Bonkers

a bubble gum that was very popular in the 80's. It tasted a little funny--almost a mix between gum and candy--but it was so "cool". The commercials were funny, in a stupid sort of way. Every time a person would put a piece of Bonkers in his/her mouth, a giant piece of the fruit that was the flavor of the gum would in some odd way or another fall on them.

A cartoon from the early 1990s, it was originally on the Disney Channel, and then moved to the Disney Afternoon. It featured Bonkers D. Bobcat*, a zany bobcat (He also owned a "dog," well it was actually something round with a horn, called, no less, Toots.) who seemed to cause endless amounts of amusement and chaos as an out of work cartoon character who "accidentally" saves the life of Donald Duck and is recruted by the LAPD in a PR scheme to the "Toon Division (Which featured a tough talking police radio, and a sing and dancing siren.)." The show was pretty funny, and featured Detective Lucky Piquel and later Officer Miranda Wright as his partners. As a side note the actually sequence was Miranda --> Piquel. Something happened with the original shows that featured Miranda as Bonkers' partner, and the team that was working on it was replaced. Only 19 were ever shown.

"Bonkers Gourmet Cat Treats" ("for the cat who has everything"), presumably named after the effect they would have on a cat (?), were a brand of cat treat produced and widely advertised by Beatrice Foods Corp. until the late 1980s, when the company fell victim to a leveraged buyout and was dismembered.

It seems that Bonkers did not survive the transition, as I have not seen them anywhere in about 20 years.