Redartz: You remember the Super Friends. You remember Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends (lots of friendly heroes in the Bronze age, eh?). You may remember the Justice League on tv during the late 60's on Saturday mornings. Ah, but some of the greatest heroic teams of the Saturday morning era never graced a Marvel or DC comic. From the studios of Hanna Barbera, Ralph Bakshi and others arose completely original teams. Odd powers, strange names, unusual appearances- they offered it all. Let's look at a few...
The Mighty Heroes
An early effort by animator Ralph Bakshi and studio Terrytoons (who gave us Mighty Mouse), The Mighty Heroes ran from 1966 to 67 on CBS, then went into syndication for years. I discovered them on a local Indianapolis after-school cartoon program during the early 70's. It was a quirky, cool show, with a quirky, cool group of characters: Strong Man, Cuckoo Man, Tornado Man, Rope Man and Diaper Man. The villains were equally esoteric: The Monsterizer, The Scarecrow, and many others. The cartoons were a bit formulaic, but very fun. And what a dynamite theme; you all know how much those tv themes count in my book...
Frankenstein, Jr. and the Impossibles
Okay, not technically a team, but they shared a show from 1966 to 68, and also lived on in syndication. A Hanna Barbera production, they joined Space Ghost and Birdman under the HB superhero umbrella. Frankenstein, Jr. (or "Frankie") was the companion of young Buzz Conroy, as together they fought evil everwhere. The Impossibles (Coil Man, Fluid Man and Multi-Man) were heroes posing as a rock band (a couple years before teen rock band heroes ran rampant on Saturday mornings). Both shows were lighthearted, entertaining and perfect for the Batman Craze era.
Super 6
The Super 6 was a somewhat less well-known show, on NBC from 1966 to 69. It was produced by DePatie/Freleng, and was also designed to capitalize on the then-unquenchable superhero phase. Their lineup included Granite Man, Magneto Man (yes, magnetic powers, but no mutants), Elevator Man, Captain Whammo, Super Scuba and Super Bwoing (who rode on his guitar; as to his name- I've no idea). Incidentally, their theme song was performed by Gary Lewis and the Playboys.
Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels
Years later, Hanna Barbera returned again to a heroically themed show, this one lasting from 1977 through 1980. The Captain was a rather oddly shaped caveman, accompanied by three teen girls (the "Teen Angels"). The show took inspiration from the popular nighttime detective show "Charlie's Angels". Captain Caveman wielded a big, heavy club, and was known for his cry of "Captain Caaaaaaaaaaaaaveman!". This show was played primarily for laughs, and it was indeed pretty amusing.
The Herculoids
The Herculoids was yet another Hanna Barbera show, originating from that same 1966 television season (man, those Saturday mornings were incredible for a kid back then). They ran for several years, and were reborn in the early 80's as part of Hanna Barbera's "Space Stars" show. The show was rather sci-fi in approach, like it's contemporary Space Ghost. But The Herculoids were a family (Zandor, the father, Tara, the mother, and Dorno, their son) each with combative talents. But the real stars were their creature companions: Igoo, the mighty 'rock ape'. Zok, a winged dragon who shot beams from his eyes (and frequently carried the family on his back). Tundro, who looked like a lumpy rhinoceras and shot fire rocks from his snout. And my distinct favorites, Gloop and Gleep- a pair of form shifting blobs with senses of humor. They made short work of many foes, humanoid and monstrous.
These were some of the shows that fired my youthful imagination, filling some of the hours when I wasn't reading comics. Sadly, many of these shows were gone from the networks by the end of the 60's, (too much violence, they said). Nevertheless, they lived on for years after school and on Sunday mornings. Thank heavens for syndication. Oh, and I was wrong; the Herculoids actually did appear in a Marvel Comic- "TV Stars" issue 3 from 1978.
How many of these do you remember? And no doubt you have some other Super Teams ready to bring up that I overlooked today. Be my guest!
13 comments:
I recall watching the Herculoids, Captain Caveman and Frankenstein Jr. when it ran in the mid-1970s with Space Ghost (and by the criteria applied for the latter two, Space Ghost, Jan, Jayce and Blip the Monkey also count as a super team).
Others I recall are:
The Space Sentinels - a trio of super-powered teens, Hercules, Mercury and Astrea (who was a shapeshifter), plus a robot sidekick, who had space-faring adventures.
The Freedom Force - Hercules (same look as in the previous cartoon, but different voice actor), Isis, Sinbad, Merlin and Super Samurai; their adventures were more fantasy based as I recall, as they usually had to deal with wizards or sorceresses.
The Drak Pack (who were mentioned here before, I think); the team consisted of descendants of Dracula, the Frankenstein monster and the Wolfman: Drak, Frankie and Howler. They mainly fought against a team of super-baddies who had the best acronym ever: OGRE (Organization for Generally Rotten Enterprises).
Blackstar - this was a sort of SF/sword & sorcery show produced by Filmation - it was a bit reminiscent of Filmation's earlier Flash Gordon cartoon. It wasn't billed as a team, because Blackstar was the name of the main character, but he always went on his adventures with a shapeshifter and a sorceress, and a bunch of dwarves with special abilities, so that seems like a team to me.
None of these lasted very long; the Freedom Force didn't even last a whole season.
My favorite was definitely the Herculoids - and my favorite among them was Tundro, whom I always thought of as a sort of triceratops.
Absolutely loved The Mighty Heroes. I watched it daily after school sometime in the mid seventies. Just could not miss it.
