The Abbott and Costello Cartoon Show

The Abbott and Costello Cartoon Show
Genre	Children's program Animated
Directed by	William Hanna Joseph Barbera
Voices of	Bud Abbott Stan Irwin
Composer(s)	Hoyt Curtin[1]
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	39 (list of episodes)
Production
Producer(s)	William Hanna Joseph Barbera
Running time	22–24 minutes
Production company(s)	Hanna-Barbera
Distributor	Taft Broadcasting (1967–1987) Worldvision Enterprises (1979–1991) Turner Program Services (1991–1996) Telepictures Distribution (1996–2003) Warner Bros. Television Distribution (2003–present)
Release
Original network	Syndication[1]
Audio format	Monaural
Original release	September 9, 1967 (1967-09-09) – June 1, 1968 (1968-06-01)

The Abbott and Costello Cartoon Show is an American half-hour animated series of the famous comedy duo that aired in syndication from September 9, 1967 to June 1, 1968. Each of the 39 individual episodes consisted of four five-minute cartoons.^[2] The cartoons were created jointly by Hanna-Barbera, RKO General and Jomar Productions between 1965 and 1967. The series was syndicated by Gold Key Entertainment and King World Productions, now Warner Bros. Television Distribution.

The primary feature of this cartoon series was the fact that Bud Abbott supplied the voice for his own character. Stan Irwin provided the voice of Lou Costello, who had died in 1959. The rest of the voice cast was composed of Hanna-Barbera regulars. The Canadian cartoonist, Lynn Johnston, who is famous for her comic strip, For Better or For Worse, was an uncredited cel colorist.^[3]

Production

Abbott and Costello was among the animated programs of the 1960s that were based on the decade's nostalgia craze which animated other comedy teams of the past such as Laurel and Hardy and The New Three Stooges.^[1] The show created work for the ill and impoverished Bud Abbott who provided the voice of his animated character.^[1] Lou Costello had died in 1959 and had his voiced supplied by the nightclub manager Stan Irwin who was a close friend of the duo.^[1]

Voices

• Bud Abbott as Himself
• Stan Irwin as Lou Costello

Additional voices: Mel Blanc,^[1] Don Messick,^[1] Hal Smith,^[1] John Stephenson,^[1] Janet Waldo^[1]

Episodes

Comic book series

A comic book based on the TV show was produced by Charlton Comics. Starting in February 1968, it ran for 22 issues, ending in August 1971.^[4]

Reception

Hal Erickson, author of Television Cartoon Shows, An Illustrated Encyclopedia gave the program a negative review, stating that Abbott and Costello episodes were difficult to tell apart.^[1] Erickson stated that "virtually every one them features the tubby Costello being pursued by some bugeyed monster or giant sized garden pest" and that "None of the classic verbal exchanges which brought the real Abbott and Costello to fame in the first place are evident."^[1]

Home Video releases

An episode of the show was released in May 2013 as part of The Best of Warner Bros.: Hanna Barbera 25 Cartoon Collection DVD set.^[5]

See also

• The New Three Stooges
• Laurel and Hardy (animated series)

References

Notes

Sources

• Erickson, Hal (2005). Television Cartoon Shows 1 (2nd ed.). McFardland and Company. ISBN 07864-2255-6. 

External links

• The Abbott and Costello Cartoon Show at the Internet Movie Database
• Abbott and Costello at Toonarific.com
• Episode index at the Big Cartoon DataBase
• Laurel & Hardy / Abbott & Costello cartoons at Toon Tracker