KEN SPEARS DEAD AT 82

 

You can read the full story here.

He worked for Hanna-Barbera Productions, where he co-created Scooby-Doo with his partner, Joe Ruby. He also did work for Krofft Television Productions and DePatie-Freleng Enterprises before ABC set them up with their own studio, Ruby-Spears Productions.

 

The shows he’s worked on include Space Ghost, The Herculoids, The Adventures of Gulliver, Cattanooga Cats, The Banana Splits Adventure Hour, The Perils of Penelope Pitstop, Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!, The Harlem Globetrotters, Help!...It’s the Hair Bear Bunch, The Barkleys, The Houndcats, Bailey’s Comets, Dynomutt, Dog Wonder, Jabberjaw, Electra Woman and Dyna Girl, Wonderbug, Magic Mondo, Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels, Bigfoot and Wildboy, ABC Weekend Specials (episodes), Fangface, The Plastic Man Comedy/Adventure Show, Heathcliff (1980), Thundarr the Barbarian, Goldie Gold and Action Jack, The Scooby and Scrappy-Doo Puppy Hour, Mork & Mindy/Laverne & Shirley/Fonz Hour, The Puppy’s Further Adventures, Saturday Supercade, Rubik, The Amazing Cube, Alvin & the Chipmunks, Dragon’s Lair, Turbo Teen, Mister T, It’s Punky Brewster, Lazer Tag Academy, Superman (1988), Dink, the Little Dinosaur, Piggsburg Pigs!, and Wild West C.O.W.-Boys of Moo Mesa.

JOE RUBY DEAD AT 87

You can read the full story here.

He worked for Hanna-Barbera Productions where he co-created many of their better-known properties, especially Scooby-Doo, with his partner, Ken Spears. He also did work for Krofft Television Productions and DePatie-Freleng Enterprises before Fred Silverman at ABC set them up with their own studio, Ruby-Spears Productions.

The shows he’s worked on include Space Ghost, The Herculoids, The Adventures of Gulliver, Cattanooga Cats, The Banana Splits Adventure Hour, The Perils of Penelope Pitstop, Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!, Help!...It’s the Hair Bear Bunch, The Funky Phantom, The Barklesy, The Houndcats, Bailey’s Comets, Dynomutt, Dog Wonder, Jabberjaw, Electra Woman and Dyna Girl, Wonderbug, Magic Mondo, Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels, Bigfoot and Wildboy, ABC Weekend Specials (episodes), Fangface, The Plastic Man Comedy/Adventure Show, Heathcliff (1980), Thundarr the Barbarian, Goldie Gold and Action Jack, The Scooby and Scrappy-Doo Puppy Hour, Mork & Mindy/Laverne & Shirley/Fonz Hour, The Puppy’s Further Adventures, Saturday Supercade, Rubik, The Amazing Cube, Alvin & the Chipmunks, Dragon’s Lair, Turbo Teen, Mister T, It’s Punky Brewster, Lazer Tag Academy, Superman (1988), Dink, the Little Dinosaur, Piggsburg Pigs!, and Wild West C.O.W.-Boys of Moo Mesa.

THE ABC SATURDAY SUPERSTAR MOVIE

THE ABC SATURDAY SUPERSTAR MOVIE / THE NEW SATURDAY SUPERSTAR MOVIE

(ABC, September 9, 1972-November 17, 1973)

Various

MAIN CAST:

Various

            With movie studios still viewing television networks as a threat to their business, they often charged high fees for the broadcasting of their films. The networks decided to experiment with producing films specifically for television as a way to significantly lower expenses. NBC was the first, creating the weekly World Premiere Movie in 1966. ABC, who was running last place in the ratings, came up with their own in 1969 called the ABC Movie of the Week. That, combined with Monday Night Football, significantly improved ABC’s ratings and raised it up as competition for the other networks.

Ad for the first episode of Saturday Superstar.

            In 1972, ABC brought the concept to Saturday mornings as The ABC Saturday Superstar Movie. It was the first Saturday morning anthology series presented in much the same way as the regular Movie of the Week., Saturday Superstar would feature one-hour predominantly animated (although some contained live-action) specials by the various animation studios at the time. The selection of specials were typically pilots for shows the studios wanted to do and used Saturday Superstar as a proving ground; although some of them were sequels of previously established properties or just a showcase for a one-off production.

