Frankenstein Jr. and The Impossibles facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Frankenstein Jr. and The Impossibles |
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Title card
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| Genre |
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| Written by |
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| Directed by | William Hanna Joseph Barbera |
| Starring | Dick Beals Ted Cassidy Paul Frees Don Messick Hal Smith John Stephenson |
| Country of origin | United States |
| No. of seasons | 2 |
| No. of episodes | 18 |
| Production | |
| Producer(s) | William Hanna Joseph Barbera |
| Running time | 30 minutes |
| Production company(s) | Hanna-Barbera Productions |
| Distributor | Taft Broadcasting |
| Release | |
| Original network | CBS |
| Original release | September 10, 1966 – January 17, 1967 |
Frankenstein Jr. and The Impossibles is an American animated television series produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions. It premiered on September 10, 1966 on CBS, and ran for two seasons on Saturday mornings.
Contents
Overview
The program contained two segments, which each served as a middle ground between Hanna-Barbera's traditional early output and its superhero-based late-1960s cartoons. Each episode would feature two segments with The Impossibles, and Frankenstein Jr. in between.
- Frankenstein Jr.: Taking place in Civic City, boy scientist Buzz Conroy (voiced by Dick Beals) and his father Professor Conroy (voiced by John Stephenson) fight supervillains with the aid of a powerful heroic robot named "Frankenstein Jr." (voiced by Ted Cassidy). Buzz built "Frankie" and activated him through an energy ring.
- The Impossibles: The title characters are a trio of superheroes (Multi-Man, Fluid-Man, and Coil-Man) who pose undercover as a Beatlesesque rock music band. The characters' names are descriptive of their powers: Multi-Man (voiced by Don Messick) can create identical copies of himself; Coil-Man (voiced by Hal Smith) can form into a super-springy coil; and Fluid-Man (voiced by Paul Frees) can transform his body into any fluid. The heroes receive assignments from "Big D" (also voiced by Frees), who contacts them via a receiver in the base of Coil-Man's left-handed guitar. During the development of the show, this group was called "The Incredibles," but was changed to "The Impossibles" by the time of production. The team's pre-production name was later given to the superhero family from the 2004 Disney/Pixar film of the same name.
Voice cast
- Dick Beals as Buzz Conroy
- Ted Cassidy as Frankenstein Jr.
- John Stephenson as Professor Conroy
- Paul Frees as Fluid Man, Big D
- Don Messick as Multi Man
- Hal Smith as Coil Man
List of episodes
Frankenstein Jr.
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| 1 | "The Shocking Electrical Monster" | September 10, 1966 | |
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Dr. Shock uses his Master Mix Monster Machine to turn his assistant Igor into an electricity-absorbing monster.
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| 2 | "The Spyder Man" | September 17, 1966 | |
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Professor Conroy and Buzz unveil the blueprints for the Spy Detector XK-00-7 at a Maximum Security Building. Unfortunately, the blueprints are targeted by the Spyder Man.
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| 3 | "The Menace from the Wax Museum" | September 24, 1966 | |
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Upon an encounter with Buzz at the wax museum, Mr. Menace uses his monsters Godzonka, Gorillis and Cyclaws in an attack upon San Francisco.
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| 4 | "The Alien Brain from Outer Space, Part 1" | October 1, 1966 | |
| 5 | "The Alien Brain from Outer Space, Part 2" | October 8, 1966 | |
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A giant alien brain arrives on Earth and captures Buzz and Frankenstein Jr.
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| 6 | "UFO: Unidentified Fiendish Object" | October 15, 1966 | |
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The alien Zargon unleashes his warrior Destructo in his plans to conquer Earth.
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| 7 | "The Unearthly Plant Creatures" | October 22, 1966 | |
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Plant Man thaws the last three prehistoric plant creatures (consisting of the Carnivorous Chewer, the Creeping Crusher and the Fire-Breathing Snapdragon) from a glacier and then sprays them with his Obedience Ray in a plot to eliminate Buzz and Frankenstein Jr.
