The New Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1968–1969)

Huckleberry Finn and his friends, Tom Sawyer and Becky Thatcher, travel from one animated world to the next, always followed by the same villain, Injun Joe. The gimmick is that Huck, Tom, ... See full summary »

Stars:

Michael Shea, Lu Ann Haslam, Kevin Schultz

Cast

Complete series cast summary:
Michael Shea	...	Huck Finn (20 episodes, 1968-1969)
Lu Ann Haslam	...	Becky Thatcher (20 episodes, 1968-1969)
Kevin Schultz	...	Tom Sawyer (20 episodes, 1968-1969)
Ted Cassidy	...	Injun Joe (20 episodes, 1968-1969)

Storyline

Huckleberry Finn and his friends, Tom Sawyer and Becky Thatcher, travel from one animated world to the next, always followed by the same villain, Injun Joe. The gimmick is that Huck, Tom, and Becky are live action characters and everything else is animated.

---

Plot Keywords:

part live action | part animation | virtual set | character name in title

---

Genres:

Adventure | Animation

---

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

15 September 1968 (USA)

Also Known As:

Ihmeellinen satumaailma

Company Credits

Production Co:

Hanna-Barbera Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

30 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound Recording)

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

User Reviews

Brilliant but very intelligent short-lived animated series from Hanna-Barbera

This was at the time,one innovative series that featured both live action and animated and to make it special,it took the characters of Mark Twain's classic,"Huckleberry Finn",which consisted of Tom Sawyer,Huck Finn,and Becky Thatcher to strange and exotic places where they visited any land,time in history and it was always they were facing constant danger at every turn in which they would encounter some menacing villain or in other aspects creatures from other places. In other words they went each week for one animated world to the next where in some of the episodes,they would face some kind of predicament in which the show always ended in a cliffhanger until next week,where the conclusion of the story was to be continued.

"The New Adventures of Huck Finn",premiered on NBC-TV in September of 1968 and it ended in September of 1969. Produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions. The show lasted one season,producing 20 episodes,which when NBC canceled the series in 1969,repeats were aired on different days,until the 1970's where some of the episodes were in syndication for the half-hour version of "The Banana Splits".

"The New Adventures Of Huck Finn",was a brilliant premise that came on Sunday evenings at the 7:00 hour where when it first premiered in September of 1968,it went up against some very tough competition which featured the shows,"Lassie","Gentle Ben",and at the same time the science-fiction adventure series,"Land Of The Giants". It was followed on Sunday nights by "The Wonderful World Of Disney",and not to mention "The Ed Sullivan Show". This was a excellent and highly innovative concept for Hanna-Barbera,which was in fact the first series produced by the company,and one of the first shows to blend in live action with animation. Also,this was a first for the studio,especially in prime-time and it was something that Hanna-Barbera did,and this was two years after one of the most highly successful animated series in prime-time history,and the longest-running,"The Flintstones",which ran for six years in prime-time television.

Speaking of this series by the way,I saw some of the episodes as a child and it blew me away with the non-stop action mixed in with some of breathtaking adventure and high-flying animation that kept it's viewers hooked,and me too. When I found out that the network that aired it,NBC-TV canceled the series,a lot of its audience was devastated,and this may have to do with the show's demise,which was at the time quite expensive to create as well as produced. It should have been given the chance to succeed,and it could however have worked very well with if the network decided to moved the series to Saturday Mornings. But they didn't. Speaking of the main villain,no better actor at the time was more menacing and more evil than Ted Cassidy who gave the show its juice and he was simply magnificent. Ted Cassidy,by the way,was a more sinister actor in some of the roles he played,and that was a role that was far better than the one he had opposite,"The Addams Family". See some of the episodes and you'll know why. As he chased our young friends from one animated world to the next,you'll never know what to expect since in some of the animated villains they faced really looked just like Injun Joe!!!.....As for Tom Sawyer(Kevin Schultz),Becky Thatcher(Lu Ann Haslam),and Huck Finn(Micheal Shea),they always were faced with the constant peril and sudden danger everywhere they went. Some of the episodes were directed by the best in the business and it consisted of Hollingsworth Morse,Ezra Stone,Virgil W. Vogel,and in some segments by William Hanna and Joesph Barbera. One of the best episodes of that series is called "The Eye Of Doogerah",and it is something to see!!!

Too bad that this series is never shown anymore. Recently,Cartoon Network's sister station Boomerang has resurrected some for the episodes after being out of action or for one point,missing for decades. They showed these episodes in its entirely during the network's programming of Boomeraction,which consisted some of the greatest Hanna-Barbera action/adventure animated cartoons anywhere!!! Not to be missed!