What's On TV (in 1966)?

Just to shake things up, I thought it might be fun to see what was out there for comic book nerdlingers on  CBS Saturday morning television that I found in this ad.  It's Action Comics #342, and it's a 1966 issue, so let's go with that:

Space Ghost, pre-Space Ghost Coast to Coast days.  I loved Coast to Coast, but can remember these 'toons showing up at some point later with Frankenstein Jr. cartoons.  I reluctantly accepted that Jan and Jayce wore masks (sidekicks using their real names while disguising their faces had long been established in the comics by then), but why put a mask on the monkey?

The intro is awesome because Zorak is in it.  Zorak rules.

Here's one I had heard whispers of, but hadn't actually seen.  It turns out the Space Ghost show had an additional feature:

It's like Dennis the Menace goes to the Savage Land.  Pass.

I actually have a beanie thing of Space Ghost and Frankenstein Jr.  They were tossed in with a bunch of beanies I bought on ebay of DC characters.  Try not to be jealous... although I totally understand if you are.

Frank also shared a show with The Impossibles, which looks all kinds of awesome:

Here's a great five minute history of that show:

Like most of the other shows, this one was also rebroadcast during my own younger days:

Wow... Saturday morning stuff went past 1:00 back then?  You could really kill a Saturday back in the 1960s!

YIKES, that was the most boring intro to a cartoon I've ever seen.  It turns out that what I remember was a totally different show that teamed him up with Tarzan in the early 1980's.  I'm also thinking I didn't actually watch that one, either. 

Let's check out the intro:

I'm not saying I could do any better, but his head seems really tiny compared to the rest of his body at the first reveal around the five second mark.  Maybe he bumped his head on some red kryptonite or something.

My choice for best theme song ever goes to the Beagles:

It would eventually be broadcast in color.  It would actually last a second season, going from CBS to ABC.

Some of these things are probably getting some airplay on a cable channel somewhere, and you can get the Frankenstein Jr. and the Impossibles complete series on DVD, so I'm going to keep an eye out for that one on the cheap.  It's interesting to me how many comic book-ish shows there were back in the day.  Then again, if you were going to do comic books in other media, you were pretty much limited to animated programs.  CBS certainly would have had my attention on Saturday mornings back in 1966!

See you tomorrow!