Growing up I was always a huge fan of Marvel's Fantastic Four comic book series so I was thrilled when it was announced that NBC was going to air a cartoon series based on them. As it were the series featured many of the popular aspects of the comics including the characters Reed Richards (Mister Fantastic who could stretch every part of his body), Sue Storm (The Invisible Girl), Ben Grimm (The Thing), the Baxter Building and Fantasticar plus cameos from other Marvel heroes like the Inhumans (another superhero group who made frequent appearances in the Fantastic Four comics), Spder-Man and the X-Men.
Surprisingly the one glaring omission from the comics was group member Johnny Storm (AKA The Human Torch) who was replaced by the wise-cracking robot H.E.R.B.I.E. (Humanoid Experimental Robot, B-type, Integrated Electronics). For years it was rumored that the character was held out of the series because of copyright issues stemming from a proposed Human Torch movie. In actuality, however, the real reason was that both the production company DePatie–Freleng Enterprises and NBC were concerned that kids may try to set themselves on fire in an attempt to emulate the Torch. Of course no child ever did that after reading the comic books or watching the 1967 Hanna-Barbera produced Fantastic Four cartoon.
There was general consensus among the producers of children's programming back in the day that kids were stupid and couldn't discern fantasy from reality.
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