The New Adventures of Huckleberry Finn | |
---|---|
Also known as | 'The New Adventures of Huck Finn' |
Genre |
Live action Animation Fantasy |
Based on |
Huckleberry Finn created by Mark Twain |
Starring |
Michael Shea LuAnn Haslam Kevin Schultz Ted Cassidy |
Theme music composer | Ted Nichols |
Opening theme | "The New Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" |
Ending theme | "The New Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" |
Composer(s) | Ted Nichols |
Country of origin | United States |
Original language(s) | English |
No. of episodes | 20 (list of episodes) |
Production | |
Executive producer(s) |
Joseph Barbera William Hanna |
Producer(s) | Edward Rosen |
Cinematography | Kenneth Peach |
Editor(s) | |
Camera setup | Single-camera |
Running time | 30 minutes |
Production company(s) | Hanna-Barbera Productions |
Distributor |
Taft Broadcasting (original) Worldvision Enterprises (former) Great American Broadcasting (former) Turner Entertainment (former) Warner Bros. Television Distribution (current) |
Release | |
Original network | NBC |
Picture format | Color |
Audio format | Mono |
Original release | September 15, 1968 – February 23, 1969 |
The New Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is an American live-action and animated television series that originally aired on NBC from September 15, 1968 through February 23, 1969. Produced by Hanna-Barbera and based on the classic Mark Twain characters, the program starred its three live-action heroes, Huck Finn (Michael Shea), Becky Thatcher (LuAnn Haslam), and Tom Sawyer (Kevin Schultz), navigating weekly adventures within an animated world as they attempted to outrun a vengeful "Injun Joe" (voiced by Ted Cassidy). After the show's original run, the series continued to air in reruns as part of The Banana Splits and Friends Show syndication package.
In February 1967, Hanna-Barbera Productions announced it was in the process of developing a record number of six new animated television series. According to the Los Angeles Times, the six new series in various stages of production at the time were Moby Dick and Mighty Mightor, Zartan (aka: The Herculoids), Shazzan, Samson & Goliath, Fantastic Four and The New Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Also nearing the end of post-production at the time was Hanna-Barbera's , an hour-long special which featured Gene Kelly dancing alongside various cartoon characters and aired on February 26, 1967. In a 2005 interview, LuAnn Haslam stated that Jack and the Beanstalk had served as a "trial run" for the technology of combining live-action with animation, saying "NBC had to be convinced that combining people with cartoon figures would work."