''Frankenstein Jr. and The Impossibles'' is an American

animated television series An animated series, or a cartoon series, is a set of Animation, animated films with a common title, usually related to one another. These episodes typically share the same main heroes, some different secondary characters and a basic theme. Series ...

produced by

Hanna-Barbera Productions Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, Inc. ( ; formerly known as H-B Enterprises, Hanna-Barbera Productions, Inc. and H-B Production Co.), simply and commonly known as Hanna-Barbera, was an American animation studio and production company, which was acti ...

. It premiered on September 10, 1966 on

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

, and ran on Saturday mornings.

Characters and overview

The program contained two segments, which each served as a middle ground between Hanna-Barbera's traditional early output and its

superhero A superhero or superheroine is a fictional character who typically possesses ''superpowers'' or abilities beyond those of ordinary people, is frequently costumed concealing their identity, and fits the role of the hero, typically using their ...

-based late-1960s cartoons. Each episode would feature two segments with ''The Impossibles'', and ''Frankenstein Jr.'' in between. * ''Frankenstein Jr.'': Taking place in Civic City, boy scientist Buzz Conroy (voiced by Dick Beals) and his father Professor Conroy (voiced by John Stephenson) fight supervillains with the aid of a powerful heroic

robot A robot is a machine—especially one Computer program, programmable by a computer—capable of carrying out a complex series of actions Automation, automatically. A robot can be guided by an external control device, or the robot control, co ...

named "Frankenstein Jr." (voiced by

Ted Cassidy Theodore Crawford Cassidy (July 31, 1932 – January 16, 1979) was an American actor. He tended to play unusual characters in offbeat or science-fiction works, such as ''Star Trek'' and ''I Dream of Jeannie'', and he played Lurch on '' The Addam ...

). Buzz built "Frankie" and activated him through an energy ring. Frankenstein Jr. appears to be reminscient of the anime character ''

Tetsujin 28-go , known as simply ''Tetsujin 28'' in international releases, is a 1956 manga written and illustrated by Mitsuteru Yokoyama, who would also create '' Giant Robo''. The series centers on the adventures of a young boy named Shotaro Kaneda, ...

'' (also known as Gigantor). * '' The Impossibles'': The title characters are a trio of superheroes (Multi-Man, Fluid-Man, and Coil-Man) who pose undercover as a

Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. The core lineup of the band comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are widely regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatle ...

esque

rock music Rock is a Music genre, genre of popular music that originated in the United States as "rock and roll" in the late 1940s and early 1950s, developing into a range of styles from the mid-1960s, primarily in the United States and the United Kingdo ...

band. The characters' names are descriptive of their powers: Multi-Man (voiced by

Don Messick Donald Earle Messick (September 7, 1926 – October 24, 1997) was an American voice actor, known for his performances in Hanna-Barbera cartoons. His best-remembered voice roles include Scooby-Doo; Bamm-Bamm Rubble and Hoppy in ''The Flintsto ...

) can create identical copies of himself; Coil-Man (voiced by Hal Smith) can form into a super-springy coil; and Fluid-Man (voiced by

Paul Frees Solomon Hersh Frees (June 22, 1920November 2, 1986), better known as Paul Frees, was an American actor, comedian, impressionist, and vaudevillian. He is known for his work on Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Walter Lantz, Rankin/Bass and Walt Disney the ...

) can transform his body into any fluid. The heroes receive assignments from "Big D" (also voiced by Frees), who contacts them via a receiver in the base of Coil-Man's

left-handed In human biology, handedness is an individual's preferential use of one hand, known as the dominant hand, due to and causing it to be stronger, faster or more dextrous. The other hand, comparatively often the weaker, less dextrous or simply l ...

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

. During the development of the show, this group was called "The Incredibles," but was changed to "The Impossibles" by the time of production. The team's pre-production name was later given to the superhero family from the 2004

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Di ...

