Remember that one day when you could wake up without an alarm? When you would get your favorite bowl of cereal and sit between the hours of 8 and 12? This is a blog dedicated to the greatest time of our childhood: Saturday mornings. The television programs you watched, the memories attached to them, and maybe introducing you to something you didn't realize existed. Updated every weekend.
Best known as the original He-Man, he played Reggie Mantle in Filmation’s
Archie franchise based on the comics. He also played Reggie, Cousin
Ambrose, Hexter, J.R., Humphrey and Hank in Sabrina the Teenage Witch (1970);
Dick Tracy, Alvin, Smokey Stover, Spooky, Gaylord Buzzard and various others in
Archie’s TV Funnies;Q and Slick in The New Archie/Sabrina Hour;
Casey Balloo in “The Horse That Played Center Field” episode of ABC Weekend
Specials; and Ronald Radford III and Clumpley in The Thing. He also
provided voices for Foofur.
Created by Paul Fusco and Tom Patchett, ALF Tales was a spin-off of ALF:
The Animated Series, which in turn was a spin-off of the
live-action/puppet sitcom ALF. ALF had
become a major success for NBC, and it was
only natural for the network to want to try and expand upon that success;
particularly with their ever-increasing younger audience. And if one ALF
animated show was good, two would have to be even better.
Promotional poster for the series depicting some of the tales.
As with its predecessor, the series was set on Melmac and followed ALF,
aka Gordon Shumway (Fusco) as he and his friends put on productions of fairy
tales and other public domain stories. For whom and why beyond entertaining the
real-life audience at home was never revealed. Gordon and his girlfriend,
Rhonda (Tabitha St. Germain), were typically the stars of the productions.
Other roles would be filled out by Gordon’s family, father Bob (Thick Wilson),
mother Flo (Peggy Mahon), sister Augie (Germain), and brother Curtis (Noam
Zylberman & Michael Fantini); his friends, Rick Fusterman (Fusco), Skip
(Rob Cowan); Melmacian citizens like fortune-smeller Madame Pokipsi (Deborah Theaker) and waitress
Stella (Ellen-Ray Hennessy); and even his enemies, Larson Petty (Wilson) and
Sloop (Dan Hennessey). Cowan would also play a new character modeled after
himself named Roger Cowan, a TV executive who tried to impart notes on the
productions. The entire cast was carried over from The Animated Series
with the exception of Fantini, who was briefly replaced by Zylberman for the
first season.
ALF, Skip and Rick as the Three Little Pigs.
As stated, those productions were
parodies of various fairy tales and legends. They were often set in different
eras and locations, featured various Melmacian elements native to the franchise,
served as spoofs of various genres, films and television shows and featured
numerous pop culture references. The episode “Cinderella”, for example, not
only did their rendition of Cinderella,
but was also presented like an Elvis
Presley film as the prince was replaced by a rock star looking for love.
“Rumpelstiltskin” played out like a detective noir as private eye Sam Shovel
(ALF), a play on Sam Spade,
needed to uncover Rumpelstiltskin’s
(Sloop) name to get a miller’s daughter (Rhonda) out of a bad deal. “The Three
Little Pigs” was bookended by scenes reminiscent of Rod Serling’s intros and outros
for The Twilight Zone.
The crocodile in the “Peter Pan” episode was portrayed as a caricature of the
titular character from “Crocodile”
Dundee. “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” was presented as an episode
of Unsolved Mysteries
with ALF playing a parody of Robert
Stack.
Rock star ALF searching for the owner of a glass slipper.
The Animated Series was cancelled after its second season and its
reruns were split from Tales to allow its brief second season to air
independently. Tales’ intro showcased Gordon directing an off-camera
symphony as his outfit and background changed to the various settings featured
in the respective tales, while the Hour intro just used The Animated
Series’ with the new title. Unfortunately, it was also cancelled after two
seasons as new leadership was moving into NBC with no investment in the ALF
franchise. All versions of ALF left the network by the fall of 1990. The
animated ALF made one additional appearance in the drug-prevention special Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue, which was broadcast across all the
major networks on April 21, 1990 and starred a collection of Saturday morning
characters.
