Fabulous Funnies

This cartoon anthology premeired in 1978 on the NBC TV network in the fall of 1978. The overall theme of this series was to have the stars of the Sunday morning funnies entertain the kids, with moral lessons on how to behave and also, learn from when the characters did wrong in their respective shorts that were shown on the series, and also, to make a statement whenever something was wrong, such as a particular Broom Hilda episode where she went face to face with a factory boss who was polluting the stream by her house and angrily told him to stop it.

Many other episodes dealt with other issues, such as death and what could happen if alcohol was used irresponsibly, which was the theme of another Broom Hilda short.

Filmation's intentions were to use these popular characters from Sunday, and daily, syndicated comics to teach kids on how to behave, to act responsibly and also, to treat other people properly and respectfully regardless of race, creed, color and social standing. This was a semi-common theme of several Filmation shows, both animated and live action, such as Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids, both the 1970's live action, alongside the 1980's animated Ghostbusters series' Shazam, ARK II and Isis. With those latter shows featuring the title characters talking to the viewer at the end of the episodes. However, at the time, the failure of this series on network television became a victim of the changing times within the USA alone as cartoons with educational and morally based overtones were falling out of sync with the USA public. Although Filmation's Fat Albert found new popular life in syndication with both new episodes and reruns, alongside the animated Ghostbusters for its short life with their overtones remaining, this particular series became a victim of those changing times and was the company's last ditch effort to try and show how important learning from favorite comics characters could be essential, but again, it failed due to the changing times and it quietly left the air after only a short time because viewers wanted more emphasis on comedy without any educational things with the cartoons, although three years later on NBC, the Hanna-Barbera produced The Smurfs cartoon series premeired and most of those episodes utilized educational and morals themes within the series and was a nine season ratings hit, while also focusing on comedy, and how to accept and respect the differences of others. Still, Fabulous Funnies suffered as a result of those changing times, which is why it didn't last very long.

However, this series wasn't all that bad. IMHO, the episodes were actually well written and the animation was top notch. The voice acting was also top notch. Plus, some of the episodes were quite amusing and laughable. This series was severely underrated, but was actually a wholesome and entertaining cartoon show. Although this series was hated by TV critics, it actually was pretty good and also, at times, funny and bittersweet. I have never forgotten this series and with the advent of the internet, I revisited this series by watching episodes that have been uploaded on YouTube, and my feelings never changed for it.

Although not popular in the USA, it actually was popular in the UK as there have been several home video releases of this series in that country, both VHS and DVD. A long time ago, there was going to be a USA DVD release of this series, but when both Entertainment Rights, and the video distribution company, BCI/Eclipse, folded, the home video release of this series and others were canceled indefinitely with no new release dates set as Classic Media took over the former company. Maybe one day, we will see this series finally makes it's USA home video debut. We can only hope.

Overall, a classic and entertaining show that entertains as well as educates. Severely underrated.

My rating: *** out of ****

This cartoon featured several other short cartoons within it. It was hosted by Foozy and featured marginally beloved characters like Broom Hilda, The Katzenjammer Kids, Nancy and Sluggo. Oddly, Foozy's own Alley-Oop cartoon was seen less often. The cartoons usually featured a moral of some kind: things like being kind to animals, being responsible in school and in one case, using the Broom Hilda characters, alcoholism (seriously!)It was very tame and easy to take. Even as a kid, I was able to tell that the same voice actor was doing different characters in the same show, sometimes even in the same scene. Those who recall the Katzenjammer kids were probably surprised at how much tamer the pranks of the boys were and how little the Captain and the Inspector had to suffer when compared to earlier versions of the comic. In fact, it was probably a combination of the moral-themed storylines and the tameness which kept the kiddie viewers away. Unlike other 70s cartoon, it didn't have any real central figures to create a lasting impression and was quickly forgotten before the end of the same season in which it began.