Concept:
It's the Fantastic Four as you've never seen them before – without
the Human Torch, but with an annoying robot named HERBIE!
Total Episodes: 13
Original Air Dates:
September 9, 1978 – December 16, 1978
Original Network:
NBC
Geek Factor:
7
Characters:
Mister Fantastic
(Voice of Mike Road): Leader of the group, scientific genius with the
ability to stretch his body. Married to Sue Richards.
The Thing
(Voice of Ted Cassidy): Reed's best friend and former test pilot,
with a good sense of humor (except where HERBIE is concerned), the
cosmic rays gave him incredible strength, endurance and toughness but
at the cost of looking like a monster.
The Invisible Girl
(Voice of Ginny Tyler): Wife of Reed Richards, mother figure to the
team, with the ability to turn herself and anything else invisible,
and cast an invisible force field.
H.E.R.B.I.E.
(Voice of Frank Welker): A robot whose name stands for Humanoid
Experimental Robit, B-Type, Integrated Electronics. Mostly for comic
relief with the Thing, but provides information on the spot as
needed.
Geek Guest-Stars:
Hal Smith,
who provided an assortment of voices on the show, was the voice of
Gumby, did some assorted voices on Quick
Draw McGraw
and The
Huckleberry Hound Show
as well as other H-B shows of the era, appeared on-screen in two
episodes of Dennis
the Menace,
was King Theseus in The
Three Stooges Meet Hercules,
voiced Professor Argus on Rod
Rocket,
Dr. Todd Goodheart and others in The
Funny Company,
a bunch of characters including Gunner and Engineer Taurus on Space
Angel,
the King and Yappee on The
Peter Potamus Show,
Owl in the original Winnie the Pooh shorts, Coil Man on Frankenstein
Jr. and the Impossibles,
and
many other roles – as noted in a previous entry about him in this
series!
John
Stephenson
did the voices of Doctor Doom, Karnak, Magneto, and many others! His
voice career began as narrator for The
Ruff & Reddy Show,
and later went on to be the voice of Fancy-Fancy and the Sergeant on
Top Cat, Dr.
Benton C. Quest and others on Johnny
Quest,
Chief Winchley on The
Secret Squirrel Show,
onscreen as Varner in an episode of The
Man From UNCLE
(he had other on-screen roles as well in non-geek shows), narrator on
The Atom Ant
Show,
Colonel Fusby on The
Peter Potamus Show,
Mr. Slate and others on The
Flintstones,
Professor Conroy on Frankenstein
Jr. and the Impossibles,
and many other voices on shows like Birdman,
Moby Dick and the Mighty Mightor, Abbott and Costello, Arabian
Knights, Young Samson & Goliath, Wacky Races, The Banana Splits
Adventure Hour, etc.,
etc. etc. He's another of those guys who did voices for just about
every Hanna-Barbera show! Later, he could be heard as Doctor Strange,
Eric the Viking and Loki on Spider-Man
and His Amazing Friends, Gen.
Flagg on G.I.
Joe,
Doggie Daddy in Yogi's
Treasure Hunt,
and an amazing range of other roles! Apparently his last work was
providing a voice for a Scooby-Doo
video, but
it's worth noting he'd done the voice of Mr. Slate one last time on
an episode of Johnny
Bravo.
Don
Messick
did voices in every episode of the show, and I'm pretty sure I've
mentioned his long distinguished voice career before (don't worry,
when I get around to shows that he had a leading role in, I'll cover
it in even more detail). Gene
Moss,
who voiced the Trapster and others, had earlier beeen the voice for a
few characters on Roger
Ramjet,
also writing episodes of that, plus he wrote an episode of Lancelot
Link, Secret Chimp!
Nancy Wible
did
an assortment of voices in the show, too, and had earlier been the
voices of female characters on Davey
and Goliath.
Geek Pedigree:
Jack
Kirby,
who co-created the FF, worked as storyboard artist for the series,
around the time he was moving (temporarily) away from doing comics
work. Jack, as well as Stan
Lee
and Roy Thomas
received writing credits on a number of episodes.
Mike
Road,
the voice of Mr. Fantastic, had earlier done the voices of Ugh on
Space
Ghost,
Zandor and Zok on The
Herculoids,
Race Bannon on Jonny
Quest,
and a bunch of other shows! You can go to the previous entry in this
series for more about his career, but I'm hoping to cover him again
when I get to Jonny
Quest.
Ginny
Tyler,
the
voice of the Invisible Girl, had done voies on Davey
and Goliath, The Sword in the Stone, Mary Poppins, Winnie the Pooh
and the Honey Tree
(those plus her roles on Disney records earned her the title of
“Disney Legend” in 2006), Jan and the Black Widow on Space
Ghost,
Polynesia in Doctor
Dolittle,
and Flirtacia on The
Adventures of Gulliver.
Ted
Cassidy,
the voice of the Thing, will forever be identified with Lurch on The
Addams Family,
and I covered his career in-depth there. Frank
Welker,
the voice of HERBIE, has also been covered quite a bit in prior
entries, but I will get to him again in a future one! Ditto for Dick
Tufeld,
narrator
of the show, who's been mentioned before, and will definitely get
more coverage in future installments!
DVD Release: None in the USA,
but some releases have been made in the UK and Canada.
Notes: HERBIE
was later brought into the Marvel Universe by John Byrne (who also
later explained that HERBIE went into the cartoon because Johnny
Storm was absent the day contracts were to be signed). He's more
recently been seen in the second season of The
Super Hero Squad Show,
where he provided a different explanation to Wolverine for the
switch.
First up this time around is the lobby card above and stills below for "The House that Dripped Blood"!
Lots of art here, beginning with page 5 from JLA #62, by Mike Sekowsky!
This time around, we start with some Power Records, beginning with the above Shazam! one that kind of gives away a plot development...
