Call Me Stormy

Finding righteous currents in turbulent times

Archive for the tag “Hanna-Barbera”

07 Aug 2021

SuperFriends: Fire

Hey kids (of all ages). It’s Saturday Morning Cartoon time again!

Last week we had an episode of JANA OF THE JUNGLE. I noticed it got a down-vote almost immediately. I’m guessing because the crummy VHS transfer didn’t live up to the thumbnail. To make it up to y’all, this week we’ll do a similar character as she’s featured in a more popular show (of which I can find decent prints).

Hanna-Barbera usually prefers characters they own outright. So it’s no surprise that they used a near-copy of RIMA, a jungle babe who had previously been animated. The odd thing is that Rima herself had been animated by HB the year before. But that was part of the SUPER FRIENDS, one of HB’s few major licensed properties. This version of Rima basically came along with the rest of the JUSTICE LEAGUE characters from DC. This episode is the first of her several appearances in the franchise.

Of course, Rima wasn’t created by DC comics. She actually predates TARZAN (but not MOWGLI) in literature. She only got one movie though, probably because the 1959 Audrey Hepburn vehicle flopped. DC put her into her own comic book in the ’70s, and that’s the version adapted here.

This the second incarnation of the Super Friends, which catered to ever-shortening attention spans by breaking the hour-long show into multiple, brief stories and filler segments. This one includes Doctor Fright / Drag Race / Plant Creatures / Fire.

I kinda’ feel like the popular meme image of Batman slapping the hell out of Robin applies. Seriously, Dick! Sit this one out and let ol’ Bruce ‘adventure’ with the hot, half-naked blond without you along as a third wheel! Also, just how damned fast IS the Super Friends Batmobile? That sucker seems to be able to get across the continent in no-time.

From October 1977. More from the OldHorseman.

 

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31 Jul 2021

The Cordillera Volcano

Hey kids (of all ages), it’s Saturday Morning Cartoon time again!

Filmation (the “We’re #2, so we try harder!” studio for classic TV animation) did mostly licensed properties, including TARZAN in 1976. (Which I covered a good while back.) Hanna-Barbera, the leading cartoon outfit, usually preferred to avoid licensing fees by going with ‘original’ characters. AKA: Knock-offs.

Possibly in response to the aforementioned Tarzan series, HB gave us JANA OF THE JUNGLE. Of course, half-naked white gals running around having adventures in jungles was a trope going back many decades in prose, comics, and film before this one was created to fill-out the GODZILLA POWER HOUR.

Jana’s show bore considerable resemblance to Tarzan’s. From the opening narration to the use of rotoscoping to give her more realistic movement. (Common practice by Filmation, but a rarity in HB productions.) One difference was placing Jana in a South American jungle, as opposed to Tarzan’s Africa. Natives were somewhat conspicuous by their absence in the Ape-Man’s stories, likely because there was no way to get away with depicting primitive black folks that wouldn’t be offensive in the ’70s. But you could still put spear-chucking Indians in loin cloths and feathers on the Jungle Girl’s program.

Jana’s big native fellow-traveler was voiced by Ted Cassidy (Lurch from the live-action and first animated ADDAMS FAMILY, as well as various voice roles including the HB Godzilla), who also guest-starred in the episode of Tarzan I uploaded. More from the OldHorseman.

 

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10 Jul 2021

The Frickert Fracas

Hey kids (of all ages), it’s Saturday Morning Cartoon time again!

Not long ago, my weekday upload for grownups was an episode of WAIT TILL YOUR FATHER GETS HOME featuring an appearance by Jonathan Winters. Like Don Adams and Phyllis Diller, Winters had also guest starred on Hanna-Barbera’s top Saturday Morning ‘toon… But, in his case, he also brought along the same Granny Maude Frickert character to both shows.

SCOOBY-DOO, WHERE ARE YOU? (Basically ersatz DOBIE GILLIS characters crossed with the old I LOVE A MYSTERY radio show plus a semi-anthropomorphic dog thrown-in for good measure.) was a big hit for the studio in 1969. Not only did it get a second production season, which was kinda’ rare for Saturday Morning Cartoons, but is spawned a slew of follow-up series, one-shot video features, and even big-budget live-action movie adaptations.

