The Banana Splits

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For the dessert, see banana split. "Snorky" redirects here. For
the gangster, see Al Capone.

The Banana Splits

Adventure Hour

original title card

Also known as

The Banana Splits and Friends Show

Genre

children's

Directed by

Richard Donner (Season 1)

Tom Boutross (Season 2)

Starring

Jeff Winkless (as Jeffrey Brock)

Ginner Whitcombe (as Fleegle 2008)
Terence H. Winkless (as Terence Henry)
Dan Winkless (as Daniel Owen)
James "Jimmy" Dove
Steve Kincannon

Voices of

Paul Winchell
Daws Butler
Allan Melvin
Don Messick

Theme music composer Nelson B. Winkless, Jr. (credited to Ritchie

Adams & Mark Barkan)

Opening theme

"Tra La La (One Banana, Two Banana)"

Country of origin

United States

Originallanguage(s)

English

No. of seasons

No. of episodes

31 + shorts

Production

Executiveproducer(s)

William Hanna
Joseph Barbera

Producer(s)

Edward J. Rosen (Season 1)

Running time

4548 minutes

Productioncompany(s)

Hanna-Barbera Productions

Distributor

Warner Bros. Television Distribution

Broadcast

Original channel

NBC

Audio format

Monaural

Original run

September 7, 1968 September 5, 1970

Chronology

Related shows

The Skatebirds

External links

Website

The Banana Splits Adventure Hour was an hour-long, packaged

television variety program featuring The Banana Splits, a fictional
rock band composed of four funny animal characters. The costumed
hosts of the show were Fleegle (guitar, vocals), Bingo
(drums, vocals), Drooper (bass,vocals) and Snorky
(keyboards, effects).
The series was produced by Hanna-Barbera, and ran for 31
episodes on NBC Saturday mornings, from September 7, 1968, to
September 5, 1970. The costumes and sets were designed by Sid
and Marty Krofft and the series' sponsor was Kellogg's Cereals.
[1]
The show featured both live action and animated segments and
was Hanna-Barberas first foray into mixing live action with
animation.
Contents
[hide]

1 History and description

o

1.1 2008 revival

2 Cast

3 Music
o

3.1 Covers

4 Comics

5 Home media releases

6 See also

7 References

8 External links

History and description[edit]

In 1967, William Hanna and Joseph Barbera approached Sid
Krofft and Marty Krofft to design costumes for a television show

which would feature animated and live-action segments, with the

whole show hosted by a bubblegum rock group
of anthropomorphic characters. The format of the show was loosely
based on Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In. The Banana Splits Adventure
Hour premiered on NBC on September 7, 1968.[1]
The Krofft brothers give credit to the success of the series for
opening the door for their own entry into television. NBC picked up
the Krofft seriesH.R. Pufnstuf, which was launched during an hourlong special hosted by The Banana Splits on August 30, 1969.[1]
The show's live-action segment Danger Island, a cliffhanger serial,
as well as the short-lived Micro Ventures, an animated series
consisting of only four episodes, ran alongside the animated
segments Arabian Knights and The Three Musketeers.[1] Actor Jan
Michael Vincent (billed as Michael Vincent) appeared in the liveaction component Danger Island, all the live-action material filmed
for the series' first season, including theBanana Splits and Danger
Island segments, was directed by Richard Donner.[2]
Each show represented a meeting of the "Banana Splits Club", and
the wraparounds featured the adventures of the club members, who
doubled as a musical quartet, meant to be reminiscent of The
Monkees. The main characters were Fleegle, a beagle; Bingo,
a gorilla; Drooper, a lion; and Snorky, called "Snork" in the theme
song lyrics, an elephant.
Fleegle would assume the role as leader of the Banana Splits and
preside at club meetings. The characters were played by actors in
voluminous fleecy costumes similar to later Sid and Marty Krofft
characters such as H.R. Pufnstuf. They all spoke in English
Drooper with a Southern drawlin the manner of Michael Nesmith,
Fleegle with a pronounced lisp except for Snorky who "spoke" in
honking noises.
The Splits' segments, including songs-of-the-week and comedy
skits, served as wraparounds for a number of individual segments.
In the second season, The Three Musketeers segments were
replaced with repeats of The Hillbilly Bears, a cartoon segment that
previously appeared on The Atom Ant Show (19651968).
For the first season, some of the live-action segments specifically
those used during the musical segments were shot at Six Flags
Over Texas, an amusement park located in Arlington, Texas.[1] For
the second season, filming took place at the Kings
Island amusement park, located in eastern Cincinnati, Ohio. In
many episodes, the Banana Splits would be seen riding on the
Runaway Mine Train roller coasters, Log Flumes, Bumper Cars,
Merry-Go-Rounds, and many other rides at Six Flags and Kings
Island.
Also featured were the "Banana Buggies" mentioned in the theme
song. These were seen driven by each live-action character in the
opening and closing segments and occasionally in the wraparound
and music video segments as well. The buggies were
customized Amphicat six-wheel drive all-terrain vehicles each
decorated to resemble the character who drove them. Plastic 1/25

