#Birdman and the Galaxy Trio

[thes-hitoverlord]

art by Philtomato

[docgold13]

Cartoon Heroes Paper Cut-Outs

Birdman

Created by Alex Toth for Hanna-Barbera Productions, Birdman is a winged hero bestowed by the sun god Ra with the powers of flight, to shoot solar rays from his fists and project ‘solar shields’ to defend himself against attacks.  With these abilities, Birdman works for Inter-Nation Security as an agent and crimefighter alongside his pet eagle, Avenger.  Among the many villain he faced was the merciless X the Eliminator, Reducto and Mento the Mind-Taker.  Herein he was often aided by his sidekick Birdboy.  

After his retirement from crimefighter, Birdman earned his license to practice law and worked as a defense attorney and civil litigator.  His mantle was later taken up by the young heroine, Birdgirl.

Actor Keith Andes voiced the hero in his original appearance in Birdman and The Galaxy Trio; while actor Gary Cole voiced him in the sequel series, Harvey Birdman: Attorney At Law.   

[stone-cold-groove]

Hannah-Barbera TV Super Heroes. Birdman - 1967.

[theruffiansretrorampage]

art by BezerroBizarro

[omniversalobservations]

Hanna–Barbera's World of Super Adventure (1982?)

Hanna–Barbera's World of Super Adventure featuring the most fantastic collection of spectacular super heroic stars ever assembled! They will take you on adventures in space, meeting strange creatures, to exotic lands and fantastic flights of fancy, to jungle planets and mysterious invaders, to prehistoric times and super forces, to honored and winged avengers, to giant, terrifying creatures against primitive power. In space, land, sea and air, it's a variety of stars – mighty, musical, athletic, extraordinary – from funtastic to the fantastic where amazing weapons, men and robots meet in combat in the far-out reaches of the universe. Dedicated to protecting the peace, these fantastic heroes defend the weak, right the wrong and battle against the forces of evil everywhere. And now it's take-off time for the gathering of the greatest…Hanna–Barbera's World of Super Adventure! Source: Wikipedia

This image was painted by Bob Singer in 1973. The heroes shown here are Birdman, Shazzan, Frankenstein, Jr., Human Torch, Coil-Man, Fluid-Man, Young Samson, Goliath, Space Ghost, Superman, Mighty Mightor, Wonder Woman, Batman, Thing, Zok, Tundro, Zandor, Gloop and Gleep. Source: SuperFriends Wiki

[fandomlife-confessions]

[hasbr0mniverse]

Tooniversary Month! This day Birdman & The Galaxy Trio was released

[chernobog13]

Hanna-Barbera's Saturday morning superheroes by Steve Rude:

Tog; Mightor; Birdman; Avenger; The Galaxy Trio - Meteor Man, Gravity Girl, Vapor Man; The Herculoids - Gloop, Dorno, Tara, Gleep, Zok, Igoo, Tundro, Zandor; Frankenstein Jr.; Buzz Conroy; Jan; Jace; Blip; Space Ghost; The Impossibles - Fluid Man, Coil Man, Multi Man.

[funtasticworld]

HAPPY 66TH ANNIVERSARY TO HANNA-BARBERA

Shows 1966-1967

Frankenstein Jr and the Impossibles // Space Ghost and Dino Boy in the Lost Valley // The Space Kidettes // The Abbott and Costello Cartoon Show // Birdman and the Galaxy Trio // The Herculoids // Shazzan

[clyde49]

Space Ghost: Superhero foster dad in space who keeps getting kidnapped by aliens who want him and his kids dead thankfully he has a trained monkey who's the smartest member of the family for some reason

Birdman: Solar powered tool keeps doing favors for the military and keeps getting beat up by earth weirdos and has to be saved by a shrieking bird

Galaxy Trio: legitimately competent team of three aliens with powers helping people and fighting evil without being rescued by a trained animal

[acmeoop]

Early H-B Home Video Releases (1980s)

The format in which I saw most of these cartoons for the first time: the Worldvision Home Video VHS series

[jedivoodoochile]

[docgold13]

Cartoon Heroes Paper Cut-Outs

The Galaxy Trio

The three extraterrestrial superheroes known as Vapor Man, Gravity Girl and Meteor Man composed the Galaxy Trio.  These heroes patrol space, maintain order and fight evildoers in the name of the Galactic Patrol law enforcement agency.

