The Godzilla/Dynomutt Hour with the Funky Phantom

[jermainemack]

Does anyone remember The Godzilla/Dynomutt Hour with the Funky Phantom when they have reruns of Godzilla, Dynomutt and The Funky Phantom all on one half hour show that ran on NBC on sept 27th 1980 every saturday morning at 8:00am and does anyone have the Godzilla/Dynomutt Hour with the Funky Phantom Theme Song because Toon Tracker don't have it yet!

[AarHan3]

Does anyone remember The Godzilla/Dynomutt Hour with the Funky Phantom when they have reruns of Godzilla, Dynomutt and The Funky Phantom all on one half hour show that ran on NBC on sept 27th 1980 every saturday morning at 8:00am and does anyone have the Godzilla/Dynomutt Hour with the Funky Phantom Theme Song because Toon Tracker don't have it yet!
Read about it, but never saw it. :shrug:

[Brainatra]

Does anyone remember The Godzilla/Dynomutt Hour with the Funky Phantom when they have reruns of Godzilla, Dynomutt and The Funky Phantom all on one half hour show that ran on NBC on sept 27th 1980 every saturday morning at 8:00am and does anyone have the Godzilla/Dynomutt Hour with the Funky Phantom Theme Song because Toon Tracker don't have it yet!

Read about it as well---basically, another of the amalgamation shows of the late 70's/early 80's time era meant to kill time/get ratings in some way by combining two likeable characters into one show, even if they didn't have anything in common.

The Funky Phantom was one of the earliest Scooby Doo ripoffs, about a group of teens and their pet (non-talking) dog who tooled around in a dune buggy solving mysteries with the help of an American Revolution-era ghost (and the ghost's pet cat, who's also a ghost).

Godzilla had various cartoons over the years. Apparently (from looking this show up), it reran eps of a 1978 incarnation of the big lizard.

Dynomutt, of course, was the robotic "dog blunder" (in Blue Falcon's terms) who fought crime using his various bionic gadgets with his partner, the Blue Falcon (basically Batman in a falcon costume).

As for having actually *seen* it, don't recall ever watching this show; as a 5-year-old, if I was awake, I was probably watching the Superfriends on ABC (in the same timeslot) or the Bugs Bunny/Roadrunner Show (also aired in its timeslot, per the one website with a few old Sat. AM schedules I could find via Google).

This show got Dynomutt replaced by Hong Kong Phooey halfway through its one-season run, and then was axed, replaced in 81-82 by (from the probably-off schedule) the Flintstones and the season's (and one of the decade's) biggest hit cartoon, "The Smurfs".

-B.

[Howard Fein]

More than the other two networks, NBC often had a 'patchwork' method of filling Saturday AM slots through the seventies and eighties- usually for a failed show cancelled midseason. But there was a different reason for this slapped-together compilation of old H-B shows.

An actor's strike delayed the premiere of most prime-time network shows scheduled for fall 1980. This applied to Saturday Morning cartoons as well. So that year, the Saturday the week after Labor Day did not see the customary raft of new shows premiering.:(

The only new 1980 Saturday AM series to start 'on time' were both on CBS: H-B's DRAK PACK and Filmation's :tomcat: :jerry: COMEDY SHOW (the latter of which benefitted from the main characters not speaking and producer Lou Scheimer performing many of the voices in the unavailability of union actor Frank Welker). All the other new shows- THUNDARR, HEATHCLIFF & DINGBAT, FONZ & THE HAPPY DAYS GANG, RICHIE RICH/LITTLE RASCALS, the seven-minute SCOOBY & SCRAPPY shorts, DRAWING POWER, THE FLINTSTONES COMEDY SHOW- premiered in dribs and drabs through the fall after the strike was settled. (Some prime-time shows, including the celebrated HILL STREET BLUES, saw their premieres pushed up into 1981.)

