Seeing Paul and Ringo on Larry King the other night got me to thinking about the many times I’ve seen the Beatles on TV.
You know the drill: Their first appearance on "Ed Sullivan" in 1964, singing "Hey Jude" on the Smothers Brothers in 1968, the worldwide hookup for "All You Need Is Love" in '67 and so on.
There was one piece of Beatle TV-mania that's been missing, from my overstuffed mind, anyway -- something I havent seen in decades.
I'm talking about "The Beatles" cartoon series.
These were the crudely drawn adventures of the Fab 4 which ran Saturday mornings on ABC from 1965 to 1969. Two Beatles songs were usually performed on each episode. The boys were voiced by Paul Frees, a voiceover wiz perhaps best known for Cold War creep Boris Badenov on "Rocky & Bullwinkle" (John and George) and by Lance Percival (Paul and Ringo).
Everything you ever wanted to know about the show can be found here.
Thanks to the miracle of You tube (natch), I was able to watch a bunch of 'em for the first time since the beginning of the Nixon administration.
For starters, check out this episode in which they sing "I'll Follow the Sun":
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Or this one, which was actually the final episode:
You know what? they’re still pretty tacky, but they are the Beatles, after all.
DO YOU REMEMBER "THE BEATLES" CARTOONS? POST A COMMENT HERE.
Comments (6)
The Beetles cartoon show seems very weird. My dad wrote this blog! It is TRUE!
The Beatles cartoons are available in certain circles on 7 DVDs.
There never was very much to see of the Beatles on videos, so the cartoon did it in a very entertaining way.
I love the show!!!Ringo is my Favorite.He is so funny and lovable!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The Beatles cartoons were quite good for the day. Considering the fact that each episode was produced in a rush rush atmosphere by 3 different animation studios in 3 different countries, (Canada, England, and Austrailia) and hand delivered to ABC sometimes mere hours before airing, they're rather enjoyable. On top of that, Paul Frees taped John and Georges bits here in the America. The scripts and audio tapes were then sent to Lance Percival in England to voice Paul and Ringo. On rare occasions you'll hear George talking in Johns voice. But that's what makes them so good. The closest thing to obscenity was in the " Devil In Her Heart" episode, when the animators drew the witches breasts too large. They were ordered by ABC to re do the episode with the witches breasts smaller.
Oops! My mistake. The episode was "Baby's In Black" and she wasn't a witch, but a "sexy" Vampiress. haha