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| 8 | "The Deadly Living Images" | October 29, 1966 | |
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The Mad Inventor has invented the Double Identity Duplicator Projector to make copies of whatever pictures he inserts in it.
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| 9 | "The Colossal Junk Monster" | November 5, 1966 | |
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The Junk Man creates the Colossal Junk Monster in a plot to eliminate Frankenstein Jr.
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| 10 | "The Incredible Aqua-Monsters" | November 12, 1966 | |
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Buzz and Frankenstein Jr. guard the Navy's new Hydrotomic Submarine to prevent Dr. Hook and his aquatic monsters from stealing it.
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| 11 | "The Gigantic Ghastly Genie" | November 19, 1966 | |
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Zorbo the Great creates a genie and plans to use its three wishes in order to defeat Frankenstein Jr. and conquer the world.
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| 12 | "The Birdman" | November 26, 1966 | |
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Birdman and his robotic birds Vulturo, Rodantus, and King Condor abduct two astronauts and hold them for a ransom of $1,000,000.
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| 13 | "The Invasion of the Robot Creatures" | December 3, 1966 | |
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Sertano the Satellite King, an alien from Galaxy X, uses a gravity ray in order to get Earth to surrender. Buzz and Frankenstein Jr. must defeat Sertano's robots in order to defeat him.
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| 14 | "The Manchurian Menace" | December 10, 1966 | |
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The Manchurian Menace steals a Space Camera Capsule that has just returned with photos from Mars.
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| 15 | "The Mad Monster Maker" | December 17, 1966 | |
| 16 | "The Monstermobile" | December 24, 1966 | |
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The Mad Inventor has invented the Monstermobile and uses its many gadgets to commit crimes.
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| 17 | "Pilfering Putty Monster" | December 31, 1966 | |
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Mr. Menace uses his putty monster to steal a $1,000,000 coin collection and even kidnaps Buzz. It is up to Frankenstein Jr. to rescue Buzz and defeat Mr. Menace.
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| 18 | "The Spooktaculars" | January 7, 1967 | |
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Dr. Spectro creates three giant ghoulish ghosts in order to take over Penciltrainia.
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The Impossibles
Other appearances
- Buzz Conroy and Frankenstein Jr. appeared in the Yogi's Space Race episode "Race Through the Planet of the Monsters".
Adaptations
A single issue of a Frankenstein Jr. and The Impossibles comic was released by Gold Key Comics in 1966 as a tie-in to the TV series, and the contents were reprinted in The Impossibles Annual by Atlas Publishing & Distributing Co. Ltd, UK in 1968. The two Frankenstein Jr. comic stories were titled "The Image Invasion" and "Frankenstein Jr. Meets the Flea Man". A new text-based story, specially written for the annual, was "A Spook in his Wheel". The character reappeared in the comic Hanna-Barbera Presents #8 published by Archie Comics in 1996. The front cover featured Frankenstein Jr. battling the Impossibles in an homage to the front cover of the original Fantastic Four #1 by Marvel Comics.
A Big Little Book titled Frankenstein Jr.: The Menace of the Heartless Monster was published in 1968.
The Impossibles' heroic identities were re-used for a later Hanna-Barbera production, The Super Globetrotters (which also featured a similar concept—in this case, the famous Harlem Globetrotters as undercover superheroes):
- Nate Branch's heroic identity was alternately known as "Fluid Man" or "Liquid Man", with powers (and a flippered costume) similar to the Impossibles' Fluid-Man.
- "Twiggy" Sanders became "Spaghetti Man", with coiling and stretching abilities similar to Coil-Man.
- "Geese" Ausbie as "Multi Man" had virtually identical powers as his Impossibles counterpart and a similar costume.
In 2016, Buzz and Frankenstein Jr. and The Impossibles played a major role in the DC Comics series Future Quest, that also featured characters from various animated series produced by Hanna-Barbera such as Jonny Quest, Space Ghost, The Herculoids, Birdman and the Galaxy Trio and Moby Dick and Mighty Mightor.In this series, the team gained a new female member named Cobalt.
