For you youngsters in the audience, back in the early to mid 70s, the Harlem Globetrotters were considered da bomb. Pre-Magic and Bird, the NBA wasn't THE NBA yet, and the Globetrotters logged more network TV time than the NBA did. Heck, it seemed like they were on ABC's Wide World Of Sports every couple of weeks!
So popular were the guys from Harlem, they even got their own Saturday morning cartoon series on CBS for a couple of years, and numerous guest appearances on Scooby-Doo. Man, Saturday mornings rocked when I was a kid...
So, of course, they got their own comic book.
Which pretty much followed along with the rigid plot format of the animated series: the Globetrotters had to play some bad guys' team, who was cheating in some manner, and fell behind 98-0...at halftime they had an epiphany on how to beat the baddies (which usually involved "using our razzle-dazzle," which translates as "cheating Globetrotter style"), and they come back in the second half to win with a last second basket.(And no, no one ever thought to ask why they weren't using this "razzle-dazzle" in the first half, so they didn't fall behind).
So for this particular story, we can pretty much know the whole plot just from the opening caption:
From there, you can just plug and chug the formula. The Globetrotters are captured by Abominable Snowmen:
Their leader, who talks like Bizarro-meets-Yoda, makes Granny his queen:
The guys come up with a plan to distract the King and free her:
You know, that bit cracks me up. Seriously. Anyway, the plan fails, they're thrown into a cell, where they discover "old cave drawings":
So naturally, they challenge the Snowmen to a basketball game to free Granny. Which lead to this hilarious scene:
But sadly, the Globetrotters aren't used to playing with a ball made of snow:
So at halftime:
YIKES!!Fortunately, we have the epiphany:
And the second half played out a little bit differently:
Finally:
Hmmm, I always did wonder about Granny and Dribbles...You know what? I like this comic! The art is clean and captures the essence of the animated series quite nicely, without seeming to be the typical crappy-who-cares-rush-job that many TV adaptations saw (GCD credits the penciller as "Tony Tallarico?"). The writer is unknown, but the script is about half a notch more sophisticated than was needed for a kiddie comic, and made me laugh several times.
So, when it comes to Hanna-Barbera Harlem Globetrotters #3 (1972), I guess I don't have too many comics.
BONUS: The apogee of cultural crossovers was, of course, The Harlem Globetrotters On Gilligan's Island. Wherein the castaways had been rescued, and purchased the island and turned it into a getaway resort. Except evil commie scientists Martin Landau and Barbara Bain (!) discover the island has a new element "hundreds of times more powerful than uranium," and proceed to swindle the castaways out of their shares of the island. Fortunately, the Harlem Globetrotters just happen to be on the island, and agree to challenge Landau's evil basketball playing robots (powered by the new element) to a game, with the stake being ownership of the island.
And no, I'm not making any of that up.
Well, of course the Globetrotter's fall way behind at half-time, but their "razzle-dazzle" stumps the too logical robots in the second half, until...well, just watch:
what??
ReplyDeleteIs that the real harlem globetrotters? If it was, how on earth were professional athletes able to take the time out to be in a tv show?
Saranga--
ReplyDeleteA) It was, indeed, the actual Globetrotters, but
B) it was a one-time TV movie, and
C) Not to disparage the talents of the Globetrotters any, but at that time they bore as much resemblance to professional athletics as pro wrestling does today. From the early 60s until the early 90s, they played no "competitive" games, only exhibitions against "stooge" teams for entertainment purposes. "From 1953 until 1995, the Generals played exhibitions against the Globetrotters, winning only six games, the last in 1971, and losing more than 13,000."
I think they could have taken a couple of days off for filming, and the Generals no doubt appreciated the respite.
Want to hear something really funny? One of the professors at my college once used part of the plot of "The Harlem Globetrotters On Gilligan's Island" as an example in his Business Law class. And it was a perfect example.
ReplyDeleteI also loved their brief stint as super heroes on saturday morning. I loved how one guy's power was pulling stuff out of his afro. We call that usually "dandruff."
ReplyDeleteLazarus Lupin
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