Animated Spin-offs

[Mo Frackle]

Anybody remember some of the animated spin-offs of popular live action shows and film series from back in the day? Most of the 70's spin-offs seemed to have the same concept: Famous Sitcom Character in Space, With An Annoying Animal Sidekick. Oftentimes, the stars of these sitcoms would lend their voices for these animated counterparts. Some that come to mind:

Mork and Mindy - Featuring Robin Williams, Pam Dawber, Conrad Janis, Ralph James, and Frank Welker (as Mork's pet "Doing"). For some reason, this takes place when Mork and Mindy are teenagers.

Laverne and Shirley in the Army - Featuring Penny Marshall and Cindy Williams. Who would put Laverne and Shirley in the army?

Fonz and the Happy Days Gang - Featuring Henry Winkler, Ron Howard, Don Most, and Frank Welker (as Fonzie's annoying sidekick, "Mr. Cool"). "Now they're like, time travelin' and stuff". Incidentally, this was originally supposed to have been an animated version of "Dr. Who", but Hanna-Barbara was unable to get the permission from BBC.
Fonzie: Can you dig it?
Youtube commenter: No, I'd rather bury it.

The New Adventures of Gilligan (I love how unenthusiastic the cast sounds here). Featuring everyone from the cast (except Dawn Wells and Tina Louise)

Gilligan's Planet Featuring the entire cast (except Tina Louise; Dawn Wells voices both Mary Ann and Ginger).

The Little Rascals. I've seen a few episodes, and I have to say that the voice actors hired for this one did a pretty good job. Takes place in a modern-day setting, rather then the 1930's. Not as good as the original series, but worth looking at.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WapWAcuk4b0

The New Three Stooges - Featuring Moe Howard, Larry Fine, and Joe DeRita. This most likely started the trend of animated spin-offs. Throughout the 60s, the Stooges were getting regular complaints about the 'violence' used in their act. An animated series was created to allow violence. The cartoons were sort of lame, IMO. The Stooges also did live action wrap-arounds, which were fair.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IXoE5Rwem0

The Laurel and Hardy Show and The Abbott and Costello Cartoon Show. The former was produced by Larry Harmon ("Bozo the Clown"). Harmon provided the voice of Stan Laurel, and Jim McGeorge provided the voice of Oliver Hardy. I didn't mind this one, but if anything, it had a tad too much dialogue. Laurel and Hardy's comedy was largely physical. For the latter, Bud Abbott voiced himself, and Stan Erwin voiced Costello. Not much to say about this one.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WG6MTdSCvhI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgM3CZR7gUA

 

[Drtooth]

Mork and Mindy - Featuring Robin Williams, Pam Dawber, Conrad Janis, Ralph James, and Frank Welker (as Mork's pet "Doing"). For some reason, this takes place when Mork and Mindy are teenagers.

I saw one of those and it stunk for the very obvious reason. Robin Williams was put on a leash. No improv... just reading off the script. Mork and Mindy was a great series because Robin ran amok and vastly improved the series with his off the wall antics. Shame they didn't have the patience to let him toss the script out and be wacky.

However, there is one alien based sitcom greatly improved in animated form...

and the even more clever

Yeah, I love the sitcom and everything, but the animated shows nailed it. Especially Melmacian weirdness like illegal cheese spreads and Hair loss curses.

 

[CensoredAlso]

Harmon provided the voice of Stan Laurel, and Jim McGeorge provided the voice of Oliver Hardy. I didn't mind this one, but if anything, it had a tad too much dialogue. Laurel and Hardy's comedy was largely physical.

That's actually fine with me because I always enjoyed watching them interact with each other more than the physical comedy. I think the cartoon's quite cute, lol. And the actors did an amazing job!

 

[snichols1973]

There was even an animated spin-off version of Fraggle Rock:

Fraggle Rock (Animated) Theme Song - YouTube

 

[Drtooth]

I'm sure we all know about that one by now.

As far as movie spin offs go, my favorites are obvious...

(okay... technically that's a celebrity toon, but it's inspired by his movies).

Columbia did a heck of a job with their animated movie adaptions.

Also...

And of course, more of an expanded universe/defictionalzation than an adaption:

And I can't find the Penguins of Madagascar intro, but that's there too.

 

[snichols1973]

And I can't find the Penguins of Madagascar intro, but that's there too.

