From The TV IV

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The Beatles was an animated musical comedy that aired on ABC.

John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, names that will live forever in the annals of music as The Beatles, conquered virtually every arena save for one, as ABC saw it: Saturday morning. Al Brodax, head of King Features' animation division (subsidiary of the Hearst Corporation) who had done made-for-TV cartoons of Popeye, Beetle Bailey, Snuffy Smith and Krazy Kat, was awarded the task of creating a Saturday morning cartoon series of the Beatles. Toymaker A.C. Gilmer bankrolled the first season, and the concept art was prepared at TVC-London, the animation studio that would make Yellow Submarine in 1968. As time was short, animation was farmed out to TVC-London, Graphik and Artransa Studios in Australia, Canawest Studios in Vancouver, Canada, and Gamma Studios in Mexico City. (TVC-London would parcel out animation to Holland for a few episodes in season 1.)

In spite of artistic liabilities, due in part by tight deadlines and meager budgets, The Beatles cartoons--powered in largest part by the group's music--were a smash hit, making it Saturday morning's top show and even garnishing better ratings than ABC's daytime Monday-through-Friday shows. Each half-hour consisted of two cartoons, each's title that of the title of a Beatles song, and each cartoon's premise co-related to the title in some fashion. In between were the Sing-Alongs, in which (in turn by week) George, Paul and John entreated us to sing along with two Beatles songs with the words flashed on the screen. Ringo would appear in the Sing-Along host segments to generally make a mess of things as he dressed the stage to compliment the song. The show had bumpers (short bridges from commercial to feature) that had a storyline. Season 2 and 3's bumpers were self-contained comedy sketches.

The show was canceled in April of 1969 as it aired Sunday mornings by that time, and the Beatles' music and demeanor had changed. It went into syndication in selected markets that fall (John even admitted to watching them in the 70s as he was a stay-at-home dad to son Sean), and then MTV and Disney Channel would run them in the late 1980s. Because of the climate of TV at the time, the first season opening of the show was omitted due to the scene of Ringo impersonating a Chinaman, and a number of episodes were omitted due to ethnic stereotypes (Japanese, Mexican, Arabic). The series has not been shown anywhere since, but bootleg DVDs of the cartoons have turned up online and at comic book conventions.

Contents 1 Cast 2 Seasons 3 In-Depth 4 DVD Releases 5 External Sites

[edit] Cast

Actor	Character	Duration
Main Cast
Paul Frees	John Lennon	1	2	3
	George Harrison	1	2	3
Lance Percival	Paul McCartney	1	2	3
	Ringo Starr	1	2	3
John Lennon	Himself (singing)	1	2	3
Paul McCartney	Himself (singing)	1	2	3
George Harrison	Himself (singing)	1	2	3
Ringo Starr	Himself (singing)	1	2	3

[edit] Seasons

Season	Premiere	Finale	#
syndication
Season One	September 25, 1965	September 17, 1966	26
Season Two	September 24, 1966	November 5, 1966	7
Season Three	September 9, 1967	October 14, 1967	6

[edit] In-Depth

• At a Glance: Additional information about the series

[edit] DVD Releases

There are no DVD releases of this series.

[edit] External Sites