Black kid. Detective. Solved crimes with girl partner. Circa mid-to-late 70s, possibly early 80s. No, I am not misremembering Encyclopedia Brown, dammit.
This was NOT a TV series but an ongoing cartoon short that appeared on some other TV show – like Vegetable Soup or The Electric Company or The Great Space Coaster. Something like that.
My mind (mis)remembers this as some hip, urban kid who’d be walking down the street while this voiceover says something like, “My name is Jimmy Joe Jive – super-crimefighter! My partner Smart Susie Sunset and I are on the case.”
I don’t know why I typed “Jimmy Joe Jive.” That’s the name that keeps popping in my head. Google is no help. But then Google won’t show me any evidence of those singing/rap Will E. Survive? public service shorts I remember so well from ABC Saturday mornings when I was a latchkey kid.
I thought this might have something to do with Morrie Turner of “Wee Pals” but that might be a dead end. Alas the episodes weren’t many, and were about as memorable as a Fat Albert plot.
This thing has been bothering me for ages. I now know that this isn’t cpmpletely a case of my capricous memory playing tricks on me again. The character’s name was BILLY Joe Jive… and yes, it was on Sesame Street, although I won’t pretend to know why that possibility didn’t occur to me sooner.
Since JThunder and monstro both agreed it was on Sesame Street, I used Master Control’s search and got a Muppet message board item where they had been discussing this very thing last year. No one there seems to know who the animator is, though, so I still have some research to do.
Filmore is admittedly cool, and that’s probably why I’d been hazily recalling Billy Joe Jive these last six months.
Can we agree that there was also an ongoing Public Service segment called Will E. Survive? I think there were two – the only one I remember is the one about getting locked out the house, because I used to KEEP breaking my shoestring key… There was a set up I don’t remember… then…
“Will E. Survive? Will E. Survive? Will E. Survive? Yeah! Will E. used his common sense/ don’t panic, that’s the key!/go to a friend or neighbor’s/ or a safe place you can be/ get to a phone/ keep calling home/ until someone arrives/ Remember/ Don’t worry!/ Will E. Survives!”
I remember another Willy Survive, where he had to get out of a burning house.
Don’t remember much of the lyrics except “Willy ran to the neighbors and reported the fire/What a self reliant kid!”
And I’ve had my own memory jogged about “Billy Joe Jive, supa crime fightin’ ace! My partner, sweet Susie Sunset and I are on the case.”
I can’t seem to verify his involvement in the Billy Joe Jive shorts – I’ve looked at Pioneering Cartoonists of Color and ImDb and Amazon.com – but the similarity in the look of Quincy and Billy Joe and Susie Sunset is unmistakable.