Dr. Smith, Robon and Link from Hanna-Barbera's Lost in Space.

            Hanna-Barbera’s only successful pilot offering was “Yogi’s Ark Lark”, which would become the slightly reworked Yogi’s Gang. For one of their failed pilots, they once again partnered with Screen Gems to make “Tabitha and Adam and the Clown Family”, which centered on the adventures of the now-teenaged children from the sitcom Bewitched (which they made the animated opening titles for); who both naturally inherited their mother’s supernatural powers. The other was a reboot of Lost in Space, which only featured the returning characters of Dr. Smith (Jonathan Harris), this time an actual passenger on the Jupiter 2, and the robot (now named Robon, voiced by Don Messick). The new characters included Space Academy graduate Craig Robinson (Michael Bell); his little brother, Link (Vincent Van Patten); and geologist Diana Carmichael (Sherry Alberoni). They took off on a routine mission from Earth to Saturn and ended up thrown wildly off course by a sudden meteor shower. Hanna-Barbera also released a follow-up to The Banana Splits Adventure Hour with “The Banana Splits in Hocus Pocus Park”, an animated entry in the Gidget book/film/television franchise with “Gidget Makes the Wrong Connection”, an interpretation of the legend of Robin Hood with animals in “The Adventures of Robin Hoodnik” (a year before Disney’s), and a sequel to the novel Oliver Twist with “Oliver and the Artful Dodger” (which happened to be the series’ only two-part episode).

Animation cel featuring The Groovie Goolies and some of the Looney Tunes.

            Filmation found a bit more success with their pilots, as both of their offerings led into a show. “The Brady Kids on Mysterious Island” was later broken up into the first two episodes of The Brady Kids, as was “Lassie and the Spirit of Thunder Mountain” for Lassie’s Rescue Rangers. “Daffy Duck and Porky Pig Meet the Groovie Goolies” presented a rare instance in which Warner Bros. loaned out their characters for use by another studio (normally, those studios would be making the cartoons for Warner Bros., who at this time didn’t have their own animation department). The special was a follow-up to The Groovie Goolies which had Filmation’s characters interact with most of the Looney Tunes (save Bugs Bunny and Speedy Gonzales). This was the only time the legendary Mel Blanc worked on a Filmation project; which he not only hated doing but came to regret doing as an error in the sound mixing ended up making most of his characters sound off.

Herman Munster driving around his son Eddie's band.

            Fred Calvert Productions attempted to translate two sitcoms into animated shows. The first was the 20^th Century Fox Television production The Nanny and the Professor; a sitcom featuring a magical British nanny (Juliet Mills) inspired by Mary Poppins. She took care of a family comprised of college professor Harold Everett (Richard Long), his sons Harold (David Doremus) and Bently (Trent Lehman), and daughter Prudence (Kim Richards). Calvert made two specials based on the show, “Nanny and the Professor” and “Nanny and the Professor and the Phantom of the Circus”, with the cast all reprising their roles. The second series was Universal Television’s The Munsters; the sitcom about a family based on the classic Universal Monsters who were blissfully ignorant of their differences compared to other people. The special, “The Mini-Munsters”, only saw Al Lewis reprise his role of Grandpa from the original series. Neither show was picked up. Calvert would have better luck on NBC with Emergency +4, an animated spin-off of the medical drama, Emergency!

Marlo Thomas in animated form.

            Rankin/Bass Productions took the opportunity to introduce an animated prequel to their 1967 stop-motion film, Mad Monster Party. “Mad, Mad, Mad Monsters” followed Baron Henry von Frankenstein (Bob McFadden) creating a bride (Rhoda Mann) for his monster (Allen Swift), but his assistant, Igor (Swift), got jealous and wanted the bride for himself. While the special was praised for its visuals, the story was found lacking by critics. Rankin/Bass also made a special centering around baseball legend Willie Mays in “Willie Mays and the Say-Hey Kid”. It was basically about a guardian angel named Casey (after Casey Stengel, voiced by Paul Frees) tasking Mays with looking after an orphan in exchange for help winning the National League Pennant. An odd one was their take on “The Red Baron”, which recast the infamous WWI fighter pilot as a heroic anthropomorphic dog (Swift) who sets out to rescue the “kidnapped” princess of Pretzelstein (Mann) from a rival kingdom. Their final offering for the series was a spin-off to the Marlo Thomas-led sitcom, That Girl. “That Girl in Wonderland” saw the show’s characters in the stories of Alice in Wonderland, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, The Wizard of Oz and Cinderella. Only Thomas reprised her role of Anne Marie.

