Potsworth and Company

File:Potsworth logo 4066.jpg

Known as Midnight Patrol: Adventures in the Dream Zone in the U.S., Potsworth and Company was an animated show about four kids and a dog, who ventured together to the Dream Zone. It was produced by Hanna-Barbera and Sleepy Kids PLC.

Main cast:

• Potsworth: Carter's pet dog, and the main character of the series. In the Dream Zone he's a talking, sarcastic dog.
• Carter: an African-American boy who is a skilled artist. In the Dream Zone he has a magic brush that can bring things to life.
• Keiko: a Japanese-American skater girl. In the Dream Zone, she can hover using her skateboard.
• Rosie: a short-tempered, annoying brat. Sometimes she helps in dangerous situations.
• Nick: Rosie's young brother, who always carries a dinosaur doll. In the Dream Zone he can fly like a superhero, and his dinosaur is alive.

There are also the Dream Zone inhabitants, whose king is the Grand Dozer, who must not be fully awakened or the world will end. The Big Bad is the Nightmare Prince, who plans to disturb the Grand Dozer and to have nightmares take over the world of dreams. Quite often, the Midnight Patrol's foiling of the Nightmare Prince's plans would involved getting a key MacGuffin by going to the Cave of the Greystone Giant, who essentially keeps track of all the items used in dreams and stores them in the Cave when not in use. While on the side of good, the Greystone Giant is a grumpy character who likes his solitude and the Patrol often have to talk him around to helping them.

Had a Comic Book Adaptation in the The Beezer and The Topper, and when that folded, The Dandy.

This series shows examples of:

• Alliterative Name: Greystone Giant
• Animal Jingoism: One episode featured Potsworth being made King of the Dogs, which was a poisoned chalice as he was then required to lead them in battle against a giant cat.
• Art Initiates Life: Carter's superpower.
• Ash Face: Keiko in "The Nightmirror". When she pursues her evil twin on her volant skateboard and attempts to lasso her, the evil doppelgänger gets the tailpipe of her own flying skateboard to backfire on the real, good Keiko before speeding away. This burns the good Keiko entirely, messes up her hair, causes her to cough from the exhaust, and she drops from the sky, landing next to Rosie, who's been tied up by her own malevolent double.
• Better the Devil You Know: The heroes learned the trope when the Nightmare Prince's mother sent someone to replace him.
• Big Bad: The Nightmare Prince
• Bigger Bad: The Big Bad's mother.
• Bratty Half-Pint: Rosie.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: Potsworth talks to the viewers at times.
  • Keiko did this towards the end of "The Wishing Well".
  • The Nightmare Prince has done this as well.
• But Not Too Foreign: Carter and Keiko.
• Celestial Bureaucracy: The Greystone Giant (well, more Dreamland Logistics, but approximately this trope).
• Da Chief: The Chief.
• Deadpan Snarker: Again, Potsworth.
• Department of Redundancy Department: When the Greystone Giant went on a vacation and left the Midnight Patrol in charge of the cave, he set three rules to be followed: 1) Don't let anyone in; 2) Don't lose the key; and 3) Don't let anyone in.
• Dream Land: The Dream Zone.
• Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: The Nightmare Prince has a large phone in his lair, so that his unseen mom can yell at him every time his schemes go wrong.
  • It's not just because he loves her. She has the authority to demote him to janitor post and appoint another Big Bad to take over the helm.
• Evil Twin: Thanks to the Night Mirror, each Midnight Patrol member gained one and the Nightmare Prince became one to a good duplicate.
• Eviler Than Thou: The new villain the Nightmare Prince's mother hired to replace him. The new villain's minions were this to the Nightmare Prince's minions.
• Expository Theme Tune
• Flight: Nick. Not a Flying Brick yet.
• Forgotten Phlebotinum: The kids keep forgetting that they can just conjure up whatever they want in the Dream Zone just by thinking.
• Genki Girl: Keiko, but not that much.
• Gilligan Cut: In the episode "When Bubba Rules", the Nightmare Prince's Mother sent Count Bubba Bonebreaker to replace him. When asked about what he'd be, the Nightmare Prince was told he'd be a janitor. He then said he wouldn't be one even in a billion years. Cut to the next scene, where he's already doing janitor duties.
• Grumpy Bear: The Greystone Giant.
• Hammerspace: The Nightmare Prince's sleeves, often subject to Rummage Fail when he's trying to find a useful item.
• Heavy Sleeper: The Grand Dozer is an obligatory one. That doesn't prevent him to give advice to the Midnight Patrol.
• She Who Must Not Be Seen: The Nightmare Prince's mother.
• Hover Board: Keiko's skateboard becomes one in the Dream Zone.
• Hypercompetent Sidekick: The Grand Dozer's minister Sebastian. More or less required given that the Grand Dozer needs to be asleep in order to keep the Dream Zone safe (in one episode when he has insomnia, the land starts to fall apart) so Sebastian has to do all the work.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: The Greystone Giant.
• Living Toy: Murphy in the Dream Zone.
• Magic Skirt: Keiko. The opening features her doing a backflip on her skateboard, and falling straight to bed.
• Minion with an F In Evil: The Nightmare Prince's minions.
• Panty Shot: Rosie, in the intro and pretty much every episode.
  • Keiko actually has an underskirt view of her pink, lace-trimmed panties from behind in the intro and frontal view as she flips off her skateboard, into bed.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: In "Save the Cave" the Nightmare Prince uses one to trick the Midnight Patrol into letting him into a cave they're guarding and he locks them out. The Midnight Patrol try their own paper thin disguises to trick him into letting them back in, but none of them fool him.
• Redshirt Army: The Snooze Patrol, the Dream Zone's conventional law enforcement, who are sometimes shown as somewhat resentful of the Midnight Patrol.
• Running Gag: Whenever someone claims the Grand Dozer to be on a certain mood, be it good or bad, the Grand Dozer would be shown asleep and that claimant would state something like "Well, he would be if he was awake".
• Shout-Out: The Nightmare Prince's mother phoning him is similar to the General calling Dick Dastardly in Dastardly and Muttley in Their Flying Machines. Well, William Hanna and Joseph Barbera were Executive Producers for both cartoons.
• Sissy Villain: The Nightmare Prince.
• Superheroes Wear Capes: Nick.
• Talking Animal: Potsworth in the Dream Zone.
• Tyrant Takes the Helm: When the Nightmare Prince's mother demoted him and hired another villain to replace him was so hard (read "impossible") to defeat in direct confrontation the heroes decided to sabotage the nightmare generator as part of a plan to trick the Nightmare Prince's mother into firing him and reinstating her son as the Big Bad.
• The Voice: The Nightmare Prince's mother is always heard only, but never appears on screen.
  • In a flashback sequence of "The Wishing Well", Keiko's mom is only heard talking off-screen.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: When Count Bubba replaced the Nightmare Prince, he brought three henchmen. When the Nightmare Prince returned and fired Bubba's henchmen, only two henchmen were around and no explanation was given to justify the third one's absence.
• Wide Eyes and Shrunken Irises: Keiko in "The Nightmirror", after getting burned by the exhaust pipe of her evil double's skateboard.