THE MUMBLY CARTOON SHOW

THE MUMBLY CARTOON SHOW

(ABC, September 11-December 18, 1976)

Hanna-Barbera Productions

MAIN CAST:

Don Messick – Lt. Mumbly, Lt. Nuts and Bolts, various

John Stephenson – Chief Shnooker, various

            He was an unassuming detective in a frumpy trench coat and a shoddy little car that seemed almost unable to find the loose change in your couch, let alone solve a crime. And yet, somehow, he always got his man.

Mumbly in his jalopy.

            If those of you old enough to know thought that was describing Columbo, a series starring Peter Falk as the title character, you’d be half right. In 1976, Hanna-Barbera took inspiration from the mystery series to create a “new” character: Mumbly (Don Messick). Why “new”? Because Mumbly was a redressing of the previously-existing character, Muttley (also Messick). Hanna-Barbera wanted to use him again, but because he and his owner, Dick Dastardly (Paul Winchell), were co-owned by Heatter-Quigley Productions in a deal for an intended game show, Hanna-Barbera wasn’t free to use them as regularly as their other characters. So, they changed Muttley’s fur, gave him a coat and a car that lost pieces as it drove, and Mumbly was born.

Mumbly and Shnooker enjoying some downtime.

            The Mumbly Cartoon Show debuted on ABC on September 11, 1976 as part of the package show Tom & Jerry/Grape Ape/Mumbly Show alongside reruns of The New Tom & Jerry Show and The Grape Ape Show, and then the reduced Tom & Jerry/Mumbly Show after Grape Ape was broken off into its own show. The series followed Mumbly as he was tasked by his boss, Chief Shnooker (John Stephenson), with solving impossible crimes—often at the threat of losing his job—that Shnooker was either too frightened or couldn’t be bothered to do. Of course, Shnooker didn’t hesitate when it came to taking the credit for closing the case. One of the running gags featured a criminal who could run off absolutely anywhere in the world only to find Mumbly already there and waiting to arrest them. The series was written by Bill Ackerman, Larz Bourne, Tom Dagenais, Alan Dinehart, Don Jurwich, Joel Kane, Dick Kinney, Frank Ridgeway, with music by Hoyt Curtin.

Mumbly getting the drop on a giant lumberjack.

            Mumbly only ran for a single season, continuing on in reruns through the early part of 1977. While it aired primarily on Saturday morning, “The Fatbeard the Pirate Fracas” aired as part of ABC’s Thanksgiving Funshine Festival on Thanksgiving Day. Hanna-Barbera decided to recycle Mumbly further by including him as one of the villains, the Really Rottens, in Laff-A-Lympics; teamed-up with The Dread Baron (Stephenson) who was a pastiche for Dastardly. Following the end of that series, Mumbly disappeared into relative obscurity; only appearing again as part of a clip segment in ABC’s 1983 Saturday Morning Preview Special. 

EPISODE GUIDE:

“Fleetfeet Versus Flat Foot” (9/11/76) – A speedy thief tips Shnooker off to his intended theft.

“The Great Hot Car Heist” (9/18/76) – Mumbly is assigned to retrieve a new top-secret police vehicle that ends up being stolen.

“The Magical Madcap Caper” (9/25/76) – Mumly and Shnooker guard the valuables in a mansion where a suspicious magician is performing.

“The Big Breakout Bust” (10/2/76) – Mumbly is ordered to retrieve an escaped prisoner in 24 hours or lose his job.

“The Return of Bing Bong” (10/9/76) – Mumbly is tasked with ending the rampage of an 80-foot gorilla in the city.

“The Super-Dooper Super Cop” (10/16/76) – Mumbly is forced to compete for his job against a robot detective while also capturing a slippery cat burglar.

“The Big Ox Bust” (10/23/76) – Mumbly and Shnooker take a trip to Canada just as a giant lumberjack is terrorizing the forest.

