Uncle Croc's Block

Uncle Croc's Block

Genre	Live Action/Animation
Starring	Charles Nelson Reilly Jonathan Harris Alfie Wise
Voices of	Kenneth Mars Allan Melvin Alan Oppenheimer Robert Ridgely Lennie Weinrib Bob Holt
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
Production
Executive producer(s)	Norm Prescott Lou Scheimer Dick Rosenbloom
Running time	60 minutes, later 30 minutes
Production company(s)	Filmation
Release
Original network	ABC
Picture format	Color
Original release	September 6, 1975 – February 14, 1976

Uncle Croc's Block was an hour-long live-action/animated series on ABC, produced by Filmation.

History

As a spoof of kid shows, Charles Nelson Reilly played the titular Uncle Croc, a crocodile that hated his job as the show's host and was implied to be at least somewhat inebriated throughout the series (he "hiccups" during the theme song, for example). Also featured were Alfie Wise as his rabbit sidekick, Mr. Rabbit Ears, and Jonathan Harris as Basil Bitterbottom, the show-within-a-show's frustrated director.

Star Time

Each episode contained a "Star Time" segment, in which parodies of popular characters appeared, usually making denigrating remarks about the show and/or its staff, and demonstrating their abilities (or lack thereof). Guests included:

Captain Klangeroo is a parody of Captain Kangaroo.
- Mr. Mean Jeans (played by Huntz Hall) is a parody of Mr. Greenjeans.
Sherlock Domes (played by Carl Ballantine) is a parody of Sherlock Holmes.
- Dr. Watkins (played by Stanley Adams) is the sidekick of Sherlock Domes. He is a parody of Dr. Watson.
Witchie Goo Goo (played by Phyllis Diller) is witch whose prince-conjuring spell always summons Basil to her.
Junie the Genie (played by Alice Ghostley) is teenaged genie. She is a parody of Jeannie from I Dream of Jeannie.
Billy Bratson (played by Marvin Kaplan as Captain Marbles) says "Shazowy" to turn into the superhero Captain Marbles, in the same way Billy Batson transformed into Captain Marvel by saying “Shazam!”.
Steve Exhaustion, The $6.95 Man (played by Robert Ridgely) is a cyborg that always fell apart. He is a parody of Steve Austin, The Six Million Dollar Man.
Old Fogey Bear is manic-depressive bear. He is a parody of Yogi Bear.
Miss Invis is a woman who falsely claimed to be able to make herself invisible.

Cartoon segments

The show also included the cartoon shorts:

M*U*S*H (short for Mangy Unwanted Shabby Heroes): Sled dogs (voiced by Kenneth Mars and Robert Ridgely) work at a medical outpost in the frozen wasteland of upper Saboonia. This cartoon is a lampoon of M*A*S*H.
Fraidy Cat: Fraidy Cat (voiced by Alan Oppenheimer) is haunted by the ghosts of eight of his nine lives (each voiced by Lennie Weinrib).
Wacky and Packy: A prehistoric caveman and his pet woolly mammoth (both voiced by Allan Melvin) end up trapped in modern times.

Broadcast history

The series premiered at 10:30 am ET on September 6, 1975. Unfortunately, Uncle Croc's Block was up against the second half of hugely popular The Shazam!/Isis Hour (another Filmation property) and Far Out Space Nuts on CBS. The show, which was fitted with an adult laugh track, was shortened to 30 minutes, then scrapped on February 14, 1976, after half a season on the air.

As a result of the show's poor performance, ABC president Fred Silverman severed all ties with Filmation and began commissioning its Saturday morning cartoons from Hanna-Barbera, with whom Silverman had a working relationship during his time at CBS. In an attempt to save ratings, Filmation had planned to repackage the repeated Groovie Goolies episodes as a new segment, redubbed the Super Fiends (capitalizing on the title of rival Hanna-Barbera's Super Friends), but the show was shelved before the change could be incorporated. The animated segments were featured in the Filmation syndicated package, The Groovie Goolies and Friends, and also resurfaced in the home video market in the 1980s.

External links

Children's programming on the American Broadcasting Company in the 1970s

First-run animated series	The New Casper Cartoon Show (1963–70) The Smokey the Bear Show (1969–70) The Cattanooga Cats Show (1969–71) Hot Wheels (1969–71) The Hardy Boys (1969–71) Skyhawks (1969–71) The Adventures of Gulliver (1968–70) Fantastic Voyage (1968–70) Will the Real Jerry Lewis Please Sit Down (1970–72) The Road Runner Show (1971–73) The Funky Phantom (1971–73) The Jackson 5ive (1971–73) The Osmonds (1972–74) The ABC Saturday Superstar Movie (1972–74) The Brady Kids (1972–74) Kid Power (1972–74) Yogi's Gang (1973–75) Super Friends (1973–74) Lassie's Rescue Rangers (1973–75) Goober and the Ghost Chasers (1973–75) Mission: Magic! (1973–74) Hong Kong Phooey (1974–76) The New Adventures of Gilligan (1974–77) Devlin (1974–76) These Are the Days (1974–76) The Tom and Jerry Show (1975–77) The Great Grape Ape Show (1975–76) The Oddball Couple (1975–77) Jabberjaw (1976–78) The Scooby-Doo/Dynomutt Hour (1976–77) The Mumbly Cartoon Show (1976–77) The All-New Super Friends Hour (1977–78) Scooby's All-Star Laff-A-Lympics (The Scooby-Doo Show Laff-A-Lympics Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels) (1977–79) Fangface (1978–79) Challenge of the Super Friends (1978–79) The All-New Pink Panther Show (1978–79) The World's Greatest Super Friends (1979–80) The Plastic Man Comedy/Adventure Show (Mighty Man and Yukk Rickety Rocket) (1979–81) Spider-Woman (1979–80) Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo (1979–80)

First-run live-action series	American Bandstand (1957–87) Lancelot Link, Secret Chimp (1970–72) Here Come the Double Deckers (1970–72) Lidsville (1971–73) Curiosity Shop (1971–73) Make a Wish (1971–76) Korg: 70,000 B.C. (1974–75) The Lost Saucer (1975–76) Uncle Croc's Block (1975–76) The Krofft Supershow (1976–78) Junior Almost Anything Goes (1976–78) Animals, Animals, Animals (1976–81) ABC Weekend Special (1977–97) Kids Are People Too (1978–82)

Rebroadcasts	George of the Jungle (1967–70) Bewitched (1972–73) Jonny Quest (1970–72) H.R. Pufnstuf (1972–73) The Monkees (1972–73) The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show (1972) The Roman Holidays (1972) Speed Buggy (1976) Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! (1978)

Schedules	1969–70 1970–71 1971–72 1972–73 1973–74 1974–75 1975–76 1976–77 1977–78 1978–79 1979–80

Related topics	Animation in the United States in the television era

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