Frankenstein, Jr. and The Impossibles

Frankenstein, Jr. and The Impossibles is an American Saturday morning cartoon produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions in 1966.[1] It premiered September 10, 1966, on CBS, and ran for two seasons.[2]

Frankenstein, Jr. and The Impossibles
Frankenstein, Jr. and The Impossibles title card.
Directed byWilliam Hanna
Joseph Barbera
StarringDick Beals
Ted Cassidy
Paul Frees
Don Messick
Hal Smith
John Stephenson
Country of originUnited States
No. of seasons2
No. of episodes18
Production
Producer(s)William Hanna
Joseph Barbera
Running timeapprox. 0:30 (per episode)
Production company(s)Hanna-Barbera Productions
DistributorTaft, H-B Program Sales
Release
Original networkCBS
Original releaseSeptember 10, 1966 (1966-09-10) –
January 17, 1967 (1967-01-17)

Overview

The program contained two segments, which each served as a middle ground between Hanna-Barbera's traditional cartoon early output and its superhero-based late-1960s cartoons. Each episode would feature two segments with The Impossibles, and Frankenstein, Jr. in between.

  • Frankenstein, Jr.: Taking place in Civic City, boy scientist Buzz Conroy (voiced by Dick Beals) and his father Professor Conroy (voiced by John Stephenson) fight supervillains with the aid of a powerful heroic robot named "Frankenstein, Jr." (voiced by Ted Cassidy).[3] "Frankie", as Buzz usually referred to him, was more than a little reminiscent of the title character in Gigantor and the giant robot of Johnny Sokko and His Flying Robot (aka Giant Robo). Buzz built "Frankie" and activated him through an energy ring.
  • The Impossibles: The title characters are a trio of superheroes (Multi Man, Fluid Man, and Coil Man) who pose undercover as a Beatlesesque rock music band.[3] The characters' names are descriptive of their powers: Multi-Man (voiced by Don Messick) can create identical copies of himself; Coil-Man (voiced by Hal Smith) can form into a super-springy coil; and Fluid-Man (voiced by Paul Frees) can transform his body into any fluid. The heroes receive assignments from "Big D" (also voiced by Frees), who contacts them via a receiver in the base of Coil-Man's left-handed guitar. During the development of the show, this group was called "The Incredibles," but was changed to "The Impossibles" by the time of production. The team's pre-production name was later given to the superhero family from the Disney/Pixar movie of the same name.

The show was the target of complaints about violence in children's television, and was canceled in 1968. The Frankenstein, Jr. segments were later recycled in the 1976 series Space Ghost and Frankenstein, Jr., which aired on NBC from November 27, 1976, until September 3, 1977, replacing the canceled Big John, Little John.

Voice cast

Episodes

Frankenstein, Jr.
No.TitleOriginal air date
1"The Shocking Electrical Monster"September 10, 1966 (1966-09-10)
Dr. Shock uses his Master Mix Monster Machine to turn his assistant Igor into an electricity-absorbing monster.
2"The Spyder Man"September 17, 1966 (1966-09-17)
Professor Conroy and Buzz unveil the blueprints for the Spy Detector XK-00-7 at a Maximum Security Building. Unfortunately, the blueprints are targeted by the Spyder Man.
3"The Menace from the Wax Museum"September 24, 1966 (1966-09-24)
Upon an encounter with Buzz at the wax museum, Mr. Menace uses his monsters Godzonka, Gorillis and Cyclaws in an attack upon San Francisco.
4"The Alien Brain from Outer Space, Part 1"October 1, 1966 (1966-10-01)
5"The Alien Brain from Outer Space, Part 2"October 8, 1966 (1966-10-08)
A giant alien brain arrives on Earth and captures Buzz and Frankenstein Jr.
6"UFO: Unidentified Fiendish Object"October 15, 1966 (1966-10-15)
The alien Zargon unleashes his warrior Destructo in his plans to conquer Earth.
7"The Unearthly Plant Creatures"October 22, 1966 (1966-10-22)
Plant Man thaws the last three prehistoric plant creatures (consisting of the Carnivorous Chewer, the Creeping Crusher and the Fire-Breathing Snapdragon) from a glacier and then sprays them with his Obedience Ray in a plot to eliminate Buzz and Frankenstein Jr.
8"The Deadly Living Images"October 29, 1966 (1966-10-29)
The Mad Inventor has invented the Double Identity Duplicator Projector to make copies of whatever pictures he inserts in it.
9"The Colossal Junk Monster"November 5, 1966 (1966-11-05)
The Junk Man creates the Colossal Junk Monster in a plot to eliminate Frankenstein Jr.
10"The Incredible Aqua-Monsters"November 12, 1966 (1966-11-12)
Buzz and Frankenstein Jr. guard the Navy's new Hydrotomic Submarine to prevent Dr. Hook and his aquatic monsters from stealing it.
11"The Gigantic Ghastly Genie"November 19, 1966 (1966-11-19)
Zorbo the Great creates a genie and plans to use its three wishes in order to defeat Frankenstein Jr. and conquer the world.
12"The Birdman"November 26, 1966 (1966-11-26)
Birdman and his robotic birds Vulturo, Rodantus, and King Condor abduct two astronauts and hold them for a ransom of $1,000,000.
13"The Invasion of the Robot Creatures"December 3, 1966 (1966-12-03)
Sertano the Satellite King, an alien from Galaxy X, uses a gravity ray in order to get Earth to surrender. Buzz and Frankenstein Jr. must defeat Sertano's robots in order to defeat him.
14"The Manchurian Menace"December 10, 1966 (1966-12-10)
The Manchurian Menace steals a Space Camera Capsule that has just returned with photos from Mars.
15"The Mad Monster Maker"December 17, 1966 (1966-12-17)
To perform a crime wave in London, Baron Von Ghoul creates robotic versions of the horror movie monsters the Electroflying Firefly, the Menacing Mummy, and the Wicked Werewolf.
16"The Monstermobile"December 24, 1966 (1966-12-24)
The Mad Inventor has invented the Monstermobile and uses its many gadgets to commit crimes.
17"Pilfering Putty Monster"December 31, 1966 (1966-12-31)
Mr. Menace uses his putty monster to steal a $1,000,000 coin collection and even kidnaps Buzz. It is up to Frankenstein Jr. to rescue Buzz and defeat Mr. Menace.
18"The Spooktaculars"January 7, 1967 (1967-01-07)
Dr. Spectro creates three giant ghoulish ghosts in order to take over Penciltrainia.