EPISODE GUIDE: Season 1: “Robin Hood” (9/10/88) – Robin Hood and his
jazz band must rescue Maid Marian from Nottingham castle while opposing the
Sheriff’s unjust taxes. “Sleeping Beauty” (9/17/88) – Prince Gordon
gets a cursed papercut that causes him to fall asleep, and it’s up to princess
Rhonda to defeat the witch that cast it with three wizards. “Cinderella” (9/24/88) – Cinderella’s fairy
godmother helps her attend a rock star’s concert where he plans to find his
bride and wows him with a spectacular duet. “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” (10/1/88) - While
investigating the Headless Horseman for a story, reporter Ichabod Crane discovers
that there are in fact several Horsemen. “Jack and the Beanstalk” (10/8/88) – Jack Bates
trades the family cow for magic beans to save their struggling motel and the
resulting beanstalk leads to a giant with a hen that lays golden eggs. “The Aladdin Brothers and Their Lamp”
(10/15/88) – Ziggy and Roy Aladdin end up in trouble when their genie sends
them to Sheboygan and they encounter the princess. “Rapunzel” (10/29/88) – The Wicked Witch
controls all media in the country and ends up imprisoning Rapunzel and her
family when they lose her rigged quiz show. “Rumpelstiltskin” (11/12/88) – A miller’s
daughter comes to P.I. Sam Shovel to find out the name of a dwarf and get her
out of a bad deal made with him. “The Princess and the Pea” (11/19/88) – Aspiring
stand-up comic Prince Gordy wants to marry a waitress that’s really a princess,
but the Queen says she must pace the mattress test first. “John Henry” (12/3/88) – Master chef John
Henry fights automation when he competes against a mechanical food processor to
see who can make the best meals. “The Three Little Pigs” (12/10/88) – B.B.
Wolf is tasked with getting the Three Little Pigs’ land for the oil deposits
beneath it. “Alice in Wonderland” (12/17/88) – When a
humanoid rabbit steals his birthday present for Rhonda, Gordon follows her down
an elevator shaft into Wonderland. “Peter Pan” (1/7/89) – Peter Pan brings
Wendy and her brothers to Never-Never Land where stand-up pirate Captain Hook
views him as a rival and plots against him. Season 2: “Hansel & Gretel” (9/16/89) – Hansel and
Gretel end up at Camp Eat-a-Kid where Hansel is fattened up by a wicked witch
and Gretel is imprisoned with two Chimpunky prisoners. “The Wizard of Oz” (9/23/89) – A tornado
brings 1930s Gordon to the 1960s where landing on a witch gets him stuck with
magical ruby high-top sneakers that only the Wizard of Oz can remove. “The Elves and the Shoemaker” (9/30/89) –
Elves are tasked with helping failed shoemaker Donald Tramp, but the success
and riches turns him into a miserly dictator of a CEO. “The Emperor’s New Clothes” (10/14/89) – The
finicky Emperor is presented with the most unique of fashion: invisible
Schmatex. “Goldilocks & the Three Bears”
(10/28/89) – When Rhonda gets a better house-sitting offer, she tasks Gordon
with watching Mayor Bear’s place and he turns it into an amusement park. “Little Red Riding Hood” (11/11/89) – Red has
a package for scientist Granny, but little does he know that the Wolf had
gotten there first and used her own shrinking device to shrink and eat her. “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” (12/2/89) –
Robert Stuck is on the case of missing champion skier Snow White after she was
last seen in the company of a thug for hire. “King Midas” (12/9/89) – Oklahoma Jones is
in search of King Midas, but the evil Professor Bouquet steals his map with the
intent of finding the king first.
He played an umpire in an episode of Teacher’s Pet, a baseball
announcer in an episode of Puppy Dog Pals, himself in an episode of Teen
Titans Go!, and a parody named Bob Yucker in an episode of Monsters at
Work.
