The Space Kidettes is an American Saturday morning cartoon produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions, originally airing on NBC during the 1966-67 season. Set in outer space, the series followed the adventures of a group of child astronauts, who have acquired a treasure map and have to keep it away from their nemesis, Captain Skyhook and his sidekick Static.
Originally airing for one season on NBC as a half-hour program and sponsored by General Mills, The Space Kidettes episodes were later edited down to ten-minute episodes and paired with other General Mills-sponsored shows such as Tennessee Tuxedo and Go Go Gophers to form a full half-hour for syndication.
Edited further, it was later paired with edited reruns of cartoons from another NBC Hanna-Barbera program, (Young) Samson & Goliath to form the syndication package The Space Kidettes and Young Samson. The original master elements for both programs were lost, leaving the syndicated edits as the only extant broadcast quality versions.
All 20 episodes of The Space Kidettes and Young Samson were released on DVD via the Warner Archive Collection manufacture-on-demand program in 2011.
Samson & Goliath (also known as Young Samson) is an animated television series produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions for NBC, where it debuted on September 9, 1967. Primarily sponsored by General Mills, who controlled the distribution rights through its agency Dancer Fitzgerald Sample, Samson & Goliath was retitled Young Samson in April 1968 to avoid confusion with the stop-motion Christian television series Davey and Goliath.
Twenty-six 12-minute episodes of the series were produced (six of which no longer exist); Samson & Goliath cartoons were paired with other General Mills-sponsored shows such as Tennessee Tuxedo and Go Go Gophers to form a full half-hour for their original network broadcasts. Young Samson was later shown in syndication with The Space Kidettes as The Space Kidettes and Young Samson, distributed by Warner Bros. Television Distribution (current rights owner through Hanna-Barbara) and The Program Exchange.
The series was the only Dancer Fitzgerald Sample-sponsored cartoon to be outsourced to Hanna-Barbera; the agency's in-house studio, Gamma Productions, had closed shortly before the series began. (It was also the only cartoon in the DFS portfolio not to be created by Jay Ward Productions or Total Television.) A young Tim Matheson did the voice of Samson, while Mel Blanc supplied the voice of Goliath. John Stephenson did the various character voices.
Cast[]
| Image | Character | USA | Mex | Jap | Bra | Fra |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Scooter | Chris Allen | Kinya Aikawa | |||
|
Countdown | Don Messick | ||||
|
Jennie | Janet Waldo | ||||
|
Snoopy | Lucille Bliss | Carmen Sheila | |||
|
Pup Star | Don Messick | ||||
|
Captain Skyhook | Daws Butler | José Santa Cruz | |||
|
Static | Don Messick | ||||
|
Samson | Tim Matheson | José Lavat | |||
|
Goliath | Mel Blanc | ||||
|
Santa Claus | Hal Smith | ||||
 
|
Title | |||||
Character Gallery[]
| Gallery | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| ||
|
|
|
|
|
| ||||