Alice in Wonderland or What's a Nice Kid Like You Doing in a Place Like This?

And has since March 1966. This sounds like a Hanna-Barbera version of Alice, not only Janet Waldo as Alice, making her sound like Josie, b ut even Fred and Barney as the Caterpillar, and it is HB. BTW regarding a poster..I don't think Alice had boots, but otherwise neither here nor there. We all know how the classic Lewis Carroll story goes: Bumps her head, finds her way into the television set and therefor Wonderland..well, in H-B's world.

ALso there are both almost all the stock players of HB and some surprises like Hedda hopper...Bill Dana....Zsa Zsa Gabor..and esp.that cheshire cat Sammy Davis Jr.

Worth watching.

"Alice in Wonderland or What's a Nice Kid Like You Doing in a Place Like This?" originally aired a few days after my 7th birthday. I still remember Sammy Davis Junior's Cheshire Cat, Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble's 2-headed caterpillar, Zsa Zsa Gabor's Queen of Hearts and Daws Butler's Phil Silver-esque sportscaster and W. C. Fields-ian King of Hearts. Pretty top-shelf work from the Hanna Barbera cartoon factory.

For 49 minutes, this 62-year-old man was a child again. Highly recommended for other children of the 60s. Even though it's almost July, I may fire up 1964's Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer or 1966's How the Grinch Stole Christmas!

This musical spoof of the Lewis Carroll classic,is set in modern times in this grand animated special that was produced by Hanna-Barbera,and was first shown as a prime-time special in full color for ABC-TV on March 30,1966. The sponsors for this hour-long special were Rexall Drugs and the Coca-Cola Bottling Company. In this updated version,it follows the adventures of Alice and her dog Fluff in Wonderland where they meet an amusing assortment of characters,among them Hedda Hatter,a female counterpart of the Mad Hatter;Humphrey Dumpty,whose voice was patterned after that of actor Humphrey Bogart;and the White Knight a character that resembles Bill Dana's Jose Jimenez character(and rightly so). And speaking of the characters,the main character Alice was done by Hanna-Barbera stockplayer Janet Waldo(aka Judy Jetson). Other H-B stockplayers supplying voice talent were regulars Don Messick(the voice of Ranger Smith of Yogi Bear,Dr. Benton Quest of Jonny Quest,and other H-B characters),veteran voice stockplayer Daws Butler(Yogi Bear,Huckleberry Hound,and other Hanna-Barbera characters),Alan Reed(the voice of Fred Flintstone),Harvey Korman(Kazoo),Allan Melvin(Magilla Gorilla),Howard Morris(Atom Ant,and other characters)and Mel Blanc(not only the voice of Bugs Bunny but was also the voice of Barney Rubble of The Flintstones and Mr. Spacely of The Jetsons).

It also featured the voices of Zsa Zsa Gabor(Queen of Hearts);along with Hedda Hopper(Hedda Hatter),Howard Morris(White Rabbit),Mad Hatter (Harvey Korman),Alice's Father/Humphrey Dumpty(Allan Melvin),King of Hearts/March Hare(Daws Butler),Cheshire Cat(Sammy Davis, Jr.),White Knight(Bill Dana in his Jose Jimenez character),and the Caterpillar (Alan Reed/Mel Blanc). Directed by Alex Lovy and Produced by William Hanna and Joesph Barbera,the prime-time special "Alice In Wonderland,or What's A Nice Kid Like You Doing In A Place Like This",was a surprise hit when it first aired and it did very well in the ratings,a first for a animated prime-time special that was shown on a major television network. The title theme song,done by Sammy Davis,Jr. became a top-ten hit on the Billboard charts in 1966. However,do to the success of this prime-time special,ABC rebroadcast it twice in prime-time on November 19, 1967,and for the final time in March of 1969. That was the last time it was ever shown again on network television. Not a bad concept from Hanna-Barbera neither,since its about time this came to DVD.

"What's a nice girl like you

Doing in a place like this?

What's a nice girl like you

Doing in a place like this?

Oh, I've got a feeling,

You won't like it here.

The potato chips are soggy

And they water the beer.

So what's a nice girl like you

Doing in a place like this?"

Hanna-Barbera's TV special "Alice in Wonderland, or What's a Nice Kid Like You Doing in a Place Like This?" doesn't promote fidelity to the source material; having to do a book report on "Alice in Wonderland," Alice falls through her TV set after her dog Fluff leaps into it and finds herself you know where, meeting several of Lewis Carroll's best-known characters while trying to find her pet.

It's less boring than the Disney version, but concerns about some dated trappings aside (will any children watching this today know who Hedda Hopper was?), Bill Dana's adaptation isn't as funny as it wants to be; Alice's trial for stealing the tarts - I told you it wasn't loyal to the book - is particularly tiresome. It also drags a bit when the focus is purely on Alice, and when she has to sing as well...

But all is forgiven when the cards are playing the game, when Fred and Barney's caterpillar come on, or when the Sammy Davis Jr-voiced Cheshire Cat is on screen. The latter isn't on for long, but he makes this worth tuning in for.

"I've gotta split..."