Hi Everyone,
Its true that Batman Animated Series and Superman TAS are praised for their story and animation. But I am surprised that people barely remember Pirates of Dark Water and SWAT Kats.
Both Shows had great animation and great story. And there are 3 unfinished episodes of SWAT Kats at Warner Bros Studio. They own the rights now. Pirates of Dark Water was never finished, because of the sudden cancellation. I think they deserve to be more famous.
I hope Warner Bros will finish SWAT Kats unfinished episodes someday and dedicate those episodes to Linda Gary and Robert Ridgely. Linda Gary did a year after voicing Dr. Sinian SWAT Kats unfinished episode "The Curse of Kataluna." She voice acted in many shows especially in Batman TAS, The Smurfs, He-man, and many others.
If anyone is interested in watching themes of Pirates of Dark Water and SWAT Kats, then here they are.
Darn, it was just another PoDW/Swat fan-gush--
And here I'd read the header and thought it was going to be an actual discussion on H-B's most underrated cartoons...
Oh well, I'll just have to save my Mr. Jinks defense for another day.
Many of people who worked on SWAT Kats and PoDW started working at Hanna Barbera since 1960s. For Example, Paul Sommer was one of the directors of Pirates of Dark Water. He was Director/Story Editor/Writer for Classic Jonny Quest (1964). Don Lusk, Joanna Romersa, Frank Andrina, Iwao Takamoto, and many others worked on SWAT Kats and Pirates of Dark Water. And they all worked on great HB shows from 1960s.
I have actually never seen either show, though I fancy myself a big H-B buff. It'd be nice to see these released on DVD.
As for other underrated H-B shows, I'll agree with Top Cat. But I also have to say that Wait Till Your Father Comes Home is a real gem that most people these days have never seen. Go out and buy that DVD set, so that H-B will put the second season out! When I reviewed the first season DVD set last year, I was very impressed with the writing quality.
Top Cat is a great show. I always liked the episode "The Maharajah of Pookajee." I hope it will be more famous in the future.
SWAT kats is famous for the use of anagram. Glenn Leopold was Story Editor for SWAT Kats. He started working at HB since 1970s. He was one of the Story Editors for The Smurfs and other shows in 1980s and 1990s. He was really good at making anagrams.
Swat Kats airs regularly on Boomerang .. right around midnight, IIRC. I haven't seen Pirates of Darkwater on Boomerang, but that doesn't mean they don't show it; my TV viewing is pretty 'sporadic' (the last thing I generally want to do after sitting in front of a computer screen all day, is to sit in front of a TV screen).
I hope this is allowed but I thought this would be a fun game to play (if it's not please delete this thread mods)
I thought we should start a cartoon opening (or closing) chain/ train. How it works is someone will post a clip from youtube or somewhere else (retrojunk etc) of a cartoon opening, for example He-man. The next poster should post a link to an intro of a show that somehow is related or reminds them of the show posted above. Their reasoning for posting their cartoon response can be anything like the animation style reminds them of it, or shows done by the same studio, or in the same series, or an updated version, etc etc. For He-man lets say the next poster would post She-ra, or a different filmation cartoon, or some cartoon with a barbarian, etc.
An H-B cartoon which I watched as a kid, but which (AFAIK) hasn't aired on Boomerang (or much of anywhere else, since) .. is Jeannie:
.. which was basically the animated series version of I Dream of Jeannie, though with several differences (a 'teen-aged' master; a dim-wit comic-relief 'assistant' genie; Jeannie has red hair instead of blonde; and, rather than crossing her arms and 'blinking', her pony-tail flips forward to perform magic).
My memory of the show is rather dim. I doubt it was actually all that 'good' .. but I am curious enough to want to see it again.
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As far as 'under-rated' H-B shows are concerned, I agree with Randall's recommendation of Wait Till Your Father Gets Home. That show actually is quite good .. it was another of H-B's forays into 'prime-time' cartoon programming (IOW, not a Saturday morning 'toon), which is why its scripts were a 'step above' most of their other 1970's work.
wow somehow I think I have seen this cartoon. I have no idea when/where or how but it looked really familiar (and no not b/c i have seen I dream of Jeanie :p )