Promo image for "Luv-cast U.S.A."

            Depatie-Freleng Enterprises’ only offering for the series was “Luv-cast U.S.A.” It was a mini-anthology, loosely based on Love, American Style. The special was centered around a radio station, where DJ Ranton Rave (actual DJ “Sweet” Dick Whittington) would receive calls from people with various romantic problems, and their answers would be seen in a series of vignettes. All the while, the DJ would play rock and roll classics music. The special landed Depatie-Freleng an opportunity to do further work on ABC’s other anthology series, The ABC Afterschool Specials. 

The comedy comic strip characters board for their free cruise.

            King Features Syndicate decided to throw their hat into the ring by producing a special combining just about every comic strip under their control. “Popeye Meets the Man Who Hated Laughter” not only featured the characters of Popeye, but also characters from Blondie, Beetle Bailey, Steve Canyon, Snuffy Smith, The Phantom, Mandrake the Magician, Hi & Lois, Tiger, Tim Tyler, Quincy, Prince Valiant and The Little King. This marked the first—and for some, only—time many of these strips were ever adapted into animation. The special was directed by Hal Seeger and featured Jack Mercer reprising his roles as Popeye and Wimpy. McFadden and Corinne Orr provided every other voice in the special.

            The ABC Saturday Superstar Movie debuted on ABC on September 9, 1972. It returned the following year as The New Saturday Superstar Movie for a brief 3-episode second season. After that, ABC decided to abandon the experiment with the 1974 season; however, that hiatus didn’t last too long. In 1977 they brought back the anthology concept with ABC Weekend Special, this time with a more focused message of encouraging children to read.

Ad for "Willie Mays and the Say-Hey Kid".

            Because of the multiple licenses and studios involved, a complete comprehensive collection of Saturday Superstar has never been released. However, individual components have seen their own releases on home media. Released to VHS was “Mad, Mad, Mad Monsters” in 1998 by Sony Home Entertainment; “Willie Mays and the Say-Hey Kid” by Star Classics; and “Oliver and the Artful Dodger” in 1989 by Warner Home Video. “Mad, Mad, Mad Monsters” was released to DVD in 2012 by Universal Home Entertainment, as was “Oliver and the Artful Dodger” together with “The Adventures of Robin Hoodnik” in the Hanna-Barbera Specials Collection by Warner Archive in 2015. “Yogi’s Ark Lark” and “The Brady Kids on Mysterious Island” were part of the complete series releases for Yogi’s Gang and The Brady Kids. “Mad, Mad, Mad Monsters” was made available to stream on Amazon Prime Video.

Some of the foreign VHS covers for "Daffy Duck and Porky Pig Meet the Groovie Goolies".

“Daffy Duck and Porky Pig Meet the Groovie Goolies” has seen numerous VHS releases under various titles, predominantly in the United Kingdom and Germany by Select Video between 1983-86 with its live-action segment removed. It also saw rebroadcasts on Sky One, Cartoon Network as part of Mr. Spim’s Cartoon Theater and USA Network before they stopped airing cartoons. A restored two-part version of the film began making the rounds in Germany in 2002 and aired as late as 2013.

EPISODE GUIDE:

Season 1:

“The Brady Kids on Mysterious Island” (9/9/72) – A balloon race lands the Brady kids on a mysterious island where they meet and befriend some special animals.

“Yogi’s Ark Lark” (9/16/72) – Yogi and his animal friends gather on an ark on a mission to find a place to live that’s devoid of pollution and the destruction caused by mankind.

“Mad, Mad, Mad Monsters” (9/23/72) – Baron Henry von Frankenstein creates a bride for his monster, but his assistant Igor becomes jealous and wants the Bride for himself.

“Nanny and the Professor” (9/30/72) – Nanny and the Everetts get caught up in a mystery involving a microdot.