Vapor Man (voiced by actor Don Messick) possesses the ability to transform part or all of his body into intangible gaseous form.  Gravity Girl (actress Virginia Eiler) has the ability to bend the laws of gravity to her will, allowing her to fly and lift very heavy objects with her mind.  While Meteor Man (actor Ted Cassidy) can increase or decrease the size of any part of his body, greatly enhancing his strength and durability.  

Created by Alex Toth for Hanna-Barbera Productions, the heroes appeared in the animated series ‘Bird Man and The Galaxy Trio’ debuting in September of 1967 airing for a single season.  

[theruffiansretrorampage]

art by BezerroBizarro

[nerds-yearbook]

Appendix: Some of the Fantasy/Sci Fi/etc roles of John Stephenson

Dr Brewster/Phil Coulson/Police Inspector Mark Davis - Science Fiction Theatre (1955 - 56)

Dr Benton Quest - Johnny Quest (1964 - 1965)

Varner - Man From U.N.C.L.E. (1965)

Narrator - The Atom Ant Show (1965)

Get Smart - Parkerson (1965)

Colonel Fusby - The Peter Potamus Show (1964 - 66)

Chief Winchley - The Secret Squirrel Show (1965 - 66)

Professor Conroy - Frankenstein Jr and the Impossibles (1966 - 67)

Native - Galaxy Trio (1967)

Chief Winchley - Atom Ant/Secret Squirrel Show (1967)

Pondo - Mighty Dick and the Mighty Mightor (1967)

John Niven - The Invaders (1967)

Various voices - Birdman (1967 - 68)

Luke - Wacky Races (1968 - 69)

Farlik - Arabian Knights (1968 - 69)

Captain Leech - The Adventures of Gulliver (1968 - 69)

Captain Nemo - Josie and the Pussycats (1970)

Cat - Adventures of Pinocchio (1971)

Parafiend - The Funky Phantom (1971 - 72)

Director - Mission Impossible (1972)

Moton - Josie and the Pussy Cats in Outer Space (1972)

Captain Mike Murphy - Sealab 2020 (1972)

Mr Arable - Charlotte's Web (1973)

Voices - Goober and the Ghost Chasers (1973)

Voices - The New Scooby Doo Movies (1972 - 73)

Mr Finkerton - Inch High Private Eye (1973)

King Plasto - The Super Friends (1973)

Hadji - Jeanie (1973)

Voices - Speed Buggy (1973)

Cousin Itt - The Addams Family cartoon (1973)

Second Team Lawyer - Herbie Rides Again (1974)

Major General - Six Million Dollar Man (1974)

Trash Collector - Patridge Family 2200 AD (1974)

Voices - Dynomutt Dog Wonder (1976)

Voices - 5 Weeks in a Balloon (1977)

Dori - The Hobbit (1977)

Voices - Marvel Action Universe (1977)

Voices - The Scooby Doo Show (1978)

Voices - Fangface (1978)

Captain Snerdley & General Blowhard - Yogi's Space Race (1978)

Captain Snerdly - Galaxy Goof-Ups (1978)

Voices - Scooby Doo Where Are You (1969 - 78)

Doctor Doom - Fantastic Four (1978)

Voices - Scooby Doo/Dynomutt Hour (1976 - 78)

Count Rockula - The Flintstones Meet Rockula and Frankenstone (1979)

Hairy Scary - Casper the Friendly Ghost: Heavy Ain't Scary He's Our Brother (1979)

King Brobdingnag - Gulliver's Travels (1979)

Professor Harkness - Fred and Barney Meet the Thing (1979)

Harry Scary - Casper and the Angels (1979)

Hairy Scary - Casper's First Christmas (1979)

Gondorian Guard - Return of the King (1980)

Voices - Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels (1977 - 1980)

Frank Frankenstein - The Flintstones' New Neighbors (1980)

Voices - Plastic Man (1979 - 1980)

Narrator - The Drak Pack (1980)

Frank Frankenstein - Flintstones: Wind-Up Wilma (1981)

