You all know that Marvel acquired DePatie-Freleng Productions in the early 80's, rechristening the company as Marvel Productions. Whereas DFE was a Saturday morning fixture for nearly 15 years (1966-80), Marvel Productions didn't match it in terms of longevity before being itself absorbed by New World Television in 1993 after 12 seasons. In a later post, we'll look at the New World-Fox era, but for now we'll take a look at those first 12 years. 15 series total between ABC, CBS, Fox, & NBC, and we won't include syndicated specials or daily and weekend series during this period. Keep in mind most of these programs have previously been reviewed.
ABC:
Little Clowns of Happytown & Little Wizards (1987): The only two series Marvel sold to ABC after acquiring DFE, and neither fared very well for a number of reasons. ABC was looking for something to complement The Real Ghostbusters, but these two weren't the answer.
Fox:
Attack of the Killer Tomatoes was a sort-of follow-up to the cult movie of the same name, and ran for 2 seasons. John Astin reprised his role from the movie, but there were some minor tweaks. Next came Little Shop, a loose adaptation of Roger Corman's original "Little Shop Of Horrors", which had been revived on Broadway. Fox would not receive another Marvel series until after the sale of the studio to New World and the eventual partnership with Saban.
CBS:
Marvel Productions partnered with Fred Silverman's Intermedia Entertainment to produce Meatballs & Spaghetti & Pandamonium (both reviewed earlier this week) in 1982. As noted previously, both series bombed, partially due to airing in tough time slots, as NBC owned Saturdays by this point.
But, things began to change when Marvel acquired a license to adapt the role playing game Dungeons & Dragons, which lasted 3 seasons (1983-6), and boasted a star-laden cast that included Donny Most (Happy Days, ex-Fonz & the Happy Days Gang) and Eight is Enough siblings Adam Rich & Willie Aames, in addition to some of the usual suspects (Frank Welker, Peter Cullen). Then, there was Jim Henson's Muppet Babies, which would be Marvel's most successful series, running for 8 seasons (1984-91), and winning 7 Daytime Emmy Awards. Disney now owns the series, along with the Henson Company & Marvel, and will relaunch the series next year for Disney Junior.
Happy with the success of Muppet Babies, CBS ordered a 2nd Muppet series in 1985, Little Muppet Monsters, expanding the Muppet block to an hour. Unfortunately, only three out of 13 episodes made it to air before the series was given a quick heave-ho. As our Famous First for December, here's the 1st episode:
In short, the show was a victim of Muppet Babies' success. Since the other 10 episodes weren't completed by the start of the season, production was terminated, and CBS went with a full hour of Muppet Babies, starting a trend that continues today, mostly in syndicated live action programming.
No rating for Little Muppet Monsters, since I never saw the show.
Marvel's final entry for CBS was Rude Dog & The Dweebs in 1989, which didn't play in the home market due to affiliate blackout. Viewer and/or affiliate indifference led to cancellation after 1 season.
NBC:
Marvel got the ball rolling at the Peacock Network with Spider-Man & His Amazing Friends, which ran for 3 seasons (1981-4) before moving into syndication. The web-head's syndicated solo series bowed the same year, but didn't get into as many homes (didn't air in the home district that I can recall). It was posited as NBC's answer to ABC's long-running Super Friends franchise, but slotted near the bottom of the lineup for most of its run. The Incredible Hulk, fresh from a primetime run on CBS, moved to NBC, but lasted 1 season of 1st run episodes (2 overall), as Marvel ultimately suffered from Filmation syndrome at NBC. That is to say, subsequent sales to the network would all bomb out after 1 year. In addition to Hulk, this list includes:
Fraggle Rock (1987). '87 was a bad year for Marvel TV, as all of their freshman entries were cancelled after 1 season (see the ABC entries above).
Kid 'n' Play (1990): Fictionalized adventures of the real-life rappers, with future Broadway star Brian Stokes Mitchell as Play. Co-produced with DIC.
Space Cats (1991) Marvel teamed with Saban and Alf creator Paul Fusco for this 1/2-puppet, 1/2-cartoon comedy adventure series, featuring Charles Nelson Reilly, who couldn't buy a break on Saturday mornings, having previously bombed with Lidsville and Uncle Croc's Block. Between this and The Flintstone Comedy Show (2nd series), it marked the end of Reilly's SatAM career.
We'll look at the New World-Fox era another time.
2 comments:
One of Marvel's first TV efforts was coincidentally the last of DFE's efforts, a sort of traditional period during 1980-82 where projects initiated at DFE saw completion at Marvel. These include the Dr. Seuss special "The Grinch Grinches the Cat & The Hat" as well as the third Pink Panther half-hour special "Pink at First Sight". Several others produced during that time may have only credited DePatie-Freleng but Marvel was given credit on those two specials I noticed.
New World actually owned Marvel Productions as early as 1987, at least going by the familiar logo featuring an early CGI rendering of Spider-Man that was animated by Chris Bailey...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxfRPOZIpas
Marvel was also involved in a few video-only projects including a several volumes based on Fisher-Price's "Little People" figures as well as a live-action instructional tape based on the famous book "How To Draw Comics the Marvel Way", featuring the authors Stan Lee and John Buscema. Both were released through their parent company's video label (New World Video).
Probably one the more ambitious efforts from the studio, though not as well-known, was a short film produced in '92 that was supposedly paired with the theatrical release of "Buffy, The Vampire Slayer" (the 1992 film, not the TV show), based on the macabre cartoons of Gahan Wilson.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UACBc-7b7Uw
Incidentally, here's a trade ad Marvel Productions placed in the first issue of Animation Magazine, touting a number of programs/specials they had going in '87.
http://i.imgur.com/bxrA3jV.jpg
The idea was to focus on Saturday morning programming only, Chris. I can pull up a complete listing of what Marvel Productions produced up until the name change to New World Animation, but we're going to cover the New World era another day.
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