Banana Splits

[Bones Justice]

Today, I got to see Banana Splits on Boomerang. I don't get the channel at home (not offered). They showed a Musketeers cartoon and the very last episode of Danger Island. Wow, I haven't seen Danger Island in years!

Anyways, do they ever show Huckleberry Finn during Banana Splits on Boomerang? That was my favorite during the show when I was a kid. I don't know when I'll get to see Boomerang again but I was just curious.

[jcorey3]

Today, I got to see Banana Splits on Boomerang. I don't get the channel at home (not offered). They showed a Musketeers cartoon and the very last episode of Danger Island. Wow, I haven't seen Danger Island in years!

Anyways, do they ever show Huckleberry Finn during Banana Splits on Boomerang? That was my favorite during the show when I was a kid. I don't know when I'll get to see Boomerang again but I was just curious.

No Huck Finn. they just have Danger Island and rotation between Three Musketeers and Arabian Knights.

[Mandouga]

It's the syndicated version.

[STARTOUNZ]

It's the syndicated version.

Correct. Banana Splits was originally a half-hour show. When it went into syndication in the 70's, The New Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was added along with it to make it a one-hour show. The latter originally aired in prime time on NBC from 1968-69. The series did air on Boomerang a few years ago, but they only aired 8 out of the 20 episodes.

[Mandouga]

Banana Splits was originally a half-hour show.

Then how do you explain the original title of "The Banana Splits Adventure Hour"? My understanding is that it was an hour to begin with, but when it went into syndication, the 18 hour-long installments were cut in half making them 36, and to meet the FCC's syndication requirement of 65 episodes, the Atom Ant and Secret Squirrel shows were rebroadcast with Banana Splits bumpers.

[STARTOUNZ]

My bad on that. It was originally a one-hour show. The cartoon segments that originally aired with it were The Three Musketeers, Arabian Knights, and Micro Ventures, the latter of which was only 4 episodes. So they had the live-action Danger Island in its place for most of the series' run. The same cartoons were used when it was in syndication, but they rotated with others including the live-action/animated Huckleberry Finn. This is the best of my recollection since I was only about 6 or 7 years old when I saw the syndicated version.

[hobbyfan]

Correct. Banana Splits was originally a half-hour show. When it went into syndication in the 70's, The New Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was added along with it to make it a one-hour show. The latter originally aired in prime time on NBC from 1968-69. The series did air on Boomerang a few years ago, but they only aired 8 out of the 20 episodes.

Wrong. You have it backwards.

The Banana Splits was a 1 hr. show throughout its 2 year network run (1968-70).

In the late 70's, Viacom syndicated Splits as a 1/2-hr. anthology package, mixing in Secret Squirrel, Atom Ant, New Adventures of Huck Finn, & Adventures of Gulliver (but without the opens & closes of those shows) to make it more marketable. HB would do this again with Fred Flintstone & Friends, and Filmation would copy it with Groovie Goolies & Friends.

[AarHan3]

Wrong. You have it backwards.

The Banana Splits was a 1 hr. show throughout its 2 year network run (1968-70).

In the late 70's, Viacom syndicated Splits as a 1/2-hr. anthology package, mixing in Secret Squirrel, Atom Ant, New Adventures of Huck Finn, & Adventures of Gulliver (but without the opens & closes of those shows) to make it more marketable. HB would do this again with Fred Flintstone & Friends, and Filmation would copy it with Groovie Goolies & Friends.

Actually, Worldvision syndicated Banana Splits & Friends. Check out Doin' The Banana Split! (http://www.bananasplits.4t.com/) for further details.

[hobbyfan]

Actually, Worldvision syndicated Banana Splits & Friends. Check out Doin' The Banana Split! (http://www.bananasplits.4t.com/) for further details.

I faithfully watched the syndicated series, Aaron. I remember seeing the Viacom logo at the end of the show, not Worldvision. Maybe they changed distributors from Viacom to Worldvision later in the run, I don't know, but I distinctly recall seeing "A Viacom Production" at the end of the show.

[Mark The Shark]

What Aaron said is correct. To the best of my knowledge, Viacom never had anything to do with The Banana Splits, although the Hanna-Barbera logo of the time (which was on the old syndicated shows pre-Turner) also "zoomed" towards the screen, not unlike the 1970s-1980s Viacom logo. That may be what you are remembering.

I'm not sure just when the half-hour syndicated show was introduced (I have seen various things suggesting 1970-1971, and I first saw that version in Chicago in 1973) but I can tell you it was originally distributed by "Taft-H-B Program Sales" and when Taft bought Worldvision in 1976, then Worldvision was the distributor (until Turner bought H-B in 1991).

