If you're a hardcore Marvel Comics fan, you had to be reaching for some kind of medicinal relief (asprin, Maalox) after seeing what happened to The Thing after returning to Hanna-Barbera in 1979. A year earlier, DePatie-Freleng had served up The New Fantastic Four for NBC, with H.E.R.B.I.E., a robot, replacing the Human Torch. There are urban legends about the rationale behind that bone-headed move, but that's for another time. Some knucklehead, either at H-B or NBC, I'm not sure which, decided that Ben Grimm would now be a teenager, only able to transform into the Thing thanks to a magic, two-piece ring. Here's an example of this blasphemic mistreatment of a Silver Age icon, thanks to YouTube:
Granted, Ben did have one confidant who knew his secret. Kelly Harkness was posited as a close friend, rather than establish a more intimate relationship. In the comics, Ben had dated blind sculptor Alicia Masters for years, but since Kelly wasn't going to appear in the comics any time soon (and there's no proof that she would be related to sorceress Agatha Harkness, a long time ally of the Fantastic Four), where was the harm? And that's Kelly behind the wheel of the car as Ben changes, by the way.
It wasn't a good period for Marvel. The original Electric Company had ended production, meaning the end of Spidey Super Stories, even though the comics version would continue for a few years. A live-action Spider-Man was a prime-time bust for CBS, which rebounded with the Incredible Hulk. The DFE Fantastic Four bombed, due largely to affiliate indifference, as I'll explain another time, and so did Spider-Woman, which was previously reviewed.
Ben only interacted with Fred Flintstone & Barney Rubble in some interstital sketches. I recall a soft-shoe bit with those three. A few weeks into the season, NBC, in a ratings panic yet again, fused together New Shmoo with Fred & Barney Meet The Thing to create a 90-minute series, prolonging the pain. The sight of a teenage, shape-shifting Ben Grimm was an insult to long time fans who'd seen two previous TV incarnations of the FF. And you wonder why NBC was the last place network at the time.........!
Rating: C--.
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