Space Ghost Enters Our Galaxy

 Space Ghost October continues with yet another trip to the past. This time, we're looking at how viewers first got a glimpse of the space-bound superhero with both a newspaper preview and an advertisement for the original Space Ghost series. I'll start with this piece the Edmonton Journal ran in its September 10th, 1966 edition. Among other details, it mentions Space Ghost's often-forgotten secret identity and a character originally planned to have a much greater presence in the show.

Space Ghost Joins Saturday Morning Cartoons

    Now you see him, now you don't.
    It's the Space Ghost—the newest addition to the interplanetary family and a new animated color series on the Saturday morning cartoon show on CFRN-TV.    
    The Space Ghost is Major Dickson-Yates, a futuristic human who lives with his two teenage wards and a pet monkey and a doctor from Venus on a lost planet. They are constantly attacked by weird science monsters, but the remarkable Space Ghost proves to be no easy victim.
    Using a powerful wristband, he can make himself invisible or invincible as the need may be. On occasion, the major becomes a living ray gun, creating force fields that can shatter missiles. He can, by the way, fly faster than a comet.
    The Space Ghost will comprise two segments of the half-hour show, and the third segment swings to the other end of the pendulum, with Dino Boy, the story of a little boy in a lost valley still inhabited by dinosaurs and strange monsters, such as the Aztec Man and the Monkey Man. Fortunately, the boy Todd, is protected by a friendly neighborhood caveman, Ugh, and Bronto, a baby dinosaur.
    Both cartoons were created by Hanna-Barbera—who started it all with Huckleberry Hound and the Flintstones—and are expected to appeal to teenagers besides the five-to-eight set.

Something that stood out to me in this piece was its mention of a doctor from Venus. While Space Ghost is accompanied by two teenagers and a monkey, there is no doctor who is part of the main cast. But that wasn't supposed to be the case. Initially, there would be a doctor who would accompany the team on their adventures: Dr. Soonev, to be exact. He does appear in one episode of the original series, but judging by this article and the model sheet below, he was indeed supposed to be a main character.

Now, here's a nice little advertisement for the show that ran in newspapers around the time. It does a good job informing viewers what the series is about and who the characters are, but what stood out to me was how Space Ghost is still rocking his earlier design with the altered logo and boots. I imagine the design was changed because it was easier to draw and animate than anything else, but it's interesting that it was still being used even when the show was actually airing,

Video of the Week: Stay Tuned for Space Ghost

Today marks our first "Video of the Week" segment during Space Ghost month, and what better way to kick things off then with not one, but two commercials for the series during its original run?

This first commercial does a good job highlighting not just Space Ghost himself, but also his villains, as well as the other superhero shows that Hanna-Barbera were pumping out at the time. A pretty short promo, but you can't say it beats around the bush.

The second ad is similarly short, and previews both Space Ghost and Dino Boy. Most of you probably know this, but Dino Boy was the series that accompanied Space Ghost during its original run. I also find it funny how much more screentime the former gets over the latter in this commercial. Clearly whoever edited this knew what the more interesting series was.

Space Ghost Concept Art

 Today officially begins "Space Ghost October", a month long celebration of the original Hanna-Barbera superhero series in honor of its 60th anniversary. Yes, that anniversary technically happened last month, but since I had so much planned for the blog in September, it seemed like the right call to push it back a little.

Today, I'm starting things off by going to a time before Space Ghost. We'll be looking at a few pieces of concept art from early on in the series production. Ladies and gentlemen, I introduce you to The Space Ghosts. These two pieces were done by legendary comic artist and Space Ghost character designer Alex Toth.  The piece retains the main three characters, but with much different designs. I don't know if it was still intended to be a superhero cartoon at this stage, but this art kind of gives off a Lost in Space vibe. Fitting, as that show had just begun at this point, and it would only be a few years before Hanna-Barbera took their own stab at an animated version of it.

After that, the show was heavily reworked, growing closer and closer to the Space Ghost we're more familiar with. This design is pretty close to how he looks in the final show, but with a few noticeable differences. He's got red gloves instead of gauntlets, a slightly altered belt, black boots, and a different logo. Not a bad design, but I'm glad we ended up with the final version.

I've covered this before, but I also thought this would be a good time to feature this preliminary design for one of Space Ghost's most notable foes, Zorak. His design was much different initially, and, according to this storyboard, his name was also originally "Korak." Though he doesn't look like this in the series, the design was used in several pieces of merchandise, most notably the Gold Key comic, which can also be found below. Honestly, I kind of prefer this version over how he looks in the actual show. I love that design, but this version definitely feels both more alien and villainous, at least in my opinion.