scale model kits were issued by Aurora Plastics Corporation under

catalog number 832 beginning in 1969. These were never reissued
by Aurora, but have since been released as high-end, resin-based
kits.[3]
The Banana Splits was one of the first two Hanna-Barbera series in
1968 in which Hanna and Barbera received executive
producer credits, the other being Huck Finn; Edward Rosen served
as producer on both series.[citation needed] They would not, however,
assume the title full-time for another five years.[citation needed] This HannaBarbera series was also one of the first Saturday morning cartoon
shows to utilize a laugh track.[4]

2008 revival[edit]
In August 2008, Warner Bros had announced a multi-platform
release featuring new comedy shorts and music videos that
debuted on Cartoon Network starting September 2, 2008.[5][6] The
relaunch included a live show and a website,[7] as well as a CD and
a DVD featuring 13 new songs released by Universal Records.[6] In
addition, a kids-themed area called Banana Splitsville was placed
at Myrtle Beach, South Carolina's Hard Rock Park rock-and-roll
theme park, which later became Freestyle Music Park before
closing permanently in 2009.[8]

Cast[edit]
Character

Suit performer

Voice actor

Fleegle (beagle)

Jeff Winkless (1969) (billed as Jeffrey

Brock)
Ginner Whitcombe (2008 version)

Paul Winchell
Bill Farmer (2008 version)

Guitar
Vocals

Bingo (gorilla)

Terence H. Winkless (billed as Terence

Henry)

Daws Butler
Frank Welker (2008
version)

Drums
Vocals

Drooper (lion)

Dan Winkless (billed as Daniel Owen)

Adam Grubner (2008 version)

Allan Melvin
Carlos Alazraqui (2008
version)

Bass
Vocals

Snorky
(elephant)

"Jimmy" Dove in season 1 song

segments
Robert Towers in most other segments

Music[edit]

Instrument

Keyboards
Effects

Main article: Banana Splits discography

The shows theme song, titled "The Tra La La Song (One Banana,
Two Banana)", was written by Ritchie Adams and Mark Barkan;
Barkan was one of the music directors for the show. The song was
released as a single and peaked at number 96 on Billboard's Top
100 in February 1969.[9] The version included on the We're The
Banana Splits album is the same recording heard at the beginning
of the show, while the single version is an entirely different
arrangement and recording of the song, featuring an additional
verse.
The Banana Splits' bubblegum pop rock and roll was provided by
studio professionals, including Joey Levine ("I Enjoy Being a Boy",
"It's a Good Day for a Parade"); Al Kooper ("You're the Lovin'
End"); Barry White ("Doin' the Banana Split"); Gene Pitney ("Two
Ton Tessie") and Jimmy Radcliffe provided his songs ("I'm Gonna
Find a Cave", "Soul", "Don't Go Away Go-Go Girl", "Adam Had 'Em"
and "The Show Must Go On") but did not contribute vocals to Splits
recordings.
The music director was music publisher Aaron Schroeder, while
production duties were mainly handled by David Mook. When a
heavier R&B vocal was needed, the music producers usually turned
to singer Ricky Lancelotti, who was billed in the show credits under
his stage name Rick Lancelot. Lancelotti went on to record several
songs with Frank Zappa.[10] In 1968, The Banana Splits released an
album on Decca Records titled We're the Banana Splits.