“Popeye Meets the Man Who Hated Laughter” (10/7/72) – Prof. Morbid Grimsby plans to cinch this year’s prestigious “Meanie” award by eliminating all laughter from the world.

“Willie Mays and the Say-Hey Kid” (10/14/72) – An angel promises to help Willie Mays win the Pennant if he looks after an orphaned girl.

“Oliver and the Artful Dodger: Part 1 & 2” (10/21/72, 10/28/72) – Mr. Brownlow adopts Oliver, but upon his death his will goes missing and his sinister nephew tries to take his fortune.

“The Adventures of Robin Hoodnik” (11/4/72) – A retelling of the legend of Robin Hood starring a cast of anthropomorphic animals.

“Lassie and the Spirit of Thunder Mountain” (11/11/72) – Lassie tries to figure out who’s scaring the Native American people away from Thunder Mountain.

“Gidget Makes the Wrong Connection (a.k.a. The Odd Squad)” (11/18/72) – Teenager Gidget and her friends run into gold smugglers.

“The Banana Splits in Hocus Pocus Park” (11/25/72) – The Banana Splits give a little girl a tour of an amusement park, only to have her kidnapped by a witch.

“Tabitha and Adam and the Clown Family” (12/2/72) – Tabitha and Adam Stevens use their magical powers to try and save a circus.

“The Red Baron” (12/9/72) – The Red Baron and his fellow dogs do battle with the sinister army of cats.

“Daffy Duck and Porky Pig Meet the Groovie Goolies” (12/16/72) – The Groovie Goolies help the Looney Tunes solve a mystery.

“Luvcast U.S.A.” (1/6/73) – A wacky deejay plays some romantic hits while various characters engage in romance-themed escapades.

“That Girl in Wonderland” (1/13/73) – Ann Marie imagines herself in a variety of fairy tales.

Season 2:

“Lost in Space” (9/8/73) – A meteor field sends the Jupiter II far off course.

“The Mini-Munsters” (10/27/73) – When Grandpa fixes Eddie’s car so that it runs on music, gangster who took over the fuel company want his invention destroyed at any cost.

“Nanny and the Professor and the Phantom of the Circus” (11/17/73) – Nanny and the Everetts end up involved in a mystery about a traveling circus.

THE FURTHER ADVENTURES OF DOCTOR DOLITTLE

THE FURTHER ADVENTURES OF DR. DOLITTLE

(NBC, September 12, 1970-January 9, 1971)

DePatie-Freleng Enterprises, 20^th Century Fox Television

MAIN CAST:

Bob Holt – Doctor Dolittle

Hal Smith – Tommy Stubbins

Don Messick – Chee Chee, The Pushmi-Pullyu, Jip, Nico, various

Lennie Weinrib – George, Sam Scurvy, Zig-Zag, various

Robert Towers – Various animals

Barbara Towers – Various animals

Robbie Falloon, Annadell, Colin Johnson, Mike Sherwood, Glyn Nelson - Grasshoppers

            Hugh Lofting was a British civil engineer who enlisted in the Irish Guards regiment of the British Army in World War I. Choosing not to expose his children to the horrors of war, he wrote them imaginative illustrated letters. Those letters became the basis of his children’s novel series centering around the character of Dr. John Dolittle.

Hugh Lofting's art of Dr. Dolittle and Polynesia.

            Dr. Dolittle was a physician in Victorian England from the village of Puddleby-on-the-Marsh where he lived with his spinster sister, Sarah. Gradually, he developed a love of animals that caused his house to become a menagerie that scared off his human patients and caused his sister to leave. After learning how to speak to all animals from his parrot, Polynesia, Dr. Dolittle decided to become a veterinarian. Dr. Dolittle then embarked on a journey around the world, helping various animals he came across and adding odd ones to what would become his personal zoo, or a sanctuary for the animals. Later, he became a naturalist and used his abilities to better understand nature and the history of the world. Among the other characters in the series was Dab-Dab, a duck who served as his housekeeper; Jip, his dog; Gub-Gub, his pet pig; Too-Too, his pet owl and accountant; the Pushmi-Pullyu, a gazelle/unicorn hybrid with heads at both ends of its body; the Great Glass Sea Snail, an enormous mollusk with a transparent airtight shell; and Tommy Stubbins, a boy from the village who would become Dr. Dolittle’s apprentice, among others. Tommy would also become the narrator for books set after his appearance.