Edgar Rice Burroughs
had wandered from job to job and one failed enterprise to another, making
darkly humorous cartoon sketches and writing fairy tales set on other worlds to
amuse himself and distract from his string of bad luck in life. Having indulged
in some pulp publications during his downtime, he felt he could write better
than what he read and began work on his first pulp story: Under
the Moons of Mars, which would become the first entry in his Barsoom
series about Confederate
Army captain John Carter suddenly finding himself on the planet Mars and embroiled in the conflict
between its peoples. After finishing half of it, he submitted it to The All-Story
magazine under the pseudonym “Normal Bean” (fearing his reputation would be
damaged if connected to the work). Managing editor Thomas Newell Metcalf liked
what he read, and after some polish and its completion, he bought the
serialization rights from Burroughs for $400 USD (equivalent to $13,283.92 as
of this writing). It was first published in the February-July 1912 issues of The
All-Story.
Cover to The All-Story magazine's October 1912 edition.
Burroughs
took up writing full time. Although initially discouraged when his next story
idea was rejected, encouragement to keep at it led him to create the first
entry in his most successful series: Tarzan
of the Apes. Tarzan was the son of a
British Lord and Lady who were marooned on the West coast of Africa before he
was born. Neither survived his infancy and he was adopted and raised by Kala,
member of the ape tribe known as the Magani. His name, Tarzan, meant “White
Skin” in their language. Tarzan would eventually ascend to king of the apes,
learned about his past upon discovery of his family’s hut, people in general
when another group wound up stranded in the jungle, and eventually of love when
he met Jane Porter—who would
eventually become his wife. Although his adventures would often take him out of
the jungle, it wouldn’t be long before he was drawn back to it.
Front page artwork from the 1914 edition of Tarzan of the Apes.
Tarzan
of the Apes was published in The All-Story in October of 1912. After
being rejected by several publishers, A.C. McClurg and Co.
finally agreed to release it in novel form in 1914, becoming a best-seller. Burroughs
would go on to publish 24 books in the Tarzan series—two posthumously
after his death in 1950—along with several novellas. Recognizing how popular
Tarzan was with his audience, Burroughs went against advice and planned to
exploit the character through whatever other media he could: a comic strip
that ran from 1929-2002 and continues on in reruns; films beginning with the 1918
silent film Tarzan of
the Apes and still being produced in the present; stage plays starting in
1921; radio
shows beginning in 1932 which Burroughs was involved with; and various merchandise. For tax reasons and
to maintain control over his works, Burroughs formed Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. which
is still run by his family today and continues to license and manage Burroughs’
creations that have not yet fallen into the public
domain.
Jane, Tarzan and Cheeta from Tarzan the Ape Man.
The films introduced many of the
characteristics most people associate with Tarzan. 1932’s Tarzan the Ape Man
introduced Tarzan’s sidekick Cheeta; a chimpanzee that provided comic relief
and correspondence between Tarzan (Johnny Weissmuller) and his
allies, and led other animals to come to Tarzan’s aid. This character replaced
Nkima from the books; an African monkey that first appeared in Tarzan
and the Lost Empire who exhibited great bravery in Tarzan’s presence
but was otherwise cowardly on his own. The film also introduced the version of
Tarzan’s yell synonymous with the character (and whose vocal origins have been an
ongoing debate). His son with Jane (Maureen O’Sullivan), Jack, that
first appeared in The
Eternal Lover, was also replaced by an adopted son known only as “Boy”
(Johnny Sheffield) in 1939’s
Tarzan Finds a Son!
The 12 films starring Weissmuller established Tarzan as a noble savage speaking
in broken English, rather than the cultured aristocrat he was portrayed as
being in the novels. The 1935 serial The
New Adventures of Tarzan, which was one of a competing series of films allowed
by licensing issues and the only film production with Burroughs’ direct
involvement, featured an educated Tarzan. When television emerged as a dominant
medium, many of the Tarzan films were brought to Saturday morning television.
The character’s first television series, Tarzan starring Ron Ely, aired on NBC between 1966-68 as essentially a continuation
of the films made under producer Sy
Weintraub that began with 1959’s Tarzan’s Greatest
Adventure.
The animated Tarzan and his animal friends.
