Harlem Globetrotters (TV series)
| Harlem Globetrotters | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Starring |
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| Country of origin | USA |
| No. of episodes | 22 |
| Production | |
| Producer(s) |
William Hanna Joseph Barbera |
| Running time | 30 minutes |
| Production company(s) | Hanna-Barbera Productions |
| Distributor | Taft Broadcasting |
| Release | |
| Original network | CBS |
| Original release | September 12, 1970 – September 2, 1972 |
| Chronology | |
| Followed by | The Super Globetrotters |
Harlem Globetrotters (called Harlem Globe Trotters in the opening titles) is a Saturday morning cartoon produced by Hanna-Barbera and CBS Productions, featuring animated versions of players from the famous basketball team, Harlem Globetrotters.
Broadcast from September 12, 1970 to September 2, 1972 on CBS, and later re-run on NBC as The Go-Go Globetrotters, the show featured cartoon versions of George "Meadowlark" Lemon, Freddie "Curly" Neal, Hubert "Geese" Ausbie, J.C. "Gip" Gipson, Bobby Joe Mason, and Paul "Pablo" Robertson, alongside their fictional bus driver and manager, Granny, and their dog mascot, Dribbles. (Guard Leon Hillard was originally planned to be on the series, but was cut out of the cast prior to the start of production.)
The series worked to a formula where the team travels somewhere and typically get involved in a local conflict that leads to one of the Globetrotters proposing a basketball game to settle the issue. To ensure the Globetrotters' defeat, the villains rig the contest; however, before the second half of the contest, the team always finds a way to even the odds, become all but invincible, and win the game.
22 episodes of Harlem Globetrotters were eventually produced: 16 for the 1970-71 season, and six more for the 1971-72 season. Harlem Globetrotters has a place in history as being the first Saturday morning cartoon to feature a predominately African-American cast; Filmation's The Hardy Boys had been the first to feature an African-American character the previous year. Another Hanna-Barbera series, Josie and the Pussycats, premiered 30 minutes earlier than Harlem Globetrotters on the same day and network, and was the first Saturday morning cartoon to feature an African-American female character. Like many other Saturday morning cartoons of the era, the first-season episodes utilized a laugh track. By Season Two, the full laugh track was replaced by an inferior version created by the studio.
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