“The Great Graffiti Gambit” (10/30/76) – Mumbly is put on the trail of a graffiti artist who has defaced half the city.

“Taking Stock” (11/6/76) – A prize-winning bull is taken, setting Mumbly on the trail of The Lonesome Rustler.

“The Littermugg” (11/13/76) – Shnooker’s TV interview is interrupted by a sudden deluge of litter, courtesy of The Littermugg.

“The Perils of the Purple Baron” (11/20/76) – The Purple Baron freezes everyone in the city in order to rob them, except Mumbly remains unaffected and is hot on his case.

“The Fatbeard the Pirate Fracas” (11/25/76) – NO SYNOPSIS AVAILABLE.

“The Big Snow Foot Snow Job” (11/27/76) – Shnooker’s ski vacation is spoiled by the sudden appearance of a creature scaring everyone away from the lodge.

“Sherlock’s Badder Brudder” (12/4/76) – Two criminals have it out for Mumbly and Shnooker and try everything to get rid of Mumbly.

“The UFO’s a No-No” (12/11/76) – Aliens arrive to invade Earth, and Shnooker tasks Mumbly with giving them a parking ticket and collecting the fine.

“Hyde and Seek” (12/18/76) – Mumbly investigates a disturbance at Dr. Seek’s lab where he discovers Dr. Seek’s new soda formula turns him into the insidious Mr. Hyde.

INCH HIGH, PRIVATE EYE

INCH HIGH, PRIVATE EYE

(NBC, September 8-December 1, 1973)

Hanna-Barbera Productions

MAIN CAST:

Lennie Weinrib – Inch High

Kathy Gori – Lori

Bob Luttrel – Gator

John Stephenson – Mr. Finkerton

Jean Vander Pyl – Mrs. Finkerton

Don Messick - Braveheart

Inch High using Braveheart's eye as a mirror.

            Inch High, Private Eye was a Hanna-Barbera cartoon inspired by Get Smart. The series centered around the diminutive titular character (Lennie Weinrib, doing a combined impersonation of Jack Benny and Don Adams) who was a bumbling detective for the Finkerton Detective Agency (a play on the Pinkerton National Detective Agency, now known simply as Pinkerton). Inch wasn’t always a man of his stature; a scientific formula gave him the height he deemed a boon for his work (makes you wonder how his parents came up with his name, then). He was often tasked with foiling the complicated schemes of various thieves who wanted to steal rare items. However, many of these crimes happened under his nose, painting him as either incompetent or as the thief himself.

Lori, Gator and Braveheart in the Hushmobile.

Inch’s bosses, Mr. and Mrs. Finkerton (John Stephenson and Jean Vander Pyl, respectively), didn’t particularly care for the diminutive gumshoe and took every opportunity to threaten his job; either outright firing him or replacing him with a mechanical flea. Aiding Inch in his duties was his niece, Lori (sometimes spelled “Laurie”, voiced by Kathy Gori), her muscle-bound hayseed boyfriend, Gator (Bob Luttrel), and the ironically-named St. Bernard, Braveheart. Inch communicated with his friends through a special make-up compact Lori carried.

Inch High model sheet.

Inch High debuted on NBC on September 8, 1973. The series was written by Fred S. Fox, David P. Harmon, Seaman Jacobs, William Raynor, Gene Thompson and Myles Wilder, and featured music by Hoyt Curtin. One of Hanna-Barbera’s less-remarkable or memorable efforts, it only ran a single season of 13 episodes and only made a comic appearance in Gold Key’s Hanna-Barbera Fun-In #14, later reprinted in the United Kingdom as Inch High, Private Eye & Pixie & Dixie Annual by Brown Watson.  Inch High was also featured on a lunch box by Thermos, sharing the honor with Goober and the Ghost Chasers.

The DVD cover.

