45TH ANNIVERSARIES

 We've passed the halfway point in our anniversary celebration as we acknowledge the shows going on

*No intro available.

*Wacko, no intro available.

SATURDAY MORNING MASTERS: LEN JANSON

LEN JANSON 

(Unknown) 

Notable Roles: Animator, writer, story editor, producer, director 

Janson began working at Walt Disney Productions as an in-betweener. In 1965, he became a story man and received his first screen credit in Warner Bros.’ Boulder Wham! Roadrunner short. In the following years, he partnered with fellow animator and writer Chuck Menville. Together, they produced a series of live-action short films utilizing the long-forgotten stop-motion pixilation method. Among them was the Academy Award-nominated Stop Look and Listen, which followed a day in the life of motorists who tooled around the city in invisible cars. They wrote, directed and starred in their shorts. Clips from their second film, Vicious Cycles, were used in ABC’s The New Communicators which landed them a gig making commercials for Gulf Oil’s “no-nox” gasoline. In 1969, Janson and Menville started long stints at both Filmation and Hanna-Barbera, serving as story editors and producers for several of their shows. Over at DiC Enterprises in the 1980s, Menville and Janson were offered the story editor position of The Real Ghostbusters, but they initially turned it down due to the massive workload of having to produce a syndicated and Saturday morning version of the show at the same time. Following the departure of story editor J. Michael Straczynski over creative differences in changes ABC wanted to make, Janson and Menville became the story editors for the remainder of the show’s run. They went on to write, produce and story edit for the reboot of Land of the Lost and Tiny Toon Adventures. Following Menville’s death in 1992, Janson went on to develop the Sonic the Hedgehog animated series for ABC, as well as its follow-up, Sonic Underground. He also wrote several episodes of Baywatch Nights and The Woody Woodpecker Show revival. Janson’s last credited work was on an episode of Gadget and the Gadgetinis in 2003, although he did appear in 2008 documentaries about The Real Ghostbusters. 

Saturday Credits: 

Cattanooga Cats 

Will the Real Jerry Lewis Please Sit Down 

Groovie Goolies 

Sabrina, the Teenage Witch (1969) 

Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids 

The Flintstone Comedy Hour 

The ABC Saturday Superstar Movie (episodes) 

Lassie’s Rescue Rangers 

Speed Buggy 

Star Trek: The Animated Series 

Wheelie and the Chopper Bunch 

Hong Kong Phooey 

Korg: 70,000 B.C. 

Shazam! (1974) 

Uncle Croc’s Block 

The New Adventures of Gilligan 

The Secrets of Isis 

ABC Weekend Specials (episodes) 

Ark II 

The New Adventures of Batman 

Space Sentinels 

Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle 

Tarzan and the Super 7 

Yogi’s Space Race 

Buford and the Galloping Ghost 

Jason of Star Command 

The New Fred and Barney Show 

The New Shmoo 

Fred and Barney Meet the Shmoo 

The Flintstone Comedy Show 

Space Stars 

The Smurfs 

Mork & Mindy/Laverne & Shirley/Fonz Hour 

Benji, Zax & the Alien Prince 

The Biskitts 

Kissyfur 

The Real Ghostbusters 

The Little Wizards 

Tiny Toon Adventures 

Land of the Lost (1991) 

The Little Mermaid: The Animated Series 

Sonic the Hedgehog (1993) 

Dumb and Dumber: The Animated Series 

Gadget and the Gadgetinis 

SATURDAY MORNING MASTERS: CHUCK MENVILLE

CHUCK MENVILLE 

(April 17, 1940-June 15, 1992) 

Notable Roles: Animator, writer, story editor, producer, director 

Born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Menville moved to Los Angeles at age 19 with designs to become an animator. He was hired by Walt Disney Productions and served as an assistant on The Jungle Book (1967). Unhappy with his working environment, Menville got into writing and began a long partnership with his friend, fellow animator and writer Len Janson. Together, they produced a series of live-action short films utilizing the long-forgotten stop-motion pixilation method. Among them was the Academy Award-nominated Stop Look and Listen, which followed a day in the life of motorists who tooled around the city in invisible cars. They wrote, directed and starred in their shorts. Clips from their second film, Vicious Cycles, were used in ABC’s The New Communicators which landed them a gig making commercials for Gulf Oil’s “no-nox” gasoline. In 1969, Menville and Janson started long stints at both Filmation and Hanna-Barbera, serving as story editors and producers for several of their shows. Outside of television, he wrote the book The Harlem Globetrotters: Fifty Years of Fun and Games in 1978. Over at DiC Enterprises in the 1980s, Menville and Janson were offered the story editor position of The Real Ghostbusters, but they initially turned it down due to the massive workload of having to produce a syndicated and Saturday morning version of the show at the same time. Following the departure of story editor J. Michael Straczynski over creative differences in changes ABC wanted to make, Janson and Menville became the story editors for the remainder of the show’s run. They went on to write, produce and story edit for the reboot of Land of the Lost and Tiny Toon Adventures. Menville’s final project was a story for Batman: The Animated Series. However, he died of non-Hodgkin lymphoma before the script could be written. Brynne Stephens wrote the teleplay for the episode, and Menville was given story credit. His children keep the “family business” going, as Scott Menville became an actor primarily in animation and Chad Menville is an author. 

