First off, I have to give kudos to Ink & Paint, Entertainment Rights, and BCI for unearthing these Filmation treasures from the Seventies. Especially with Mission: Magic! since this illustrates the reason why we fondly miss Saturday Morning Television.
Buy,Download, Or Stream Mission: Magic! - The Complete Series! Click Here
Before Springfield became famed as an international rock star, or starred on General Hospital, he did a stint for Filmation relieve in 1973. Jumping on the popularity of films like ‘Wizard of Oz,’ ‘Alice in Wonderland,’ and ‘The Yellow Submarine,’ the premise dealt with Rick being sort of a monitor of dimensional worlds beyond our beget.
The ingenuine portion was his ‘agents’ so to mutter (since he contacted them via a grammaphone) : a class of high school students belonging to The Adventurers’ Club, and a teacher known as Miss Tickle. Whenever Rick contacted the group, Miss Tickle would revive her familiar statue of Tut-Tut to conjure forth a door on a blackboard (How many fans rob as kids drawing on chalkboards, in hopes to commence the magic door? ), which became a doorway to unbelievable lands and realms.
Buy,Download, Or Stream Mission: Magic! - The Complete Series! Click Here
The stories were rather simplistic but fun, basically Rick would stare a dilemma in his dimensional travels, contact Miss Tickle and the group, and they go and attempt in solving the problems.
Considering this was 1970s Saturday Morning TV, Miss Tickle rarely ancient her magic to pain anyone, nor did anyone actually find afflict. For instance, in ‘2600 AD’, Rick ends up getting ’stunned’ while fending off robots, while in another episode, he gets knocked out while under a spell.
The display was rather huge and actually once crossed over into ‘The Brady Kids’ when Wilmer (magic mynah bird) borrows Tut-Tut to access the magic door and accidentally transforms the familiar (cat) into a bird.
What really made the series mountainous was, besides hearing Rick’s Australian accent, like most of Filmation’s unusual shows, the plethora of characters were voiced by three or four actors, including Erika Schiemer (Lou Schiemer’s daughter, and eminent for the modern Sabrina’s notify) and Howard Morris (aka Ernest T. Bass, the unusual Jughead, and doing voices for The Jetsons as well.) .
Despite the outdated references, Mission: Magic! actually holds up rather well. One beef I had was the booklet claims the explain was too out there (due to the wild scenery and abstract openings) for it to ever be place into syndication. Actually, this is improper, since help in the Seventies, ABC would sell their ‘failed’ Saturday Morning Shows (series never going past their first season designate) to their affliates as ‘afternoon fillers’ between 3 and 5. Though not shown on the DVD dwelling, Filmation did urge an ‘alternate’ opening version of the series where Rick Springfield sang a more subtle version of the title song.
Thus, if Mission: Magic! was so grand, why did the series last for only one season? Normally in those days, animation was an extremely costly process, meaning networks would only order so many episodes made. If the ratings did exception well (on rare instances), they’d order more for the next season.
But the plight with Mission: Magic! was not lack of ratings, but instead a radical change with children’s programming. In 1974, a watchdog group called ACT (Action for Children’s Television) didn’t adore Miss Tickle being a teacher who could make magic, and ‘endangering’ her class by taking them on ‘unauthorized’ field trips into other worlds.
Also came the fact a teacher performing magic was not exactly acceptable, despite the fact, Miss Tickle didn’t always utilize her powers for solving problems. And you concept critics against Harry Potter were strict!
Which was a shame because Mission: Magic! was indeed a colossal appreciate and could have been the first spirited version of ‘Doctor Who’ and ‘Fat Albert’ rolled into one if given half the chance.
Even if you’re not a large fan of Rick Springfield, the DVD is quiet worth getting and watching. Because not only was it honestly a broad reveal for its time, it definitely revives the lost spirit of Saturday Morning Television.
I’d give this one six stars if I could.
Incredibly innovative sci-fi fantasy plots well bewitching by Filmation in the early 1970s. Miss Tickle (pun on “mystical”) leads an enthralling Rick Springfield and her students on adventures into fantasy lands and alternate realms.
Amazon also collected has copies of the Mission Magic CD with the songs from the reveal, if you’re involved.
This one will be money well spent, and immense kid-friendly material too.
Problem sleep