The series did make a return to television in syndicated rerun programming such as USA Cartoon Express, the Mysteries, Inc. block on Cartoon Network, and on Boomerang. On Cartoon Network, Inch was featured in a gag commercial that had him teaming-up with Batman…with disastrous results. He also appeared on an episode of Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law in a height discrimination case, voiced by Maurice LaMarche. In 2012, Warner Archive released the complete series to DVD as part of their Hanna-Barbera Classics Collection. 

EPISODE GUIDE:

“Diamonds are a Crook’s Best Friend” (9/8/73) – Inch High is called in to investigate a shadowy figure after Mrs. Gotrocks’ diamonds.

“You Oughta Be in Pictures” (9/15/73) – Chasing a diamond thief leads to Inch High being trapped inside a book.

“The Smugglers” (9/22/73) – Investigating a smuggling operation leads Inch to recover an empty crate and be forced out on vacation.

“Counterfeit Story” (9/29/73) – Inch investigates the replacement of money in banks with counterfeit cash.

“The Mummy’s Curse” (10/6/73) – Inch heads to Egypt to investigate a mummy causing chaos.

“The Doll Maker” (10/13/73) – A dollmaker plans to use an army of dolls to steal all the fur coats in town.

“Music Maestro” (10/20/73) – Inch notices a pattern between a rash of thefts and where a particular symphony plays.

“Dude City” (10/27/73) – Inch trades his old friends for new ones at a dude ranch, until he learns his new friends are actually crooks.

“High Fashion” (11/3/73) – A fashion designer plans to kidnap his competition.

“The Cat Burglars” (11/10/73) – An art thief uses a special rubber formula to commit impossible thefts.

“The World’s Greatest Animals” (11/17/73) – A crooked ringmaster has his men steal animals for his circus.

“Super Flea” (11/24/73) – A new mechanical super flea detective threatens to replace Inch, but Inch has to find it after it ends up stolen.

“The Return of Spumoni” (12/1/73) – The dollmaker returns for revenge on Inch and plans to steal a statue he’s guarding.

Originally posted in 2018. Updated in 2020.

THE VOICES OF THE X-MEN

Celebrating the 25th anniversary of X-Men: The Animated Series, as well as the 55th anniversary of the X-Men, we present this infographic highlighting every actor to take on the Saturday morning versions of Marvel's Merry Mutants.

MARVEL VS. DC: ROUND 4

ANNOYING SIDEKICKS

Not satisfied with merely presenting the source material on screen, studios tended to create sidekicks to accompany our heroes in order to add comedy and relatability for young viewers. Unfortunately, they usually ended up being unnecessarily annoying. 

THE NEW ADVENTURES OF BATMAN

VS.

FANTASTIC FOUR (1978)

GETTING YOUNGER

TV networks are always looking to appeal to a younger crowd. To do that, they believe the characters on their shows NEED to be younger; and superheroes are no exception.

X-MEN: EVOLUTION

VS.

THE BATMAN

FANTASTIC FOUR (1978)

FANTASTIC FOUR (1978)

(NBC, September 9-December 16, 1978)

DePatie-Freleng Enterprises, Marvel Comics Animation

MAIN CAST:

Mike Road – Mr. Fantastic/Reed Richards

Ginny Tyler – Invisible Girl/Susan Richards

Ted Cassidy – The Thing/Benjamin J. Grimm, Mole Man

Frank Welker – H.E.R.B.I.E., Impossible Man

Dick Tufeld - Narrator

For the history of the Fantastic Four, check out the post here.

            The second Fantastic Four cartoon was probably the most hated. The reason being? One word: H.E.R.B.I.E.

The Fantastic Four, featuring H.E.R.B.I.E.

Before Marvel became an entertainment powerhouse at the box office, they were constantly struggling to bring their characters out of the comics and onto the screen. They often had to rely on other studios, and thus made deals licensing out their characters for production. In 1977, Universal Studios optioned an assortment of characters for various live-action productions. Most famously in that deal was the Hulk for The Incredible Hulk television series starring Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno. Universal also optioned the Human Torch. JUST the Human Torch.