Covers[edit]
US speed punk act The Dickies covered the theme song in 1978,
entitled "Banana Splits (Tra La La Song)". Their recording reached
Number 7 in the UK charts and now appears as a bonus on the CD
reissue of their 1979 album The Incredible Shrinking Dickies. They
still perform this cover live at almost every concert and it was also
featured in the movie soundtrack of Kick-Ass, during ten-year-old
Hit-Girl's brutally violent fight scene.
A cover of the shows theme song performed by Liz
Phair with Material Issue (surprisingly appropriate as Liz Phair and
three cast members of the Banana Splits attended New Trier High
School) is included on the 1995 tribute album Saturday Morning:
Cartoons' Greatest Hits, produced by Ralph Sall for MCA Records.
Another rendition was performed by rock & roll comicC.C.
Banana on the 2005 cartoon tribute album "Complete Balanced
Breakfast."[11]
A cover of "Don't Go Away Go-Go Girl" by pop-punk band Mr. T
Experience was issued on the 1993 tribute album Banana Pad
Riot and their Big Black Bugs Bleed Blue Blood and Our Bodies
Our Selves CD releases. The 1988 landmark release "Sub Pop
200" included a version of "I'm Gonna Find a Cave" retitled "Gonna
Find a Cave" by the band Girl Trouble. "Sub Pop 200" featured
recordings from many soon to be notable bands, Nirvana, Green

River, Mudhoney, Soundgarden and others from Seattle's Grunge

music explosion that followed.
Chicago-based musician Ralph Covert, who records children's
music under the group name Ralph's World, covered the theme
song under the title "The Banana Splits (The Tra La La Song)" on
his 2001 album At the Bottom of the Sea. Oddest of all references is
possibly that made by Bob Marley, with the striking (though not
exact) similarity between the song's chorus and the bridge of
the Bob Marley & The Wailers song "Buffalo Soldier".

Comics[edit]
The Banana Splits' adventures continued in comic books. Gold
Key began publishing a comic version in 1969, releasing eight
issues through 1971.[12] Drawn by Jack Manning, these followed the
musicians trying to find work or on the road between gigs.

Home media releases[edit]

On September 21, 2009, Warner Home Video released the
complete first season on DVD in Region 2.[13] The 6-disc set consists
of 36 edited half-hour episodes of The Banana Splits And Friends
Show as aired on Boomerang. It is unknown when Warner
Archive will release the entire complete series (uncut, unedited and
remastered) on DVD.

See also[edit]

Animation portal

Television portal

References[edit]
1.

^ Jump up to:a b c d e Erickson, Hal (1998). Sid and Marty Krofft.

McFarland. pp. 1415. ISBN 978-0-7864-0518-3.
Retrieved August 27, 2009.

2.

Jump up^ CD liner notes: Saturday Mornings: Cartoons Greatest

Hits, 1995 MCA Records

3.

Jump up^ Reissued Banana Buggy resin kits at

Professorplastik.com

4.

Jump up^ Iverson, Paul: "The Advent of the Laugh Track" Hofstra
University archives; February 1994

5.

Jump up^ "The Banana Splits". WarnerBrosOnline. August 14,

2008. Retrieved August 15, 2008.

6.

^ Jump up to:a b "The Banana Splits Are Back! Warner Bros.

Consumer Products Serves Up Four Scoops Of Hilarity With
Relaunch". Warner Bros. Press Office. August 15, 2008.
Retrieved August 20,2008.

7.

Jump up^ "The Banana Splits". The Banana Splits.

Retrieved August 15, 2008.

8.

Jump up^ "Hard Rock ParkBanana Splitsville". Hard Rock Park.

Retrieved August 26, 2008.

9.

Jump up^ "Billboard Hot 100 Chart". Billboard. 8 February 1969.

Retrieved 31 January 2015.

10. Jump up^ "ricky lancelotti". Retrieved July 20, 2010.

11. Jump up^ "C.C. Banana Reunites With Banana 7, Records Song
For Tribute Album". TributeAlbums.com. Retrieved March
22, 2010.
12. Jump up^ "The Banana Splits". The Big DataBase of Comic
Books. Retrieved August 25, 2008.
13. Jump up^ The Banana Splits - Complete Season 1 [DVD]:
Amazon.co.uk: Film & TV. Amazon.co.uk. Retrieved on 2012-0410.

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this
article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged an
removed. (August 2008)

External links[edit]

Official website

The Banana Splits Adventure Hour at the Internet Movie

Database

The Banana Splits Adventure Hour at TV.com

Interview with Shirley Hillstrom (now Sheri Freedman), who

played Charley the Messenger of the Sour Grapes Bunch

[show]

Sid and Marty Krofft

[show]

Children's programming on NBC in the

[show]

Children's programming on NBC in the

Categories:
1968 American television series debuts

1970 American television series endings

1960s American animated television series

American children's television series

Fictional musical groups

English-language television programming

Hanna-Barbera series and characters

Television series by Warner Bros. Television

NBC network shows

Television programs featuring anthropomorphic characters

Television programs featuring puppetry

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