Eleanor Rigby: The Beatles Cartoon Series
via Beatlefans.com
Before being animated in “The Yellow Submarine”, the Beatles had their own cartoon series. The series premiered on ABC on Saturday, September 25, 1965 at 10:30 am. Each show was a half-hour long and consisted of two “adventures” and two sing-a-long songs. Lyrics were flashed on the screen so that viewers could join in. The show was an instant success.
The show was produced by King Features Productions. The voices of the Beatles cartoon characters were supplied by voice actors Lance Percival (Paul and Ringo), and Paul Frees (John and George). Animation was done overseas at TVC of London and Astransa, an Australian company. TVC is also the company that produced the animated movie “Yellow Submarine”. The scripts were relatively easy to develop, as the episodes were based on popular Beatles songs.
The cartoons remained on ABC for three more years, with the final two seasons being reruns of previous episodes. After receiving previously unheard of daytime television ratings in its first season, its second season, however, lost ratings to CBS’s Saturday morning line-up. Apparently The Beatles couldn’t compete with the likes of “Space Ghost”, “Frankenstein Jr. and the Impossibles”, “Mighty Mouse” and “Mighty Heroes”.
In the fall of 1968 the series was moved to Sunday mornings, where it remained until its final broadcast on September 7, 1969. There were a total of 39 episodes made.
The cartoon is quite a bit lighter than the stuff seen in “Yellow Submarine”.
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On December 13th, 2007 at 12:00 am
Very interesting, definitely for kid. Especially thought the idea that all of the lonely people were elderly is worth a criticism.
On December 17th, 2007 at 12:00 am
Bit of Beatles trivia. Apple bought all the rights to the original cartoons just so that they could never be shown again. The anger The Beatles had towards the cartoons was also partly why actors did their voices in Yellow Submarine.