Thursday, August 17, 2006

THEME SONG THURSDAY: JACKSON 5IVE

Following the popularity of the Beatles cartoon that ended in 1969, ABC decided to take another popular act and bring reinvent them in the world of ink and paint.

This week's "Famous People Who Shouldn't Have Had Their Own Cartoon" theme song goes to...

Jackson 5ive

ABC saw how popular a Beatles cartoon was with the kids so when they were looking for a replacement, Rankin/Bass looked to the current pop sensation the Jackson 5. The show ran from 1971-1973 on ABC and had two seasons.

The Jacksons, Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, Marlon, and Michael, were said to have had a lot of input in the show. But anyone who knows the strict and brutal work schedule brought upon by their father knows this probably wasn't the case. The Jacksons don't actually appear in the show except for some stills that you will see in the clip below.

They also didn't provide the voices for their animated counterparts. Craig Grandy was Jackie Jackson, Mike Martinez was Tito Jackson, Joel Cooper was Jermaine Jackson, Edmund Sylvers was Marlon Jackson and Donald Fullilove was Michael Jackson.

Together, the five Jacksons toured around the world playing their music and having strange adventures as well.

The theme song is a special medley of their current top hits, "I Want You Back", "The Love You Save" and "ABC".

This show was not nearly as bad as the ones I've posted in the last few weeks. It had good character designs and paved the way for other African-American cartoons, including Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids and Harlem Globetrotters.

I think the worst part of the show was this theme song. Michael Jackson's whiney kid voice is not what I want to wake up to on Saturday morning. Unfortunately, the end of each episode featured another of their hit songs put to a psychedelic animated music video.

6 comments:

coolshades said...

Hey what's up with the pink snake towards the beginning? He a pet or something? LOL

And I wouldn't want to wake up to Michael Jackson's voice on *any* morning...much less Saturday...

Anonymous said...

First of all Michael was cool back then. No one had any idea what would become of him later in life. We are talking about the performer not the private stuff, who cares about that, only Enquiring minds. The music is all that. Besides look at the way coolshades looks, probably a fan of much weirder things.

Kurtis Findlay said...

Hey anonymous, you are out of line. Personal attacks on one of my readers is not aloud here.

Besides, we were complaining about his whiny, off-pitch kid voice. We were not making any comments on how cool/not cool he was at the time or now.

If you feel the need to make fun of something then send us a picture of your face.

Spectre said...

peeeeeace.... ^^

Anyhoo, I wasnt even born when this show aired, but just mixing a success of one artist for theme song, sounds like an obvious attempt to make money out of it...

Dont know... just looks and sounds cheap...

jon said...

y'all crazy. in that theme song he wasn't whining at all.

good memories of this show. these days there's now one that has a similar vibe--Class of 3000.

Kurtis Findlay said...

I have yet to check out Class of 3000 but it is on my list.

Thanks jon, great photos!