Frank Frankenstein - Flintstones: Jogging Fever (1981)

Frank Frankenstein - Flintstones: Fred's Final Fling (1981)

Voices - Richie Rich/Scooby Doo Show (1980 - 81)

Voices - Space Stars (1981)

Voices - Trollkins (1981)

Dr Norton - Spider-Man (1981 - 82)

Voices - Scooby and Scrappy-Doo Puppy Hour (1982)

Ski Announcer - Inspector Gadget (1983)

General Flagg - G.I. Joe RAH: The MASS Device (1983)

Voices - The Incredible Hulk (1982 - 83)

Voices - The New Scooby and Scrappy-Doo Show (1983)

Colossus - Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends (1981 - 83)

Voices - The Littles (1983)

Voices - Scooby-Doo and Scrappy Doo (1979 - 83)

Voices - Rubik, The Amazing Cube (1983)

Doctor Doolittle - The Voyages of Doctor Doolittle (1984)

Voices - The New Scooby-Doo Mysteries (1984)

Doctor Fury - Robo Force: The Revenge of Nasgar (1984)

Boris Kreepoff - The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo (1985)

Voices - Scooby's Mystery Funhouse (1985 - 86)

Kup - Transformers: Five Faces of Darkness (1986)

Dr Lucifer, Gen Flagg, Gen Franks, Gen Hawk, MacIntosh - G.I. Joe (1985 - 86)

Beef Bonk - Galaxy High School (1986)

Voices - Centurions (1986)

Granok - InHumanoids (1986)

Granok - InHumanoids: The Movie (1986)

Voices - The Smurfs (1981 - 87)

Commissioner - The Jetsons (1985 - 87)

Thundercracker - The Transformers (1984 - 1987)

Bionic 1 - Bionic Six (1987)

Mr Slate - The Jetsons Meet the Flintstones (1987)

Doc - Fraggle Rock cartoon (1987)

Voices - Superman (1988)

Oompo - Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland (1989)

Professor Charles Xavier - Pryde of the X-Men (1989)

Voices - Fantastic Max (1988 - 89)

Jeffers Marston - The Real Ghostbusters (1990)

Voices - A Pup Named Scooby-Doo (1988 - 91)

Major Synapse - Darkwing Duck (1991)

Voices - Spacecats (1991)

Voices - Aahh!!! Real Monsters (1995)

Luke - Wacky Races (2000)

Voices - Scooby-Doo Winter Wonderdog (2002)

Ganthet - Duck Dodgers (2003)

Zelig - What's New Scooby-Doo (2003 - 04)

Sheriff - Scooby-Doo! Abracadabra-Doo (2009)

Voices - Scooby-Doo and the Robots (2011)

Voices - Scooby-Doo Laff-A-Lympics Scary Games (2012)

Voices - Scooby-Doo 13 Spooky Tales Holiday Chills and Thrills (2012)

Roger - Scooby-Doo Frankencreepy (2014)

This is just a glimpse as he had an incredibly large body of film, tv, and voice work, including providing the voice of Mr. Slate in numerous versions of the Flintstones. He worked into almost his 90's.

[scooby-review]

Scooby Doo and Dynomutt, Dog Wonder Crossover Episodes

As mentioned previously, the first season of The Scooby Doo Show aired in syndication with Dynomutt, Dog Wonder. Given Scooby’s popularity, it made sense for Hanna Barbera to pair up their newer cartoons with their heaviest hitters, and thus, The Scooby Doo/Dynomutt hour was born! 

With this airing block, Dynomutt, Dog Wonder, also included three crossover episodes with the Scooby gang! And so I thought I’d take a look at them as a little bonus, a neat way to tie off the first season of Show. 

Everyone Hyde! 

Sometimes also listed as “Everybody Hyde!”, the first episode of Dynomutt, Dog Wonder, follows Willie the Weasel creating a concoction to turn himself, and others, into “Hyde’s”, evil reflections of themselves. As such, Blue Falcon and Dynomutt must hop onto the case and thwart his evil schemes. 

