Originally posted on 1/30/22
Currently watching: the complete DVD collection of one of my favorite Saturday morning cartoons as a kid, SPACE GHOST (1966-1968).
(Full DVD title: "Space Ghost & Dino Boy: The Complete Series" from the Hanna-Barbera Classic Collection. 20 episodes on 3 discs, 42 7-minute Space Ghost segments in all. Bonus feature is a movie-length documentary, "Simplicity: The Life and Art of Alex Toth.")
I love Cartoon Network's later comedy reworking of the character in his own talk show called "Space Ghost Coast To Coast", but that takes nothing away from my feeling for the original action-adventure space opera designed by comics legend Alex Toth.
It was only Hanna-Barbera's second adventure cartoon after "Jonny Quest", and their first superhero series. "Laugh-In" star Gary Owen did the voice for Space Ghost, and his teen sidekicks Jan and Jace were voiced by Ginny Tyler and Tim Matheson.
Other voice talent includes Ted Cassidy as Metallus, Vic Perrin as Creature King, Alan Reed as Glasstor, Keye Luke as Brak, Paul Frees as Brago, and Don Messick as Blip, Space Ghost's cute monkey companion who often gets him and the kids out of trouble.
Alex Toth's character designs and layouts are eye-pleasing, and the show was done while Hanna-Barbera were still doing quality animated shows. The music is great, too.
The secondary "Dino Boy" segments don't do anything for me--I don't even remember bothering to watch them when originally aired.
Super villains Zorak, Moltar, and Brak would later become regulars on the talk show, along with occasional appearances by Metallus, Tansit, Lokar, and Black Widow. It's fun seeing them play it straight as they do here in their introductory appearances.
Space Ghost, whose subterranean laboratory can be found on the Ghost Planet, is sort of an interplanetary policeman whose main powers are supplied by his power bands, which are worn on his wrists, and his inviso-belt.
Jan and Jace alert him of suspicious activity while on patrol in their scout ship and often get captured by the bad guys so that Space Ghost must fly to their rescue in his spaceship, the Phantom Cruiser.
The stories are flashy and colorful, with lots of explosions, and are kept very simple and formulaic so that they can be easily followed by younger viewers.
As far as light entertainment with a strong sense of nostalgia goes, I just love this kind of stuff.
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