The Mighty Heroes Explained

Genre:Animation, comedy
Country:United States
Language:English
Num Seasons:1
Num Episodes:21
Executive Producer:William M. Weiss
Runtime:30 min
Network:CBS

The Mighty Heroes is an American Saturday morning animated television series created by Ralph Bakshi for the Terrytoons company. The original show debuted on CBS, on October 29, 1966, and ran for one season with 21 episodes.[1]

The stories took place in Good Haven, a fictitious city that was continually beset by various supervillains. When trouble occurred, the city launched a massive fireworks display to summon a quintet of high-flying superheroes into action—Strong Man, Rope Man, Tornado Man, Cuckoo Man, and Diaper Man.[2]

Premise

In Act 1 of each episode, the team members were portrayed as accident-prone bunglers. A typical scenario involved them getting entangled and clumsily offering stock apologies while falling together, often leading to their capture by the villain. In Act 2, after escaping the villain's deathtrap in the cliffhanger, the team always managed to regroup and fight with proper coordination to emerge victorious. Their roster of villains included the Drifter,[3] the Ghost Monster, the Enlarger, the Frog,[4] the Junker,[5] the Monsterizer,[6] the Toy Man, the Shocker, the Shrinker,[7] and the Scarecrow.[8]

Production

The cartoons originally appeared as a segment of the long-running Mighty Mouse Playhouse during the 1966–67 season, which was renamed Mighty Mouse and The Mighty Heroes in recognition of the new segment.[9] Some weeks during the network run, two complete Mighty Heroes segments would open and close the show with a classic Mighty Mouse cartoon in-between. In other weeks, one Mighty Heroes episode would be split in two to open and close the show, with two Mighty Mouse cartoons broadcast in-between.

The character voices were provided by Herschel Bernardi, who provided all voices of Strong Man, Diaper Man, and Tornado Man, and Lionel Wilson, who provided Cuckoo Man and Rope Man. Bernardi was also the original provider of the "Ho Ho Ho" voice of the Jolly Green Giant and of StarKist's Charlie the Tuna's voice in commercials. Wilson was also the voice of the title character in another famous Terrytoons series, Tom Terrific.

Only 21 episodes of The Mighty Heroes were ever produced; the series came to an end when Bakshi left Terrytoons in 1967.

Post first-run syndication

Reruns of The Mighty Heroes were eventually syndicated by Viacom (now CBS Media Ventures) in the 1970s as part of the Mighty Mouse package.[10] There have also been two licensed VHS releases. Ten of the Mighty Heroes cartoons were also run as theatrical shorts in movie theaters between 1969 and 1971.[11]

The characters appeared in animated form as guest stars in the episode "Heroes and Zeroes" of the late 1980s series , produced by Bakshi, in which they had all retired and were running the accounting firm of Man, Man, Man, Man and Man. Even Diaper Man had grown up, evidenced by his having a mustache. They were later included in the 1999 Terrytoons pilot Curbside.[12]

Home video

In 1985 Children's Video Library (under license from Viacom) released VHS tapes with a variety of stars.

  1. 0180 "The Good Guys Hour" includes 1) The Shrinker, 2) The Monsterizer as well as Mighty Mouse, Deputy Dawg and James Hound cartoons.
  2. 0181 "The Good Guys" includes 1) The Plastic Blaster, 2) The Frog as well as Mighty Mouse, Deputy Dawg and Hector Heathcoat cartoons.

Later in 1989 they released two Mighty Heroes VHS Tapes with 6 cartoons on each tape, covering the first 12 cartoons of the series.

  1. TT 2630 1) The Shrinker, 2) The Monsterizer, 3) The Plastic Blaster, 4) The Frog, 5) The Junker, 6) The Ghost Monster
  2. TT 2631 1) The Stretcher, 2) The Drifter, 3) The Shocker, 4) TheEnlarger, 5) The Toy Man, 6) The Duster

In 2022, Amazon FreeVee uploaded the Video Treasures VHS tapes (complete with VHS streaking and glitches) for free streaming on Amazon.com, IMDB, and many cable TV carriers.

Comic books

There are three comic book adaptations of The Mighty Heroes. The first series was published by Dell Comics in 1967 and ran for four issues.[13] The second series was published by Spotlight Comics in 1987 and ran for one issue. The third series was published by Marvel Comics in 1998 and also ran for one issue; this comic provided an origin story for the Heroes, and also the real names of the four adult members of the team.[14]

Characters

All five of the Mighty Heroes had the power to fly. Individually, they were:

None of the real names of the Mighty Heroes were ever revealed, nor were origin stories told for any of them, in any of the animated cartoons. In the 1998 comic book, they got their powers and costumes when a meteor-like being crashed down on Earth; his duty was to grant mighty powers to the most deserving people on the planet, but in this case he made a mistake. Nevertheless, the empowered quintet were determined to prove that they were indeed worthy to be called the Mighty Heroes.[14]

Further reading

Notes and References

  1. http://www.toonopedia.com/mighty_h.htm The Mighty Heroes
  2. Book: Perlmutter . David . The Encyclopedia of American Animated Television Shows . 2018 . Rowman & Littlefield . 978-1538103739 . 393.
  3. The Mighty Heroes - Episode: The Drifter, YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4zVHSE5ngs
  4. Mighty Heroes — The Frog, YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHkKIZVeXjk
  5. The Mighty Heroes -- The Junker -- Full episode, YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TKCAwTyW5c
  6. The Mighty Heroes - Monsterizer, YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_-7iCfHSo0
  7. Mighty Heroes — The Shrinker, YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvKEZtGOvbc
  8. Book: Woolery . George W. . Children's Television: The First Thirty-Five Years, 1946-1981, Part 1: Animated Cartoon Series . 1983 . Scarecrow Press . 0-8108-1557-5 . registration . 14 March 2020 . 183–184.
  9. Book: Hamonic . W. Gerald . Terrytoons: The Story of Paul Terry and His Classic Cartoon Factory . 2018 . John Libbey Publishing, Ltd . 314–316 . 978-0-86196-729-2 . 16 March 2024.
  10. Book: Erickson . Hal . Television Cartoon Shows: An Illustrated Encyclopedia, 1949 Through 2003 . 2005 . 2nd . McFarland & Co . 978-1476665993 . 543–544.
  11. Book: Lenburg . Jeff . The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons . 1999 . Checkmark Books . 0-8160-3831-7 . 6 June 2020 . registration . 109-110.
  12. Web site: Curbside (Nickelodeon).
  13. Book: Wells . John . American Comic Book Chronicles: 1965-1969 . 2014 . TwoMorrows Publishing . 978-1605490557 . 160.
  14. https://readcomiconline.li/Comic/The-Mighty-Heroes/Full?id=142676#1 1998 Mighty Heroes comic