This show is a patented Hanna Barbera superhero show, similar to their other shows such as Birdman and the Galaxy Trio or Johnny Quest. I haven’t seen either of those, but this episode at the very least feels decisively similar to Scooby in formula - this is a super villain they’re fighting against, but Blue Falcon doesn’t fight, there’s no cartoon violence here, rather, he methodically works to capture Mr Hyde. 

Blue Falcon is evidently evocative of Batman, mostly through his muscular design, their body shapes feel incredibly similar, his cowl is mimetic of an animal and they both wear capes. However their personalities appear to greatly differ, Blue Falcon is a fairly plain feeling character, we learn very little about him in this episode besides his craving to fight crime, although, I do like the shading of him collecting all of the characters that are turned into Hyde’s rather than fighting them, he rounds them up and shines sympathy towards them, it’s nice!

Dynomutt on the other hand is inspired by the opposite end of the Hanna Barbera spectrum, the Scooby side. He’s a grey dog fleshed out with green accents, he is the Robin to Blue Falcons Batman, a less serious and accident prone sidekick who is well meaning and ultimately aids greatly. Like Scooby, he’s often poised as simple comedic relief, however, Dynomutt is a far more determined character than Scooby, he loves being a superhero, he’s just somewhat flawed, and that’s great! 

While I understand the idea of making your first episode a crossover with the most popular show your studio makes right now, I do feel like it’s a poor design for creating a good introduction to Blue Falcon and Dynomutt. Despite this, they do a good job at keeping the focus to this pair; this episode feels less like a crossover and more like an episode of Blue Falcon that has the Scooby gang pop up occasionally, like friends constantly bumping into one another while out in town. The gang do fairly little here - we meet them attempting to capture Mr Hyde in what might be one of their poorest traps to date - Scooby was going to throw a bag over his head. However, through some wacky hijinks (I love wacky hijinks, this isn’t demeaning) it’s Dynomutt who falls through the door and gets bagged up. 

They presume Mr. Hyde is a ghost, which isn’t surprising given that by this point the gang had faced three Mr. Hyde’s. But alas, no, this is a villain without a secret identity, the episode doesn’t fixate on mystery, but instead how the Blue Falcon can stop this villain. 

Although he’s not really a Scooby villain, I do prefer this Mr Hyde over any we’ve seen in the main show thus far - this design leans into the more animalistic descriptions found in Stevenson’s 1886 novella. Not to mention the plan of him turning innocents into monsters is a lot of fun! 

Maybe the best aspect of the crossover itself are the interactions between Scooby and Dynomutt, with Scooby looking up to Dynomutt, presumably given he’s a dog celebrity, he’s a superhero, and in Scooby’s eyes, his imperfections are distant, impossible to capture. It fleshes out why I care that the gang is here, especially when they don’t end up doing much else throughout the episode! They aid in the final trap, but the focus is usually put entirely on Blue Falcon, which is good! 

I had a lot of fun watching this episode, there’s a narrator that reminds of me the one from The Power Puff Girls, and having him there acts like exposition panels on a comic book, with this comic book style being pushed as far as possible, moving this episode at such a fast pace it’s impossible to get bored! 

What Now, Lowbrow

Curiously, the second episode of Dynomutt, Dog Wonder, is also a crossover with Scooby. 

We follow the villain Lowbrow, a caveman-like character determined to get an education in crime, believing he will be able to become the king of crime if he does so! Sometimes these incredibly stupid characters can grow tiresome, I mean hell he has a pair of far more intelligent (comparatively) henchmen, which begs the question, why do they work for him? But the show's tone makes this character a joy to watch! He’s so determined, and I love how they use his stupidity to further the plot - he steals a horde of books, flips through the first one he can find with pictures, and just does what the picture demonstrates, it’s great! 

This one also integrates the gang in through them attempting to foil the villain, although here not as a result of a mystery, but simply because they caught him stealing. It makes a lot of sense - Hyde looked like a ghoul, and so the gang chasing after him, assuming he was a ghost in disguise, works perfectly, yet here, Lowbrow just looks like a guy, so I like that they don’t attempt the same reasoning for this pair-up. 

