When I was a kid in the mid-1970s, we actually had to get up and change the channel on our tvs.
One of my favorite cartoons was "Dynomutt, Dog Wonder" (1976-77) and it came in though WSET/Channel 13, the ABC affiliate in Lynchburg, Va. From our house in the Roanoke Valley, some 60 miles away, the signal was a bit fuzzy and I hated the fact that all my favorite cartoons (like "Jabberjaw" and "Scooby Doo") were on ABC.
But, I still watched Dynomutt every Saturday. My excuse for not doing a choir would always be: "I'll do it after I watch Dynomutt."
Dynomutt's human sidekick was the Blue Falcon, essentially a carbon copy of Adam West's Batman. As a bumbling robot dog, Dynomutt was the perfect companion to Blue Falcon, who was also a millionaire named Radley Crown who drove a car called the Batmobile.....err, I mean the Falconer.
The Dynomutt show featured spies, supervillian and even supernatural villians, as you can see with this 1976 episode entitled "Beastwoman" (in two videos, each runs about 10:30).
The series was part of the Hanna Barbara cartoon family, which featured another favorite of mine "Hong Kong Phooey," which aired in 1974.
"Dynomutt" was also a companion show to "Scooby Doo" and the two crossed series on some occasions.
The cartoon was created by Joe Ruby and Ken Spears.
Frank Weller was the voice of "Dynomutt" and Gary Owens (a familiar voice on tv back then) was the Blue Falcon. Weller and Ownes reprised their roles for a "Dexter's Laboratory" episode entitled "Dyno-Might."
The show is still in circulation as Boomerang aired some episodes of it from Jan. 2-March 9 of this year. I'm not sure when they will bring it back, but it seems like almost every episode of the series is now available on Youtube. Let's just hope that everyone does their choirs before watching them.
NOTE: Nostalgia Mondays is a new feature I'm officially starting today. I intend to post '80s music videos, campaign ads, kitschy commercials, old cartoons and perhaps an homage to the pride of Strasbourg, ND- Mr. Lawerene Welk (hmm.......I might pass on that.)
SIDEBAR: I got the idea for a Dynomutt entry because I showed a Youtube Christmas music video from the '70s with crooner Pat Boone (not an endorsement) singing along with Dynomutt and Scooby Doo about a month ago.
The subject of that entry was a nightmare I had in which David Letterman had turned into a Christian fundamentalist and started broadcasting his show on the Pat Robertson Network (I think the network is actually called The Family Channel, but I think PRN is really more appropriate). His guests were Boone, Jimmy Swaggart and Jon Voight (I'm still shocked that he's now a Republican. I mean this is a guy who had on-screen sex with Jane Fonda!).
Perhaps there was some validity to the nightmare though as the real guest on Letterman that day was talk show host Kelly Ripa, who (for those of you living in Tashkent, Uzbekistan) is perhaps the only person who could be as annoying as Swaggart.
Useful Links:
The Falcon's Lair_
www.angelfire.com/la/aaronh3d/
Museum of TV and Radio in New York_
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