King Kong
by David Krell
david@davidkrell.com
While growing up, children either have pets or want to have them. For those of us who fell into the latter category (goldfish don’t count!), we lived vicariously through our television counterparts.
Timmy and Lassie.
Pebbles and Dino.
Ogee and Magilla Gorilla.
Of course, Ogee did not really have Magilla as a pet. She couldn’t afford Mr. Peebles’ asking price for Magilla and simply enjoyed being his friend.
Bobby Bond enjoyed the most fantastic tv pet of all time, one that we could never have, even in our wildest dreams or imagination. We first glimpsed this monstrous yet friendly animal in September of 1966. You know the name of...You know the fame of...KING KONG!
Standing ten times as big as a man, the mid-1960’s cartoon King Kong differed from previous incarnations. King Kong exhibits the giant gorilla’s qualities of domestication, loyalty, and heroism in adventures with the Bond family on an island.
Professor Bond conducts science research on the island while also raising his children, precocious boy Bobby and teenager Susan. Hal Erickson notes the island’s name as Mondo in his exhaustive compendium Television Cartoon Shows, 1949-1993 and questions the reader, What happened to Skull Island?
However, the episode Under the Volcano does mention Skull Island, so a continuity gap exists for cartoon historians.
Bobby has the strongest link with Kong as he calls his friend. The show’s opening theme details the connection. One day, a boy too young to know the danger, made a friend of this giant, fearsome stranger. And the life they led on their island home became a legend, the legend of KING KONG!
King Kong rivals Lassie’s heroic exploits. He constantly rescues the Bonds from dangerous, sometimes deathly circumstances.
In Under the Volcano, the Bond family explores a volcano thought to be dormant. But Professor Bond discovers evidence indicating potential activity.
Citizens of Volcania, a city beneath the volcano, want to control the volcano so they kidnap the Bonds to harness the professor’s scientific knowledge for less than benevolent means. Bobby escapes and brings Kong to the volcano to save the professor and Susan. After some twists and turns, Kong saves the day.
In the episode The Treasure Trap, Bobby desperately wants to go diving for treasure after he discovers a sunken ship. Unfortunately, Susan is preoccupied with reading Gone With the Wind and Professor Bond is ‘too busy’ with research.
Bobby dives solo, but natural disaster interferes in the form of an earthquake and traps Bobby in the ship. Kong’s immense strength allows him to open the ship and Professor Bond swims inside to rescue Bobby.
Erickson attributes some measure of the show’s kid appeal to the Bobby Bond character. Kids were probably attracted by what the National Association for Better Broadcasting found to be the series’ worst element, a child character who was habitually ‘disrespectful’ of his elders.
Armchair psychologists will study Bobby’s rationale, evidenced in The Treasure Trap. When Susan encounters her father after the earthquake and inquires as to the whereabouts and safety of her brother, Professor Bond replies, Bobby? I don’t know. I forgot about him!
King Kong premiered on September 10, 1966 as part of ABC’s Saturday morning lineup. Audiences got a sneak peek at the great gorilla one day prior during a prime time special.
Arthur Rankin, Jr. and Jules Bass produced the series. King Kong was a logical foray for the Canadian animation producers who often added new elements to pop culture icons, for example, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.
Rankin-Bass also set a precedent with King Kong because it was the first American network cartoon series in Japan. Indeed, King Kong can be considered an ancestor of Japanimation.
Notably, Rankin-Bass hired Japanese animators for its first American television offerings during the early 1960’s. The New Adventures of Pinocchio and Tales of the Wizard of Oz aired in first-run syndication and benefited from stop-motion animation (i.e., puppet animation) and cel animation respectively.
Aside from introducing a kinder, gentler version of the title character to the legend, King Kong also capitalized upon and enhanced the 1960’s spy genre trend produced, popularized, and perpetuated by Ian Fleming’s literary character creation with a double zero prefix in his code name and a license to kill.
On her majesty’s secret service, Agent 007 James Bond dominated popular culture in the Cold War climate of the 1960’s. The character’s popularity set the stage for several parallels, homages, and parodies. Tom of T.H.U.M.B. falls into the third category.
Tom of T.H.U.M.B. segments sandwiched between the two longer King Kong stories. Where King Kong towers over the landscape, Tom barely overshadows a blade of grass. His sidekick is Swingin’ Jack.
Working as a mild-mannered maintenance man at U.S. Intelligence, Tom falls down a flight of stairs. When Swingin’ Jack aids him, they inadvertently flip the switch for a shrinking laser beam ray gun and consequently fall victim to miniaturizing effects. When a mission requires agents of dimunitive proportions, Tom and Swingin’ Jack get the call to duty.
The narrative in the theme explains the heroes’ purpose in a tongue-in-cheek manner, the segments’ hallmark.
They gave their height for their country, thus creating the Tiny Human Underground Military Bureau. When the plan calls for small thinking, it’s a job for Tom of T.H.U.M.B.
Tom frequently recalls Don Adams, a spy icon in his own right because of his portrayal of Agent 86 a.k.a. Maxwell Smart in Get Smart. Smart calls his boss Chief and Tom calls his boss Chief Chief. Also, Tom’s look and mannerism reminds the viewer of Adams’ other law enforcement hero, Inspector Gadget.
Viewing the show in the post-politically incorrect era reveals insensitivity because of the vicious Asian stereotyped Swingin’ Jack character.
Tom of T.H.U.M.B. added to the list of fictional good vs. evil 1960’s spy organization acronyms.
U.N.C.L.E. had T.H.R.U.S.H.
C.O.N.T.R.O.L. had K.A.O.S.
And T.H.U.M.B. had M.A.D. (Maladjusted, Anti-Social, and Darn Mean). Tom describes M.A.D. as an organization of scientists bent on destroying the world for their own gains in the episode For the Last Time Feller, I’m Not Bait.