Of the three specials I feel like this does the least with the gang, although I do enjoy the focus on Scooby and Dynomutt, they have a very fun pairing, I love how he tags along in the Blue Falcon car, aiding in this chase, constantly enamoured by Dynomutt despite the fact he’s not always competent at what he does - his heart is always in the right place and that’s all he sees. 

My favourite scene in this episode is one in which the gang are trapped inside some netting, and they’re told that even a single movement could set off a trap, launching a boulder towards them. To escape, Blue Falcon notices a mouse, and so we then follow Dynomutt’s hand extending through Big City, attempting to purchase cheese, then subsequently having to return for money, before returning for the cheese, and then feeding the mouse the block of cheese so he will gnaw through the net to set them free. It’s great. 

Although this is maybe my least favourite episode, the middle feels a little empty at times, I still had a blast! 

The Wizard of Ooze

In our final crossover, episode ten of Dynomutt, Dog Wonder’s first season, we follow the gang as they head out to a swamp on a raft, where they soon after bump into Blue Falcon and Dynomutt after mistaking them for a ghost. 

Despite the episode's namesake, the story in no way relates to The Wizard of Oz, and the “ooze” feels like a weird connection between them. 

The villain of this episode is Swamp Rat and Mudmouth, who intend on pumping the swamp into Big City. They’re fun to watch for sure, Swamp Rat is voiced by Casey Casem and I always love how distinct his voice acting is. 

Something I love about the three episodes I’ve seen is the relationship between Dynomutt and Blue Falcon, with the latter clearly being far more composed, however, you get the idea he loves keeping Dynomutt around despite his constant faults - does he make things harder sometimes? For sure! But in a sense, he’s his apprentice, and their relationship is very sweet. 

The gang don’t have the biggest role here, with us focusing mostly on Scooby and Shaggy - they disguise themselves as termite extinguishers, and I enjoy that, and once again their relationship with Dynomutt is simply a lot of fun to watch! 

Maybe my favourite element of this episode however, is when Shaggy and Scooby are dressed up in Blue Falcon and Dynomutt costumes respectively, they act as bait, and it feels like such a perfect evolution of the three crossovers, it brings in a concept prevalent in one show, and uses it to strengthen the themes of the other - perfect! 

Overall, I think these crossovers are a lot of fun, the substance of them undoubtedly fixates on their home show, but I like that! Again these feel less like crossovers as they do ways to draw in viewers of Scooby to this cool new show, and I think it works well! Truthfully, I really enjoyed these three episodes, they appealed to me in ways I hadn’t thought they would. This is where this concept excels, because more so than crossovers, these feel like the two sets of characters bumping into one another, Blue Falcon is aided by them in his goals, and it makes so much more sense that they would aid him against super villains rather than having him get involved in Mystery Incorporated's silly mysteries. 

They are great episodes of this show and completely serviceable crossovers that highlight some of the joys of this era of Hanna Barbera, an era that I personally really enjoy. All their shows interweave, existing in a single cohesive universe, and the lack of emphasis placed on this is what makes it work - there’s no fanfare, no spectacle, it’s just Blue Falcon bumping into that damn mystery gang again!

Blue Falcon and Dynomutt will return a few times yet, besides the Laff-A-Lympics, which is a series both sets of characters went into rather than guest starring on the others shows, they have appeared in several team-up comics, Scooby Doo and Guess Who, Mystery Incorporated, Scoob! and the DTV movie Scooby-Doo! Mask of the Blue Falcon. Maybe more so than any other Hanna Barbera property, this is the one that has the strongest tie to its sister show. Of course, Dynomutt, Dog Wonder was inspired by Scooby-Doo, but it manages to divert itself in ways other shows never could  - this is a superhero story rather than another group of teenage mystery solvers with their wacky side-kick. 

Thank you so much for reading this Friday bonus review! I thought this would be a fun way to look at the crossovers - there's only been a handful of external Scooby crossovers, there's the infamous Scoobynatural, one with Teen Titans Go, and maybe the one I'm most excited for, the OK KO crossover featuring the Ghoul School. That show in general is one I'm excited to eventually watch in my own time! Next week will see the start of season two!

Also! I wanted to share my Letterboxd and my Serializd! I don't tend to add any reviews, but I might do soon!

Socials - My debut novel is now available! Any support is hugely appreciated :)

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