The Herculoids was a pretty unique series when it first debuted on Saturday mornings in the fall of 1967. While there were many action cartoons on the air in that year, The Herculoids was a strange mixture of science fiction and fantasy, which seemed to borrow from the works of Edgar Rice Burroughs among others.
The series was designed by the great Alex Toth, who had previously concocted the hit Space Ghost. In fact, the Herculoids characters actually made their debut in an episode of Space Ghost in the spring of 1967. (Space Ghost also previewed characters of other upcoming shows, Moby Dick, the Mighty Mightor, and Shazzan.)
The Herculoids centered on a family of space barbarians, father Zandor, his wife Tara, and their son Dorno. All are extremely athletic but don’t possess superpowers. (Well, they can apparently breathe and talk in the vacuum of space, but other than that…) Zandor carries a shield and all of them carry slingshots which they use to firepower rocks that explode on impact.
But the real draw of The Herculoids were their beast companions– Igoo, the rock ape; Tundro, a multi-legged triceratops-like creature that fires power rocks from his horn; Zok, a space dragon that fires lasers from his eyes and the tip of his tail; and Gloop and Gleep, two shapeshifting blobs.
Nearly every episode centered on The Herculoids defending their planet, Amzot, from invaders from off-world or threatening tribes of creatures native to Amzot.
Mike Road (Race Bannon from Jonny Quest) voiced Zandor, Iggo, Tundro, and Zok. Tara was voiced by Virginia Gregg, while Ted Eccles voiced Dorno. Gloop and Gleep’s noises were provided by Hanna-Barbera mainstay Don Messick (Scooby-Doo).
There were 18 episodes of The Herculoids composed of two shorts each– so 36 shorts total– which aired on CBS. Unfortunately, due to pressure from parents group Action for Children’s Television (ACT), The Herculoids, and all other action cartoons, were canceled by the end of the ’60s, however, most, including this one, were aired in various syndication packages in subsequent years.
The Herculoids was revived in 1980 as part of a new series, Space Stars, which aired on NBC. This was an attempt to cash in on the success of Star Wars which was at the height of its popularity. That series also revived Space Ghost and added two new segments, Teen Force and Astro and the Space Mutts. In addition, each hour-long episode ended with a crossover between the stars of the various segments. Though Space Stars only lasted for one season, it was later rerun as part of the USA Cartoon Express. Segments were later broadcast on the Cartoon Network and Boomerang as well.
Not much was changed for the new Herculoids segments, with one major exception– their homeworld was not referred to as Amzot but Quasar. But in a more subtle alteration, on the original series, Dorno called Zandor and Tara by their names. On Space Stars, he called them “father” and “mother.” (There was one isolated episode of the first series, “The Beaked People,” in which he called them “Dad” and “Mom,” but not through the entire short.)
Mike Road returned to voice Zandor, Iggo, Tundro, and Zok, with Virginia Gregg as Tara and Don Messick as Gloop and Gleep. Sparky Marcus, who would later voice T.J. the TIger on Shirt Tales and the title character on Richie Rich, depicted Dorno in this version.
11 new Herculoids shorts were created for Space Stars. They also guest-starred in six of the “Space Stars Finale” team-up shorts.
The original series and all of Space Stars are available on DVD-on-demand from Warner Archive (which can be ordered through Amazon).
There was only a limited amount of merchandise created for The Herculoids. In 2003, Toynami created a full line of action figures, but because of the inclusion of the beasts, the human figures were fairly small and not in scale with other Toynami creations like Space Ghost. In 2016, The Herculoids were featured in the DC Comics series Future Quest along with other Hanna-Barbera stars like Space Ghost, Jonny Quest, and more. The characters made guest appearances on Space Ghost: Coast-to-Coast.
The Herculoids’ mixture of science fiction and fantasy was completely fresh when it debuted on Saturday mornings in 1967. But this formula would later influence the likes of Blackstar, Thundarr the Barbarian, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, and more. It’s probably only a matter of time before The Herculoids gets another revival in one form or another!
