The Banana Splits Adventure Hour

I watched this show in 1969 when my father was stationed in Bangkok and the family relocated. I didn't like it. I loved it. And I can still hum the Banana Splits theme song. The part I enjoyed a lot was the write-in letter for Dear Drooper. He would always come up with the zaniest reply. To a writer, amazed that the light from the sun travels 86,000 miles per second, he replies, "Don't forget, it's downhill all the way." To a safety conscious student driver, he replies, "The most dangerous part of the car is the nut holding the steering wheel." I still have the tape recording (monoraul audio) I made back then. This is part of my childhood and my early lessons in humor.

I really loved this show when I was kid, because it exposed me to all kinds of genres of story... pirates, musketeers, etc. It is a great all-around show and I hope that Cartoon Network brings it back more often in re-runs (I have seen it on Saturday Morning Flashback with my step-son several times).

I wish that there were more shows like this one the air for kids... innocuous little adventure shows with a certain innocence to them.

This was basically, "The Monkees" for kids with cartoons and a weekly serial tossed in for fun. Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In was an obvious influence as well with the pop-art sets, patterns and color schemes. Paul Winchell's voice (Jerry Mahoney and Mortimer Snurd - a popular Ventriloquist/Dummy act of the time) as Fleagle was fun. Winchell was also the voice of "Tigger" from Disney's "Winnie the Pooh" and many other cartoon voices, including the leader of the "Anthill Mob" in "The Adventures of Penelope Pitstop." Daws Butler's voice (Huckleberry Hound and many others) as Bingo was great too.

I had to see reruns of this show to remember it was Jan Michael Vincent's t.v. debut in the "Danger Island" segment.

"Chongo" (Uh Oh) got a little irritating with his constant bird sounds in place of real language.

The cartoons were fun - Three Musketeers and Arabian Nights.

It was an obvious Hannah-Barbera effort.

Lots of fun for kids. Teens too.

GREAT theme song (La la la, la la la la)!

When I was a tiny girl, I used to watch this special Hanna-Barbera hour featuring such zany live-action costumed animals sharing a groovy 2-D pad splashed in such bright psychedelic colors that would remind you of Pee-Wee Herman's Playhouse several decades later. All donning cool shades and old-fashioned firemen's helmets, the funny furry foursome - Bingo the toothy gorilla, Drooper the swingin' lion, Snork the woolly elephant, and my most favorite of all, Fleegle the floppy beagle with a cherry red tongue - would all run, turn around, bump into each other, hop around, and go tumbling all down as well as being scared right out of their wits by the sudden appearance of a little girl, surviving a day at an amusement park, playing such silly tunes in a band typical of cartoons from the '60s-'70s, and just plain engaging in such wacky adventures that would set off any Gen-X off into helpless gales of laughs and memories. And then after a whole series of a cuckoo bird popping out its head and then getting it whacked by a closing clock door and an ape's head moving its motorized mouth over the doorway, our singing hippie hosts would suddenly scurry away to make the way for a few short cartoons featuring The Four Musketeers and the Aladdin-like characters with their pet donkey as well as a live-action quickie all about a group of shipwrecked adventurers living on a tropical island full of crocodiles, pirates, and native cannibals. But once those little shows are over, our most beloved Banana Splits will be suddenly back with their banana-crazy antics and even more off-the-wall musical numbers to send off anyone growing up at the time on a very pleasant nostalgic trip all the way back to their Brady-Bunch childhood of the swinging Sixties and Seventies. Today, you can still visit your old rockin' pals at the most ungodly hours during the weekends on the Cartoon Network!

During half-way into the show,there was this short piece that have several survivors stranded on a tropical island where they faced great danger at every turn,and along the way they had this huge guy(played by Rocke Tarkington),and his mate who guided them through the treacherous jungles,and fought off deadly animals,and bloodthirsty pirates,and etc......... It also had a very young Jan Micheal-Vincent in this too,and it still comes on every Friday night on Cartoon Network. The show I'm preferring to was one action packed show,even though it only ran for like eight to nine minutes....Catch the non-stop excitement of "Danger Island",as part of the Banana Splits Show. In case you're wondering,the show was very good,and one of the best memories from my childhood.