Frankie decides he will go to Hollywood to help Daffy and the rest of the Goolies come along.
While watching a tv interview, the Goolies see the Phantom of the Flickers, who vows to destroy every film Daffy ever made. The plot revolves around the production of a movie, starring Daffy, about King Arthur. Filmation proceeded to make what is generally considered to be the worst depiction of the Looney Tunes characters ever created. Bugs Bunny, though, was not part of the deal. However, this time they licensed them to Filmation, who paired them up with the popular Groovy Goolies.
Warner Brothers was no longer producing cartoons, but had licensed their characters to animation houses run by people like Chuck Jones and Friz Freleng. Somehow, I missed this one back in the day. I specifically remember the Christmas special, which involves the gang helping a poor African American couple, in a parallel to the story of Mary and Joseph. Between 19, three holiday specials were aired in prime time: one at Halloween, one at Christmas, and the final one for Easter. It was the favorite show of Fat Albert and the gang and the cartoons would start out with the group watching the serialized show on tv. Towards the end of its run, a new cartoon segment, The Brown Hornet, was added. The show would continue in slightly altered formats for years. It was highly regarded by educators for presenting morality tales and extremely popular with viewers. The show also featured musical numbers, with the Cosby Kids playing instruments built from junk from the junkyard where they had a clubhouse. Bill Cosby brought his comedy routines to life in this animated series, with Cos provided the live introductions and epilogues, as well as voicing several characters. Let's take a look at their output.įilmation was already popular with its "one-two punch" of the DC Comics cartoons and Archie (not to mention the Groovy Goolies) when it added another long term hit, Fat Albert. Filmation was noted for reusing footage, as well as other money-saving tricks (like characters running in silhoutee, at a distance) and their later use of rotoscoping, to give movement to their cartoons. Voice artists included Ted Knight (Mary Tyler Moore Show, Caddyshack), Larry Storch (F-Troop), Howard Morris (Sid Cesar's shows, Andy Griffith Show), Bill Cosby, Henry Darrow (Zorro), Robert Ridgely (Beverly Hills Cop II, Boogie Nights) and Alan Oppenheimer (Six Million Dollar Man). Filmation won numerous awards for educational content and was very forward-thinking, in terms of showcasing minority characters. Filmation was led by the triumvirate of producers Lou Scheimer & Norm Prescott, and chief director Hal Sutherland. They produced a combination of shows based on licensed characters and original material, all done in-house, in the United States (though that changed by the end). Filmation was one of the leading animation studios on television, from the 60s through the 80s.