Kissyfur is a Saturday-Morning Cartoon from The '80s on NBC. It focused on a father and son pair of bears named Gus and Kissyfur. En route to join the circus, the bears end up in a swamp town called Paddlecab after the train derails. There, they create a boat tour business. Really, it's not as sappy as the name would have you believe.
The show began with a half-hour prime-time special on NBC before moving to its Saturday slot. It was canceled after its first season, went on hiatus for a year, then came back in the 1988-89 season.
Kissyfur provides examples of the following tropes:
- Amazing Technicolor Wildlife: Miss Emmy Lou is a blue bear with Blush Stickers, although her blue coloration could just be indication of a gray bear.
- Art Evolution: More like an Art Devolution, as the scenery looks less realistic, and the characters’ designs have changed come Season 2. This is accompanied by a switch in animation studios over to Wang Film Productions.
- Bubble Gum Popping: In "the Birds and the Bears", Donna introduces herself to Kissyfur and the other boys of the swamp this way. She blows up and pops a gigantic bubble, bigger than herself; this amazes Kissyfur and friends.
- Casting Gag:
- Gus and Kissyfur's VAs (Ed Gilbert and R.J. Williams) later voiced Baloo and Kit, respectively, on TaleSpin.
- Just like in the original English version, Gus and Kissyfur's voice actors in the Mexican dub (Alvaro Tarcicio and Patricia Acevedo respectively) previously worked together in the dub of Ewoks as Chief Chirpa and his daughter Kneesaa respectively, and also in Robotech as Captain Global and Lisa Hayes as well.
- Comic-Book Adaptation: It was published by DC Comics.
- Crying Wolf: Kissyfur and Howie the mockingbird do this in "The Bear Who Cried Wolf".
- Disguised in Drag: In "The Lady is a Chump," Jolene finds a trunk with women's clothing, a blonde wig and a full-head bear mask, and forces Floyd to dress up in them as a female bear acting as Gus and Kissyfur's new nanny "Mimi" (named from when Floyd stammers "M-m-me?!" when Kissyfur asks "her" name) as ploy to capture Kissyfur and his friends and eat them up. Lampshaded when Floyd notices a few flaws in the disguise initially, such as his green scaly legs being visible.
- Dodgy Toupee: In a female example, Jolene values her wig to the point of diving after it and putting it atop her head after it's been thrown into a pot of boiling water. Of course, her vanity doesn't stop her from smacking the beejezus out of Floyd with it when he angers her.
- The Eeyore: Stuckey, who always speaks in depressed monotone voice and expresses pessimism with various things
- Gigantic Moon: In the opening sequence it is bigger than it should be.
- Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal: An unusual case. Kissyfur and his dad Gus both usually wear a shirt during most occasions, while the rest of the animals wear no clothes whatsoever. But during certain occasions like when they're swimming, they'll be like everyone else and they won't wear anything.
- Humans Are the Real Monsters: Prevalent in some episodes, particularly the "Bear Roots" special in which Gus and Kissyfur and all the other circus animals labored under the harsh pressure of the humans, especially the Ringmaster, before Gus and Kissyfur escaped, and "A Basket Case" when humans come into the swamp and the animal inhabitants have to hide out until the coast is clear. Of course, for the latter episode, it is more or less averted afterwards when the critters happen upon a human baby that has drifted away from its family and do everything they can to return it without getting in trouble.
- Instrumental Theme Tune: Quite unusually for an eighties cartoon.
- In the Blood: Lenny pretty much takes after his dad.
- Jerkass: Lenny.
- Kiss-Kiss-Slap: A major one in "The Birds and the Bears". Beehonie gives Kissyfur a cake for being such a good friend to her throughout the whole school year. As Kissyfur accepts the gift, Beehonie kisses him on the cheek. Kissyfur likes it, but when Lenny and the others start taunting him, he gets so embarrassed that he tells Beehonie to "cut out all the mushy stuff", at which point Beehonie gets pissed, runs the cake that she gave him into his face, and storms off.
- Of course, it's later resolved at the end after Kissyfur, Beehonie, Miss Emmy Lou, Toot, and Gus rescue the captured cubs from Floyd and Jolene and retrieve the stolen paddlecab. Kissyfur acknowledges Beehonie and Toot's loyalty and gives Beehonie a well-deserved kiss on the cheek, which nearly starts further taunting from Lenny who is stopped by the others.
- Lying Finger Cross: In one episode, Lenny constantly bullied other kids for their lunches. Near the end, he saw himself in a pinch where he needed their help and they only agreed when he promised he'd no longer bully them. The next day, he broke his promise and, when called out on it, he claimed he had his fingers crossed when he made it. Fortunately, they'd learned how to use the strength of numbers against him.
- Messy Pig: Averted with Duane who hates being messy.
- Missing Mom: Kissyfur's mother died sometime before the show began.
- One-Shot Character: Donna was never seen again in the show after her debut in "the Birds and the Bears", despite implications that she's become a part of the cast.
- Our Nudity Is Different: None of the characters besides Kissyfur and his dad Gus, wear any clothes at all and it's accepted by everyone. Despite this, Kissyfur and his dad are almost always seen wearing a shirt and it's treated normally.
- Papa Wolf: Gus always manages to put gators Floyd and Jolene in their place whenever they mess with his son and the other youngsters.
- Recycled Soundtrack: Some of the music, mostly the circus music is from the 1984 version of Heathcliff.
- Ridiculously Cute Critter: Toot.
- Scenery Porn: The natural backgrounds do look appealing.
- She's a Man in Japan: In the Latin American Spanish dub, Jolene's gender is switched to male, likely because she doesn't look and act like a female at all, and that without going into the point she wears a wig, something that was very unusual, in that time, for a woman, espcially in Latin America.
- Ship Tease: In addition to Kissyfur and Beehonie in the aforementioned example, there is also one between Gus and Miss Emmy Lou.
- Smelly Skunk: In the episode "Shell Race”, as Beenonie is running, she gets sprayed by a skunk when she trips over the baby.
- Southern Belle: Miss Emmy Lou exhibits some of the qualities like her accent and mannerisms.
- Tertiary Sexual Characteristics: You can tell Beehonie's gender by the bows on her rabbit ears.
- How about the fact that Miss Emmy Lou has a flower behind her ear?
- Track Trouble: Gus and Kissyfur's escape from the circus is put into action when the circus train Gus and Kissyfur are being transported on speeds towards a bridge damaged from a storm. The engineer is unable to stop the train in time, and they all plunge off the bridge into the river below, thus allowing Gus and Kissyfur to escape from the wreck.
- Villain Exclusivity Clause: The Alligators.
- Would Hurt a Child: The two gators, Floyd and Jolene, are constantly plotting to capture and eat Kissyfur and the other swamp cubs.