Cover to the first book.

            The first book, The Story of Doctor Dolittle, Being the History of His Peculiar Life at Home and Astonishing Adventures in Foreign Parts was published in the United States by Frederick A. Stokes in 1920; later published in the United Kingdom by Jonathan Cape in 1924. 15 books in total were written in the series; the 13^th, Doctor Dolittle and the Secret Lake, was copyrighted in 1923 but not published until 1948, and the last two published after Lofting’s death in 1947. The second book, The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle, won the prestigious Newbery Medal. Although the series maintained an internal chronology, they weren’t often published in chronological order until 1927’s Doctor Dolittle’s Garden. Lofting grew tired of the character and tried to end the series with 1928’s Doctor Dolittle in the Moon, but popular demand saw him return to the series in 1933 with Doctor Dolittle’s Return.

            Dr. Dolittle has been adapted multiple times since its publication. The earliest known one was a silent animated German short from 1928 called Doktor Dolittle und seine Tiere. It has also been adapted into radio and stage plays. After several attempts to do so since 1922, the first film version finally came in 1967. Produced by APJAC International Productions, distributed by 20^th Century Fox, written by Leslie Bricusse and directed by Richard Fleischer, Doctor Dolittle starred Rex Harrison as the titular character and combined elements from several of the books: such as the origin of his abilities, the meeting of Tommy Stubbins (William Dix), the acquisition of the Pushmi-Pullyu to fund an expedition, the use of a dog to challenge murder charges (however his own rather than a homeless man’s), crashing on an island where he’s captured by natives, and the search for the Great Pink Sea Snail. After being plagued by numerous production problems, difficulties in managing a large ensemble of animals, and the demanding and often racist personality of the film’s star, the film’s budget ballooned from $6 million to $9 million. It was finally released on December 12 to negative reviews and only saw a box office return of $6.2 million (it ended up going against another animal-themed film, Disney’s The Jungle Book). Despite being a critical and commercial bomb, the studio held an intense lobbying campaign to get it nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture, although it only ended up winning Best Original Song and Best Visual Effects.

The crew of The Flounder: Jib, Polynesia, Tommy, Dolittle, Too-Too, Dab-Dab and Chee-Chee.

            Doctor Dolittle was one of three large-scale musical films Fox had made in an attempt to duplicate the success of The Sound of Music. They hoped to double their bets by also duplicating the success of My Fair Lady by reuniting Harrison with Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe; however, Loewe had retired and Lerner was fired by producer Arthur P. Jacobs for procrastinating on the script. All three films lost huge amounts of money and left the studio in dire financial straits (ironically, the studio was rescued when The Sound of Music was re-released to theaters in 1973). In anticipation of the film’s success, Fox made a tremendous merchandising push. They also penned a deal with DePatie-Freleng Enterprises to adapt the film into an animated series.

The pirate crew: Sam Scurvy, Miko, Nico, Cyclops and Zig-Zag.

            Developed and written by Lennie Weinrib and Paul Harrison, the series continued Dr. Dolittle’s (Bob Holt) journeys around the world, treating various animals that he came across and helping them with their problems. With him aboard his ship, The Flounder, was Tommy Stubbins (Hal Smith), Chee-Chee, the Pushmi-Pullyu, Jip (Don Messick), Too-Too, Dab-Dab and Polynesia. Along the way, the crew often ran afoul of pirates who were members of the local order of D.O.P.I. (Democratic Order of Pirates International). The pirates were led by Sam Scurvy (Weinrib) and were comprised of the hulking Cyclops, who wore an eyepatch over his good eye; Zig-Zag (Weinrib), an uptight French pirate; Nico (Messick), an Italian pirate; and Miko, a Chinese pirate. They travelled in a submarine whose top was disguised as an island, and wore a combination of traditional pirate garb mixed with suits typical of 1930s gangsters. Sam Scurvy wanted to learn Dolittle’s secret to communicating with animals, which he believed would allow him to control the animals and thus conquer the world.

The Grasshoppers on their album.

