Serial Fun From Richard ("Lethal Weapon") Donner

When my wife was a little girl, her favorite show was The Banana Splits - a bit of period (1969) kiddie weirdness from Hanna-Barbera, with costume and set design by Sid and Marty (H. R. Pufnstuf) Krofft. Every since I've known her, she would tell me about its glorious, campy appeal and sing the "Tra La La" theme just to make me cringe. She knows my weak spots all too well...

So you can imagine her delight when she recently discovered that Boomerang (the cartoon network aimed at the Boomer generation - hence the cleverly catchy name) airs a hour-long block of the Splits every weekday.

Since we got DVR for Xmas, she set about recording (and forcing me to watch) every episode they've aired over the last month or so. Each episode contains wonky songs from the Splits - men in huge critter costumes with kooky voices provided by other actors: a beagle, a chimp, a lion and an elephant - played out over zany little skits, many involving go-carts romping around a theme park, or against loopy psychelic backgrounds: as well as cartoon episodes (from future Thundarr creator Ruby-Spears Productions (one that takes me back to my cartoon heyday)) rotating between The Arabian Knights and The Three Musketeers (featuring their kid sidekick Tooly - which by my count puts it at at least five Musketeers...).

And then there's the clincher. Every ep features a live-action serial adventure, supposedly based on Jonny Quest, featuring a young Jan Michael (Damnation Alley, Airwolf) Vincent, and directed by the man who would go on to bring us Superman I & II, Lethal Weapon and The Goonies!

From such humble beginnings...

Who knew?!?

Well, I won't dally any longer. I know how anxious you must be to get on to the clip. But, before you do, I'd just to point out that, in the premier episode I've embedded below, the title sequence takes up fully half the running time. It also features one of my personal favorite late 60s cinematic tricks - the rack zoom in and out in double time.

Look for it. And enjoy.