Through September and into October, ABC and CBS continued to rerun their 1979-80 shows. This was particularly easy for CBS, ninety minutes of whose schedule was devoted to old its library of WB theatrical shorts. :bugs1: :coyote::marvin: :sylvester :tweety: :daffy: But NBC, who'd had a typically disastrous season for the era, instead plugged in reruns of older series that it had acquired the rights to, and slotted as mid-season replacements sporadically since the mid-seventies: HARLEM GLOBETROTTERS, HONG KONG PHOOEY, JONNY QUEST, THE JETSONS, and its collection of old WB shorts.:daffy: :sylvester :lepew: FUNKY PHANTOM and DYNOMUTT were 'new' additions. Another new NBC series scheduled to debut in fall 1980, SPACE STARS, was delayed a whole year- reportedly due to 'creative' difficulties as well as the strike. So the network reran of Filmation's 1977-78 BATMAN and 1978 SUPER SIX anthology through the entire 1980-81 season.

It was very common Saturday AM practice for all three networks to run older cartoons from previous seasons as part of their schedules- or even cartoons that originally ran in prime time many years earlier. The original 24 JETSONS episodes circa 1962-63 were shown on all three network's schedules pretty much steadily from 1965 through '83. (NBC picked it up as a midseason replacement in 1976, '79, '80 and '81!) During the sixties, NBC also carried reruns of the FLINTSTONES and TOP CAT, both of which were originally ABC prime-time shows. JONNY QUEST was another failed single-season prime-time show (ABC, 1964-65) that reran on all three networks at various times from 1967 through '81.

Other 'moldie oldies' carried by NBC in their also-ran days include 1964's UNDERDOG (1972-73); 1966's SPACE GHOST (midseason 1976-77); 1967's HERCULOIDS (midseason 1977-78); 1970's JOSIE & THE PUSSYCATS (1975-76) and HARLEM GLOBETROTTERS (midseason 1977-78); 1973's SPEED BUGGY (1976-77); 1974's HONG KONG PHOOEY (midseason 1977-78 and 1980-81); 1980-81's THUNDARR (midseason 1982-83). Then there were two real chestnuts: 1961's prime-time ALVIN SHOW resurfaced midseason 1978-'79 and that same year's BULLWINKLE SHOW for the entire 1981-82 season.

While it was always nice to see old favorites again, this practice made NBC more like an independent station carrying weekday syndicated reruns than a network. It also accentuated the relative weakness of its schedule when compared with ABC and CBS. (Not that they didn't indulge in ancient reruns themselves; ABC showed 1969-70 CBS SCOOBY-DOO episodes all the way into 1984, and similarly reran LAFF-A-LYMPICS into the ground.) As NBC became more successful in the eighties, it generally curtailed its ancient reruns. That's what made the midseason 1988-89 reappearance of FAT ALBERT (the entire slate, from the 1972-80 CBS eps to the 1984-85 syndicated originals) so shocking. Perhaps it was the huge, continuing presence of Bill Cosby in NBC's prime-time lineup that spurred such a move.

So whenever you see a program whose title contains two or three unrelated properties seperated by hyphens or backslashes, it's usually a repackaging of older shows you've seen many times before. Happily, the ALVIN revival featured the original 1961 opening titles and credits. In an exhibit of extreme deceptiveness, the 1977-78 midseason reruns of GLOBETROTTERS, SPACE GHOST, HERCULOIDS, and Autocat & Motormouse shorts from 1969's ABC CATTANOOGA CATS were packaged as what appeared to be a 'new' show, GO-GO GLOBETROTTERS- with a 'new' title sequence and disco-like theme song! Anyone over the age of ten was not fooled!:mad:

[Mister Intensity]

I wonder what were the "creative differences" that caused Space Stars to be delayed?

