Celebrity Toons: That Girl in Wonderland (Saturday Superstar Movie, 1973)

 From season 2 of the ABC Saturday Superstar Movie:

That Girl had been in syndication for a while, first-run production having ended 3 years earlier, when Rankin-Bass was asked to adapt the series into a 1-shot that one YouTuber said was a pilot.

Marlo Thomas reprises as Ann Marie, and is the only cast member returning for "That Girl in Wonderland" (italics mine).

This wasn't Marlo's 1st rodeo with Rankin-Bass. You'll recall she and papa Danny worked with R-B on "Cricket on The Hearth" 6 years earlier (which Danny co-produced). Forgive the poor video quality.

No rating. Just a public service.

George Lowe (1957-2025)

 George Lowe, the 2nd man to essay the role of Space Ghost, after the iconic Gary Owens, passed away on Sunday.

Lowe and the creative staff on Space Ghost Coast-to-Coast and its sister series, Cartoon Planet, took great pleasure in deconstructing Space Ghost and his adversaries in a parody of late night talk shows that served as the inspiration for [adult swim], which launched in 2001, well after Coast had reached its creative peak.

Lowe has also been heard on such shows as American Dad, and reprised as Space Ghost one final time on Jellystone a couple of years back.

Rest in peace.

Retro Toy Chest: Spellbound (1975)

 In the mid-70's, entertainer Jerry Lewis entered into an agreement with Hasbro for a series of board games, for which he'd do the commercials. He figured, since he bombed with an animated cartoon, board games can't be too worse.

Unfortunately, none of the Lewis games Hasbro produced survived the decade.

In this 1975 bit, Jerry is joined by Billy Barty (Sigmund & The Sea Monsters) and narrator Joe Sirola to plug Spellbound. 

Keep in mind that this was after Aurora had hired Don Adams to promote their Skittle line of games.

Tooniversary: Waldo Kitty as Robin Cat (1975)

 There was a time when episodes of The Secret Lives of Waldo Kitty were plentiful, but, those videos were deleted a ways back. Now, they're back.

Part of the reason that Waldo Kitty was cancelled was because the estate of James Thurber objected to the unauthorized adaptation of Thurber's work, specifically, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, which had been a movie with Danny Kaye years earlier, and remade with Ben Stiller 12 years ago.

Here, Waldo (Howard Morris) imagines himself as Robin Cat as "The Sheriff of Sherwood":

Rating: B.