Scooby and the gang also became the go-to template for many of HB’s ‘toons through the ’70s, as YOGI BEAR had been for the ’60s. Just rename the Meddling Kids, and swap-out the dog for a semi-anthropomorphic car, phantom, cat, shark, or even a goofier-looking dog, and there’s your new show. Heck, even the Justice League got a pair of Meddling Kids and their dog when HB took over the superheroes’ license with SUPER FRIENDS.

Scooby’s second program, the NEW SCOOBY-DOO MOVIES, had the mystery adventures extended to an hour-long, and featured guest stars. And what a mixed-bad that lot was! Sometimes real people, like Cass Elliot, Davy Jones, or Jerry Reed, voiced by their real-world selves. Sometimes fictional characters, like Batman, the Addams Family, or the cast of other HB Scooby-esque cartoons. Sometimes a splitting of the difference, with the onscreen personas of real people voiced by impersonators, as with the THREE STOOGES and LAUREL AND HARDY due to the originals being retired or dead. From September, 1972. More from the OldHorseman.

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17 Apr 2021

The Exterminator

Hey kids (of all ages), it’s Saturday Morning Cartoon time again!

SCOOBY-DOO, WHERE ARE YOU? (Basically ersatz DOBIE GILLIS characters crossed with the old I LOVE A MYSTERY radio show plus a semi-anthropomorphic dog thrown-in for good measure.) was a big hit for the studio in 1969. Not only did it get a second production season, which was kinda’ rare for Saturday Morning Cartoons, but is spawned a slew of follow-up series, one-shot video features, and even big-budget live-action movie adaptations.

Scooby and the gang also became the go-to template for many of HB’s ‘toons through the ’70s, as YOGI BEAR had been for the ’60s. Just rename the Meddling Kids, and swap-out the dog for a semi-anthropomorphic car, phantom, cat, shark, or even a goofier-looking dog, and there’s your new show. Heck, even the Justice League got a pair of Meddling Kids and their dog when HB took over the superheroes’ license with SUPERFRIENDS.

Scooby’s second program, the NEW SCOOBY-DOO MOVIES, had the mystery adventures extended to an hour-long, and featured guest stars. And what a mixed-bad that lot was! Sometimes real people, like Cass Elliot, Davy Jones, or Jerry Reed, voiced by their real-world selves. Sometimes fictional characters, like Batman, the Addams Family, or the cast of other HB Scooby-esque cartoons. Sometimes a splitting of the difference, with the onscreen personas of real people voiced by impersonators, as with the THREE STOOGES and LAUREL AND HARDY due to the originals being retired or dead.

This October 1973 episode features Don Adams voicing himself in the style of his GET SMART character. For some reason, even though the kids recognize him as a TV star, he’s working as an exterminator trying to get rid of the termites in a haunted house so the bank can sell it. C’mon! His post Agent 86 career wasn’t THAT bad! More from the OldHorseman.

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20 Feb 2021

Joining Of The Knights

The BANANA SPLITS show was originally an hour of combined live-action and animated elements. Hard to say which was more cartoonish though. Hanna-Barbera hired the brothers Krofft to do the costumed and puppet segments, launching their Saturday Morning career that would produce many iconic series of their own.

One of the original animated segments was the ARABIAN KNIGHTS. A lighthearted adventure series in which a group of misfits with various powers join forces under a prince (voiced by DENNIS THE MENACE) and an unrelated princess (voiced by LAMBCHOP’s momma) to oppose an evil, usurper Sultan and his minions.

The series was unusual among HB’s action-adventure ‘toons in that it had a first episode origin story. This was generally avoided, since they knew the episodes would be rerun many times, and didn’t want obvious first (or last) episodes to make it so apparent.

The Arabian Knights’ eighteen episodes were featured in both network seasons of the Splits, even as other segments were swapped-out for bits recycled from earlier HB programs. Hard to keep track of how far they continued into the host show’s long syndicated run, as the nature of the show made it pretty easy to rotate all sorts of cartoons through.

Here’s another in our series of original Saturday Morning Cartoons. More from the OldHorseman.

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