The Impossibles
Main article: The Impossibles

DVD release

On April 26, 2011, Warner Archive released Frankenstein, Jr. and The Impossibles: The Complete Series on DVD in region 1 as part of their Hanna–Barbera Classics Collection. This is a Manufacture-on-Demand (MOD) release, available exclusively through Warner's online store and Amazon.com.[4]

Other appearances
  • Buzz Conroy and Frankenstein, Jr. appeared in Yogi's Space Race episode "Race Through the Planet of the Monsters".
  • Frankenstein, Jr., Buzz Conroy, and the Impossibles (consisting of Multi-Man, Fluid-Man, Coil-Man, and a new member Cobalt) appear in DC Comics Future Quest

Adaptations
Archie Comics' Hanna-Barbera#8 spoofing Marvel Comics' Fantastic Four #1.

A single issue of a Frankenstein Jr. and the Impossibles comic was released by Gold Key Comics in 1966 as a tie-in to the TV series, and the contents were reprinted in The Impossibles Annual by Atlas Publishing & Distributing Co. Ltd, UK in 1968.[5] The two Frankenstein Jr. comic stories were titled "The Image Invasion" and "Frankenstein Jr. Meets the Flea Man". A new text-based story, specially written for the annual, was "A Spook in his Wheel". The character reappeared in the comic Hanna-Barbera Presents #8 published by Archie Comics in 1996. The front cover featured Frankenstein, Jr. battling the Impossibles in an homage to the front cover of the original Fantastic Four #1 by Marvel Comics.

A Big Little Book titled Frankenstein, Jr.: The Menace of the Heartless Monster was published in 1968.[6]

The Impossibles' heroic identities were re-used for a later Hanna-Barbera production, The Super Globetrotters (which also featured a similar concept—in this case, the famous Harlem Globetrotters as undercover superheroes):

  • Nate Branch's heroic identity was alternately known as "Fluid Man" or "Liquid Man", with powers (and a flippered costume) similar to the Impossibles' Fluid-Man.
  • "Twiggy" Sanders became "Spaghetti Man", with coiling and stretching abilities similar to Coil-Man.
  • "Geese" Ausbie as "Multi Man" had virtually identical powers as his Impossibles counterpart and a similar costume.

In 2016, Buzz and Frankenstein, Jr. and the Impossibles played a major role in the DC Comics series Future Quest, that also featured characters from various animated series produced by Hanna-Barbera such as Jonny Quest, Space Ghost, The Herculoids, Birdman and the Galaxy Trio and Moby Dick and Mighty Mightor.[7]

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References
  1. Perlmutter, David (2018). The Encyclopedia of American Animated Television Shows. Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 218–219. ISBN 978-1538103739.
  2. Woolery, George W. (1983). Children's Television: The First Thirty-Five Years, 1946-1981. Scarecrow Press. pp. 110–112. ISBN 0-8108-1557-5. Retrieved 14 March 2020.
  3. Erickson, Hal (2005). Television Cartoon Shows: An Illustrated Encyclopedia, 1949 Through 2003 (2nd ed.). McFarland & Co. pp. 347–348. ISBN 978-1476665993.
  4. "Frankenstein Jr. and the Impossibles - 'The Complete Series' Now For Sale: Cost, Box, Video Clip, EXTRAS!". Archived from the original on 2011-11-12.
  5. Markstein, Don. "Frankenstein, Jr". Don Markstein's Toonopedia. Retrieved 2 April 2020.
  6. http://www.biglittlebooks.com/frankensteinjr.html
  7. "Future Quest (DC Comics)". DC Comics. June 27, 2016. Retrieved December 15, 2016.
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