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Retro Saturday Morning: The Godzilla Power Hour (1978-81)(NBC)
As many of you know I am a huge Godzilla fan. So I decided to feature a cartoon that has been way overdue here on Retro Saturday Morning. An America cartoon featuring Japan's most famous monster Godzilla.
Yes indeed way back in 1978 Hanna-Barbera, the animation studio that brought us the famous cartoon series The Flintstones and The Jetsons, decided to make their own animated Godzilla cartoon series. Packaged as the Godzilla Power Hour, which also featured the animated adventure series Jana of the Jungle (which I have already featured), made it's debut on NBC on September 9th 1978 and ran in different formats until 1981.
Interestingly enough Godzilla was at his height in popularity here in America in the late 1970s. There was a major marketing and merchandise push for items featuring the monster and the kids of my generation ate it up. Many Americans were first introduced to Godzilla when NBC aired a heavily edited version of the movie Godzilla vs Megalon on prime-time television. The show was actually hosted by comedian John Belushi (Saturday Night Live) in a Godzilla suit. That same year Marvel Comics published a comic book series featuring the monster entitled Godzilla: King of the Monsters. After that came the puzzles, coloring books, View Master reels, action figures, playsets and the giant Shogun Warriors figure that shot of it's own hand. Naturally a cartoon series would follow.
The series would follow the exploits of the crew of the marine exploration ship Calico who, naturally, had an incredible talent for finding giant monsters for Godzilla to fight everywhere they traveled. Every time the scientists got in trouble they would push a red button on some sort of control device and Godzilla would pop out of the ocean to save the day.
To my knowledge, how the crew of the Calico got such a device or how Godzilla was under their control was ever explained.
Hanna-Barbera took some liberties with Godzilla's design making him more dinosaur-like and giving him the ability to shoot laser beams out of his eyes like Superman.
Also added to the story was the character Godzooky, who was supposed to be the nephew of Godzilla. Oddly Godzooky had wings and could fly, which was a physical trait that Godzilla himself did not possess. The creature was added for comedic effect and to appeal to younger viewers and generally got into trouble and to be recued by Godzilla.
History:
In regard to the origin of the series, Joseph Barbera came up with the idea of licensing Godzilla. He explained in a 1990s interview "My job back then was to dig up new characters, new ideas, new shows, and I had wanted to do Godzilla for awhile. I liked the monster thing, and the way it looked, and I thought we could do a lot with it. So I contacted Henry Saperstein, who was a very good friend and we got talking about it. Then there was an executive at the network who wanted to get into the act, and urged us to lighten the storyline up. So, I came up with the character Godzooky, who was like his son. The show had a sort of father-son relationship, which we had done before on shows like Augie Doggie and Doggie Daddy and Jonny Quest.
Barbera also explained why the show had little violence and deviated from the source material. "The problem with the show was simply this: When they start telling you in Standards and Practices, 'Don't shoot any flame at anybody, don't step on any buildings or cars,' then pretty soon, they've taken away all the stuff he represents. That became the problem, to maintain a feeling of Godzilla and at the same time cut down everything that he did. We managed to get a fair show out of it. It was OK. Godzooky kind of got the kids going.
Broadcast History:
A total of 13 original episodes were produced in 1978, with the first eight airing as part of The Godzilla Power Hour. In November 1978, the show was expanded to 90 minutes with the addition of Jonny Quest reruns and retitled The Godzilla Super 90.
For the second season beginning in September 1979, the show was separated from its package programs and aired in its own half-hour timeslot as simply Godzilla. A month later, new episodes of Godzilla and The Super Globetrotters were packaged together as The Godzilla/Globetrotters Adventure Hour which ran until September 1980.
On September 27, 1980, after twenty-six half-hour episodes, the show went into reruns and Godzilla was once again teamed up with other Hanna-Barbera characters: The Godzilla/Dynomutt Hour ran until November 1980, followed by The Godzilla/Hong Kong Phooey Hour which ran until May 16, 1981. On May 23, the show returned to the half-hour format as Godzilla and the last regular showing aired on September 5, 1981. Throughout the 1980s until the late-1990s, the series rested in limbo (with the exception of a limited videocassette release of two episodes). Since 1997, it has been rebroadcast on TNT, Cartoon Network and Boomerang. - Source
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