Fond Memories Of A Lost Gem from Hanna-Barbera
23 August 2007
There was no "Call Me Ishmael" nonsense for this Hanna-Barbera concoction that originally ran on CBS-TV from September 9, 1967 until September 6,1969. Only 15 episodes were produced for the first season while repeated episodes appeared in its second season. This was one of the best that was one of the action-adventure Hanna-Barbera produced shows that emerged during this period. This was in fact two shows packed into a half-hour. First up is "The Mighty Mightor". In this segment,prehistoric teenager Tor(voiced by Bobby Diamond)had the ability to raise a club given to him by an old hermit,thereby transforming himself into the Mighty Mightor(Don Stewart)to fight crime in the stone age along with his faithful companion and pet dinosaur Tog(voiced by Hanna-Barbera stock player Don Messick)turns into a superhero as well by transforming into a fire-breathing dragon. The animation here was very good since this was the action packed version of "The Flintstones",but it wasn't(Imagine if you will Fred Flintstone with superpowers saving Bedrock from certain doom). It was set in the stone age where we have a superhero that takes on formidable villains that set out to destroy Tor's village. Mightor was The Flintstones by way of Space Ghost in prehistoric times. But here the action was good with some of the best animation around by the head master of the Hanna-Barbera action adventure shows-Alex Toth(the same who brought Space Ghost and Jonny Quest). In some of the episodes,Mightor and Tog usually saved Tor's teenage sister Sherra(Patsy Garrett)from a sinister fate or from some disaster that is about to happen to the village. Pondo was the head leader of the tribe(John Stephenson,another Hanna-Barbera stock player)while in some episodes Mightor ends up having to save one or the other by one of the most infertile of characters(Little Rock!!!-voiced by Norma McMillan)who every time our hero has to keep this annoying brat from getting into more trouble. Some of the episodes are worth seeing that are very good with Mightor and Tog taking out the baddies one by one with their amazing superpowers.

The other segment is "The New Adventures of Moby Dick." In this segment,the lead character of Herman Melville's classic 1851 novel is not a monster but a creature of superstrength who protects his domain under the sea. In this second part of the show,Moby becomes the protector of two orphaned children,Tom and Tubb(Bobby Resnick and Barry Balkin)protecting them from such dangers as white sharks in the sea and other dangerous stuff that lies beneath them not to mention taking on some formidable villains and astounding creatures with incredible powers-all under the sea!!! Assisting them is Scooby(Don Messick)their seal pal. This was a very good show until CBS-TV dropped them altogether in the fall of 1969 to wussie cartoons ending Hanna-Barbera's array of superhero cartoon shows. The reasons why Mightor and Moby Dick were dropped from the Saturday Morning schedule,along with several other cartoons as well including Filmation's "Batman & Superman Show",and Hanna-Barbera's "Space Ghost" and "The Herculoids" was due to the excessive violence that it contain towards children and from there disappeared from oblivion never to be heard from again. However,in the fall of 1977,Mightor and Moby Dick did returned in repeated episodes for the syndicated "The Fantastic Worlds of Hanna-Barbera" aka "Hanna-Barbera's World of Super Adventures",which not only featured Mightor and Moby Dick but also other lost Hanna-Barbera superhero characters as well including joining forces with Space Ghost, Frankenstein Junior and The Herculoids.
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