The Herculoids featured the warrior king Zandor; his wife, Tara, and their son, Dorno. These three appeared to be the only human inhabitants of their primitive planet. When trouble arose, Zandor summoned a small army of exotic beasts: Igoo, an giant ape with nearly-invulnerable rock-like skin; Zok, a space dragon who generated laser beams from his eyes and tail; Tundro, a dinosaur-rhinoceros hybrid with impenetrable armor and the ability to shoot explosive energy rocks from the horn on his head, and Gloop and Gleep, a pair of protoplasmic shape-shifters. The Herculoids all displayed human-level intelligence, were able to understand human speech and employed impressive combat techniques and teamwork in battle. - From Hanna-Barbera Wiki
In a way the writing was on the wall, that a seismic shift was coming for Hanna-Barbera. With The Flinstones, they started exploring the speculative prehistoric past in 1960 and with The Jetsons they did the same for the future in 1962. Combined with Johnny Quest in 1964, Hanna-Barbera was starting to move in a very different direction.
But it wasn't until the folks behind the popular animation house caught on to the work of Alex Toth that the game really started to change. Toth worked on a series called Space Angel, which attracted the attention of Hanna-Barbera. They brought him on for a little show called Space Ghost which you may have heard of. That show, unlike the other speculative properties before it, was, as the title suggests, set in space.
Space Ghost is a triumph of animation, but it's what would come next that really starts to set the bar for Hanna-Barbera and for science fiction in animation forever after. A year after Space Ghost started airing, a new show was released: The Herculoids. Herculoids is set on an alien world, Amzot, where a simultaneously prehistoric and futuristic family lives. Three of the family are humans, or, at least, human-ish. But the show also features a flying space dragon named Zok, a rock ape named Igoo, a ten-legged rhinosaurus with a projectile-firing horn named Tundro, and two amorphous blobs named Gleep and Gloop. A thoroughly modern family, if ever there was.
The Herculoids ran for only 18 episodes in 1967 but returned again in 1981 as part of a Space Stars lineup of Hanna-Barbera's science fiction characters. The impact of the show is enormous. You can see its influence on Star Trek, which was also airing at the time. You can draw a line between The Herculoids and Star Wars, even. Toth, himself inspired by the works of Ray Harryhausen, would go on to influence animators and comic book artists for decades after. And The Herculoids is arguably the crown jewel of his achievements because every episode featured dynamic new creatures, all totally original and all perfectly simple. - From SyFy Wire
Eleven new segments were produced in 1981 as part of the Space Stars show. The plotlines are rooted in science fiction, and have story direction and content similar to Jonny Quest and Space Ghost. This series is set on the distant planet Amzot (renamed Quasar in the Space Stars episodes). The name "Amzot" was first mentioned in the Space Ghost episode "The Molten Monsters of Moltar" (in which the Herculoids made a brief guest appearance).
The Herculoids appeared in reruns on Cartoon Network from 1992-2003. The series was shown from 1997-2000 on Cartoon Network's Toonami as part of Cartoon Roulette. In 2000, The series began airing on Cartoon Network's sister channel Boomerang.
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Love that cartoon wish i could watch them again
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