When The Beatles Invaded Cartoon Land

When I attempt to describe to my 20-something kids just how big the Beatles’ impact was in the ’60s, I cannot impress enough upon them as to what a deep cultural phenomenon they were.

Beyond the well-documented changes they made to music and the music business, the Beatles’ influence reached into fashion, design, language, entertainment, and of course, pop culture. As they seemingly had a hand in changing what felt like everything in society, it only took a year from their US arrival in February of 1964 for their inspiration to seep into the fabric of the most innocent form of entertainment in America: children’s cartoons.

Of course, the Beatles would have invested in two of their own cartoon projects. Both would be working with King Features Syndicate, one in the form of their Saturday morning Beatles cartoon series (that ran in the USA from September of 1965 through 1967) and the other with their personas starting in a full-length animation movie, Yellow Submarine (released in 1968). These were money-producing, self-promoting missions for the Beatles’ camp and a reflection of the band being the “in thing” from a cultural standpoint.

Soon, like most of the Western entertainment world, other creative people recognized the pop culture tsunami launched by the Beatles and began to exploit it for their own animated creations. By the mid 60’s, cartoon story lines were all about “singing in a group with guitars.” Eventually, a cartoon band would even deliver a big #1 hit record.

The Flintstones (1960 – 1966)  

The Flintstones were the first animated series to hold a prime-time television slot, a half-hour show running once a week, complete with an adult laugh track. Just as their offspring, The Simpsons, would perfect the formula 25 years later, their producers (Hanna-Barbera) built The Flintstones to please the youngsters, but were sure to provide clever adult and contemporary references to keep the parents entertained.

To this point, Hanna-Barbera dedicated an entire episode’s script that spoofed the Beatles’ persona less than a year after their arrival in the US. This is genuine proof that by the time of its airing (January 22, 1965), everyone in America knew who the Beatles were. Soon Fred and his friends were wearing Beatle wigs, playing “bug music” on guitars and repeatedly singing, off key: “He said yah, yah yah…She said yah yah yah…YAH!”

Six months later, on September 17, 1965, Hanna-Barbera made a direct reference to the Beatles in another music-focused plot for the Flintstones. This time, Fred dreams up another scheme by promoting his daughter, Pebbles, and her friend Bamm Bamm as singing stars. The talent scout showing interest in their act is introduced as “Eppy Brianstone,” a clear reference to Brian Epstein, the Beatles’ manager.

The Impossibles (1966-1967)

In this era, Saturday mornings were the epicenter for children, as they could exclusively watch cartoons on all three major US networks, beginning at 8 am until noon.  As superheroes were the focal point of the programming, someone must have said: “I got it! How about a pop band that converts into superheroes and fights crime?!” That is exactly what The Impossibles were to become.

The three characters were Coil-Man (a stretchable-spring-like character), Fluid Man (morphed into liquid), and my personal favorite as a 7-year-old, Multi-Man (created duplicates of himself). “Multi” had a similar look to the Flintstones’ Four Insects band. His hair was long enough to cover his eyes, and he wore a turtleneck. Remind you of anyone?

Each episode opened with their singing while playing guitars on a portable stage that would convert to the “Impossi-mobile” (complete with their band logo, just like Ringo’s bass drum).  Their music was in the Beatles style, and they played to young girls who screamed with joy.

The Archie Show (1968 – 1969)

With their roots coming from the 1940s Archie comic books, this Filmation production delivered on the goings-on of Archie Andrews and his gang of friends from Riverdale High School (Jughead, Reggie, Betty, and Veronica).

Given the times, Archie (with uncanny resemblance to a young Ron Howard) would form a band with his friends. Keeping with the popular theme that the drummer in the band always plays the fool, witless Jughead Jones took that role (to be fair, it can be said that Ringo started this trend by his outsider role in A Hard Day’s Night…see his pub scene).

Working with various contemporary songwriters to provide “teenage” sounds for the show’s band segment, they hit upon a particularly strong one with “Sugar Sugar,” written by Jeff Barry and Andy Kim and sung by Ron Dante. Thinking to cash in on the cartoon’s high ratings, the producers approached record wizard Don Kirshner to release “Sugar Sugar” as a single in May of 1969. By late September, the song was internationally #1 for four weeks straight. So popular was the song, even the great soul singer Wilson Picket would do his own version in April of 1970.

Josie and the Pussycats (1970- 1976)

Reacting to the limited success of The Impossibles, Hanna-Barbera retuned it, doing a 180 by creating an all-female trio who sang pop songs for a living. Matching their theme with forerunner, Scooby-Do, Where Are You?, the animated band would tour the world with each episode having them haphazardly falling into adventures, mysteries, and spy escapades.

Led by Josie on guitar, the band also featured Valerie, one of the first regularly appearing black female characters on Saturday morning cartoons. To continue the premise of presenting the drummer as the band’s dolt, the Pussycats had Melody, an air-headed but loveable member of the group. They also made her blond, just in case anyone missed the point.

The music was a mix of Beatles-ish pop along with a tinge of soul. Hanna-Barbera soon held auditions for a real-life “Josie” with plans that would have the live Josie and the Pussy Cats tour the growing number of malls in the USA. This gig was eventually given to the young actress named Cherie Moor, who later became known to the world as Cheryl Ladd.

Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids (1972 – 1985)

Having received his Doctorate in Education from UMass, Amherst (utilizing his Fat Albert character in his thesis), comedian Bill Cosby approached producers to consider an educational cartoon for the Saturday morning lineup. Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids was born.

Cosby himself would eventually become the “live” MC for each animated segment, setting up the premise for the episodes, with each show holding a theme that taught a lesson on life and growing up.

At the end of each episode, the Cosby Kids would fall into their Junkyard Band segment, summarizing the episode’s life lesson in their song’s lyrics. The theme song “Gonna Have A Good Time” was written by Ricky Sheldon and Edward Fournier and sung by Michael Gray with backing vocals by a young Kim Carnes. Later in the cartoon’s history, music was provided by jazzman Herbie Hancock.

-Steven Valvano

Fair use image from The Beatles cartoon series