THE KING KONG SHOW
(ABC, September 6, 1966-March 4, 1967)
Videocraft International, Toei Animation
MAIN CAST:
Carl Banas – Professor Bond
Susan Conway – Susan Bond
Billie Richards – Billy Bond
Bernard Cowan – Unknown
John Drainie – Unknown
Alfie Scopp – Unknown
Paul Soles – Unknown
Filmmaker Merian C. Cooper became
interested in primates when he was a young boy. By the time his career took him
to RKO Pictures, he
wanted to make a “terror gorilla picture.” He would become inspired to make the
gorilla giant-sized after seeing a plane flying over a tall building in New
York City and imagining the gorilla fighting warplanes while on top of it. He
was also further inspired by William Douglas
Burden’s adventures chronicled
in his book Dragon
Lizards of Komodo and wanted his gorilla to fight a giant Komodo
dragon.
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King Kong concept art. |
Willis O’Brien and Marcel Delgado handled the
initial design of the gorilla. Cooper wanted the gorilla to be gorilla-like,
but O’Brien wanted to add human-like features to make him more sympathetic to
the audience. After several versions were designed, the gorilla eventually took
a streamlined version of its natural shape while also retaining some human
characteristics, such as walking upright most of the time. Cooper decided to
name his creation “Kong,”
liking the strong sound the “k” gave it and the mysteriousness it encompassed.
While deciding on the title for the film, he wanted it to be simply Kong to focus on the central character.
Producer David O. Selznick
feared that audiences would mistake the one word-titled film for a docudrama
like Cooper had earlier made, he added “King” to the title to differentiate it.
King
Kong was written by James
Ashmore Creelman and Ruth
Rose, and was directed by Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack. The film
centered on filmmaker Carl Denham (Robert
Armstrong) chartering Captain Englehorn (Frank Reicher) to take him to
Skull Island where he’ll film his latest picture. There, they encountered the
giant Kong and other dinosaurs. Denham captured Kong and brought him back to
New York City to put on display. Kong soon escaped, kidnapped Denham’s star,
Ann Darrow (Fay Wray), and
took her to the top of the Empire State
Building. Kong and the other creatures were created with a combination of
stop-motion animation, matte painting, rear projection and miniatures, as well
as large-scale props.
The film opened on March 23, 1933
and became a box office success. RKO quickly put a sequel into production. Son of Kong was released that December,
again directed by Schoedsack and written by Rose with Armstrong and Reicher
reprising their roles. The film was done as more of a comedy, returning Denham
and Englehorn to Skull Island where they encounter a smaller, friendlier albino
version of Kong. The film was a modest success, making only three times its
budget and earning mixed reviews.
![]() |
Concept art featuring Dr. Frankenstein's giant monster (left). |
In the 1960s, O’Brien had come up
with an idea for pitting Kong against a giant version of the Frankenstein Monster.
After securing permission from RKO to use Kong, producer John Beck began shopping the
idea around for a studio to make it (RKO no longer was a production company by
that time). The cost of stop-motion animation kept domestic studios away from
the idea, and Beck turned overseas. Around that time, Toho Co., Ltd. was planning a return for their
Godzilla character. Always wanting to do a Kong film, Toho purchased the script
written by George Worthing Yates
and had it rewritten by Shinichi
Sekizawa; replacing the Monster with Godzilla. Director Ishiro Honda had
toyed with the idea of using stop-motion to emulate the earlier Kong movies, but budgetary concerns had
Kong join Godzilla in the realm of rubber suits worn by actors.
King
Kong vs. Godzilla debuted on August 11, 1962 and became the fourth-highest
grossing movie in Japan, as well as the largest grossing film in Toho’s
Godzilla franchise. Beck had retained the rights to produce a version of the
film for non-Asian markets and had American actors intercut into the footage to
explain the origins of Godzilla and narrate the action, as well as alterations
to the original footage. His version of King
Kong vs. Godzilla premiered on June 26, 1963 and earned $1.2 million
against the $200,000 Universal
Pictures paid to release the film.
![]() |
King Kong, dinosaur fighter. |
After Rankin/Bass Productions (known at the
time as Videocraft International) had created the successful Christmas special Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, ABC approached them to make a traditionally
animated television series for children. Co-founder Arthur Rankin eventually saw
that as an opportunity to work on a film property he grew up loving and secured
the rights from RKO to make a King Kong cartoon, with the option to make a
full-length feature film. With writers Lew Lewis, Bernard Cowan (who
also provided voices) and Ron
Levy, Videocraft centered the series around a friendlier version of Kong
that befriended the family of scientist Professor Bond (Carl Banas) after they
had come to explore Mondo Island (sometimes Skull Island). Like the original King Kong, the island was full of
dinosaurs, but there were also additional human threats; in particular, the mad
scientist Dr. Who bent on world domination and Kong’s destruction. Natural
disasters, aliens and the military occasionally played a role to oppose Kong.