Hanna-Barbera's stuff in general was either syndicated by Taft/Worldvision (most of it) or Screen Gems/Columbia Pictures Television, which used to handle most of their earlier shows (like Huckleberry Hound, The Flintstones, The Jetsons, etc.). A few shows ended up getting lumped together with the Jay Ward and Total TV cartoon libraries and syndicated through DFS/The Program Exchange.

The New Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn was a separate show altogether, though it was produced by the same studio and they were later syndicated together.

The Banana Splits Adventure Hour was a one-hour show, with the 18 Season 1 shows later split into 36 half-hours for syndication.

All you need to know and more (way more) can be found here:

http://bananasplits.4t.com/EpisodeGuideMain.html

http://bananasplits.4t.com/syndicated.html

[hobbyfan]

What Aaron said is correct. To the best of my knowledge, Viacom never had anything to do with The Banana Splits, although the Hanna-Barbera logo of the time (which was on the old syndicated shows pre-Turner) also "zoomed" towards the screen, not unlike the 1970s-1980s Viacom logo. That may be what you are remembering.

I don't remember seeing the Worldvision globe at any time during the syndicated Splits. WPIX was the NYC home for the package during the 70's & 80's, and I do recall seeing the "zooming" HB logo from the original run, but it was, I tell you, followed by the 70's Viacom logo, probably because 'PIX assumed Viacom distributed all of H-B's shows then, including the "Fun World" checkerboard they ran in the PM block (i.e. Chan Clan, Wacky Races).


I'm not sure just when the half-hour syndicated show was introduced (I have seen various things suggesting 1970-1971, and I first saw that version in Chicago in 1973) but I can tell you it was originally distributed by "Taft-H-B Program Sales" and when Taft bought Worldvision in 1976, then Worldvision was the distributor (until Turner bought H-B in 1991).

Hanna-Barbera's stuff in general was either syndicated by Taft/Worldvision (most of it) or Screen Gems/Columbia Pictures Television, which used to handle most of their earlier shows (like Huckleberry Hound, The Flintstones, The Jetsons, etc.). A few shows ended up getting lumped together with the Jay Ward and Total TV cartoon libraries and syndicated through DFS/The Program Exchange.

The New Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn was a separate show altogether, though it was produced by the same studio and they were later syndicated together.

The Banana Splits Adventure Hour was a one-hour show, with the 18 Season 1 shows later split into 36 half-hours for syndication.

All you need to know and more (way more) can be found here:

http://bananasplits.4t.com/EpisodeGuideMain.html

http://bananasplits.4t.com/syndicated.html

Not gonna dispute, but I go by my memory, hazy though it might sometimes be.

[Mark The Shark]

I don't remember seeing the Worldvision globe at any time during the syndicated Splits. WPIX was the NYC home for the package during the 70's & 80's, and I do recall seeing the "zooming" HB logo from the original run, but it was, I tell you, followed by the 70's Viacom logo, probably because 'PIX assumed Viacom distributed all of H-B's shows then, including the "Fun World" checkerboard they ran in the PM block (i.e. Chan Clan, Wacky Races).

Not gonna dispute, but I go by my memory, hazy though it might sometimes be.

I hadn't thought about a station messing with their shows and mixing and matching logos...which is what it sounds like you're suggesting. That makes sense, although wouldn't a station get in trouble for doing that? (I remember at one point by the early 1980s, Channel 32 in Chicago seemed to have adopted a "policy" --for lack of a better word-- to eliminate all studio and distributor logos at the end of shows. In some cases it was something like the "Screen Gems" name showing up in early episodes of The Flintstones, and I know Columbia/Screen Gems wasn't distributing the show any more by then, so there may have been some kind of knee-jerk "legal reason" for all this. They also were very squeamish about references to "next week's show" and things like that when they were airing reruns on weekdays...I remember the final portion of the Gilligan's Island closing theme was always faded down early (to eliminate the part that includes the words "next week"). They'd dub out the words "next week" from the next-show preview segment at the end of the 1960s Spiderman cartoons. Back to The Banana Splits, Channel 32 "checkerboarded" that show for all the nine years they ran it. The Adventures Of Gulliver always aired on Fridays. In this instance, I guess it was okay to have references to "next week's exciting episode," because they always left it in. But towards the end of the summer of 1982, the last time they aired a Gulliver episode, the word "week's" was quickly faded down...the station's license on the show expired at the end of the month and they abruptly replaced it with another show in the middle of the week, so there would be no "next week" for Gulliver.

