Mr. and Mrs. Pac and their antagonists made their way to the small screen. Most of the video games' elements remained the same Packy (as he was affectionately known), his wife and son, Pac Jr., and their Pac-like neighbors lived a carefree existance; in their village was a Power Pellet forest, which provided the lifeblood to the Pac-like creatures. The evil Mezmaron and his henchman, the ghost monsters (Clyde, Pinky, Inky, Blinky and Sue), plotted to defeat Pac-Man the principal guarder of the Power Pellet forest and gain control of the forest and rule the world. However, Pac-Man, his family and friends always found a way to foil the Mezmaron and the ghost monsters' evil plans. The series ran two years as part of ABC's Saturday Morning lineup.—Brian Rathjen <[email protected]>