Pixar Pixar (), doing business as Pixar Animation Studios, is an American animation studio based in Emeryville, California, known for its critically and commercially successful computer-animated feature films. Pixar is a subsidiary of Walt Disney ...

film of the same name. The show was one of several that were the target of complaints about violence in children's television in the late 1960s, and was pulled from reruns in 1968 (its initial run had already ended the previous year). The ''Frankenstein Jr.'' segments returned to television in the 1976 series '' Space Ghost and Frankenstein Jr.'', which aired on

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

from November 27, 1976 to September 3, 1977, replacing the canceled '' Big John, Little John''.

Voice cast

* Dick Beals as Buzz Conroy *

as Frankenstein Jr. * John Stephenson as Professor Conroy *

as Fluid-Man, Big D *

as Multi-Man * Hal Smith as Coil-Man

Episodes

''Frankenstein Jr.''

''The Impossibles''

Home media

On April 26, 2011,

Warner Home Video Warner Bros. Discovery Home Entertainment, Inc. (doing business as Warner Bros. Home Entertainment; formerly known as Warner Home Video and WCI Home Video and sometimes credited as Warner Home Entertainment) is the American home video distribution ...

(via the

Warner Archive Collection The Warner Archive Collection is a home video division for releasing classic and cult films from Warner Bros.' library. It started as a manufactured-on-demand (MOD) DVD series by Warner Bros. Home Entertainment on March 23, 2009, with the inte ...

) released ''Frankenstein Jr. and The Impossibles: The Complete Series'' on DVD in region 1 as part of their Hanna–Barbera Classics Collection. This is a Manufacture-on-Demand (MOD) release, available exclusively through Warner's online store and Amazon.com. A

Blu-ray Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of high-defin ...

version of the complete series was released on January 28, 2025.

Other appearances

* Buzz Conroy and Frankenstein Jr. appeared in the '' Yogi's Space Race'' episode "Race Through the Planet of the Monsters". * Frankenstein Jr. appeared in the ''

Johnny Bravo ''Johnny Bravo'' is an American animated comedy television series created by Van Partible for Cartoon Network. The second of the network's Cartoon Cartoons, it aired from July 14, 1997, to August 27, 2004. The titular Johnny Bravo (voiced by ...

'' episode "Johnny Makeover". * Frankenstein Jr. appeared in the 2013 film '' Scooby-Doo! Mask of the Blue Falcon''. * Frankenstein Jr. appeared on one of the Halloween parade floats in the 2020 film '' Happy Halloween, Scooby-Doo!'' * Also in 2020, Frankenstein Jr. has a cameo in '' Scoob!'', appearing in the end credits. * Buzz Conroy and Frankenstein Jr. appear in the 2021 film '' Space Jam: A New Legacy''. They are among the Warner Bros. 3000 Server-Verse inhabitants (which included other Hanna-Barbera characters) that watch the basketball game between the Tune Squad and the Goon Squad. * Buzz Conroy appeared in the third season of '' Jellystone!'' Frankenstein Jr. will also appear in season 3.

Adaptations

* A single issue of a ''Frankenstein Jr. and The Impossibles'' comic was released by

Gold Key Comics Gold Key Comics was an imprint of American company Western Publishing, created for comic books distributed to newsstands. Also known as Whitman Comics, Gold Key operated from 1962 to 1984. History Gold Key Comics was created in 1962, when its ...

in 1966 as a tie-in to the TV series, and the contents were reprinted in ''The Impossibles Annual'' by Atlas Publishing & Distributing Co. Ltd, UK in 1968. The two ''Frankenstein Jr.'' comic stories were titled "The Image Invasion" and "Frankenstein Jr. Meets the Flea Man". A new text-based story, specially written for the annual, was "A Spook in his Wheel". The character reappeared in the comic ''Hanna-Barbera Presents'' #8 published by

Archie Comics Archie Comic Publications, Inc. (often referred to simply as Archie Comics) is an American comic book publisher headquartered in the village of Pelham, New York. The company's many titles feature the fictional teenagers Archie Andrews, Jug ...

in 1996. The front cover featured Frankenstein Jr. battling the Impossibles in an homage to the front cover of the original ''

Fantastic Four The Fantastic Four, often abbreviated as FF, is a superhero team appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The team debuted in '' The Fantastic Four'' #1 ( cover-dated November 1961), helping usher in a new level of realism i ...

