The Banana Splits Adventure Hour was a 60 minute series that Hanna-Barbera produced for two seasons, starting in 1968. A lot of folks think it was produced by my old bosses, Sid and Marty Krofft but this is not so. The Krofft company built the costumes for H-B and, when the series was a modest success, it prompted one Krofft brother to say to the other, "Hey, we should have produced a show instead of helping someone else have a hit." The following season, the first Krofft series — H.R. Pufnstuf — made its debut. I was never a huge fan of The Banana Splits — either the group or their series. The characters themselves seemed shallow, even for late-60's Hanna-Barbera and their show was a bit of a hodge-podge, featuring short segments of serials that H-B had been unable to sell as standalone shows.
Barbera told me he considered the series a failure because of its short run but also since the idea was to spin the various components off into separate programs and none graduated. Still, I have to admit that the costumed characters had — and perhaps, still have — great appeal. In 1970, I was snookered into helping put on a charity event for the Marine Corps "Toys for Tots" program, and H-B loaned us the services of the Banana Splits. This meant that a man from the studio brought the costumes over to our event for a few hours and I had to find four people of specified heights to wear them. I drafted four teen-age friends into service and they had a great time, dancing about and shaking mitts with kids…and generally being worshipped by children of all ages. The costumes were, they said, stifling hot and uncomfy, and the friend playing Drooper wound up with a big gash on his chin from the way its head rested on his. Nevertheless, it was fun for the guys, in part because the Splits were an enormous hit — moreso than any other celebrities in attendance. (We also had the Three Stooges there — Moe, Larry and Curly Joe — and no one paid any attention to them when the Banana Splits were frolicking about.)
Another bit of evidence of the characters' appeal is that someone has put together an exhaustive website devoted to the show. You can find it over at www.thebananasplits.com. If you visit there, take a look at some of the line art of the characters. The work with the rougher, brush line is that of the late Jack Manning, a wonderful cartoonist (no relation to Russ) who did loads of work for Gold Key Comics, as well as for H-B and other animation studios. Jack did a lot of promotional and publicity art for Hanna-Barbera in the seventies and early eighties and someday, I hope to get around to an article of some sort about him. Someday.