Penguins Of Madagascar Intro - YouTube

Speaking of DreamWorks, Nickelodeon also has the Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness spin-off, which has more comedy as compared to the theatrical movies:

Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness - TV Series Trailer (2011) - YouTube


And then there is the following Disney franchise chronology as arranged by story timeline, rather than by media release order:

Lilo & Stitch (the movie)
Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch
Stitch! The Movie, which was a pilot film for
Lilo & Stitch (the TV series),
concluded by Leroy & Stitch.

As for the anime version, it takes place in an alternate continuity setting, but it hasn't received much airtime (except for a brief interval on Disney XD, but it hasn't been aired since then)....

 

[Mo Frackle]

The Little Rascals. I've seen a few episodes, and I have to say that the voice actors hired for this one did a pretty good job. Takes place in a modern-day setting, rather then the 1930's. Not as good as the original series, but worth looking at.

Incidentally, our old forum friend Earl Kress (WasOnceErnie) was a writer on this series. He once said that he "never liked the 1980s Little Rascals character designs, which he attributed to Iwao Takamoto. According to Kress, the animators found them too complex and difficult to draw".
Source: http://wat.midco.net/jvipond/PattyMaloney/DarlaHood.html

I vaguel remember him once saying that one of the main challenges of doing this series was writing for characters that were already so well established.

 

[Mo Frackle]

Here's one that never aired. Filmation's pilot for a proposed Marx Brothers series. It starts about 48 minutes in. Features the voices of Pat Harrington, Jr., Ted Knight, and Joe Besser.

 

[Drtooth]

Animation looks very different from Filmation's usual fare. Seems like they were kinda emulating the look of the Three Stooges cartoons.

And it seems like this would have been much better.

 

[fuzzygobo]

Anybody remember some of the animated spin-offs of popular live action shows and film series from back in the day? Most of the 70's spin-offs seemed to have the same concept: Famous Sitcom Character in Space, With An Annoying Animal Sidekick. Oftentimes, the stars of these sitcoms would lend their voices for these animated counterparts. Some that come to mind:

Mork and Mindy - Featuring Robin Williams, Pam Dawber, Conrad Janis, Ralph James, and Frank Welker (as Mork's pet "Doing"). For some reason, this takes place when Mork and Mindy are teenagers.

Laverne and Shirley in the Army - Featuring Penny Marshall and Cindy Williams. Who would put Laverne and Shirley in the army?

Fonz and the Happy Days Gang - Featuring Henry Winkler, Ron Howard, Don Most, and Frank Welker (as Fonzie's annoying sidekick, "Mr. Cool"). "Now they're like, time travelin' and stuff". Incidentally, this was originally supposed to have been an animated version of "Dr. Who", but Hanna-Barbara was unable to get the permission from BBC.
Fonzie: Can you dig it?
Youtube commenter: No, I'd rather bury it.

The New Adventures of Gilligan (I love how unenthusiastic the cast sounds here). Featuring everyone from the cast (except Dawn Wells and Tina Louise)

Gilligan's Planet Featuring the entire cast (except Tina Louise; Dawn Wells voices both Mary Ann and Ginger).

The Little Rascals. I've seen a few episodes, and I have to say that the voice actors hired for this one did a pretty good job. Takes place in a modern-day setting, rather then the 1930's. Not as good as the original series, but worth looking at.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WapWAcuk4b0

The New Three Stooges - Featuring Moe Howard, Larry Fine, and Joe DeRita. This most likely started the trend of animated spin-offs. Throughout the 60s, the Stooges were getting regular complaints about the 'violence' used in their act. An animated series was created to allow violence. The cartoons were sort of lame, IMO. The Stooges also did live action wrap-arounds, which were fair.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IXoE5Rwem0

The Laurel and Hardy Show and The Abbott and Costello Cartoon Show. The former was produced by Larry Harmon ("Bozo the Clown"). Harmon provided the voice of Stan Laurel, and Jim McGeorge provided the voice of Oliver Hardy. I didn't mind this one, but if anything, it had a tad too much dialogue. Laurel and Hardy's comedy was largely physical. For the latter, Bud Abbott voiced himself, and Stan Erwin voiced Costello. Not much to say about this one.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WG6MTdSCvhI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgM3CZR7gUA

Laverne and Shirley in the Army, with Ron Palillo (Arnold Horshack from Welcome Back Kotter) as their commanding officer, a TALKING PIG!
We're talking EMMY NOMINATION here, ain't we?