The Beatles (TV series)

• 1. Introduction

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  The Beatles animated television series arrived on ABC on the 25th of September 1965 and drew something the network had not seen before. A 52 share of the American audience tuned in that Saturday morning, a figure described at the time as unheard of in daytime television. The series holds a distinction no weekly program before it could claim. It was the first to place animated versions of real, living people at the center of a regular broadcast. Yet the four musicians at its heart had almost nothing to do with what appeared on screen. Who, then, gave voice to their animated doubles? And what did the actual Beatles make of watching themselves speak in strangers' voices?

• 2. Behind the Animation

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  Al Brodax of King Features Syndicate received the commission after an ABC executive sought a cartoon built on The Beatles' popularity. Most episodes were produced by two studios: Artransa Park Film Studios in Sydney, New South Wales, and George Dunning's TVC Animation in London. A smaller number were made in Hollywood, under the supervision of veteran cartoon writer John W. Dunn. From the second season onward, all animation was handled solely by TVC, with Jack Stokes directing.

  Richard Lester's influence was visible from the first episode. The series borrowed the fast-cutting directorial style he had developed for A Hard Day's Night and for Help!, his 1965 follow-up. Writer Hal Erickson noted in Television Cartoon Shows that those rapid edits gave the series a breezy pace and a spirit of comic mischief. He also observed that they often compensated for animation that was uneven and scripting that was simplistic.

  Dennis Marks, Jack Mendelsohn, Heywood Kling, and Bruce Howard wrote all 39 episodes of the series. Marks received no credit for his work. Each episode took its title from a Beatles song and built its plot around that song's lyrics. A sing-along sequence presented the full lyrics alongside simpler imagery. The music drew from Beatles albums up to Revolver and from non-album singles as recent as Strawberry Fields Forever and Penny Lane. Brodax had also planned four animated primetime specials and series based on Herman's Hermits and Freddie and the Dreamers, though neither project was ever realized.

• 3. Voices Not Their Own

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  Paul Frees, an American actor, voiced John Lennon, George Harrison, and Brian Epstein, and also provided additional characters throughout the series. Lance Percival took on Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr. Julie Bennett and Carol Corbett provided the female voices. The actual Beatles contributed nothing beyond their music; no band member recorded a line of dialogue or reviewed a script.

  In the first season, the opening credits began with a guitar riff from A Hard Day's Night segueing into Can't Buy Me Love. The sequence showed a cartoon of the group running down a fire escape, echoing a scene from the A Hard Day's Night film. The second season brought a new opening theme: Help!. For the third and final season, the opening shifted to And Your Bird Can Sing, set over a new cartoon sequence.

  For viewers in the Saturday morning slot, these borrowed voices were how the Beatles came to life on their television screens each week.

• 4. Ratings and Rivals

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  The A.C. Gilbert Company, the Quaker Oats Company, and the Mars Candy Company sponsored the series across its run. For its first two seasons, the show aired on Saturdays at 10:30 AM Eastern Standard Time.

  Space Ghost premiered during the second season, and the series found itself in direct competition with the new cartoon. The ratings began to slip. In 1967, the third season moved the broadcast to noon on Saturdays. The last new episode aired on the 21st of October 1967. Reruns followed, running on Sundays from 1968 to 1969 at 9:30 AM Eastern Standard Time.

  Worldwide syndication would eventually carry the series to audiences far beyond the Saturday morning viewers it had originally reached.

• 5. The Beatles Respond

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  'I still get a blast out of watching the Beatles cartoons on TV,' John Lennon said in 1972. That warmth had not come immediately. When the series first aired, the band dismissed it outright, troubled by what they considered its poor quality. Their role in the show had extended no further than their recordings.

  George Harrison, speaking in 1999, addressed his feelings about the cartoons in more specific terms. 'I always kind of liked the cartoons,' he said. 'They were so bad or silly that they were good, if you know what I mean, and I think the passage of time might make them more fun now.'

  Their changing view of the cartoon would influence how they approached a far more ambitious animated project.

• 6. Yellow Submarine and After

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  Yellow Submarine, the animated feature film, was produced by Al Brodax and directed by George Dunning, both of whom had made the cartoon series. The Beatles' dim view of the cartoon had initially discouraged their participation in the film. Only after they saw the finished footage, and found it more ambitious than expected, did they agree to take part. Their contribution was a short live-action epilogue. Lance Percival, who had voiced McCartney and Starr in the cartoon, also played the character Fred in Yellow Submarine.

  In 1986, MTV began rebroadcasting the series on Saturday and Sunday mornings at 10 AM Eastern Standard Time. The channel ran the series into 1987, and that year actor Mark Hamill served as a guest host for the broadcasts. The Disney Channel added the series to its lineup in 1989, airing it on Fridays at 5 PM.

  In December 2004, McFarlane Toys released a line of figures based on the cartoon, featuring all four band members with their instruments. In 2005, the company released a boxed set that included cartoon figures of all four members, an alligator figure, speakers, and a radio. Apple Corps Ltd. purchased the rights to the series in the early 1990s. The popular demand for a remastered version has persisted ever since.