60 Years Ago: The Beatles Cartoon

60 years ago today, September 25, 1965 saw the television premiere of the animated children’s television show The Beatles. The show aired 39 new episodes over the following two years, and aired in reruns through 1969.

One is of two minds regarding this program. On the one hand there was a certain value to the fact that the show filled a gap left by the Beatles myth-making machine following the release of A Hard Days’ Night and Help! Frustratingly, the Beatles weren’t into making movies. But the public really loved the two they had made. The TV show The Monkees was one of the cultural products that helped address the void. This cartoon also met the demand, even though it was primarily aimed at young kids, turning them into record-buying Beatles fans from the cradle in the bargain. Each week, the Beatles characters had a wide variety of sit-com style comedy adventures, set in locations all over the world. The show’s episodes also have the virtue of projecting the “madcap” early Beatles image well into 1967, after the Beatles themselves had seemingly evolved into a quartet of psychedelic poets.

On the other hand? The show is pretty dreadful. It was a little before my time, so I don’t have any rosy-colored childhood feelings of nostalgia for it. It’s crudely drawn and animated, not very cleverly written, and does not feature the Beatles voices at all, apart from the songs that were used on the show. The voices of Paul and Ringo, supplied by British comedian Lance Percival, are fairly tolerable. But those of John,George, and Brian Epstein were done by Paul Frees, and (much as I love him in other things) truly abysmal. I’m the sort of Beatles fan who devours everything with their name on it, typically many times over. Yet I could only stand a couple of episodes of this show, and didn’t need to see any more.

The show was produced by King Features, and shepherded by Al Brodax, who had a hand in their later Yellow Submarine (1968), a much better product, though one I find frustrating in many similar ways.

For several examples of what I would LIKE to have seen happen, go here.

Stay tuned for Matthew Hahn’s upcoming book The Animated Beatles, coming your way from BearManor Media. He’s the guy who gave us The Animated Marx Brothers, and he’s sure to have a much more nuanced and in-depth take!