Harlem Globetrotters (TV series) Information & Harlem Globetrotters (TV series) Links at HealthHaven.com

Harlem Globetrotters
	; Title card for Hanna-Barbera's animated Harlem Globetrotters series.
Format	Animated
Country of origin	United States
No. of episodes	22 (16 installments airing in 1970-71; 6 new ones combined with repeats in 1971-72)
Production
Producer(s)	William Hanna; Joseph Barbera
Running time	30 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	CBS
Original run	September 12, 1970 – October 16, 1971
Chronology
Followed by	The Super Globetrotters

Harlem Globetrotters (called Harlem Globe Trotters in the opening titles) was a Saturday morning cartoon produced by Hanna-Barbera, featuring animated versions of players from the basketball team, Harlem Globetrotters.

Broadcast from September 12, 1970 to September 2, 1972 on CBS, and later re-run on NBC as The Go-Go Globetrotters, the show featured cartoon versions of George "Meadowlark" Lemon, Freddie "Curly" Neal, Hubert "Geese" Ausbie, J.C. "Gip" Gipson, Bobby Joe Mason, and Pablo Robertson, alongside their fictional bus driver and manager Granny, and Dribbles, their dog mascot.

The series worked to a formula where the team travel somewhere and typically got involved in a local conflict that leads to one of the characters proposing a basketball game to settle the issue. To ensure the Globetrotters' defeat, the villains rig the contest to ensure that their opponents lose. However before the second half of the contest, the team always finds a way to even the odds, become all but invincible, and win the game.

[edit] History

Twenty-two episodes of Harlem Globetrotters were eventually produced: sixteen for the 1970-71 season, and six more for the 1971-72 season. Harlem Globetrotters has a place in history as being the first Saturday morning cartoon to feature African-American male characters. Hanna-Barbera's other 1970 series, Josie and the Pussycats, which premiered 30 minutes earlier on the same day and network, was the first Saturday morning cartoon to feature an African-American character with the appearance of Valerie Brown.

After the show was cancelled, the animated Globetrotters (minus Granny and Dribbles) made three appearances on Hanna-Barbera's The New Scooby-Doo Movies in 1972 and 1973. Hanna-Barbera produced a second animated series starring the Globetrotters in 1979 called The Super Globetrotters, this time featuring the players as superheroes. In spring 1999 TV Land aired repeats of Harlem Globetrotters on Saturday mornings as part of its TV Land Super Retrovision Saturdaze lineup.

The syndication rights to this and a few other H-B shows on CBS were acquired by Viacom Enterprises. Although Viacom would lose TV rights to most of these shows, they retained the rights to Harlem Globetrotters since it was copyrighted by CBS. After various corporate mergers, the TV rights would be acquired by CBS Television Distribution. Warner Bros. has no rights to the program.

[edit] Gold Key Comics series

In April 1972, Gold Key Comics launched a comic adaptation of the Harlem Globetrotters animated series; their first comic book appearance was in issue #8 of Gold Key's Hanna-Barbera Fun-In published in July 1971. Several stories in early issues were based on episodes of the TV show. The comic series lasted for 4 years and 12 issues through January 1975.

[edit] Soundtrack LP

A soundtrack album, The Globetrotters, was produced by Jeff Barry and released in 1970 by Kirshner Records (Kirshner #KES-106), which featured tunes heard in episodes of the series (during the basketball game sequences). Don Kirshner served as music supervisor for both the series and the record. 2 singles were generated from this onetime release, one of which (a cover of the J.R. Bailey and The Cadillacs tune "Rainy Day Bells") managed to crack the Top 100, followed by 3 non-album singles. Jimmy Radcliffe produced, with Wally Gold, and provided the vocals on "Duke Of Earl", "Everybody's Got Hot Pants" from the first non-album single and co-wrote and produced "Everybody Needs Love" from the second as well providing a number of songs and recordings for the series. Globetrotter frontman Meadowlark Lemon was the only member of the team to be actually involved with the project, adding occasional background vocals to some tracks.

