Thursday, August 5, 2021

Saturday Morning's Forgotten Heroes: The series premiere of the Harlem Globetrotters (1970)

 Between 1969-71, Saturday morning television made some serious strides in what we call cultural diversity. After Filmation created an African-American character for The Hardy Boys, Hanna-Barbera responded by acquiring licenses for Josie & The Pussycats (with an African-American percussionist who was also cast as their answer to Greg Morris' character of Barney Collier on Mission: Impossible) and The Harlem Globetrotters.

As we've documented, the 'Trotters didn't voice their animated selves. Meadowlark Lemon was credited, but only because he recorded backing vocals on some of the musical numbers. Scatman Crothers ("The Aristocats") voiced Lemon's animated alter-ego. Eddie "Rochester" Anderson (ex-The Jack Benny Program), who hadn't done any animated work since doing a cartoon with Benny several years earlier ("The Mouse That Jack Built"), voices Bobby Joe Mason, who figures into the plot of the series opener, "The Great Geese Goof-Up", in which the team thinks Geese was transformed into a kangaroo, not knowing the kangaroo, a magician's assistant, is being used by jewel thieves.


Rating: B.

2 comments:

Goldstar said...

Interestingly enough, Scatman Crothers would voice another Harlem Globetrotter Nate Branch, aka Liquid Man on NBC's The Super Globetrotters nine years later.

hobbyfan said...

I've previously documented that fact.