Returning from the original film was Captain Englehorn, who was made a friend
of the Bond family.
Each episode consisted of two
6-minute King Kong segments. In
between, Videocraft included an original segment: Tom of T.H.U.M.B. Inspired by the story of Tom Thumb, the
segment focused on a three-inch tall secret agent named Tom who worked for
T.H.U.M.B. (The Tiny Human Underground Military Bureau). He and his equally-tiny
Asian sidekick, Swinging Jack, were shrunk by an experimental ray and their
division was created so that they could continue to serve their country. They were
sent out on missions by their boss, Chief Homer J. Chief, to foil the fiendish
plots of the evil organization, M.A.D. (Maldjusted Antisocial and Darn mean). The
segment was a spoof on the spy genre.
![]() |
Dr. Who captures the Bond family. |
The
King Kong Show premiered with an hour-long pilot establishing the premise
of the series. It aired in primetime on September 6, 1966 before the show made
its Saturday debut on September 10. The series was the first to be created in
Japan for broadcast in the United States, as all the animation duties were
handled by Toei Animation (then Toei
Doga). The animation, however, was cruder compared to other anime made at the
time. Rod Willis, Paul Coker and Jack Davis handled all
the initial character designs, and the music was composed by Maury Laws and Jules Bass. The show aired its
last original episode on February 18, 1967 but ran an additional two weeks by
splitting the pilot up into two episodes. While ABC didn’t order any additional
episodes, it did put the show into syndication and kept it on its schedule well
into 1969.
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Mechani-Kong strikes! |
Toei also put their own money into the
show’s production in exchange for the Japanese distribution rights. The pilot
aired on Nihon Educational Television Co.,
LTD (now TV Asahi) on December 31, 1966 as King of the World: The King Kong Show (Sekai-no Osha Kingu Kongu Taikai). The series proper debuted on
April 5, 1967 as King Kong and 1/7th
Tom Thumb (Kingu Kongu 0001/7 Oyayubi
Tomu).
In the meantime, Rankin had decided to
exercise the film option by adapting a concept introduced into the show: Dr.
Who’s mechanical copy of Kong, Mechani-Kong. The script was submitted to RKO at
the same time that Toho pitched their own Kong film. RKO liked the Videocraft
script better, and allowed Toho to make a film based off of it (Toho recycled
their rejected script as Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster).
RKO liked The King Kong Show and asked that Rankin be included to
supervise the production as their representative. While it retained Dr. Who and
Mechani-Kong, the Bond family was dropped from the story in favor of new
characters and retained no continuity with any of the previous films. King Kong Escapes (called Counterattack of King Kong in Japan) was
released on July 22, 1967 in Japan and June 19, 1968 in the United States. Paul
Frees, one of the Rankin/Bass regulars who worked on The King Kong Show, provided the English dubbing voice for most of
the male characters. Although Toho wanted to make another Kong film, their
rights to the character expired shortly after the film was released.
![]() |
Kong on DVD. |
In the intervening years, King Kong was remade twice: once by Dino De Laurentiis in 1976
(which updated the climax with the use of the Twin Towers), and
the second time by Peter Jackson and Universal in
2005. Another reboot of the franchise came in 2017 with Kong: Skull
Island, which exists in a shared universe with Legendary Pictures’ Godzilla.
As part of the promotional campaign for the Jackson film, Sony Wonder
released 8 episodes of The King Kong Show
across two
DVDs
in their entirety. In most cases, the episodes also contained their respective
commercial bumpers. The pilot episode was also included, broken up in its
two-episode version across both sets.
EPISODE GUIDE:
“King Kong” (9/6/66) – The Bond family
discovers Kong on Mondo Island and brings him back to the US for study, which
ends up putting him in trouble with the military.
“Under the Volcano / For the Last Time,
Feller...I'm not Bait! / The Treasure Trap” (9/10/66) – The Bond family is
captured while investigating a dormant volcano. / Tom and Jack recover top
secret plans from a sunken ship. / An earthquake traps Bobby underwater as he
explores a sunken ship.
“The Horror of Mondo Island / Hey, that was a Close One World! / Dr. Who”
(9/17/66) – Bobby dresses up Kong to scare off a mining corporation looking for
a rare metal. / Tom and Jack have to disarm a MAD doomsday weapon. / An evil
scientist kidnaps Kong.
