Spoofing the then-popular superhero and spy genres, The Atom Ant/Secret Squirrel Show was cartoon giant Hanna-Barbera’s first project for the NBC network.
Atom Ant starred a very able arthropod who could not only fly, but also lift more than ten times his own body weight. Atom Ant communicated with his superiors via the antennae on his helmet, awaiting their orders to go capture an array of enemies, whose names were conveniently listed in Atom's "Crook Book." Even though Atom was not so easy to see, he could always be heard, shouting his battle cry of “Up and at ’em, Atom Ant!”
On the other half of the bill was Secret Squirrel, Agent 000, the James Bond of the rodent kingdom. Wearing a trenchcoat and laden with gadgets, the agent and his fez-wearing sidekick, Morocco Mole (who sounded a lot like Peter Lorre), worked for Double-Q Agency in England. Together they eluded such villains as Yellow Pinky, whose name somehow didn't instill as much fear as Goldfinger. But after all, this was Saturday morning.
As powerful as the two heroes were, they were also gracious, sharing their air time with two other Hanna-Barbera cartoons. The first was Precious Pupp, a conniving dog with a very raspy laugh, who lived with Granny Sweet. The young-at-heart Granny was always speeding off on her motorcycle, leaving Precious to play man of the house.
Rounding out the show were The Hillbilly Bears, a clan who lived in the mountains and lazed around to the sound of the banjo. Paw Rugg, the muttering head of the family, spent most of his time asleep, awaking only to blast someone off his property with a shotgun. Maw Rugg smoked a pipe and ran the house, while daughter Floral and son Shagg were constantly wreaking havoc and avoiding responsibility.
After just over one season together, the two title heroes parted ways to star in their own self-titled shows. But less than a year later, ant and squirrel realized they worked better as a team, and The Atom Ant/Secret Squirrel Show was reborn for a final season.
The show would only last until 1968, but Secret Squirrel wasn't done gracing the small screen. More than 25 years later, the nutty agent could be seen in all-new episodes on Hanna-Barbera’s Two Stupid Dogs, accompanied by Morocco Mole and a bull superior.
See also: Atom Ant, Secret Squirrel
Release History
9/9/67 - 9/7/68 NBC
TV Sub Categories
animated
TV Studio
Hanna-Barbera
Television Cast
Atom Ant Howard Morris
Atom Ant Don Messick
Precious Don Messick
Pupp Don Messick
Shag Rugg Don Messick
Maw Rugg Jean VanderPyl
Floral Rugg Jean VanderPyl
Winsome Witch Jean VanderPyl
Morocco Mole Paul Frees
Squiddly Diddly Paul Frees
Paw Rugg Henry Corden
Secret Squrrel Mel Blanc
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Spiderman History
Spider-Man is the creation of Marvel Comics legend Stan Lee, his artistic partner Jack Kirby, and artist Steve Ditko. Spider-Man first appeared in 1962 in the Marvel comic Amazing Fantasy #15; his own series, The Amazing Spider-Man, began the next year. According to the story line, Spider-Man is the alter ego of student Peter Parker; an accidental bite from a radioactive spider gave Parker the arachnid's relative strength and agility plus a tingling "spider sense" for danger. After his Uncle Ben is killed by a burglar, Parker determines to use his new powers to fight crime, dressed in a mask and form-fitting costume and equipped with spider-like web slingers. Ongoing characters in the Spider-Man universe include his love interest Mary Jane Watson, kindly worrywart Aunt May, hothead Daily Bugle publisher Jonah Jameson and exotic villains Doctor Octopus and the Green Goblin. Spider-Man became a daily comic strip in 1977, and has been featured in a variety of animated TV series.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Captain Caveman
While technically Captain Caveman didn't get his very own cartoon during Saturday mornings that focused only on him (his original show was Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels), and that once he did, it aired during primetime (in segments within The Flintstones show)...I'm going to write about him anyway.There are two famous characters in the world right now that everyone just seems to take for granted without ever questioning what they are or where they came from. One of them is Grimace. Just what the hell food is he supposed to be representing? The second is Captain Caveman. I mean, yeah, he's from the prehistoric times and he's a caveman...but he doesn't look anything like man, unless he's an EXTREMELY hairy man. But cavemen weren't THAT hairy...were they? So if he isn't a homo sapiens...then...actually he kind of looks like a distant forefather of Grimace, come to think of it. Uh...In Captain Caveman's segment in The Flintstones, he is portrayed as a Superman-like character: secret identity, working in a newspaper company (with Wilma and Betty!), wearing glasses to hide his alter-ego. An absurdly elaborate transformation sequence turns him into Captain Caveman, who actually can't fly on his own. Rather, his magic club allows him to fly, among other things.Thousands of years into the future he would be found encased in ice by a certain group of mystery-loving teenage women. But this raises a question: how, with all his superpowers and stuff, does he get trapped in ice at all?
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