Frankenstein, Jr. and The Impossibles

Frankenstein, Jr. and the Impossibles was an American Saturday morning cartoon produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions in 1966. It premiered September 10, 1966 on CBS, and ran for two seasons.

Overview
The program contained two segments, which each served as a middle ground between Hanna-Barbera's traditional cartoon early output and its superhero-based late-1960s cartoons.
 * 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). "Frankie", as Buzz usually referred to him, was more than a little reminiscent of the title character in Gigantor. 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 Disney/Pixar movie of the same name.

The show was the target of complaints about violence in children's television, and was canceled in 1968. The Frankenstein, Jr. segments were later recycled in the 1976 series Space Ghost and Frankenstein, Jr., which aired on NBC from November 27, 1976 until September 3, 1977, replacing the canceled Big John, Little John.

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.

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-Barbara 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.

Other Appearances

 * Buzz Conroy and Frankenstein, Jr. appeared in Yogi's Space Race episode "Franzia,".

DVD release
On April 26, 2011, Warner Archive released Frankenstein, Jr. and The Impossibles: The Complete Series on DVD in region 1 as part of their Hanna–Barbera Classics Collection. This is a Manufacture-on-Demand (MOD) release, available exclusively through Warner's online store and Amazon.com.

Voices

 * Dick Beals as Buzz Conroy
 * Ted Cassidy as Frankenstein, Jr.
 * John Stephenson as Professor Conroy
 * Paul Frees as Fluid Man
 * Don Messick as Multi Man
 * Hal Smith as Coil Man

Production Credits

 * Produced and Directed by: William Hanna & Joseph Barbera
 * Story Direction: Alex Lovy, Art Scott, Art Davis
 * Story by: Mike Maltese, Jack Hanrahan, Eddie Brandit, Phillip Hahn
 * Animation: Irven Spence, Casey Onatis, William Keil, Edwin Parks, Kenneth Muse, Barney Posner, George Germanetti, Larry Silverman, Carlo Vinci, Ray Abrams, Hugh Fraser, Dick Lundy, Harry Holt, Sam Jaimes
 * Additional Animation (uncredited): Ed Love, Jerry Hathcock, George Goepper, Edwin Aardal
 * Voices: Ted Cassidy, Don Messick, Hal Smith, Dick Beals, John Stephenson, Paul Frees
 * Additional Voices (uncredited): Alan Reed, Paul Winchell, Allan Melvin, Ginny Tyler, Jean Vander Pyl, June Foray, Keye Luke, Lennie Weinrib
 * Camera Operation: Gary Milton, John Aardal, Gene Borghi, Byron McRae, Cliff Shirpser, George Epperson, Clarence Wogatzke
 * Animation Direction: Charles A. Nichols
 * Production Supervision: Howard Hanson
 * Film Editors: Dave Horton, Hal Geer, Daniel Finnerty, Patrick Foley, Earl Bennett
 * Backgrounds: F. Montealegre, Fernando Arce, Tom Knowles, Richard Khim, Janet Brown, Don Watson
 * Layout: Brad Case, Phillip Lewis, Willie Ito, Iwao Takamoto, Lewis Ott, Steve Kakagawa, Jerry Eisenberg
 * Sound Directed by: Dick Olson, William Getty
 * A Hanna-Barbera Production
 * Approved MPAA Certification No. 19495
 * This Picture Made Under the Jurisiction of IATSE-IA Affiliated with A.F.L.-C.I.O
 * RCA Sound Recording