Two of the most popular cartoons of the late 1960s were Hanna-Barbera’s Space Ghost (1966-67) and The Herculoids (1967-69), which I have discussed individually. (Check them out if you haven’t already!) Both shows were “banned” in a sense when the group Action for Children’s Television (ACT) urged networks to cancel any superhero/action cartoons, which they felt were a bad influence on kids. Sadly, ACT won, and those shows essentially vanished by 1969.
But in 1973, ABC and Hanna-Barbera took a chance and brought superheroes back in the form of Super Friends, based on the champions of DC Comics. Gradually, more and more action cartoons hit Saturday mornings, although slightly toned down from the ’60s heyday. (Characters could not actually strike or zap one another, etc.)
Then, in 1977, a Force from a Galaxy Far, Far Away took the world by storm– Star Wars. The first installment of George Lucas’ epic franchise was EVERYTHING and EVERYWHERE. Everyone in entertainment scrambled to find ways to cash in on its success, if not outright rip it off.
In 1980, NBC and Hanna-Barbera came up with the idea of reviving HB’s ’60s space-based cartoons for a new generation. Those cartoons were Space Ghost and The Herculoids.
New shorts were created for the anthology collectively known as Space Stars. Space Ghost was the main attraction, with two shorts airing per hour-long episode. Only one Herculoids short was included, along with shorts based on new concepts.
Teen Force featured a… um, force of teens who dwelled in the mysterious Blackhole X, who would venture to “our” universe to combat evil, usually in the form of the winged, ape-like warlord Uglor. The Teen Force consisted of Moleculad (David Raynr, credited in this series as David Hubbard), who could control the molecules of his body to change into various forms, Kid Comet (Darryl Hickman) who had super speed and could turn into an actual comet, and Elektra (voice acting great B.J. Ward), who possessed telepathic and telekinetic abilities. They were accompanied by the dwarf-like Astro-Mites, Plutem and Glax, whose chirpy noises were created by Michael Winslow, famous for being “the guy with the voices” from the Police Academy movies.
Uglor wasn’t just a thorn in the Teen Force’s sides, as he also faced off against the other lead characters of Space Stars.
The other new feature actually included an established HB character, although a very unlikely one. Astro and the Space Mutts starred Astro (Don Messick), the Jetson’s pet dog, now acting as space K9 officer. He was accompanied on his adventures by two fellow K9s, the cowardly Cosmo (Frank Welker) and the scrappy Dipper (Lennie Weinrib), as well as their hapless human wrangler, Space Ace (Michael Bell), who bore a resemblance to popular actor Burt Reynolds.
Each hour-long episode of Space Stars featured two Space Ghost shorts, and one each of The Herculoids, Teen Force, and Astro and the Space Mutts, plus a closing segment called “Space Stars Finale,” a crossover between the characters from the various shorts. (Certain characters crossed over into each other’s regular segments at times as well.)
Gary Owens returned to voice Space Ghost. Also returning from the ’60s were the original voices of most of The Herculoids– Mike Road as Zandor, Iggo, Tundro, and Zok, Virginia Gregg as Tara, and Don Messick as Gloop and Gleep. (As mentioned above, Messick also voiced Astro. Frank Welker, who voiced Cosmo, also voiced Blip.)
Jan was voiced by Alexandra Stoddart, and Jace was voiced by Steve J. Spears. Dorno’s voice was now provided by Sparky Marcus, while Allan Lurie provided the voice of Uglor. Michael Rye narrated the show’s opening, while Keene Curtis narrated the individual episodes.
There were a few alterations made to the pre-existing segments. For whatever reason, Space Ghost did not wear white gloves in this version, where he had in the ’60s cartoon. The Herculoid’s home planet, Azmot, was renamed Quasar. On the original Herculoids cartoon, Dorno called his parents by their first names– Tara and Zandor– but on Space Stars, he called them “mother” and “father.” A new development is that Space Ghost’s sidekick Jan was dating Kid Comet.
One fairly large change is that Space Ghost’s ship, the Phantom Cruiser, was completely redesigned. The original ship was a sleek orange craft, but on Space Stars, it was redesigned as a more utilitarian white craft, perhaps to emulate the ships in Star Wars. (It does look a bit like an X-Wing.)
There is very little information available regarding the development of Space Stars, but some old-school fans believe that the Teen Force was created to replace the ’60s HB show The Galaxy Trio which aired in tandem with Birdman on (what else?) Birdman and the Galaxy Trio. Despite its name, that was also an anthology and the Birdman and Galaxy Trio segments were separate and the characters did not interact.
The Galaxy Trio consisted of Vapor Man, who could turn his body into gases, Meteor Man, who could increase or decrease the mass of his body, and Gravity Girl, who could manipulate gravity in a manner similar to telekinesis. So, yes, there are certainly some similarities between the Galaxy Trio and Teen Force, so there could definitely be some connection between the two groups.
Space Stars was an exciting and fun series, but sadly, it didn’t quite hit the mark. It only latest for one season comprised of 11 episodes (66 shorts). But the show was rerun in later formats. The Space Ghost, Herculoids, and Teen Force shorts were aired as part of the USA Cartoon Express later in the ’80s. In the ’90s, the Space Ghost, Herculoids, and Astro and the Space Mutts segments aired as interstitial material on Cartoon Network and Boomerang.
Luckily, if you were a fan, or are just curious to check out this series (I highly recommend it!), it is available in its entirety as a DVD-on-demand from Warner Archive and can be ordered from Amazon.
Do you remember Space Stars?