Really got into the Herculoids for a while too.
I have a faint memory of Super 6.
Thank you Edo for mentioning the Super Sentinels. I remember those guys, including Moe the robot and, I believe, Lucifer One, their all-knowing computer that I think coordinated their missions.
Also, remember Filmation's Tarzan and the Super 7, later Batman and the Super 7. They had a whole whack of superhero segments like Web Woman, Stretch and Micro Woman...and one bigger superteam with Isis, Sinbad, Hercules (same one from the Super Sentinels?) and a really cool big guy called Super Samurai.
I never understood what the Super 7 referred to exactly, as I recall it didn't line up with the numbers on that group...maybe there were 7 segments on the show, but I don't think that added up either.
Oh yes, Saturday mornings also had the Super Globetrotters: Multi-Man (sort of like Madrox), Spaghetti Man, Gizmo Man, (F)liquid Man?, and Curly Neal as Super Sphere!
Finally, another big "yay" to the Herculoids. They were great.
-david p.
David, the team with Isis, Super Samurai, etc. and Herc with the same design as in the Super Sentinels was called Freedom Force - the second team I mentioned above.
Er, Space Sentinels...
Sorry, missed that, Edo, I must have skimmed past "Freedom Force" (I never would have guessed that was their name).
Thanks!
-david p.
I'm really a novice when it comes to these Saturday AM titles. I remember Captain Caveman and a little bit about the Impossibles but not much else. I'm a bit out of the stream on this one. But I did see on our twitter messages that there is a relatively new team up of Scooby Doo, Frankenstein Jr. and the Impossibles.
Thanks for commenting, folks!
Edo- nice list, you covered a bunch of them. I almost included "Drak Pack" but left them off as I'd discussed them in another post a little while back. Nevertheless, that was a great show, one of the 80's best.
david p.- thanks for bringing up the Super Seven and the Super Globetrotters. I'd totally forgotten about the powered up 'trotters...
Marti- a new team up? Must find it.......
Mighty Heroes! That show is about the earliest I recall a cartoon, given I was born in 1961. I thought Rope Man was the coolest and my little brother loved Diaper Dude. It's interesting I recall it from it's first run and others from syndication some years later as I never saw it in syndication.
I truly do not know ANY of the other shows mentioned by Red or anyone else. I recall very very few Saturday morning cartoons.
Bakshi... has BitBA ever reviewed him? I really only know The Mighty Heroes and his film Wizard.
Even when I was eight, the Mighty Heroes seemed formulaic and repetitive, and their theme song downright monotonous.
I think their syndicated rerun show also had Mighty Mouse cartoons in it, but my memory could be playing tricks.
I very vaguely remember the Super Six. They all worked for the same agency, but each appeared in his own solo series. AFAIR, they did not team up with each other. I think every episode had a Super Bwoing cartoon, and the other five alternated.
Marvel Super Heroes was an umbrella title for rotating solo cartoon series of Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, Sub-Mariner, and the Hulk. But there were frequent crossovers and team-ups. The Captain America series adapted several Avengers stories, many from the Kooky Quartet era (Cap, Hawkeye, Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch). And one Hulk episode was based on Avengers #2.
Hanna-Barbera did a Fantastic Four show in 1967, and another in the late 1970's. The latter had H.E.R.B.I.E. the robot instead of the Torch.
The Arabian Knights was a segment of Hanna-Barbera's Banana Splits show. Sort of a Mission Impossible-type team in ancient Baghdad. Each member had a unique power or talent. An acrobat, a disguise artist, a super-strong man, a sorceror, etc.
H-B's Birdman show also included a segment starring the Galaxy Trio: Vapor Man, Meteor Man, and Gravity Girl.
I do remember liking the Herculoids. My favorite was the ape creature. Besides having their own show, they guest starred once on Space Ghost, as did the other Hanna-Barbera superheroes who had shows on CBS at the time. Such crossovers and team-ups were common in comic books, but rare on TV back then.
The Impossibles were costumed superheroes, and also were operatives for an agency like U.N.C.L.E. or S.H.I.E.L.D. And, in their civilian identity, were a rock band. So it was an attempt to combine the three big 1960s fads: Batman, Bond and the Beatles.
I guess Josie & the Pussycats, and the Scooby Doo gang, while not exactly superheroes, were crime-fighting teams.
IIRC, the H-B superhero cartoons, including the Fantastic Four, were rerun in the 1980s in a syndication package called Hanna-Barbera's World of Super Adventure.
Charlie- We haven't really covered Bakshi, although he was discussed a bit in our post on the 1967 Spider-man cartoon (which he worked on). He would probably be a good subject all by himself.
TC- I'd agree the Mighty Heroes were rather formulaic. Most stories pretty much followed the same pattern. Buuuut, I loved 'em anyway...
And you also offer up an impressive list of shows! And, kudos for mentioning that Space Ghost crossover. Yes, it was a multi-part episode which featured appearances by the Herculoids, Shazzan, Moby Dick, Samson and others. Very cool, and as you noted, unusual for tv.
There was a show called the Kids' Super Power Hour on NBC in 1981-82. There were two half-hour cartoons. Hero High was about five high school students who were also a superhero team. There was a live action segment with the voice actors performing as a rock group.
The other half was a cartoon starring the original ("Shazam") Captain Marvel and the Marvel Family: Mary Marvel, Captain Marvel Junior, and Uncle Dudley.
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