Mister Intensity

[Chris Wood]

It was very common Saturday AM practice for all three networks to run older cartoons from previous seasons as part of their schedules- or even cartoons that originally ran in prime time many years earlier. The original 24 JETSONS episodes circa 1962-63 were shown on all three network's schedules pretty much steadily from 1965 through '83. (NBC picked it up as a midseason replacement in 1976, '79, '80 and '81!) During the sixties, NBC also carried reruns of the FLINTSTONES and TOP CAT, both of which were originally ABC prime-time shows. JONNY QUEST was another failed single-season prime-time show (ABC, 1964-65) that reran on all three networks at various times from 1967 through '81.

Other 'moldie oldies' carried by NBC in their also-ran days include 1964's UNDERDOG (1972-73); 1966's SPACE GHOST (midseason 1976-77); 1967's HERCULOIDS (midseason 1977-78); 1970's JOSIE & THE PUSSYCATS (1975-76) and HARLEM GLOBETROTTERS (midseason 1977-78); 1973's SPEED BUGGY (1976-77); 1974's HONG KONG PHOOEY (midseason 1977-78 and 1980-81); 1980-81's THUNDARR (midseason 1982-83). Then there were two real chestnuts: 1961's prime-time ALVIN SHOW resurfaced midseason 1978-'79 and that same year's BULLWINKLE SHOW for the entire 1981-82 season.

While it was always nice to see old favorites again, this practice made NBC more like an independent station carrying weekday syndicated reruns than a network. It also accentuated the relative weakness of its schedule when compared with ABC and CBS. (Not that they didn't indulge in ancient reruns themselves; ABC showed 1969-70 CBS SCOOBY-DOO episodes all the way into 1984, and similarly reran LAFF-A-LYMPICS into the ground.) As NBC became more successful in the eighties, it generally curtailed its ancient reruns. That's what made the midseason 1988-89 reappearance of FAT ALBERT (the entire slate, from the 1972-80 CBS eps to the 1984-85 syndicated originals) so shocking. Perhaps it was the huge, continuing presence of Bill Cosby in NBC's prime-time lineup that spurred such a move.
:

Now this is why I don't understand people saying that kids won't watch older cartoons today. It worked before, didn't it?

Lots of cool info there. Where did you get it?

[Natey]

More than the other two networks, NBC often had a 'patchwork' method of filling Saturday AM slots through the seventies and eighties- usually for a failed show cancelled midseason. But there was a different reason for this slapped-together compilation of old H-B shows.

An actor's strike delayed the premiere of most prime-time network shows scheduled for fall 1980. This applied to Saturday Morning cartoons as well. So that year, the Saturday the week after Labor Day did not see the customary raft of new shows premiering.:(

The only new 1980 Saturday AM series to start 'on time' were both on CBS: H-B's DRAK PACK and Filmation's :tomcat: :jerry: COMEDY SHOW (the latter of which benefitted from the main characters not speaking and producer Lou Scheimer performing many of the voices in the unavailability of union actor Frank Welker). All the other new shows- THUNDARR, HEATHCLIFF & DINGBAT, FONZ & THE HAPPY DAYS GANG, RICHIE RICH/LITTLE RASCALS, the seven-minute SCOOBY & SCRAPPY shorts, DRAWING POWER, THE FLINTSTONES COMEDY SHOW- premiered in dribs and drabs through the fall after the strike was settled. (Some prime-time shows, including the celebrated HILL STREET BLUES, saw their premieres pushed up into 1981.)

Through September and into October, ABC and CBS continued to rerun their 1979-80 shows. This was particularly easy for CBS, ninety minutes of whose schedule was devoted to old its library of WB theatrical shorts. :bugs1: :coyote::marvin: :sylvester :tweety: :daffy: But NBC, who'd had a typically disastrous season for the era, instead plugged in reruns of older series that it had acquired the rights to, and slotted as mid-season replacements sporadically since the mid-seventies: HARLEM GLOBETROTTERS, HONG KONG PHOOEY, JONNY QUEST, THE JETSONS, and its collection of old WB shorts.:daffy: :sylvester :lepew: FUNKY PHANTOM and DYNOMUTT were 'new' additions. Another new NBC series scheduled to debut in fall 1980, SPACE STARS, was delayed a whole year- reportedly due to 'creative' difficulties as well as the strike. So the network reran of Filmation's 1977-78 BATMAN and 1978 SUPER SIX anthology through the entire 1980-81 season.

