The King Kong Show (TV 1966–1967)

The King Kong Show Air date United States: September 6, 1966 (pilot) September 10, 1966 – March 4, 1967 Japan: December 31, 1966 (pilot) April 5–October 4, 1967 Producer(s) Arthur Rankin Jr., Jules Bass, et al. Funded by Videocraft International Production company Toei Animation Channel(s) ABC,U.S. NETJP Genre(s) Animated Episodes 26 (broadcasts), 50 (overall)

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“	King Kong. You know the name of King Kong. You know the fame of King Kong. Ten times as big as a man!	„
	— Refrain of the show's opening theme song

King Kong, commonly referred to as The King Kong Show and released on DVD as King Kong: The Animated Series, is an animated television series funded by Videocraft International of America with animation by Toei Animation of Japan. A 56-minute pilot episode premiered on ABC on September 6, 1966, and the series subsequently began airing on September 10 alongside the animated spy spoof series Tom of T.H.U.M.B.; each episode consisted of one Tom story bookended by two King Kong stories. The show concluded its initial run on March 4, 1967, with its pilot being split in half and aired as the series' 25th and 26th episodes. Reruns continued to be shown on ABC until August 31, 1969.

In Japan, the series' pilot premiered on NET (presently TV Asahi) as King of the World: The King Kong Show (世界の王者 キングコング大会,   Sekai no Ōja Kingu Kongu Taikai) on December 31, 1966. The show was packaged with Tom of T.H.U.M.B. as in the U.S., and aired April 5–October 4, 1967, under the title of simply King Kong (キングコング,   Kingu Kongu). Rebroadcasts followed into the early 1970s.

Plot

King Kong befriends the Bond family and Captain Englehorn, with whom he goes on various adventures saving the world from monsters, robots, aliens, mad scientists, and other threats.

Episodes

No.	Title(s)		Air date
	A part	B part
0	"King Kong"		09/06/1966
1	"Under the Volcano"	"The Treasure Trap"	09/10/1966
2	"The Horror of Mondo Island"	"Dr. Who"	09/17/1966
3	"Rocket Island"	"The African Bees"	09/24/1966
4	"The Hunter"	"The Space Men"	10/01/1966
5	"The Jinx of the Sphinx"	"The Greeneyed Monster"	10/08/1966
6	"The Top of the World"	"The Golden Temple"	10/15/1966
7	"The Electric Circle"	"Mirror of Destruction"	10/22/1966
8	"Tiger Tiger"	"The Vise of Dr. Who"	10/29/1966
9	"King Kong's House"	"MechaniKong"	11/05/1966
10	"The Giant Sloths"	"The Legend of Loch Ness"	11/12/1966
11	"Dr. Bone"	"No Man's Snowman"	11/19/1966
12	"The Desert Pirates"	"Command Performance"	11/26/1966
13	"The Sea Surrounds Us"	"Show Biz"	12/03/1966
14	"The Wizard of Overlord"	"Perilous Porpoise"	12/10/1966
15	"The Trojan Horse"	"The Man from K.O.N.G."	12/17/1966
16	"Caribbean Cruise"	"Diver's Dilemma"	12/24/1966
17	"The Great Sun Spots"	"Kong Is Missing"	12/31/1966
18	"In the Land of the Giant Trees"	"Captain Kong"	01/07/1967
19	"Statue of Liberty Play"	"Pandora's Box"	01/14/1967
20	"Thousand Year Knockout"	"Desert City"	01/21/1967
21	"Eagle Squadron"	"Kong of Stone"	01/28/1967
22	"Murderer's Maze"	"Great Gold Strike"	02/04/1967
23	"It Wasn't There Again Today"	"Mad Whale"	02/11/1967
24	"King Kong Diamond"	"Anchors Away"	02/18/1967
25	"A Friend in Need"		02/25/1967
26	"The Key to the City"		03/04/1967

Staff

Staff role on the left, staff member's name on the right.

