Fabulous Funnies
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons1
No. of episodes13
Production
Executive producersLou Scheimer
Norm Prescott
ProducerDon Christensen
Running time30 min.
Production companyFilmation
Original release
NetworkNBC
ReleaseSeptember 9, 1978 (1978-09-09) –
September 1, 1979 (1979-09-01)[1]

Fabulous Funnies is a 1978–1979 American Saturday morning animated TV series produced by Filmation.[2] The show aired for one season from September 9, 1978, to December 1, 1978, on NBC, airing 13 episodes.

The show was an anthology of stories based on American comic strips, including Broom Hilda, Alley Oop, The Captain and the Kids, Nancy, Emmy Lou and (for one episode) Tumbleweeds.[3] The character designs closely mimicked the comic strips, so the animators had to animate in several different styles for the program.

It was noted by critics that the show's comic potential was blunted by NBC's demand that the show promote pro-social messages for the child audience. This was especially noticeable when rowdy characters like The Captain and the Kids were obliged to spread messages of politeness and restraint. The Los Angeles Times called the show's moralizing "heavy-handed".[4]

The Fantastic Funnies

In 1980, CBS released a special called The Fantastic Funnies. Produced by Mendelson/Melendez Productions, it brought back most of the characters from the show, with new ones, most famously Garfield and Peanuts.

Episode structure

Each episode contained Broom Hilda, Alley Oop and The Captain and the Kids, with other segments appearing on a rotating basis. Foozy from Alley Oop served as the show's host, and mainly spoke in rhyme.[3]

Each episode had an overall theme, based on a pro-social message. For example, "Fear" dealt with overcoming trepidation, and included Foozy's narration, "We're here to make one thing clear, a lot of woe comes from undue fear."[5] Other topics included drinking, smoking, schoolwork, health, voting and the environment.[3]

Rights problem

The first episode of Fabulous Funnies aired with a segment based on Tumbleweeds, but Filmation didn't actually have the rights to the strip. The strip's creator, Tom K. Ryan, said that he would give approval for his comic to appear in the show pending a look at the scripts and designs, but the producers believed that he had already given permission. After the first episode aired, Ryan called producer Lou Scheimer and said that he wouldn't sue, as long as the strip didn't appear in any further episodes.[3]

Voice cast

The voice cast included:[5]

  • June Foray: Broom Hilda, Sluggo, Ooola, Hans and Fritz Katzenjammer
  • Jayne Hamil: Nancy, Emmy Lou
  • Alan Oppenheimer: Captain Katzenjammer, Gaylord, Irwin, Grelber, Inspector, Tumbleweeds
  • Bob Holt: Alley Oop, King Guzzle, Foozy

Reception

In The Encyclopedia of American Animated Television Shows, David Perlmutter writes: "For the most part, they were effective adaptations on a visual level. However, the advanced age of most of the properties (Katzenjammer dated to 1898, Alley Oop and Nancy to the 1930s, Broom Hilda to 1970) meant that adapting them to the restrictions of television animation in the 1970s required unwelcome compromises to the material that impaired their abilities to tell stories as effectively as they had in the comics."[2] George Woolery agrees in Children's Television: The First Thirty-Five Years that the show "sacrificed humor and fun for preaching."[5]

In Television Cartoon Shows, Hal Erickson adds, "What, pray tell, did the media critics expect when such marvelously uninhibited, havoc-wreaking characters like Alley Oop and the Katzenjammer Kids were required to warn the kids at home to behave like responsible ladies and gentlemen? Especially in the case of the Katzenjammers, the whole point of newspaper strips in the first place was to give rule-bound children (and adults!) a cathartic outlet for their latent antisocial tendencies. With the noblest motivations in mind, Fabulous Funnies managed to rob its characters of their very reason for being."[1]

Episodes

The 13 episodes were:[6]

Nº Title Original air date
1"Animal Crack-Ups"September 9, 1978 (1978-09-09)
2"School Daze"September 16, 1978 (1978-09-16)
3"Comic-ition"September 23, 1978 (1978-09-23)
4"Bods and Clods"September 30, 1978 (1978-09-30)
5"Save Our World"October 7, 1978 (1978-10-07)
6"But, Would You Want Your Sister to Marry an Artist?"October 14, 1978 (1978-10-14)
7"Money Madness"October 21, 1978 (1978-10-21)
8"Fear"October 28, 1978 (1978-10-28)
9"Different Jokes for Different Folks"November 4, 1978 (1978-11-04)
10"Death"November 11, 1978 (1978-11-11)
11"Safety Second"November 18, 1978 (1978-11-18)
12"Drinking"November 25, 1978 (1978-11-25)
13"Shot in the Light"December 1, 1978 (1978-12-01)

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Erickson, Hal (2005). Television cartoon shows: an illustrated encyclopedia, 1949 through 2003. McFarland & Co. pp. 310–311. ISBN 07864-2255-6.
  2. 1 2 Perlmutter, David (2018). The Encyclopedia of American Animated Television Shows. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 186. ISBN 978-1538103739.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Scheimer, Lou (2015). Creating the Filmation Generation (2nd ed.). TwoMorrows Publishing. pp. 157–158. ISBN 978-1-60549-044-1.
  4. ↑ Erickson, Hal (2005). Television Cartoon Shows: An Illustrated Encyclopedia, 1949 Through 2003 (2nd ed.). McFarland & Co. pp. 310–311. ISBN 978-1476665993.
  5. 1 2 3 Woolery, George W. (1983). Children's Television: The First Thirty-Five Years, 1946-1981. Scarecrow Press. pp. 91–92. ISBN 0-8108-1557-5. Retrieved 14 March 2020.
  6. ↑ "The Fabulous Funnies Episode Guide". The Big Cartoon Database. Retrieved 14 March 2020.
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