In 1964, a man with some crude drawings of the Beatles came to the offices of King Features Syndicate with the idea of doing a comic strip based on the Fab Four. The drawings caught the attention of Al Brodax, head of the recently formed animation division. Brodax talked with the man and was able to secure the rights to bring those sketches to life in animated form. The result was one of the most successful cartoon series of the 1960s.
The premise was simple enough. Each show consisted of two short cartoons based on a Beatle song. In between the two cartoons were two sing-along segments with the lyrics appearing underneath cartoon images. That's four songs per episode!
While these cartoons were a commercial success, artistically, they left a lot to be desired. King Features didn't do their own animation, they farmed the work out to various studios around the world instead. TVC in England did the majority of the work, but many episodes were also done in Australia and parts of Europe, so the quality was very inconsistant. Since the main audience were American children, Liverpool accents were dropped in favor of more watered-down British accents they felt the kids would understand. The Beatles themselves hated the finished product. During the private screening, John Lennon gave Brodax a dirty look as if to say "You've gotta be f****** kidding me!" Ringo was especially mad, taking issue to being portrayed as "the dumb one".
In spite of the shortcomings, the show has its bright spots. It was the first cartoon series to be based on real people(unless you count David Seville of "Alvin and The Chipmunks" fame). The sing-along segments created a bridge between the old Fleicsher Bouncing Ball cartoons and the Sing-along videos that are popular today. And it exposed many young children to Beatles music, thus creating a whole new fan base.
The show ran Saturdays on ABC from 1965 to 1968. Thirteen episodes each were made for the first two seasons, nine for the third. For the '68/69 season, ABC showed reruns on Sunday morning. After that, the show went into syndication for a few years before disappearing from the airwaves. Other than being shown on British TV in the late '70s and a brief revival on MTV in '86/87, the show has been kept under wraps unseen.
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