• Written by   Lew Lewis, Bernard Cowan, Ron Levy
• Executive producers   Arthur Rankin Jr., Jules Bass
• Produced by   William J. Keenan
• Associate producer   Larry Roemer
• Character designs by   Jack Davis, Rod Willis
• Animators   Sakei Kitamasa, Osamu Kobayashi, Norio Fukumoto, Tsutomu Shibayama, Midori Kusube, Takao Kasai, Yasuo Maeda, Yuji Mori
• Theme song performed by   Maury Laws, Jules Bass
• Japanese theme song performed by   Toshiko Fujita, Honey Nights
  • Lyrics and composing by   Asei Kobayashi

Cast

Actor's name on the left, character played on the right.

• Carl Banas   as   Professor Bond
• Billie Mae Richards   as   Bobby Bond
• Susan Conway   as   Susan Bond
• John Drainie, Alf Scopp, Paul Soles   as   additional voices

Japanese dub

• Goro Naya   as   Professor Bond
• Toshiko Fujita   as   Bobby Bond
• Junko Hori   as   Susan Bond

Appearances

Characters Professor Bond Susan Bond Bobby Bond Captain Englehorn Dr. Who Vestus Von Kramer Dr. Bone Monsters King Kong Mondo Island armadillo Pteranodon Stegosaurus Tyrannosaurus rex Kraken African bee swarm Carnivorous plants of Mondo Island Brontosaurus Giant snake Unidentified dinosaur Triceratops Robot Sphinx Giant Mondo Island bird Icthyok Mondo Island sharks Saber-toothed tigers Mechani-Kong Giant ground sloths Loch Ness Monster Great Gargoyle of Paris Giant eagle Moby Dick Great Cyclops of Ulysses Giant electrical angler-fish Giant jellyfish

Weapons, vehicles and races Captain Englehorn's ship Military tanks Fighter jets Volcanians Dr. Who's helicopters Dr. Who's ship Dr. Who's rocket Von Kramer's laser gun Space Men Space Men's UFO Destroyer Meltifier Electric Circle Mirror of Destruction Locations Mondo Island / "Skull Island" United States New York, New York Anchorage, Alaska San Francisco, California Washington, D.C. (mentioned) Egypt Cairo New Guinea France Paris

Video releases

Classic Media DVD (King Kong: The Animated Series Vol. 1)

• Region: 1
• Discs: 1
• Audio: English (2.0 Mono)
• Special features: None
• Notes: Includes episodes 1-4 and 25, plus four episodes of Tom of T.H.U.M.B.

Classic Media DVD (King Kong: The Animated Series Vol. 2)

• Region: 1
• Discs: 1
• Audio: English (2.0 Mono)
• Special features: None
• Notes: Includes episodes 5-8 and 26, plus four episodes of Tom of T.H.U.M.B.

Madman DVD (2006)

• Region: 4
• Discs: 2
• Audio: English (2.0 Mono)
• Special features: An extended version of the pilot episode
• Notes: Includes episodes 1-8 and 25-26, plus eight episodes of Tom of T.H.U.M.B.

Gallery

Video releases

• 
  King Kong: The Animated Series Volume 1 U.S. DVD cover
• 
  King Kong: The Animated Series Volume 2 U.S. DVD cover

Merchandise

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Trivia

• The King Kong Show was the first anime series produced in Japan for U.S. broadcast (not counting Rankin/Bass' previous Animagic stop-motion Christmas TV specials, which were also animated in Japan).
• This series was successful enough for Rankin/Bass to extend the Kong franchise to another Japanese film company, Toho (who had already produced the hit film King Kong vs. Godzilla in 1962). This resulted in Ebirah, Horror of the Deep (originally intended as a Kong film named Operation Robinson Crusoe: King Kong vs. Ebirah) and King Kong Escapes, the latter of which was loosely based on The King Kong Show. Dr. Who and Mechani-Kong both appeared as villains in the latter film, while Susan Bond's first name was given to one of the film's protagonists, Lieutenant Susan Watson. Kong's home of Mondo Island was carried over into the film as well.

External links

• Scans of a 10-page comic in America's Best TV Comics

References

This is a list of references for The King Kong Show. These citations are used to identify the reliable sources on which this article is based. These references appear inside articles in the form of superscript numbers, which look like this: ^[1]

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