'' #1 by

Marvel Comics Marvel Comics is a New York City–based comic book publishing, publisher, a property of the Walt Disney Company since December 31, 2009, and a subsidiary of Disney Publishing Worldwide since March 2023. Marvel was founded in 1939 by Martin G ...

. * A Big Little Book titled ''Frankenstein Jr.: The Menace of the Heartless Monster'' was published in 1968. * The Impossibles' heroic identities were re-used for a later Hanna-Barbera production, '' The Super Globetrotters'' (which also featured a similar concept—in this case, the famous

Harlem Globetrotters The Harlem Globetrotters is an American Exhibition game, exhibition basketball team. They combine athleticism, theater, entertainment, and comedy in their style of play. Over the years, they have played more than 26,000 exhibition games in 124 ...

as undercover superheroes): ** Nate Branch's heroic identity was alternately known as "Fluid Man" or "Liquid Man", with powers (and a flippered costume) similar to the Impossibles' Fluid-Man. ** "Twiggy" Sanders became "Spaghetti Man", with coiling and stretching abilities similar to Coil-Man. ** "Geese" Ausbie as "Multi Man" had virtually identical powers as his Impossibles counterpart and a similar costume. * In 2016, Buzz and Frankenstein Jr. and The Impossibles played a major role in the

DC Comics DC Comics (originally DC Comics, Inc., and also known simply as DC) is an American comic book publisher owned by DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. DC is an initialism for "Detective Comics", an American comic book seri ...

series ''

Future Quest ''Future Quest'' is a crossover comic book series published by DC Comics, as part of the comic book initiative '' Hanna-Barbera Beyond''. The series features characters from various animated series produced by Hanna-Barbera, such as '' Jonny Que ...

'', that also featured characters from various animated series produced by Hanna-Barbera such as '' Jonny Quest'', '' Space Ghost'', '' The Herculoids'', '' Birdman and the Galaxy Trio'' and ''

Moby Dick and Mighty Mightor ''Moby Dick and Mighty Mightor'' is an American Saturday-morning animated television series produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions that ran on CBS from September 9, 1967 to January 6, 1968, airing in reruns until September 6, 1969. Despite Moby' ...

''. In this series, the team gained a new female member named Cobalt and the character of Big D is a woman named Deva Sumadi who's also Falcon-7.

References

External links

Frankenstein Jr.
at

Don Markstein's Toonopedia Don Markstein's Toonopedia (subtitled A Vast Repository of Toonological Knowledge) is an online encyclopedia of print cartoons, comic strips and animation, initiated February 13, 2001. Donald D. Markstein, the sole writer and editor of Toonopedi ...

Archived
from the original on July 30, 2016. * *
Frankenstein Jr.
' at the

Big Cartoon DataBase The Big Cartoon DataBase (or BCDB for short) was an online database of information about animated cartoons, animated feature films, animated television shows, and cartoon shorts. The BCDB project began in 1997 as a list of Disney animated f ...

{{Hanna-Barbera 1960s American animated television series 1960s American children's television series 1960s American horror television series 1960s American superhero television series 1966 American animated television series debuts 1968 American television series endings American children's animated action television series American children's animated adventure television series American children's animated horror television series American children's animated science fantasy television series American children's animated superhero television series American anime-influenced animated television series American English-language television shows Frankenstein television series Television series by Hanna-Barbera Television series by Warner Bros. Television Studios Animated television series about robots CBS animated television series