It’s on the Boomerang network.
Fans of Thunderbirds/Supercar should check out Peter Cook and Dudley Moore’s parody, Superthunderstingcar.
Supercar:
Fireball XL-5:
Johnny LA and New and Improved Superman, that’s it!!! I remember having trouble focusing in school or sitting still because IN JUST ONE YEAR MOTHER EARTH WILL DISSAPEAR if the Star Blazers didn’t succeed! (Watching the youtube of intro has brought it all back).
I love this place. <sniff>. Now I can sleep nights.
I’ve been watching the Mighty Mightor lately on Boomerang, intrigued by his later career as Judge Hiram Mightor on Harvey Birdman. Mightor has a little brother in his secret identity, Little Rok, who idolizes Mightor and dresses like him. In terms of spunkiness and getting himself involved in dangerous situations he needs rescuing from out of sheer aggressive stupidity, Little Rok would irritate the shit out of Scrappy Doo.
Mightor shared his slot with Moby Dick, the apparently rehabilitated now-friendly great white whale, who went on adventures with Scooby the Seal and two kids, Tom and Tub, who were apparently in possession of the most adanced SCUBA gear on the planet.
Only the theme song has become lodged in my brain and it won’t come out. And I don’t remember all of they lyrics, so wrong ones take their place…
*We’re off to outer space
We’re leaving Mother Earth
So save the human race!
Flying off to Iskandar
Who knew that it was so far?
Should have brought a candy bar
I’m going to starve to death!
Our Star Blazers!*
“Top Cat” was part of ABC’s attempt in 1961 to bring animation into prime time. I imagine most folks remember Top Cat from syndication on Saturday morning, but he started out as the lead in a prime time series.
No one seems to remember the other part of ABC’s 1961 grand experiment in prime time animation: “Calvin and the Colonel.” Talk about a bad idea whose time had come - take the characters’ voices from “Amos and Andy” and put them in cartoon animals! Calvin was a big bear and had a voice remarkably similar to Andy. The Colonel was a fox, whose voice was almost identical to the Kingfish.
I think it lasted in prime time for about a month before it was cancelled. Gee - I wonder why?? :rolleyes:
I was 10 years old at the time - I’m pretty sure I watched all four episodes!
Man, this thread is bringing back a lot of memories…for better or worse. Here’s another one that floated back to my conscious mind - Hong Kong Fooey. Hong Kong was an anthropomorphic lap-dog, working as a mild-mannered janitor at a police station. When trouble brewed, he leap into the top of a discarded filing cabinet and jump out the bottom as “Hong Kong Fooey - the number one super guy!!” Curiously, none of the other characters were anthropomorphic animals - they were people. Nobody in the cartoon seemed to make connection between a dog-superhero and a dog-janitor. Phooey was a fairly inept crime fighter too - he usually caught the bad guys through sheer dumb luck.
I remember Calvin and the Colonel (which also ran in syndication, so there were other opportunities to see it). It resembled “Amos and Andy” because the guys who created that show created (and voiced!) the characters in C and the C.
You have to remember that “Amos and Andy” was insanely successful in its time, running for Decades and spawning a movie or two and an earlier cartoon series (Good thing they didn’t try to run that one!) Someone had the shrewd idea that you could “cleanse” Amos and Andy of any racist tinge by changing the characters to Funny Animals.
http://www.toontracker.com/calvin/calvin.htm
There seem to have been 25 episodes. Go to the bottom of the page for pix of their earlier cartoon
I loved “Supercar” as a kid. A while back I bought the complete series and have watched most of both seasons. For an action show, it’s surprising how little the marionettes actually did. They mostly stood, or sat, and talked. They had them walk as little as possible because it looked odd. And, of course, the whole idea of the Supercar vehicle was to provide a means to move the characters around so they woudn’t have to walk much.
It’s great to see the things we loved as kids and reflect on why we liked them and how they may have affected the adults we are now.
although Spot the stripey cat was smarter than anyone.
Actually, IIRC it was usually Spot’s quick thinking.
Not only were they people, they were specifically Phil Silvers as Sgt. Bilko and his crew.
Why? Because of delightful songs like this:
You take the axe
and I take the saw
And we cut off the legs
of my mother-in-law :eek:
You folks keep dredging up more memories. There was one with an elephant who could change the shape of his/her trunk to save the day. He had his own General Mills cereal. The cereal box had a flap that opened and there’d be games to play on the box.
Was the elephant’s name Twink? Twinkle?
I’m drawing a blank on the sidekick, but I’m pretty sure there was one.
I may be wrong, but I don’t think Spiderman was on the Mighty Marvel Superheroes. That cartoon (from 1966) only had Thor, Iron Man, SubMariner, Hulk and Captain America. I think Spidey had a stand-alone show later.
But DAMN, I did love that “When Captain America throws his mighty shield” theme song.
Just to show how VERY old I am, I was a huge fan of The Funny Company (from 1963). In retrospect, it really sucked, but I adored “Shrinking Violet.” In fact, I still have an original Shrinking Violet doll in a trunk in my mother’s house, believe it or not.
Also, someone way too many posts back made reference to a cartoon about a duck and a cat. That was Gandy Goose and Sourpuss.
Actually, Gandy Goose and Sourpuss made a cameo appearance in The New Adventures of Mighty Mouse, Ralph Bakshi’s hilarious sendup of cartoons in 1987-1988. There was also a brief shot of Hashimoto (as a sushi chef), and an appearance by Deputy Dawg (who floated ashore in an iceberg ala Captain America and defrosted with a cry of "Muskie! Where’s Muskie!). Other episodes featured “Bat-Bat” (Batman) and his sidekick, “Tick,” “Elwe and the Tree Weasels” (Alvin and the Chipmunks) and the evil supervillain, “The Cow” (who sounded male, but had huge udders and a tendency to squirt milk at his foes). I may be wrong, but in my mind, The New Adventures of Mighty Mouse was the inspiration for all of the truly warped cartoons that followed, from Ren and Stimpy to Pinky and the Brain on down.
Sorry so long, but you guys really fired my imagination with this topic.
I remember loving The Hair Bear Bunch but considering it went off the air when I was not yet 4, I am amazed I have any memory of it at all.
Oh, and on The New Zoo Revue, Freddie’s eyes would freak me out because they were always googling around. Freaky.
Heh…there used to be a clip on YouTube with an outtake from New Zoo Revue, with Charlie the Owl cursing out Freddy. I can’t find it now, though.
Forgot to ask: does anyone else remember Luno?
“Oh, winged horse of marble white, take me on a magic flight!”
I am absolutely stunned at the stuff people dig up and post on YouTube. What an amazing resource.
Stuffy Durma was part of Hal Seeger’s Milton the Monster Show.
Indeed. I’ve had the time to search YouTube for Clyde Crashcup, so quickly named in response to my query above. I would never have remembered that name in a million years, yet I must have watched him constantly when I was a kid.
Here he is, and he’s voiced by a well-known character actor whose name I don’t remember at the moment, but whose voice I certainly do. Clyde’s on the funny side, but not as funny as that Gaston Le Crayon I discussed earlier.
Okay, here’s a few more: Linus the Lionhearted, and Herman the Mouse with Katnip the Cat.
"Fiddle-diddle dee, fiddle-diddle day
All the mice are feelin’ gay
Fiddle-diddle dee, fiddle-diddle day
Herman’s on his way!
When Katnip, the cat
Sees Herman, the mouse
Katnip, the cat
Packs his bags and leaves the house!"