'60s Saturday Mornings Trivia Quiz

Answer: Supercar

The first of Gerry Anderson's 'Supermarionation' series, Mike Mercury piloted Supercar for an international crime-fighting organization for 39 episodes in 1962 (1961 in the UK.)

The other choices are also Anderson productions. "Fireball XL5" (1963) featured Col. Steve Zodiac of the Galaxy Police, "Stingray" (1965) was a submarine in the year 2000 operated by the World Aquanaut Security Patrol, and "Joe 90" (1968) featured tales of a nine-year-old secret agent. "Thunderbirds" appeared in 1966 and, to my knowledge, is the only one of the group to be made into a movie (2004, with Anthony Edwards, Ben Kingsley and Bill Paxton among its cast).

Answer: Super Chicken

Originally part of the "George of the Jungle" series, "Super Chicken" relates the adventures of Henry Cabot Henhouse III who, after drinking a 'secret sauce', becomes the crime fighting chicken with the help of his valet, Fred (a lion) and the flying 'Super Coupe'.

"Super Chicken" (1967) was the creation of the pun/parody cartoon king Jay Ward ("Rocky and Bullwinkle", "Dudley Do-Right"), as were the other 'wrong' choices. Roger Ramjet gained his powers from Proton Energy Pills and was assisted by the American Eagle Squadron. Tom Slick, also part of the "George of the Jungle" 'bundle', drove the extremely versatile Thunderbolt Greaseslapper (it could turn into pretty much whatever type of vehicle Tom needed) and fought the evil Baron Otto Matic.

Answer: U.S.A.

The idea for "The Beatles" cartoon germinated in the brain of Al Brodax at King Features Syndicate in 1963. Once the Fab Four became an international sensation after their U.S. appearance, the project took wing and went through many different stages before hitting the airwaves.

The show was a huge money maker for ABC and 39 shows with 78 stories were produced. According to televisionheaven.co.uk, the first show aired on September 25, 1965, and "captured an unprecedented 52 percent of the audience." None of the actual Beatles voiced the characters and the series wasn't broadcast in the UK until the late 1980s.

Answer: Biggie Rat and Itchy Brother

"King Leonardo and His Short Subjects" debuted in 1960 from Total Television. Slightly dim, but good natured, Leonardo ruled Bongo Congo with Odie Cologne (pronounced 'co-low-nee') at his side. Leonardo's brother Itchy and his gangster 'mentor' Biggie Rat constantly plotted to take over the kingdom--to no avail. The show aired until 1963.

Mr. Mad was a friend of Biggie Rat's, and Tooter Turtle was part of the King Leonardo series who inevitably needed rescuing by his friend Mr. Wizard, a lizard.

Simon bar Sinister and Riff Raff were enemies of Underdog.

Answer: Stringer and Tubby

A pretty silly (even as cartoons go) show (but I'm biased...), The Beagles' manager, Scotty, would send them to an exotic locale to fit the lyrics of whatever song had been written for a particular segment (such as "Thanks to the Man on the Moon"). Tubby seemed to attract trouble.

The other name pairs are purely fictitious.

Answer: The Leakin' Lena

This was my favorite Saturday cartoon as a kid! Beany, in his red beany-copter hat, and Cecil would battle the bad guy Dishonest John (or just 'D.J.', who was voiced by Stan Freberg and had the great 'Nyah-ah-ah' evil laugh) on the Leakin' Lena. Originally part of "Matty's Funday Funnies" along with "Casper the Friendly Ghost" and "Baby Huey", Beany and Cecil received their own half hour show after three episodes.

The show aired for six years and won three Emmy awards.

Answer: Yes

Originally part of "Tennessee Tuxedo and His Tales", Commander McBragg was a blustery old man with a gift for telling tall tales of his adventures (his theme song ended with: "For so stands the brag of McBragg!"). At the end of each story his listener would sum up the adventure, usually with a pun, to which McBragg would quietly respond: "Quite."

McBragg appeared in the seventeenth season Simpsons' episode "The Seemingly Neverending Story", first as the master of ceremonies on the 'family day' scavenger hunt, and later as one of Mr. Burns' Exclusionary Club.

Answer: Quick Draw McGraw

Yes, Quick Draw ("I'll do the thinkin' around here!") sometimes adopted a Zorro-esque persona as El Kabong, who defeated the bad guy by whacking him on the head with his (Kabong's) guitar (such violence, tsk, tsk...).

Quick Draw McGraw and his sidekick Baba Looey, part of the Hanna Barbera cartoon line-up, debuted in 1959 and remained in production for three years (49 episodes), and were rerun on CBS' Saturday morning lineup from 1963-66. Both characters were voiced by Daws Butler, who also provided the voice for Yogi Bear and many other Hanna-Barbara animated creations.

Answer: Snagglepuss

Snagglepuss, best remembered as the pink, dapperly-dressed mountain lion, got his start as an adversary of Quick Draw McGraw called Snaggletooth, a sheep stealer. On his own, Snagglepuss was pursued by Major Minor, a big game hunter who thought the very civilized cat (who fancied himself an actor) was a man eater.

The voice of Snagglepuss, also voiced by Daws Butler, was purposefully based on Bert Lahr's Cowardly Lion. In fact, the line "Heavens to Murgatroyd!" was spoken by Lahr in the 1944 film "Meet the People".

Answer: Morocco Mole

Secret Squirrel (a.k.a. 'Agent 000') first appeared as Hanna-Barbera's first secret agent parody in the same show with its first super hero parody, "The World of Atom Ant & Secret Squirrel" in 1965.

The pair of cartoon heroes were lucky and received a full hour of Saturday morning air time for three seasons, and shows included other cartoon segments featuring "Hillbilly Bears", "Winsome Witch", "Precious Pupp" and "Squiddley Diddley".

The king of cartoon voices, Mel Blanc (Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Marvin Martian, to name a few...) provided the voice of Secret Squirrel. Paul Frees (Boris Badenov, Ludwig von Drake, among others) voiced Morocco Mole--Peter Lorre style. The pair's archenemy was Yellow Pinky, a parody of James Bond's "Goldfinger".

Additional information for this quiz came from the Toonopedia and TVAcres websites.