in 1960, the first "popeye the sailor" animated television series was produced for first-run syndication which proved successful. like the earlier theatrical cartoon series, it would use many elements that were already well known, mostly the basic storyline of popeye trying to keep his sweetheart olive safe from the hands of other male suitors while using spinach to remain fit and healthy. unlike the theatrical shorts however (especially the famous studios shorts), this tv series made a more prominent attempt to bring back characters and elements from "thimble theatre" back to popeye's side, such as his old friend j. wellington wimpy, who had been considerably absent during the famous era, and the show even included characters who never had the chance to appear in animation, such as popeye's old lucky charm bernice the whiffle hen and even alice the goon, king blozo and rough house (yet while bringing in more "thimble theatre" elements, very few episodes were a direct or accurate adaptations of the strips and had no real continuity between them). notably, the only character that failed to return was bluto himself, who was instead replaced by his lookalike/brother brutus, due to king features incorrectly thinking that the former was not originally a "thimble theatre" character. while the show did involve popeye's love life, episodes actually focused more on his adventuring around the world (and beyond) not unlike the fleischer and comic strip incarnation, and also brought back other "thimble theatre" antagonists rather than relying solely on brutus, like the sinister sea hag and toar the caveman, who proved to be a true challenge for popeye. as in the final fleischer cartoons and most famous shorts, popeye still wore his navy uniform, an exception being the pilot episode "barbecue for two", where he did wear his original outfit.