32 Banana Splits

First  watched  :  Uncertain

Banana  Splits  was  another  Hanna -Barbera  production  mixing  live  action  with  animation. The  show  presented  two  new  cartoon  series  and  a  live  action  serial  with  comic  links  provided  by  four  guys  in  outlandish  animal  costumes, the  Banana  Splits. Ideas  were  borrowed  from  everywhere. The  Splits  "performed"  as  a  band  in  a  not  too  subtle  dig  at  The  Monkees. Snorky  the  elephant  - my  favourite - could  only  communicate  by  honking  a  la  Harpo  Marx  and  the  manic presenting  style  apparently  owed  a  lot  to  Rowan  and  Martin's  Laugh  -In.

I  didn't  get  any  of  that  at  the  time  of  course; I  just  thought  it  was  great  fun. The  cartoon  series  were  my  first  introduction  to  two  pieces  of  classic  literature. Arabian  Knights  owed  very  little  to  the  original  stories ; it  was  just  a  relocated  superhero  adventure  with  a  team  consisting  of  a  dashing  young  hero, a  femme  fatale  princess, a  muscle  man, a  magician  and  most  memorably  a  guy  who could  turn  into  an  animal - "Size  of  an  elephant  !". The  Three  Musketeers  was  a little  more  faithful  to  its  source  material  though  had  me  constantly  scratching  my  head  at  the  title  as  there  were  clearly  four  of  them; my  favourite,  for  no  reason  I  can  recall  was  Aramis.  There  was  briefly  a third  cartoon - which  I  still  remember - called  Micro  Ventures  about  a  team  of  scientists  shrunken  to  study  insects  the  better  but  it  was  decided  that  wasn't  working  so  it  was  pulled  after  four  episodes. The  decidedly  un-pc live  action  serial  Danger  Island  didn't  interest  me  as  much   but  is  notable  for  starring  a  young  Jan-Michael  Vincent  as  its  hero  and  being  directed  by  Richard  Donner,  cutting  his  teeth  before  Superman  and  Lethal  Weapon.

The  musical  interludes  were  stylistically  varied  as  they  would  be  with  Barry  White providing  the  song  one  week  and  Gene  Pitney  the  next. They  would  start  with  a  few  cursory  shots  of  the  "band"  pretending  to  play  their  instruments  then  follow  them  as  they  wandered  around  a  local  amusement  park  high-fiving  the  kids  and  trying  out  the  rides. The  seminal  opening  titles  had  them  riding  beach  buggies  to  the  strains  of  that   song   and  you  wonder  how  many  of  today's  fiftysomething  quad  bikers  are  humming  that  to  themselves  as  they  crest  a  hill.