Eight years later, Filmation co-founder and
producer Lou Scheimer decided he wanted to try his hand at producing his own
Tarzan series. Scheimer, at this time, resided in Tarzana, California;
the town that sprang up when Burroughs gradually sold off portions of his
massive 550-acre Tarzana Ranch named after Tarzan. ERB, Inc.’s office was also
located in Tarzana just a few minutes away from Scheimer’s house. Scheimer met
with the Burroughs estate to convince them that Tarzan would be perfect for
animation; starting with a film to explain his origins. Unfortunately,
Burroughs’ grandson, Danton, wasn’t thrilled with the changes writer David Gerrold wanted to make
for the film to have the story flow better, and the resulting heated exchange
between them would be one of the reasons Gerrold left Filmation to work with Krofft
Productions. Eventually, a deal was struck and Filmation acquired the
rights. They, in turn, sold the show to CBS.
Tarzan gives his traditional call.
The goal was to have the series
appear as lush and illustrative as the work of Burne Hogarth, Burroughs’
favorite artist from the Tarzan comic strip that worked on it between
1937 and 1950, while keeping it within the scope of their budget. Knowing how
physical a character Tarzan was, and since was meant to be a real man rather
than a superhero who could fly like Superman, Filmation decided
to make use of rotoscoping for their library of stock footage. They shot a lot
of film of a model—who was a bartender from the animators’ favorite nearby
hangout called The Dug-Out—walking, running, jumping, diving, swimming and
whatever other common movements an ape-man would need to make in the jungle.
The animators would then draw off of that footage to perfectly emulate how the
human body would move.
Character models for Tarzan's foes from Zandor.
The series featured the smallest
cast of any Filmation project; with the main characters only being Tarzan
(Robert Ridgley) and his companion N’Kima (Scheimer providing vocal effects).
Danton Burroughs himself provided Tarzan’s iconic yell (once; that single
recording was reused for each instance in the series). Some of the recurring
characters included the Mangani apes that raised him; Jad-bal-ja, the lion he
raised and trained; African elephants, called “Tantor” in the Mangani language,
that would come to Tarzan’s aid when called; Queen Nemone (Joan Gerber & Hettie Lynne Hurtes), the ruler
of Zandor; Tomos (Alan
Oppenheimer), Nemone’s prime minister and lackey; Belthar, Nemone’s pet
lion; and Phobeg (Ted Cassidy
& Oppenheimer), the strongest man in Zandor and one of the royal guards.
Jane (Linda Gary) only
appeared in one episode, and that was by special request from the Burroughs
estate to resecure the character’s rights as she hadn’t appeared in visual
media since 1959. The series made heavy use of the Mangani language from the
books, having all animals be called by their Mangani names and even making up a
few words when none existed, and retained Tarzan’s intellect.
Enter: evil robot Tarzan.
Tarzan,
Lord of the Jungle debuted on CBS on September 11, 1976 and ran for four
seasons; however, only the first was its own separate entity. For the second
season, 6 new episodes and reruns were paired with repeats of The
New Adventures of Batman to form The Batman/Tarzan Adventure Hour.
They were joined by The Freedom Force, Jason
of Star Command, Manta and Moray, Superstretch
and Microwoman and Web
Woman to form the 90-minute Tarzan and the Super 7
for the next two seasons. Tarzan’s runtime was reduced to 17 and 11
minutes as part of the block, depending on the episode, and longer reruns were
trimmed down to run within the allotted time. 6 and 8 new episodes were made
for each season, respectively. When the other series—excluding Jason—moved
to NBC to air in reruns as Batman and the Super 7, reruns of Tarzan
were joined by The New Adventures of The Lone Ranger to form The
Tarzan/Lone Ranger Adventure Hour. For the final season, those shows were
joined by The New Adventures of Zorro to make The Tarzan/Lone
Ranger/Zorro Adventure Hour.
You encounter all sorts of strange beings in the jungle.
Much of the
series was written by Len Janson
and Chuck Menville, who also
served as associate producers, with additional scripts from Paul Dini, Kathleen Barnes, David Wise, Tom Ruegger, Dale Kirby, Don Heckman, Michael Reaves and Fred Ladd. Many episodes were
based off of Burrough’s books and tried to remain as faithful to them as
possible; however, tempered for a more modern audience and infused with
pro-social messages about preservation and treating animals and other cultures
properly. Topping that off was Filmation’s customary coda at the end where
Tarzan would relay a moral message to the viewers. Notably, Tarzan’s adventures
seemed to be set in the present day with the appearance of robots, satellites
and airplanes rather than the late 19th and early 20th
Century of the books. Additionally, there were strong science fiction elements
through the presence of mad scientists and extra-terrestrials. Lacking their
desired film, storyboard director Bob
Kline was able to provide at least a glimpse of Tarzan’s origins in the
series’ opening sequence, supported by narration from Ridgely. Horta-Mahana
Corp. was responsible for the music and sound effects used, with background
music provided by Ray Ellis
(as Yvette Blais) and producer Norm
Prescott (as Jeff Michael).
