The Beatles

I couldn't have been more than four or five when this show came out! Many years later (like 25!) "I'll Follow The Sun" came on the radio at work. I mentioned to my friend how whenever I heard this song I could vividly recall how it was featured in one of the episodes of the cartoon, even though I only saw the episode once in my life. She said she saw it as a child as well and clearly remembered the scene, with the sun in one corner and the Beatles in a cluster looking up and following it. And strangely, it was the one and only element either one of us could remember about the series at all. I would love to have the opportunity to see this series again, perhaps on Cartoon Network or TV Land.

I recall only bits and pieces of the show and would love to see it again on TV. It probably is dated but would bring back a lot of memories. I remember the scene where the Beatles were performing in the Roman Coliseum and the beat was causing it to fall apart.

Whatever the real Beatles may have thought of this, it is what turned me on to them. I was 8 and thought I didn't like them. The language I most understood was cartoons, and when this came on, I completely turned around.

I actually don't remember the story cartoons very much. Mainly, I remember the "singalong" segment in the middle. Paul, John, or George would introduce the segment (which was sort of a Mitch Miller "follow the bouncing ball" breakfaster, only without the ball). He then would call for the "prop man," and Ringo would come out and say, "The regular prop man's sick, so I'm taking his place." The other Beatle would say something like, "Well, this next song is a really swinging number," and Ringo would say, "Swinging number, eh? I think I've got just the thing," and would go offstage and then reappear on a trapeze, which he would proceed to screw up. It was totally predictable, stupid, and always funny, or is in retrospect.

I remember several of this show's episodes because it replayed on Teletoon in Canada (I think, it might've been the Family Channel). Anyways, the cartoons were very Monkey-esque, that is they usually ended up in some sort of a jam or situation, but then they sang a song and everything worked out well. I realize that it's silly to describe the Beatles' cartoons as Monkey-esque, because the Beatles predated the Monkees, however that seems like the most apt way to describe these cartoons. They were NOT very good. They typically invoked rarer songs that really didn't get a lot of airplay (not the hits). For the longest time I understood that the Beatles actually voiced themselves, however this apparently was not the case. They don't really voice themselves in 'Yellow Submarine' either, except in the live-action epilogue. These cartoons seemed very formulaic for the time, and the basic premise was often redone to correspond to the musical group of the time. For example, I recall large similarities between the Beatles cartoons and the Jackson 5 cartoons, however the Jackson 5 typically had a more 'futuristic' viewpoint (they went into space and encountered aliens and stuff like that). I'm also reminded of old Scooby-Doo cartoons, where there were those interminable chase scenes over the dubbing of a musical number. Apparently the Beatles themselves were not overly enamoured with these pieces either. Having said that, I'm sure that now is a good time to get these cartoons out as a DVD collection to span the entire Beatles' media contributions. I'm sure that a lot of people would be all over them purely for the sake of nostalgia, entertainment, and curiosity.

I remember watching episodes of this on Sunday mornings on KPLR, channel 11 in St. Louis in the late 1970s or early 1980s. The one that sticks out in my mind for some reason was "Ticket to Ride". I loved the singalongs, and as my father only had the later Beatles albums, it got me familiar with their earlier work. All I've seen is crummy copies of copies sold on Ebay and at Beatlefest...when will this actually be released on video/DVD, good quality copies? You know there's a market for it...there's even a wonderful book about the cartoon series!