Big Daddy K wrote: ↑Wed May 02, 2018 1:29 pm
Screen Gems also did Batfink.
Batfink was a cartoon (which Screen Gems did not produce) not an expensive live action series. Screen Gems' most successful productions were sitcoms; in addition to the series mentioned in my previous post, this is the same studio that released Dennis the Menace, Father Knows Best, The Donna Reed Show, among other series. That's where the profits were for the studio, not fantasy. Aside from that, why would any studio want to pick up the tab on a series that had long outlived its appeal a year eariler?
To answer your question BH, beats me.
I just thought it was interesting that in the discussion Screen Gems was mentioned.
"It's the very essence of our democracy". - Batman, S1 Ep 11
BatMite wrote: ↑Wed May 02, 2018 6:27 pm
How exactly did BATFINK "create a market" for WHAM-O's toys? Were the toys featured in the cartoon? Does anyone know?
"Frank Buxton had one other career. As odd as it seems for someone involved with Peabody-winning children’s programming, he starred in a syndicated TV cartoon show, the stiffly-animated Batfink. The series by Hal Seeger Productions was originally distributed in early 1967 by Mission Productions, the TV arm of WHAM-O, the toy maker, before Screen Gems took over to sell the show in more cities and cash in on its exclusive merchandising rights. A deal had closed to sell Hanna-Barbera to Taft Broadcasting, meaning Screen Gems needed to find new cartoon characters to push. Suffice it to say, I have serious doubts that Batfink won a Peabody. Incidentally, after finishing Batfink in June 1967, Seeger turned its attentions (according to Variety) to producing cartoon series called Wilbur the Wanted and Mr. E. Whether Buxton was involved in these, I don’t know."
"It's the very essence of our democracy". - Batman, S1 Ep 11
I'd have never guessed there were 100 Batfink cartoons, but I've seen more than a few of them. There was never any Wham-O product placement that I can recall. Of course, there was never any cereal in Bullwinkle cartoons, either, but General Mills produced them as a vehicle for selling Cheerios.
Batfink was kind of a hybrid spoof of Batman and Green Hornet. Batfink was an actual bat, with bulletproof wings. His sidekick was a big Asian human guy named "Karate," who did well, karate—and also drove the batfinkmobile. (I dunno if that's really what they called the car.)
Part of Batfink's schtick was to wrap himself in his invulnerable wings when bad guys shot at him. His catchphrase (at least the only one I recall) was "Your bullets cannot harm me. My wings are like a shield of steel!"
I wonder if Greenway ever pursued any legal action. I think it would've been hard to prove any kind of infringement; parody is fair game, on the one hand. And there were material differences between Batman and Batfink on the other: Batfink had no secret identity, and he was a superpowered anthropmorphic animal. Aside from the "Bat-" name, I don't think it was any more specifically a swipe of Batman than Super Chicken, Underdog, Atom Ant, Fearless Fly, etc. -- or Bob Kane's own self-ripoff, Courageous Cat and Minute Mouse.