            The Further Adventures of Doctor Dolittle (although it was only ever titled Doctor Dolittle on screen) debuted on NBC on September 12, 1970. Like the movie it was based on, the show was done as a musical comedy. However, unlike other musical programs on air at the same time that just stuck any song wherever, the songs by Doug Goodwin were meant to match the events and situations of the particular episode in which they appeared. At a point in an episode, a grasshopper named George (Weinrib) and his band, aptly named The Grasshoppers (Robbie Falloon, Annadell, Colin Johnson, Mike Sherwood and Glyn Nelson), would perform from inside Dolittle’s medical bag after it was converted into a stage for them. Although, it was interesting that Victorian-era grasshoppers were big fans and composers of rock and roll music.    The musical sequences were designed by Arthur Leonardi, who also designed the title sequence. The series’ theme was a reworking of “Talk to the Animals”, which came directly from the film and was written by Bricusse. A collection of 12 of the songs were released by Carousel Records onto the album Doctor Dolittle Presents The Grasshoppers. All other music was provided by Eric Rogers.

Polyneisa asking Dolittle to help rescue her friend.

            Unfortunately, the series fared about as well as the film as it was put on the schedule against another musical, Josie and the Pussycats, and was cancelled after its single season. NBC would keep it on the schedule until the fall of 1972. Doctor Dolittle would continue to find adaptations in animation, stage and even video games. A film attempt wouldn’t be tried again until the 1998 modern reimagining starring Eddie Murphy, which managed to be successful and spawn four sequels through 2009. In 2020, another live-action film was made starring Robert Downey Jr., returning the story to its Victorian setting. Much like the 1967 film, the 2020 one was a critical and box office flop.

EPISODE GUIDE:

“The Grasshoppers Are Coming, Hooray, Hooray!” (9/12/70) – The pirates follow Dolittle to Grasshopper Island where he’s gone to treat the populace who have all lost their voices.

“The Bird Who Was Afraid to Fly” (9/19/70) – Dolittle tries to help Montgomery the gooney bird get over his fear of flying.

“The Land of the Tiger Moo” (9/26/70) – Dolittle has to protect the rare Tiger-Moo from the pirates and get its milk to treat a sick alligator in Florida.

“The Great Turkey Race” (10/3/70) – Dolittle enters an ocean race in order to save the first prize: Toots the Turkey.

“The Peanut Conspiracy” (10/10/70) – Dolittle sets out to make some Peanut-Cillin for an elephant that is allergic to peanuts.

“The Bar Bear” (10/17/70) – The pirates try to steal the medicine Dolittle has cooked up to give polar bears back their coats.

“High Flying Hippo” (10/24/70) – Dolittle concocts a way to rescue a hippo from a cliff ledge, but she loses her nerve to go through with it at the last minute.

“The Near-Sighted Bull” (10/31/70) – After Dolittle helps a bull regain his eyesight, he’s entered into a fight where Scurvy poses as the matador.

“The Silver Seals of the Circus” (11/7/70) – The Pushmi-Pullyu has to fill in for two injured seals to save a circus while the pirates sneak in dressed as clowns.

“A Girl for Greco Gorilla” (11/14/70) – Dolittle brings a homesick gorilla back to Africa and also tries to help find him a mate.

“A Tail of Two Snails” (11/21/70) – Dolittle takes the last of the Giant Pink Sea Snails to a new home after his is polluted and the pirates see their opportunity to strike.

“A Fox Called…Sherlock?” (11/28/70) – Sherlock the fox helps the crew track down Jip after he’s dog-napped by the pirates.

“The Tomb of the Phoenix Bird” (12/5/70) – The crew travels to Egypt to witness the rising of the phoenix, but end up in a trap set by the pirates.

“The Barnyard Rumble” (12/12/70) – Dolittle treats a talkative rooster’s laryngitis as a motorcycle gang shows up in town looking for trouble.

“The Baffled Buffalo” (12/19/70) – The President sends Dolittle to find a buffalo to model for a special commemorative medallion, but complications plague them along the way.

“A Hatful of Rabbit” (12/26/70) – The crew attends the magic show featuring a rabbit they treated, but are unaware that the pirates have hijacked it.

“The Bird from O.O.P.S.” (1/9/71) – Dolittle must save the rare ogle-bird egg from a Maharajah’s greedy mother who wants to use it to fatten him up for when he gets his weight in diamonds.