Saturday Credits: 

Cattanooga Cats 

Will the Real Jerry Lewis Please Sit Down 

Groovie Goolies 

Sabrina, the Teenage Witch (1969) 

Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids 

The Flintstone Comedy Hour 

The ABC Saturday Superstar Movie (episodes) 

Lassie’s Rescue Rangers 

Speed Buggy 

Star Trek: The Animated Series 

Wheelie and the Chopper Bunch 

Hong Kong Phooey 

Korg: 70,000 B.C. 

Shazam! (1974) 

Uncle Croc’s Block 

The New Adventures of Gilligan 

The Secrets of Isis 

ABC Weekend Specials (episodes) 

Ark II 

The New Adventures of Batman 

Space Sentinels 

Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle 

Tarzan and the Super 7 

Jason of Star Command 

The New Fred and Barney Show 

The New Shmoo 

Fred and Barney Meet the Shmoo 

The Flintstone Comedy Show 

Space Stars 

The Smurfs 

Mork & Mindy/Laverne & Shirley/Fonz Hour 

Benji, Zax & the Alien Prince 

The Biskitts 

Kissyfur 

The Real Ghostbusters 

The Little Wizards 

Tiny Toon Adventures 

Land of the Lost (1991) 

The Little Mermaid: The Animated Series 

Batman: The Animated Series 

RIP DAVID WISE

You can read the announcement here.

As a writer, he worked on Star Trek: The Animated Series, The Secrets of Isis, Space Sentinels, The New Archie/Sabrina Hour, Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle, Godzilla (1979), The Smurfs, The Biskitts, The Mighty Orbots, Kissyfur, Jem, Cyber COPS, Batman: The Animated Series, Wild C.A.T.S: Covert Action Teams and Corn & Peg. In addition to writing for, he also served as story editor on Space Stars, Cadillacs and Dinosaurs, Conan and the Young Warriors, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987) and Mighty Ducks.

SPACE SENTINELS

THE YOUNG SENTINELS / SPACE SENTINELS

(NBC, September 10-December 3, 1977)

Filmation Associates

MAIN CAST:

George DiCenzo – Hercules, Sentinel One, Commander Nemo, various

Evan C. Kim – Mercury

Dee Timberlake – Astrea, Sentinel Seven, Commander Androlin, various

Lou Scheimer – Maintenance Operator “MO”, Prime Sentinel, various

            With Star Wars reinvigorating the interest in outer space, Filmation latched onto the craze for their next animated outing. The Young Sentinels took the concept of space-faring adventure and combined elements of Greco-Roman legend. While Filmation productions tended to feature a diverse cast of characters, this was notably the first production where the main cast matched that diversity. 

Mercury, Astrea and Hercules.

            Sentinel One (George DiCenzo), a technological lifeform from another galaxy, came to ancient Earth and took three teenagers back to his homeworld where they would be bestowed with incredible powers as saviors of the future. Hercules (DiCenzo), who had the strength of many men like his mythological namesake; Mercury (Evan C. Kim), who could move at super speeds again like in mythology; and Astrea (Dee Timberlake), a completely original creation that could transform into virtually any animal. Each also had the ability to fly and was rendered immortal by the process that gave them their powers. They were returned to Earth where they operated out of a ship situated inside an inactive volcano and protected Earth from a variety of threats; both alien and terrestrial. Assisting them and keeping the ship maintained was MO (Lou Scheimer), a maintenance operator droid that seemed to have a crush on Astrea. Sentinel One would communicate with his team through a holographic projection.

Sentinel One.

            Amongst the various threats they faced were their predecessor, Morpheus (Alan Oppenheimer), a former Sentinel who had gone rogue; Agent Kronos (Ted Cassidy), a saboteur from the future; Fauna (Erika Scheimer), a young girl who was raised by animals and could communicate with them, and whose noble efforts to stop animal testing led to the creation of a Man-Wolf (Oppenheimer); and The Sorceress (Linda Gary), a powerfully magical being, amongst others.