H.E.R.B.I.E. helping work the Fantasticar.

When NBC’s Fred Silverman wanted to commission a new Fantastic Four series, Universal would not allow the use of the Torch (ironically, NBC would come to share owners with Universal decades later). A popular myth that had spread over the years was he was left out in fear kids would try to emulate him and set themselves on fire (forgetting that Hanna-Barbera had successfully produced a show with the Torch back in 1967 with nary a reported fatality). In the comics up to this point, the Inhumans Crystal and Medusa and hero for hire Luke Cage served as alternate members of the team, as others would as well down the line. But, instead of using an established Marvel character, they decided to use an all-new one: H.E.R.B.I.E. (Frank Welker).

The strange Inhumans.

H.E.R.B.I.E., or Humanoid Experimental Robot, B-Type, Integrated Electronics, was a robot created by Mr. Fantastic (Mike Road) to aid in his experiments and their exploratory missions. Stan Lee pitched the idea of a cute robot sidekick to DePatie-Freleng Enterprises, with comic artist Dave Cockrum commissioned to design it. However, Cockrum ended up disliking the character immensely and was replaced by Fantastic Four co-creator Jack Kirby.  Lee would also serve as a writer for the show, while Kirby provided storyboards.

The menace of Magneto!

Like the previous Fantastic Four series, it adapted some of the plots from actual comic stories, albeit heavily altered especially for the inclusion of H.E.R.B.I.E. For instance, “Medusa and the Inhumans” adapted the first encounter of the Inhumans and the Fantastic Four from Fantastic Four vol. 1 #45 (1965), but they were led by Medusa instead of her husband, Black Bolt, and had typical villain plans for world conquest. Medusa later returned as a member of the Frightful Four in the same-titled episode, however as a willing member and not under the influence of amnesia as depicted in Fantastic Four vol. 1 #36 (1965). “Calamity on Campus” was based on Fantastic Four vol. 1 #35 (1965) but relocated the story’s setting to St. Louis, Missouri instead of the fictional New York State town of Hegeman and omitted the alchemist villain Diablo. Along with the standard Fantastic Four foes, like armored arch-nemesis Dr. Doom (John Stephenson), the android Dragon Man, the subterranean Mole Man (Ted Cassidy), and the shape-changing alien Impossible Man (Welker), there were also appearances by some original characters and even the X-Men’s Magneto (although, he wasn’t called a mutant during his appearance and was depicted as a typical crook, voiced by Stephenson).

Ad for the series.

Fantastic Four, also known as The New Fantastic Four, debuted on NBC on September 9, 1978. The series actually began development at Hanna-Barbera when Marvel decided they wanted to shift the show over to DePatie-Freleng. As a trade-off, Hanna-Barbera got the Godzilla cartoon DePatie-Freleng was working on. Along with Lee, the series was written by Roy Thomas, Bob Johnson, Christy Marx and Bob Stitzel. In an unusual move, the episode would begin immediately after the intro with narration by Dick Tufeld, and then cut to the title card shortly after instead of at the traditional start of the episode following the intro. The series’ theme was composed by Dean Elliott and Eric Rogers, with the remainder of the music done by Elliott. 

 

Even Dr. Doom is a completionist when it comes to his action figure collection.

The result was that nobody was particularly happy with the show—especially Silverman. Lee even sent a letter to Hanna-Barbera’s Margaret Loesch detailing his desire for the next attempt at the Fantastic Four to be more action-oriented. Despite DePatie-Freleng’s attempts to salvage the license with a proposed Thing spin-off, Silverman was ready to move on entirely. He took back the rights to the Thing and gave them back to Hanna-Barbera to combine with an idea they had to make The Thing. DePatie-Freleng turned their attentions to another Marvel hero, Spider-Woman, before eventually being taken over by Marvel’s parent company, Cadence Industries, to become Marvel’s first studio, Marvel Productions.

