TV Animation - 1967

Samson - Samson and Goliath

This year debuted tons of superheroes. And many of these series were done by Hanna-Barbera.

Shazzan, Samson and Goliath (also known as Young Samson), Moby Dick and Mighty Mightor, The Herculoids, Fantastic Four, Birdman and the Galaxy Trio, and The Abbott and Costello Cartoon Show were all Hanna-Barbera. The Birdman series was created by the same guy who created Space Ghost a year earlier. Hanna-Barbera also got the rights to animate the Marvel characters Fantastic Four. Abbott and Costello was along the same lines as the other live-action-comedy-acts-turned-into-animated-characters The New 3 Stooges and Laurel and Hardy in previous years. And, like the Stooges, Abbott actually voiced his own animated character. Unfortunately Costello had been dead by this time, so a professional voice actor stepped in to take that role.

And speaking of Marvel, this is the first of many Spider-Man animated series. This is the first...the original. The one that had the "does whatever a spider can" theme that we all know and love. It's amazing that song has lasted nearly 60 years.

The same team that brought us Rocky and Bullwinkle was behind the Tarzan parody George of the Jungle ("Watch out for that tree!"). And Super Chicken was a segment in that George of the Jungle series, who happened to be a parody of the superhero genre.

Johnny Cypher was an American sci-fi series, but it was animated by a Japanese studio. Which is interesting, because a lot of TV animation nowadays is all done oversees. That's normal now.

Super President was the Depatie-Freleng series this year. And Journey to the Center of the Earth was Filmation's animated adaptation of the classic Jules Verne novel. Off to See the Wizard had live-action segments as well as animated ones. It's obviously based on The Wizard of Oz. (I know I already had an animated version of Dorothy from a Wizard of Oz series in a previous drawing. But I wanted to include this one because I think her character design is adorable.)

Lastly, Speed Racer. I know that was a Japanese anime series, but it premiered here in the United States the same year and became a huge success with American audiences, so I included it here.

Thanks for taking the time to read this. If you want to see more, check out the "History of TV Animation" section of my gallery.

(As a side note, I'm posting some of my work-in-progress pencil drawings to my Patreon.)