An add for NBC's 1977 Saturday line-up with the show's original title.

            The Young Sentinels debuted on NBC on September 10, 1977. The series’ music was handled by Ray Ellis and producer Norm Prescott (under their aliases Yvette Blais and Jeff Michael). The show was written by Kathleen Barnes, Donald F. Glut, Dale Kirby, Douglas Menville, Michael Reaves, Jerry Winnick, David Wise, Len Janson and Chuck Menville, with the latter two also serving as the series developers and story editors. Along with the cartoon, Filmation recorded a 12-minute live-action pilot for The Young Sentinels that would have been included in the anthology series, Space Express. The show never materialized.

Fauna.

            The Young Sentinels languished in the ratings as it was competing against Hanna-Barbera’s Scooby’s All-Star Laff-A-Lympics on ABC. Halfway through its season, the show was moved to a different timeslot and given a new name: Space Sentinels. Speculation for the name change included the thought that NBC felt young viewers weren’t tuning into the show because they didn’t know what a “sentinel” was and that it didn’t sufficiently convey that the show took place in space, and to potentially stylistically link up to the CBS Filmation show, Space Academy (on which DiCenzo also appeared). However, NBC was last in the ratings overall that year and those measures couldn’t help. The show concluded after 13 episodes. At least a portion of Space Sentinels would continue on as Hercules was included as a member of Filmation’s next hero effort, The Freedom Force, the following year. The even shorter-lived show ran as a segment of the new package show, Tarzan and the Super 7. 

Kronos.

Rand McNally would publish several coloring books using images from the show, and Fleetwood Toys made magnetic figures based on the characters and a launching rocket. In the 1990s, several episodes were released to VHS by Untied American Video Corp. In 2006, the complete Space Sentinels was released onto DVD by BCI Home Entertainment along with the entirety of The Freedom Force; including the live-action pilot. In 2008, BCI released a compilation collection called Heroes and Heroines which featured a disc from their earlier Blackstar, Secrets of Isis and the Space Sentinels sets.

EPISODE GUIDE:

“Morpheus: The Sinister Sentinel” (9/10/77) – Former Sentinel Morpheus kidnaps MO in order to copy his memory and create his own Sentinel One.

“Space Giants” (9/17/77) - Robots sent to rob a government gold vault realize they are superior to humans and create an army to wipe out mankind.

“The Time Traveler” (9/24/77) – Time-traveling Kronos comes from the future to steal plans for a space station, and Hercules and Astrea track him down to prehistoric times.

“The Sorceress” (10/1/77) – The Sorceress makes the North Pole vanish and imprisons the Sentinels in their own imaginations when they investigate.

“The Return of Anubis” (10/8/77) – Archaeologists accidentally free Anubis from his pyramid prison and he plots his revenge on mankind.

“The Wizard of Od” (10/15/77) – An elf asks the Sentinels to come to the land of Fancia where a wish machine threatens to disrupt the natural laws and destroy every universe.

“The Prime Sentinel” (10/22/77) – The Sentinels head to battle an energy-absorbing blob and rescue their leader.

“Commander Nemo” (10/29/77) – The Sentinels have to stop Commander Nemo from exacting his revenge on those who pollute the oceans.

“Voyage to the Inner World” (11/5/77) – Dying Queen Darkari captures Astrea in order to siphon her brain waves.

“Loki” (11/12/77) – Telekinetic giant Loki is freed from his prison and he takes the Sentinels’ ship in order to exact his revenge on his jailer.

“Fauna” (11/19/77) – A girl who can communicate with animals attacks an animal testing lab, which leads to a wolf mutating into a man-beast bent on revenge against humanity.

“The Jupiter Spore” (11/26/77) – A spore brought to Earth from Jupiter begins growing at a rapid rate, sending the Sentinels to the planet to find a solution.

“The World Ship” (12/3/77) – The Sentinels head to stop a planetoid from crashing into Earth only to learn it’s a ship whose captain plans to steal the planet for his own people.


Originally posted in 2017. Updated in 2020.

SMF ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION (PART 7)

We continue our third anniversary celebration!

As we celebrate, we figured we'd also take the opportunity to celebrate the various other programs enjoying anniversaries this year (at least at an interval of 5). Some we've covered, some we'll get to covering sooner or later, but all of them represent Saturday morning. For this installment, we recognize those shows turning 40. The big 4-0.

Take a walk down memory lane with us, and feel free to share your memories in the comments, or over on our Facebook group or Facebook page, or on Twitter @SatMForever. We'd love to hear from you!

Now, without further ado, join us in celebrating...

NOTE: Not all intros available at this time.

(As part of The Tom & Jerry/Mumbly Show)