Atom Ant Saves the Day

 It's been a minute since I brought up Atom Ant on this blog, so why not rectify that? Here's one of the few notable pieces of Atom Ant merch made during the series heyday. This is the board game Atom Ant Saves the Day, which was produced by Transogram in 1966. Below is the packaging art, which has a great illustration of Atom Ant walloping two crooks in one go. 

The game, as the box mentions, is intended for two to four players. The basic idea is that each player has a specific image that they must have Atom Ant successfully navigate. This is achieved through the games cards, dubbed "Whiz Cards." The first person to get Atom Ant from point A to point B wins the game. Below are the cards and the board itself. The artwork featured on the board really is something else, but it's a shame the trails cover a lot of it. Also, is it just me, or does the dog featured in the bottom right art bear an uncanny resemblance to one Precious Pupp? 

Cartoon Network Goes Prehistoric

 Remember when the Cartoon Network website was a thing? It's been a little over two years since it was shut down, but with Cartoon Network turning 34 this Thursday, I thought I'd share this neat little tidbit about the website in its early days. Some might even call this the "Prehistoric Era" of the website. You'll see what I mean in a moment. So let's travel back with this piece from the August 10th, 1998 edition of The Atlanta Constitution.

Turner yammers for 'toons'

    Remember when he was just the "Mouth of the South"? Now Ted Turner also is the "Mouth of Virtual Bedrock."
    Starting today, you can log onto the Web and hear the distinctive Turner tone bellowing—are you ready for this?—"Yabba-dabba-DOO!"
    OK, maybe "bellowing" is too strong a word for what Turner can be heard doing on http://www.cartoonnetwork.com, the 3-week-old Internet site for the Atlanta-based, Time Warner-owned cable channel.
    In conjunction with the site's "Best of Bedrock" feature, Cartoon Network has asked some famous voices to record Fred Flintstone's equally famous catch phrase.
    Last week, it was Jean Vander Pyl, the actress who originally voiced such classic cartoon characters as Pebbles Flintstone and "The Jetsons" Rosie the Robot. This week, it's Cartoon Network President Betty Cohen and Flintstones' creators Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera, in addition to Turner.
    Turner, vice chairman of Time Warner, may work harder than Fred Flintstone, but apparently both men share a love of yabba-dabba-DOO-ing. Word around Cartoon Network is that Turner enjoyed the recording session in his CNN Center office, providing more than good enough takes.
    To access the recordings, which are up through Sunday, go to "Best of Bedrock" and click on "Yabba-Dabba-Doo!"

Unfortunately, it doesn't look like these audio clips can be found these days. I'm not shocked considering how old they are, but the idea of Ted Turner howling "Yabba Dabba Doo" is something that I only wish I could hear.  While I can't share these recordings, I've got something you'll probably enjoy just as much. It's a commercial for the CN website from around 2000. It's probably the only video where you'll see both Huckleberry Hound and Goku from Dragon Ball Z, and you really can't beat that.

Video of the Week: A Happy Hanna-Barbera Meal

 I've shared a couple commercials for Hanna-Barbera fast food promotions over the years, but never before have I featured one from outside the states. That changes today with this video for a McDonalds Happy Meal promotion for Hanna-Barbera that ran in Mexico around 2008. Characters from The Flintstones, The Jetsons, and Tom and Jerry were included as toys, but the main star of this commercial is Ronald McDonald, engaging in some very Hanna-Barbera inspired hijinks. Maybe some of you will have fond memories of that guy, but watching this made me think they made the right call retiring him. Any who, give the video a watch down below!

The Jetsons Sprint into RadioShack

 Jetsons Day was yesterday, so consider this post a little something for the occasion, albeit as it may be. Here's a collection of five distinct newspaper comics that were created for the RadioShack Jetsons promotion from the late nineties. I've shared one of these before (check it out here), but here's all of the other ones I've found since.

The first comic, titled "George Gets Static," follows George as he tosses his old phone for a digital PCS phone, not that it helps him with work any. It serves as an ad for not just the phone, but for a specific deal for it as well.

This comic is called "Astro's Phone" and advertises a 50% off deal for a clear-sound cordless telephone. I'm probably reading too much into this, but I feel this has to be the weirdest ad. "Buy our cordless phone, even your dog will love it!" Cool, I guess?

The third ad, "Nickname," shows George and Jane as they discuss the nickname George gave Mr. Spacely in his new phone. Not a very creative name, but it's an entertaining ad disregarding that.

Christmas isn't quite here, but it is the subject of this fourth comic, "Mystery Gift." Everyone in the family gets a Sprint phone here. Well, everyone except Rosie, that is. A rebate and Sprint's PCS service are also advertised here.

 This last one isn't necessarily a comic, but I felt it was worth sharing anyway. This is the inside to a small booklet found in newspapers around the time of this promotion. It shows the inside of a RadioShack, as well as many of the items you'd find for sale at one. There's also plenty of images of the Jetsons cast included for added measure.