Saturday Morning's Forgotten Heroes: The Inspector (1965)

Loosely based on Peter Sellers' legendary Inspector Clouseau in the "Pink Panther" movies, The Inspector starred in his own series of DePatie-Freleng theatrical shorts, beginning in 1965. 4 years later, the series was used as the backup feature when Pink Panther debuted on NBC.

Comic Pat Harrington (later of One Day at a Time) voices both the Inspector and his aide, Sgt. Deux-Deux. In addition, taking his cue from Dragnet's Jack Webb, the Inspector narrates his own adventures.

"Le Quiet Squad", produced in 1967, uses an old plot that was used in other shorts years earlier. In this case, the Inspector must ensure that his boss gets some much needed peace & quiet. When this aired on NBC, the intro music used for the Panther's shorts was also used here.



Interestingly, when DFE produced new bumpers for The Pink Panther Show, Harrington was not brought back, as the shorts had come to an end. Instead, actor Marvin Miller, who was the 3rd man to essay the voice of the Commissioner, a role more commonly associated with Paul Frees in the minds of most fans, took over as the Inspector, in pursuit of the Panther, in a way tying this to the movie series.

Rating: B.

From Primetime to Daytime: Batman (1966)

To think that it started as a mid-season replacement series in January, 1966, then became a pop culture phenomenon.

Indeed, Batman captured the public's attention when ABC introduced the series in the 2nd half of the 1965-6 season, and it became a to-do stop for a number of celebrities, whether it was to be a villain of the week, or just to stop by.

Oh, and here's the open everyone knows from seasons 1 & 2.



In season 3, with ratings slipping, ABC opted against a spin-off pilot and added Batgirl (Yvonne Craig) to the mix. Unfortunately, the series ended six months later.

Death was a rarity on this show, and the only known fatality came in the opening two-parter as Molly (Jill St. John) was killed off, leading Batman (Adam West, ex-The Detectives) to utter the famous line, "What a way to go-go.".

It is well known, of course, that in the course of the series' 26 month history, 3 actors played Mr. Freeze, including filmmaker Otto Preminger. Even the late Frank Gorshin, who won an Emmy as The Riddler, was subbed out for one storyline, with John Astin (ex-The Addams Family) filling in. When the feature film version of the series was shot during the season, Julie Newmar, at the time the definitive Catwoman, had a previous commitment, so former Miss America Lee Meriweather, later of Time Tunnel & Barnaby Jones, subbed. Broadway star Eartha Kitt took over in season 3, which might've given the producers of the 2004 "Catwoman" feature film an excuse to use another African-American, Halle Berry ("X-Men") in the title role.

Batman merits inclusion in our archives because after the series ended, some stations, including WRGB in Schenectady, aired the show on Saturdays after the network cartoons. WRGB aired the show 6 days a week at one point, before passing the show to another station in the market.

This weekend, Batman will be returning, as the series joins the Me-TV lineup (check local listings)

These days, Adam West is keeping busy voicing his animated likeness as the mayor of Quahog, home of Fox's Family Guy. Series creator Seth MacFarlane must be a fan......

Rating: B+.

Saturday Morning's Forgotten Heroes: Rubik the Amazing Cube (1983)

Rubik's Cube was a popular game in the early 80's. In fact, it was so big, one local player adopted the handle of "Professor Rubik" when he called into an area radio station's primetime show on a regular basis.

In 1983, Ruby-Spears Productions was given a license to adapt the game into a cartoon----by making the cube a sentient entity! Now, that's enough to make you go completely loco, don't ya think?

As it was, Rubik the Amazing Cube lasted one season. It was touted as the first cartoon to use Latino protagonists as lead characters. Two years earlier, the Super Friends had welcomed a Latino hero, El Dorado, but he was meant to be a supporting player all along, and was written out of the show within 3 years time. As for Rubik, his voice was done by actor Ron Palillo (ex-Welcome Back, Kotter), who'd made his toon debut two years earlier as well, as a porcine drill sergeant (literally) in Laverne & Shirley's animated series. The Latino teen group, Menudo, recorded the show's theme song.

Here's the open, uploaded by crakkerjakk:



It's easy to suggest that whomever pitched this idea to the network, or even to the producers in the first place, might've been a few fries shy of a happy meal.

Rating: D.

What's in a name?: The Hanna-Barbera idea machine

Bear with me, gang, while I indulge in a little rant here.

Now, as we all know, a lot of Hanna-Barbera's earliest successes were derived from other sources, be it other television shows or movies. I thought I'd compose a little list.