I'm curious, did your local station promote The Fun World Of Hanna-Barbera under that title? That package aired on WSNS-Channel 44 in Chicago, and they always had the shows listed under the individual titles. But come to think of it, I do vaguely remember an on-air promo for that lineup which may have said "The Fun World..." or "The Funtastic World Of Hanna-Barbera" (this was in the mid-1970s, before H-B launched a syndicated weekly package under that title).

As I recall, Channel 44 aired Wacky Races on Monday, Dastardly & Muttley on Tuesday, Penelope Pitstop on Wednesday, The Amazing Chan on Thursday and The Funky Phantom on Friday. (Though I may have transposed the last two, in fact, I think I did.) Later on, WPWR-Channel 50/60 had the package but they did not "checkerboard" it, they just ran them as separate shows. Although I do remember they had Wacky Races on for a while and eventually, episodes of Dastardly & Muttley started showing up in that timeslot, as if they were one show. (This was another package like The Banana Splits And Friends Show, in that you had a few shows that seemed to naturally fit or "belong" together, having some common characters or what not, and a couple of other H-B shows that just seemed "thrown in." But unlike the Banana Splits package, all the Fun World shows had their individual openings and closings and weren't made to look like episodes of one show.)

[hobbyfan]

I hadn't thought about a station messing with their shows and mixing and matching logos...which is what it sounds like you're suggesting. That makes sense, although wouldn't a station get in trouble for doing that? (I remember at one point by the early 1980s, Channel 32 in Chicago seemed to have adopted a "policy" --for lack of a better word-- to eliminate all studio and distributor logos at the end of shows. In some cases it was something like the "Screen Gems" name showing up in early episodes of The Flintstones, and I know Columbia/Screen Gems wasn't distributing the show any more by then, so there may have been some kind of knee-jerk "legal reason" for all this. They also were very squeamish about references to "next week's show" and things like that when they were airing reruns on weekdays...I remember the final portion of the Gilligan's Island closing theme was always faded down early (to eliminate the part that includes the words "next week"). They'd dub out the words "next week" from the next-show preview segment at the end of the 1960s Spiderman cartoons. Back to The Banana Splits, Channel 32 "checkerboarded" that show for all the nine years they ran it. The Adventures Of Gulliver always aired on Fridays. In this instance, I guess it was okay to have references to "next week's exciting episode," because they always left it in. But towards the end of the summer of 1982, the last time they aired a Gulliver episode, the word "week's" was quickly faded down...the station's license on the show expired at the end of the month and they abruptly replaced it with another show in the middle of the week, so there would be no "next week" for Gulliver.

Since they were showing former weekly series in daily syndication, the self-editing makes sense. The previews of "next week's" show would be edited out for time and added commercial space.


I'm curious, did your local station promote The Fun World Of Hanna-Barbera under that title? That package aired on WSNS-Channel 44 in Chicago, and they always had the shows listed under the individual titles. But come to think of it, I do vaguely remember an on-air promo for that lineup which may have said "The Fun World..." or "The Funtastic World Of Hanna-Barbera" (this was in the mid-1970s, before H-B launched a syndicated weekly package under that title).

As I recall, Channel 44 aired Wacky Races on Monday, Dastardly & Muttley on Tuesday, Penelope Pitstop on Wednesday, The Amazing Chan on Thursday and The Funky Phantom on Friday. (Though I may have transposed the last two, in fact, I think I did.) Later on, WPWR-Channel 50/60 had the package but they did not "checkerboard" it, they just ran them as separate shows. Although I do remember they had Wacky Races on for a while and eventually, episodes of Dastardly & Muttley started showing up in that timeslot, as if they were one show. (This was another package like The Banana Splits And Friends Show, in that you had a few shows that seemed to naturally fit or "belong" together, having some common characters or what not, and a couple of other H-B shows that just seemed "thrown in." But unlike the Banana Splits package, all the Fun World shows had their individual openings and closings and weren't made to look like episodes of one show.)

As my memory serves me, Fun World was a checkerboard format, in the exact lineup as you describe, except that in NYC (I live in upstate, and no area affiliate picked up Fun World), they would sub Rankin-Bass' Jackson Five series for Funky Phantom for some reason. Aired at 5 pm (ET). Of course you know that Dastardly & Muttley and Perils of Penelope Pitstop were spun off from Wacky Races.

Now if anyone else can fill in the blanks. NYC fans?