The DVD cover.
Following
the last run of episodes in the Adventure Hour, Tarzan took a
two-year hiatus from the network before returning for a brief seven month run
in February of 1984. The series largely disappeared, with Scheimer stating in
his book, Creating
the Filmation Generation, that he was often asked about when it would
be released to home media. Warner Bros.
eventually released the episode “Tarzan and the Colossus of Zome” as part of
their compilation DVD Saturday
Morning Cartoons: 1970s Volume 1; itself collected
with other entries in that series in 2018. The complete
first season was released to DVD in 2016 by Studio
Distribution Services in time for its 40th anniversary; just
weeks before Warner Bros.’ (a part owner of SDS with Universal Pictures) new film, The Legend of Tarzan,
hit theaters. It was also made available for purchase to stream on Prime
Video.
EPISODE GUIDE: Season 1: “Tarzan and the City of Gold” (9/11/76) – Tarzan ends up a
prisoner of Zandor when he attempts to help Athne of the City of Ivory return
home after Zandorians drove her off. “Tarzan and the Vikings” (9/18/76) – Tarzan is captured by
jungle Vikings to be a slave to the chieftain’s daughter and ends up
discovering a plot to overthrow the chieftain. “Tarzan and the Golden Lion” (9/25/76) – Tarzan comes to the
aid of the Monkey People being enslaved by the Bolmangani and teaches them how
to stand up for themselves. “Tarzan and the Forbidden City” (10/2/76) – Tarzan must
rescue two groups of visitors seeking the Forbidden City for different reasons
after they’re captured by the soldiers living there. “Tarzan and the Graveyard of Elephants” (10/9/76) – The
Novardians demand Tarzan’s aid in finding the Graveyard of the Elephants so
that they may harvest the tusks from their bones. “Tarzan’s Return to the City of Gold” (10/16/76) – Tarzan
ends up saving Athen’s brother and attempts to get him home, but Queen Nemone
has ordered her soldiers to capture Tarzan. “Tarzan and the Strange Visitors” (10/23/76) – Tarzan meets
an anthropologist as aliens arrive in the jungle to capture animal specimens to
bring back to their planet. “Tarzan and the Land of Giants” (10/30/76) – Tarzan discovers
a hidden valley full of giants being terrorized by tyrant King Odysseus and
Buto, the latter whom they believe is a god. “Tarzan and the Knights of Nimmr” (11/6/76) – Tracking the
occupant of a crashed balloon leads Tarzan to be captured by knights and
stumbling upon a plot to rob the queen. “Tarzan’s Rival” (11/13/76) – Tarzan is villainized by a
robot duplicate so that Mr. Senti can steal the Jewels of Opa. “Tarzan and the City of Sorcery” (11/20/76) – Tarzan meets a
boy who claims his father has been transformed by a sorceress queen, and Tarzan
travels to the city of Rashid to confront her. “Tarzan at the Earth’s Core” (11/27/76) – Tarzan journeys to
the prehistoric land of Pellucidar in order to help unite two kingdoms. “Tarzan and the Ice Creature” (12/4/76) – A volcano eruption
frees the gigantic ice creature Glakor from his slumber. “Tarzan and the Olympiads” (12/11/76) – After meeting two
escaped slaves, Tarzan heads to Olympus to free the remaining slaves and make
Emperor Cronus change his ways. “Tarzan’s Trial” (12/18/76) – The aliens return and capture
Tarzan so that their commander can learn all of his abilities and use them to become
supreme ruler of the space fleet. “Tarzan, the Hated” (12/18/76) – The Bolmangani Emperor
plans to turn a tribe of gorillas against Tarzan and rebuild their city in the
Opar Region despite an archaeologist’s claims it’s unsafe. Season 2: “Tarzan and the Sunken City of Atlantis” (9/10/77) – Tarzan seeks
to free whales enslaved to power Atlantis, but deny the city power will cause
it to flood. “Tarzan and the Bird People” (9/17/77) – Aiding an injured