H.E.R.B.I.E.'s comics debut.

At 13 episodes, this was the shortest Fantastic Four cartoon to date. H.E.R.B.I.E., while not a popular character, soon found his way into the comics in Fantastic Four vol. 1 #209 (1979) by Marv Wolfman, John Byrne, Joe Sinnott, Glynis Wein and Tom Orzechowski. The story’s explanation for his creation was that Mr. Fantastic was inspired to build H.E.R.B.I.E. after the character was included in an in-universe television show as a replacement for the Torch who was unavailable to give permission to use his likeness. H.E.R.B.I.E. has since appeared in a variety of comics, programs, movies and merchandise. 

The cover to Fantastic Four #236, celebrating 20 years of the comic.

For the comic’s 20^th anniversary celebration in Fantastic Four vol. 1 #236 (1981), Marvel decided to include finished and reworked storyboards from the episode “The Challenge of Dr. Doom” as a clunky 14-page back-up story without Kirby’s knowledge or permission. At this time, Kirby’s relationship with Marvel was strained—along with the comic industry in general—as he was trying to reclaim his original artwork from the company, and had refused to provide a new story for the issue. While his name was used to promote the story on the cover, a caricature of Kirby standing next to Lee was removed from the cover drawn by Byrne at Kirby’s behest.

One of the VHS release covers.

            Milton Bradley made a board game inspired by the show, which had players rescuing H.E.R.B.I.E. from Dr. Doom. Prism Entertainment Corp. released six episodes to VHS as part of their Marvel Comics Video Library across several volumes. A two-video set featuring “Meet Doctor Doom” and “The Olympics of Space” was also released. Morningstar Entertainment transferred several of the videos in the Marvel Library series to DVD for release in Canada, which included ‘Meet Doctor Doom” and “The Impossible Man”. The complete series was released to DVD in the United Kingdom in 2010 by Clear Vision Ltd. In 2012, scenes from the series were used and reworked as comical shorts for Disney XD’s Marvel Mash-Up as part of their Marvel Universe on Disney XD programming block.

EPISODE GUIDE:

“A Monster Among Us” (9/9/78) – The Fantastic Four take on an alien monster that crash-landed on Earth.

“The Menace of Magneto” (9/16/78) – Magneto wins leadership of the team from Mr. Fantastic and turns them into criminals.

“The Phantom of Film City” (9/23/78) – The Fantastic Four’s movie is plagued by Skrulls.

“Medusa and the Inhumans” (9/30/78) – The Fantastic Four investigate reports of strange beings in the Alps and end up prisoners of the Inhumans.

“The Diamond of Doom” (10/7/78) – The sinister Queen Sebel enlists the Fantastic Four’s aid in retrieving the Great White Stone stolen from her.

“The Mole Man” (10/14/78) – The Fantastic Four have to stop Mole Man’s theft of power plants around the world.

“The Olympics of Space” (10/21/78) – Thing is abducted by warring aliens and made to compete in their contests.

“The Fantastic Four Meet Doctor Doom” (10/28/78) – Doctor Doom forces the Fantastic Four to go back in time to steal the treasure of Blackbeard.

“The Frightful Four” (11/4/78) – Wizard creates his own team, the Frightful Four, to combat the Fantastic Four.

“Calamity on the Campus” (11/11/78) – Gregson Gilbert’s robotic Dragon Man ends up stolen by his assistant for his own sinister purposes.

“The Impossible Man” (11/18/78) – A shapeshifting alien comes to Earth and inadvertently befriends a criminal who makes use of his abilities.

“The Final Victory of Doctor Doom” (11/25/78) – Doctor Doom blackmails the United States into turning the country over to him.

“Blastaar, the Living Bomb Burst” (12/2/78) – The discovery of the Negative Zone leads to Mr. Fantastic accidentally unleashing Blastaar on the planet.

Originally posted in 2018. Updated in 2025.