It was very common Saturday AM practice for all three networks to run older cartoons from previous seasons as part of their schedules- or even cartoons that originally ran in prime time many years earlier. The original 24 JETSONS episodes circa 1962-63 were shown on all three network's schedules pretty much steadily from 1965 through '83. (NBC picked it up as a midseason replacement in 1976, '79, '80 and '81!) During the sixties, NBC also carried reruns of the FLINTSTONES and TOP CAT, both of which were originally ABC prime-time shows. JONNY QUEST was another failed single-season prime-time show (ABC, 1964-65) that reran on all three networks at various times from 1967 through '81.

Other 'moldie oldies' carried by NBC in their also-ran days include 1964's UNDERDOG (1972-73); 1966's SPACE GHOST (midseason 1976-77); 1967's HERCULOIDS (midseason 1977-78); 1970's JOSIE & THE PUSSYCATS (1975-76) and HARLEM GLOBETROTTERS (midseason 1977-78); 1973's SPEED BUGGY (1976-77); 1974's HONG KONG PHOOEY (midseason 1977-78 and 1980-81); 1980-81's THUNDARR (midseason 1982-83). Then there were two real chestnuts: 1961's prime-time ALVIN SHOW resurfaced midseason 1978-'79 and that same year's BULLWINKLE SHOW for the entire 1981-82 season.

While it was always nice to see old favorites again, this practice made NBC more like an independent station carrying weekday syndicated reruns than a network. It also accentuated the relative weakness of its schedule when compared with ABC and CBS. (Not that they didn't indulge in ancient reruns themselves; ABC showed 1969-70 CBS SCOOBY-DOO episodes all the way into 1984, and similarly reran LAFF-A-LYMPICS into the ground.) As NBC became more successful in the eighties, it generally curtailed its ancient reruns. That's what made the midseason 1988-89 reappearance of FAT ALBERT (the entire slate, from the 1972-80 CBS eps to the 1984-85 syndicated originals) so shocking. Perhaps it was the huge, continuing presence of Bill Cosby in NBC's prime-time lineup that spurred such a move.

So whenever you see a program whose title contains two or three unrelated properties seperated by hyphens or backslashes, it's usually a repackaging of older shows you've seen many times before. Happily, the ALVIN revival featured the original 1961 opening titles and credits. In an exhibit of extreme deceptiveness, the 1977-78 midseason reruns of GLOBETROTTERS, SPACE GHOST, HERCULOIDS, and Autocat & Motormouse shorts from 1969's ABC CATTANOOGA CATS were packaged as what appeared to be a 'new' show, GO-GO GLOBETROTTERS- with a 'new' title sequence and disco-like theme song! Anyone over the age of ten was not fooled!:mad:
long post, and i know a bunch of kids that would DIE to watch just on measly episode of Looney tunes because the miss the show so much.

[Brainatra]

Thanks for greatly expanding on my post. :-)

To throw in more junk:

- forgot about the big strike that year...

- My collection of old comics from 1980 and 81 have various ads for these two year's fall Sat. AM lineups. Interesting to see the off-model artwork in the ads (including the one featuring the Smurfs' debut, along with the 80's "Daffy Duck Show").

- NBC in the early 80's was at its nadir ratings-wise---even today's abysmal fourth-place performance in the ratings probably looked good compared to what primetime was like for NBC then (IIRC, they had shows like "Manimal" [a guy who could turn into an animal] and "Supertrain" as series...). A few years later of course came "THe Cosby Show," "Cheers", "Family Ties", etc...

-B.

[DarkGojira]

Haven't noticed that, but I have been a big fan of Hanna-Barbara's Godzilla. I thought it was fun to watch, even though Godzooky seemed a little... out of place...