No, Baboo was Jeanie’s apprentice in the Jeanie cartoon show – a show that took I Dream of Jeanie as a premise, and revamped it for the Saturday-morning youngster audience by turning Major Nelson into a motorcycle-riding teen named Cory Anders, and Major Roger Heeley into a teen-aged dork.
Jeanie’s powers worked by twirling her pony tail over her head of its own volition (a feat not possible in live-action TV; the original I Dream of Jeanie had to settle for blinking her eyes to cast her spells). Baboo’s powers required him to say the magic words “Yabble Dabble” – and of course, since he was only an apprentice Genie, his spells would usually backfire.
I can’t believe I’m dredging up this God-forsaken memory.
The truth, as always, is more complicated than that.
The Arabian Nights had a character who would say, “Size of… [an animal]!” and then turn into the animal.
Race Bannon, on The New Johnny Quest would exclaim, “Fur on a catfish!”
The Banana Splits nemesis were the Sour Grapes.
“Uh oh! Jongo!”
Does anyone remember “Freakies” cerial? Here, I’ll sing the commercial jingle:
We are the Freakies
We are the Freakies
And this is the Freakies Tree
We never miss a meal
'Cause we love our cere-eel
We are the Freakies
We are the Freakies
And this is the Freakies Tress
Oh yeah!
Quisp and Quake.
Hot Wheels that actually had bonnets you could open. (And, lest we forget, Hot Wheels the cartoon. It was paired up with Skyhawks… "Fly with us / Be a Skyhawk…!)