member of the Bird People gets Tarzan involved in the conflict between them and
the Land People. “Tarzan and the Colossus of Zome” (9/24/77) – The inches-high
people seek to enlist Tarzan in their war against the Zomans, but the Zomans
need help as well when their weapon turns against them. “Tarzan and the Beast in the Iron Mask” (10/1/77) – Tarzan
must restore Chief Denat after his twin brother has assumed his identity in
order to mine for gold in a volcano. “Tarzan and the Amazon Princess” (10/8/77) – Tarzan returns
a long-lost Amazon to her home only to learn the captain of the royal guard
seeks her extermination to become next in line to rule. “Tarzan and the Conquistadors” (10/15/77) – Tarzan must
protect the Donlumangani from Conquistadors searching for their captain’s
ancestors’ treasure. Season 3: “Tarzan and the Spider People” (9/9/78) – Tarzan tracks
large spiders abducting elephants to a treetop city where he discovers that the
spiders are actually robots under their control. “Tarzan and the Space God” (9/16/78) – Tarzan rescues a
professor from a crashed plane who convinces him to lead him to an area where
the Mayans are believed to have disappeared. “Tarzan and the Lost World” (9/23/78) – Tarzan must help a
scientist retrieve a downed satellite from the Minotaur before it explodes and
destroys the valley. “Tarzan and the Monkey God” (9/30/78) – N’Kima winds up in a
village being terrorized by a gorilla where he’s believed to be a monkey god. “Tarzan and the Haunted Forest” (10/7/78) – Tarzan partners
with the inhabitants of the Haunted Forest in order to stop Queen Tara’s
deforestation to power her machines. “Tarzan and the Island of Dr. Morphos” (10/14/78) – Tarzan pursues
an abducted N’Kima to an island where a mad scientist plans to perform genetic
experiments on Tarzan. Season 4: “Tarzan and the Sifu” (9/15/79) – Tarzan is captured in Tao
Ching when their Sifu is overthrown, and their new leader plans to conquer
other cities in the jungle and take control of a dragon. “Tarzan and Jane” (9/22/79) – Tarzan rescues Jane and her
father after a mutiny during an archaeological exposition and helps lead them
back to civilization. “Tarzan and the Land Beneath the Earth” (9/29/79) – Tarzan and
his friends end up in the land of the mole people who have been using Makos
Trees to power their furnace. “Tarzan and the Drought” (10/6/79) – Tarzan tries to convince
the Monkey People to tear down their dam during a drought. “Tarzan and the Soul Stealer” (10/13/79) – Tarzan learns Zandor
and Athne are at war again, and Queen Nemone has acquired magical powers. “Tarzan and the Future King” (10/20/79) – King Torg’s Vizier
plans to foil Prince Yaru’s final trial in order to become king of the Red
Gorilla Kingdom himself. “Tarzan and the Huntress” (10/27/79) – Tarzan must rescue
Fana the Huntress from Kerlock and his men when they believe her to be an ally
of Tarzan’s. “Tarzan and the White Elephant” (11/3/79) – Tarzan must
convince a kingdom to leave a White Elephant calf with its mother instead of
taking it to protect against invading Rhino Riders.
He played Poodle’s owner in Madeline; Bigfoot, Dragon and an
Astronaut in Darkstalkers; Duke Freid in The Vision of Escaflowne;
Welman Matrix, Faux Megabyte and Starship Alcatraz Computer in ReBoot; Akuma,
computer, and Incan #3 in Street Fighter: The Animated Series; Vulcan in
Monster Rancher; Duck Dunaka and Mike Hauger in NASCAR Racers;
Machine Men, X-51, Electro and additional voices in Spider-Man Unlimited;
Clow Reed in Cardcaptors; Gus Bonner in Stargate: Infinity;
Principal Edward Kelly in X-Men: Evolution; and Java in Martin
Mystery. He also provided additional voices for Camp Candy, Sherlock
Holmes in the 22nd Century, Alienators: Evolution Continues,
Mary-Kate and Ashley in Action!, Gadget and the Gadgetinis,