“Rocket Island / I was a 9 1⁄2 oz. Weakling Till One Day... / The African Bees”
(9/24/66) – Dr. Who disrupts a capsule launch in order to hold the US ransom. /
MAD puts Tom and Jack in a miniature city. / Kong must protect Professor Bond
and a millionaire from a swarm of bees.
“The Hunter / I Was a Starling for the USA! / The Space Men” (10/1/66) – A
safari hunter uses Bobby as bait to trap Kong. / Tom and Jack infiltrate a
flock of birds to learn which of them are MAD agents. / Aliens land on the
island to collect specimens before they invade.
“The Jinx of the Sphinx / Cool Nerves and... Steady Hands / The Greeneyed
Monster” (10/8/66) – The Bonds and Kong travel to Egypt to investigate Sphinx
attacks. / Tom and Jack have to diffuse a public pool filled with
nitroglycerine. / Kong gets jealous when Bobby takes care of Englehorn’s dog.
“The Top of the World / All Guys from Outer Space are Creeps / The Golden
Temple” (10/15/66) – Dr. Who heads to Alaska in order to melt the ice and cause
the tides to rise. / Tom and Jack must befriend an alien before he can join
MAD. / Professor Bond is sucked into a whirlpool while investigating a sunken
temple.
“The Electric Circle / Mechanical Granma / Mirror of Destruction”
(10/22/66) – A scientist decides to make the island a nuclear missile base for
his country. / Tom and Jack use a mechanical grandma to infiltrate MAD. / Dr.
Who steals a heat device in order to kill Kong.
“Tiger Tiger / The Day We Almost Had It / The Vise of Dr. Who” (10/29/66) –
Professor Bond accidentally revives two frozen sabretooth tigers. / Tom gets
amnesia after disarming a bomb. / Dr. Who lures the Bonds and Englehorn into a
trash compactor trap.
“King Kong's House / Tom Makes History / MechaniKong” (11/5/66) – A hunt
for fossils traps Professor Bond and Bobby in a cave with a tyrannosaurus rex.
/ Tom and Jack time travel to save George Washington. / Dr. Who creates a
robotic duplicate of Kong and unleashes it on New Guinea.
“The Giant Sloths / Tom Scores Again / The Legend of Loch Ness” (11/12/66) –
Kong faces off against a pair of giant sloths. / NO SYNOPSIS AVAILABLE. / The
Bond family takes Kong to Scotland to investigate the Lock Ness Monster.
“Dr. Bone / Blow, Jack, Blow! / No Man's Snowman” (11/19/66) - NO SYNOPSIS
AVAILABLE.
“The Desert Pirates / Tom and the TV Pirates / Command Performance”
(11/26/66) - NO SYNOPSIS AVAILABLE.
“The Sea Surrounds Us / The Girl from M.A.D. / Show Biz” (12/3/66) - NO
SYNOPSIS AVAILABLE.
“The Wizard of Overlord / Just One of those Nights / Perilous Porpoise”
(12/10/66) - NO SYNOPSIS AVAILABLE.
“The Trojan Horse / Runt of 1,000 Faces / The Man from K.O.N.G.” (12/17/66)
- NO SYNOPSIS AVAILABLE.
“Caribbean Cruise / Hello, Dollies! / Diver's Dilemma” (12/24/66) - NO
SYNOPSIS AVAILABLE.
“The Great Sun Spots / Pardner / Kong is Missing” (12/31/66) - NO SYNOPSIS
AVAILABLE.
“In the Land of the Giant Trees / Beans is Beans / Captain Kong” (1/7/67) -
NO SYNOPSIS AVAILABLE.
“Statue of Liberty Play / What Goes Up... / Pandora's Box” (1/14/67) - NO
SYNOPSIS AVAILABLE.
“The Thousand Year Knockout / Our Man, the Monster / Desert City” (1/21/67)
– A trip to France puts Kong against a reanimated gargoyle. / NO SYNOPSIS
AVAILABLE. / NO SYNOPSIS AVAILABLE.
“Eagle Squadron / Never Trust a Clam / The Kong of Stone” (1/28/67) - NO
SYNOPSIS AVAILABLE.
“Murderer's Maze / Drop that Ocean, Feller / The Great Gold Strike”
(2/4/67) - NO SYNOPSIS AVAILABLE.
“It Wasn't There Again Today / Plug that Leak / The Mad Whale” (2/11/67) - NO
SYNOPSIS AVAILABLE.
“The King Kong Diamond / The Scooby / Anchors Away” (2/18/67) – NO SYNOPSIS
AVAILABLE.
“A Friend In Need” (2/25/67) – The Bond family discovers Kong on Mondo
Island and decide to bring him back to the US for study.
“Key
to the City” (3/4/67) – When Kong ends up in New York City, the Bond family
must protect him from the military.
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