The Flintstones: It's common knowledge, of course, that the first H-B icon of the 60's was inspired by a 50's icon, that being Jackie Gleason's Honeymooners. In turn, the travails of Fred & Wilma and their friends would become a template for future H-B domestic sitcoms, such as The Jetsons, and, much later, The Roman Holidays.

Top Cat: As I outlined when I reviewed this show, ol' TC was based on one Master Sgt. Ernest Bilko (Phil Silvers), so maybe it wasn't so much of a coincidence that Maurice Gosfeld, who played Private Doberman opposite Silvers, was part of the supporting cast.

Wacky Races: It's been said that this first H-B sports series was inspired by the movie, "The Great Race", which had an ensemble cast that included the likes of Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis. In turn, the two Races spin-offs, The Perils of Penelope Pitstop & Dastardly & Muttley in Their Flying Machines, were based on films. Perils was a left-handed homage to the silent melodramas of the 20's, while Dastardly drew inspiration from "Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines", I believe.

Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?: The last H-B icon of the 60's got his name from a little scatting by Frank Sinatra in his song, "Strangers in the Night".

It's pretty much a given that Dynomutt, Dog Wonder and his human owner-partner, Blue Falcon, were a throwback to the campy, mid-60's live-action Batman, which was ironic in that by the time creators Joe Ruby & Ken Spears introduced Dyno in 1976, Batman was part of the H-B family, as he & the Super Friends had been licensed to the studio and the original series was in reruns at that point.

Sticking with the SF, most of us have known for years that the Wonder Twins, Zan & Jayna, were modeled after singers Donny & Marie Osmond, whose variety series was airing on ABC when The All-New Super Friends Hour bowed in 1977. According to Marc Tyler Nobleman's Noblemania blog, and sources quoted therein, supposedly, the Exorian sibs got their names from Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan and his wife, Jane. Now, it happens to be a coincidence that Tarzan, licensed to Filmation, was airing on CBS at that time, so you can draw your own conclusion. As for the Osmond connection, well, take the points off the Twins' ears, and Jayna's up-raised ponytail, and, well, what do you think?

Hanna-Barbera's 1974 rookie class included three more media-inspired entries.

Hong Kong Phooey, of course, cashed in on the growing popularity of martial arts movies. Devlin was inspired by real-life stuntman Evel Knievel. These Are The Days had to draw inspiration from CBS' The Waltons. Going back 2 years, you have to believe that Wait 'Til Your Father Gets Home, a syndicated offering, was derived from another CBS hit, All in the Family, but without the heavy emphasis on social commentary.

Now, I've discussed most of these series individually in the past, but I thought it'd be a good idea to look at the trend the studio created. Unfortunately, this kind of history lesson is lost on the current regime at Cartoon Network, which could stand a few lessons.

Toonfomercial: Superman peanut butter (1983)

I'm not entirely sure if this was animated at Hanna-Barbera or not. One thing is for certain. A different actor other than Stan Jones was hired to be the voice of Lex Luthor for this ad shilling the short-lived Superman peanut butter, put out by Sunnyland in 1983. Not sure if Danny Dark, who was the voice of the Man of Steel in those days, did this ad, either. Uploaded by panbiscuit to YouTube:



I never tried the stuff, and I hardly even saw it in stores in my area, to begin with!

Saturday Morning's Greatest Hits: It's A Sunshine Day (1973)

"It's a Sunshne Day" is the song most associated with The Brady Kids, but was originally introduced on the parent series, The Brady Bunch, in January, 1973. Subsequently, the song was added to the cartoon soundtrack. Joramma20 uploaded this karaoke-style clip, which has the lyrics on the screen to make it easier for you to sing along. The clip ends with a portion of the show's open.

For what it's worth, and this has been pointed out to me by many on other boards, the poses for the Kids' musical numbers were redrawn from The Archie Show. You simply sub Greg for Archie, Jan for Veronica, Bobby for Jughead, and so on. Cindy is not an analogue for the Archies' mascot, Hot Dog, however. Hot Dog often had a baton so he could pretend to "conduct" the band, if you will, but that isn't the case here.

Tooniversary: Dial M For Monkey (1996)

As we discussed previously, Dial M For Monkey was one of the backup features on Dexter's Laboratory. As you can see in the intro, Dexter never believed that his pet would amount to anything, and so the science-obsessed youth gave up experimenting on Monkey, unaware that the simian was in fact endowed with super powers after all.

Following is the episode, "Barbequor":



Rating: A.