Saturday Morning's Forgotten Heroes: The Tick (1994)

Rare is the time when a superhero comic book from a publisher other than Marvel or DC makes it to television. Kevin Eastman & Peter Laird's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were nearing the end of their first network run on CBS around the time that Ben Edlund's The Tick made the transition to television.

The Tick debuted on Fox in 1994 and hung around until November 1996, two months into the 3rd season. Sunbow Entertainment, which had adapted a number of Hasbro properties (i.e. Transformers, G. I. Joe) since the 80's, landed the license to bring Edlund's satire of the superhero genre to the small screen. Comedian Townsend Coleman was cast in the title role, but they went through two actors as Tick's generic sidekick, Arthur, who dressed in a white moth suit, but opted not to use a secret identity. Arthur was originally voiced by ex-Monkee Micky Dolenz, but Rob Paulsen took over the role in season 2 for unknown reasons.

Macka8 uploaded the open to YouTube:



After its Fox run, the series wound up on Comedy Central, where it became a cult favorite. Disney owns the rights to the series, and had it airing on Toon Disney (now DisneyXD) a few years ago, but it currently languishes in the vaults. The series is available on DVD, however.

Rating: B.

Saturday Morning's Forgotten Heroes: Astro & the Space Mutts (1981)

If there was any singular reason why Space Stars was cancelled after 1 season, it would be the square peg in the round hole that was Astro & the Space Mutts.

Spun off from The Jetsons, Astro (Don Messick) was rebooted as a comic sidekick to Space Ace (Michael Bell), and with some new canine pals, to boot. For serious superhero fans, this was the kitchen break part of the show, if you will, a campy comedy relief segment amidst the exploits of Space Ghost, The Herculoids, & The Teen Force.

Now, scope out the opener, "Night of the Crab":



Clearly, Astro just didn't fit in, and would return when The Jetsons was revived in 1985. If Hanna-Barbera really wanted this to work, Astro would've been a stand-alone series instead.

Rating: D.

Saturday Morning's Forgotten Heroes: Dino Boy (1966)

Dino Boy in The Lost Valley was the backup feature on Space Ghost during the series' original run on CBS. However, when Space Ghost moved to NBC 10 years later as a mid-season replacement, Hanna-Barbera repackaged him with Frankenstein, Jr., leaving Dino Boy in the vaults. Following is an intro clip, narrated by the voice of Space Ghost himself, Gary Owens.

After The Flintstones had ended its prime-time run after 6 years, Hanna-Barbera wanted to take a more serious approach to the Stone Age, and Dino Boy was the first step in that direction. The next year brought Mightor, who fared about as well as Dino Boy did overall. Making such a sudden U-turn in that regard might actually have doomed Dino Boy in retrospect. Sadly, the studio's last two efforts, 1974's Valley of the Dinosaurs & Korg: 70,000 B. C., fared no better, either. Viewers simply preferred the humorous antics of The Flintstones over the concept of prehistoric heroes, and not even sending Captain Caveman back to his own time in the 80's could change that perception.

Not long ago, on a message board I frequent, I postulated an idea for a revival that would entail not only Dino Boy, but also Mightor & Valley of the Dinosaurs, with the idea that these three series could actually, if done right, have been linked together at some point, provided of course the creative personnel at Hanna-Barbera gave it serious consideration. Warner Bros. certainly is not in any hurry to try it, though, given Hollywood's general creative bankruptcy, they should.

Rating: B.

Literary Toons: Return to the Planet of the Apes (1975)

With "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" dominating the box office this week, I thought I'd take a look back at the lone animated entry in the "Apes" franchise.

Return to the Planet of the Apes had a tough act to follow when it debuted on NBC in 1975. After all, Star Trek had just ended a 2 year animated voyage, and the network needed a new tentpole around which to build their Saturday morning block. DePatie-Freleng had entered into an agreement with 20th Century Fox to produce Return, a year after Fox had made the gallant attempt to put Planet in primetime, over on CBS. Strangely, producers Joe Ruby & Ken Spears, who'd moved to DFE from Hanna-Barbera three years earlier, and had worked on the live-action Planet series, are not attached to this cartoon, which would've been the coda to their DFE run. They would return to H-B the next year for 2 years before launching their own studio.

Here's a sample of Return:



The character designs were a far, far cry from the usual DFE fare, thanks to the genius move of signing Jonny Quest creator Doug Wildey as a member of the show's creative staff. Unfortunately, viewers turned off Return, just as they did the live-action series the year before, and it was cancelled after 1 season. You'd think someone would've had the stones to bring this show out of the vaults with the new movie out, but nooooooo!

Rating: A.

Saturday Morning's Forgotten Heroes: The Buford Files (1978)

Originally conceived as a component of Yogi's Space Race, The Buford Files would later be spun off to share a half-hour with The Galloping Ghost in the winter of 1979, as the 90 minute Space Race was bombing, much to the surprise (maybe) of NBC executives.

Buford and his owners, Woody & Cindy Mae, were another set of amateur detectives molded in the pattern of Scooby-Doo. Unlike Scooby, however, Buford's favorite pastime was sleeping.

Following is an intro, and a title card for the episode, "The Swamp Saucer":



In case you couldn't tell, the Sheriff on this show, portrayed as a bit of a bungler, was modeled after another Buford, one Buford T. Justice (Jackie Gleason) in the "Smokey & the Bandit" movies. Unfortunately, Buford was kennelled after one season, and hasn't been heard from again since.

Rating: B.

Saturday Morning's Forgotten Heroes: The Legend of Calamity Jane (1997)

Kids' WB! had made The Legend of Calamity Jane the centerpiece of its 1997-98 Saturday lineup, hoping that the toon noir art style that was popularized by Batman: The Animated Series worked on a show set in the Old West. Regrettably, the network got a sudden case of cold feet and cancelled Calamity Jane after just 3 episodes, and never brought it back to burn off the remaining 10, though the complete series would be played in other countries. Some blame the quick hook on poor ratings, excessive violence, or just plain stupidity on the part of network suits (likely, a combination of all three). Just a few years earlier, ABC had another Western toon, but with more of a comic bent to appease the media watchdogs. WB opted to push the envelope, recalling the Lone Ranger's initial foray into Saturdays more than 30 years earlier.

All I ask now is that you judge for yourself while you view this sample of the episode, "Slip of the Whip", one of three Calamity Jane episodes that did make it to air here in the US.

Rating: A-.

Game Time: Pole Position (1984)

One of the popular trends in the mid-80's was to adapt games of just about any kind into a cartoon. That included video games, and Namco's Pole Position was one of the most popular games going at the time.

Thus, DIC acquired a license to adapt the game into an action-adventure series that aired on CBS in 1984. Unfortunately, the series lasted just one season. Maybe the cheesy theme song composed by Shuki Levy & Haim Saban had something to do with that, and, yes, they did come up with some clunkers. JediJuggernaut uploaded the opening & closing credits.



I never watched the show, and I never played the game. Despite the promising concept, the music may have in fact doomed the show.

Rating: None.