[edit] Tracklist for The Globetrotters

(side 1)

The Globetrotter's Theme (Jeff Barry) - 0:41
Globetrottin' (Jeff Barry) - 2:19
Bouncin' All Over the World (Neil Sedaka - Howard Greenfield) - 3:01
Sneaky Pete (Rudy Clark - J.R. Bailey - K. Williams) - 2:45
Marathon Mary (Neil Sedaka - Howard Greenfield) - 3:06
River Queen (Neil Sedaka - Howard Greenfield) - 3:06
House Party (Rudy Clark - J.R. Bailey - K. Williams) - 3:00

(side 2)

Gravy (Rudy Clark - J.R. Bailey - K. Williams) - 3:19
Meadowlark (Neil Sedaka - Howard Greenfield) - 2:22
Lillia Peabody (Rudy Clark - J.R. Bailey - K. Williams) - 2:56
Put a Little Meat On Your Bones, Lucinda (Neil Sedaka - Howard Greenfield) - 3:00
Rainy Day Bells (Neil Sedaka - Howard Greenfield) - 3:02
Cheer Me Up (Jeff Barry - Ron Dante - J. Carr) - 2:22

[edit] Commercial singles (1970)

"Cheer Me Up" b/w "Gravy" (Kirshner # 63-5006)
"Rainy Day Bells" b/w "Meadowlark" (Kirshner #63-5008)

[edit] Non-album singles (1971)

"Duke of Earl" b/w "Everybody's Got Hot Pants" (Kirshner #63-5012)
"Everybody Needs Love" b/w "ESP" (Kirshner #63-5016)
"Sweet Georgia Brown" b/w "Bye Bye Blues" (Harlem Globetrotters #45-HGT-300 A/B)

[edit] Episodes

[edit] Season 1 (1970-1971)

HG-1. The Great Geese Goof-Up (9/12/1970)

HG-2. Football Zeros (9/19/1970)

HG-3. Hold That Hillbilly (9/26/1970)

HG-4. Bad News Cruise (10/3/1970)

HG-5. Rodeo Duds (10/10/1970)

HG-6. Double Dribble Double (10/17/1970)

HG-7. Heir Loons (10/24/1970)

HG-8. From Scoop to Nuts (10/31/1970)

HG-9. What a Day For a Birthday (11/7/1970)

HG-10. It's Snow Vacation (11/14/1970)

HG-11. The Great Ouch Doors (11/21/1970)

HG-12. Hooray For Hollywood (11/28/1970)

HG-13. Shook-Up Sheriff (12/5/1970)

HG-14. Gone To The Dogs (12/12/1970)

HG-15. The Wild Blue Yonder (12/19/1970)

HG-16. Long Gone Gip (1/2/1971)

[edit] Season 2 (1971-1972)

HG-17. A Pearl Of A Game (9/11/1971)

HG-18. Nothing To Moon About (9/18/1971)

HG-19. Pardon My Magic (9/25/1971)

HG-20. Granny's Royal Ruckus (10/2/1971)

HG-21. Soccer To Me (10/9/1971)

HG-22. Jungle Jitters (10/16/1971)

[edit] Production credits

Produced and Directed By: William Hanna and Joseph Barbera
Co-Producer: Alex Lovy
Story Supervision: Joe Ruby, Ken Spears
Story: Mike Maltese, Woody Kling, Dalton Sandifer, Tom Dagenais
Story Direction: Earl Klein, George Singer, Paul Sommer, Howard Swift
Voices: Eddie Anderson, Rudy Clark, Scatman Crothers, Robert DoQui, Richard Elkins, Stu Gilliam, Meadowlark Lemon, Nancy Wible, Johnny Williams, Ken Williams
Animation Director: Charles A. Nichols
Production Design: Iwao Takamoto
Production Supervisor: Victor O. Schipek
Layout: Bob Singer, Don Morgan, Mike Arens, Rick Gonzalez, Mo Gollub, Dan Noonan, Alex Ignatiev, Herb Johnson
Animation: Volus Jones, Rudy Cataldi, Don Patterson, John Walker, Ken Southworth, Carlo Vinci, Bob Goe, Dave Tendlar, Jack Parr
Background Styling: Walt Peregoy
Backgrounds: Lorraine Andrina, Bill Butler, Philip DeGuard, Rolly Oliva, Don Watson, Ann Guenther
Animation Checking: Marceil Ferguson, Jeanne Thorpe, Grace McCurdy, Woody Chatwood
Titles: Robert Schaefer
Music Supervision: Don Kirshner
Musical Director: Ted Nichols
Globetrotters Tunes Produced By: Jeff Barry
Technical Supervision: Frank Paiker
Ink & Paint Supervision: Roberta Greutert
Xerography: Robert "Tiger" West
Sound Direction: Richard Olson, Bill Getty
Editorial Supervisor: Larry Cowan
Music Editor: James Yaras
Effects Editors: Joe Reitano, Rex Lipton
Negative Consultant: William E. DeBoer
Post Production: Joed Eaton
Camera: Charles Flekal, Dick Blundell, Dennis Weaver, George Epperson

[edit] External links

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