Aired: 1955-68
Budget: $2.8 million in total
Art Clokey created the “Gumby Show,” and after he showed the pilot of the kids’ show to an executive at NBC, he was asked to make a second pilot. That’s when “Gumby on the Moon” was created.
The segment was a significant success on the “Howdy Doody Show,” and that’s when Clokey was given a single season. The show featured claymation and ran from 1955 to 1968, though it is still well-known today. To this day, Gumby is one of the most famous examples of stop-motion claymation.
Josie and the Pussycats
Aired: 1970 – 1972
Budget: $250,000 per episode
"Josie and the Pussycats" was a spinoff of the girls' group that was formed in the "Archie Comics" books. The show featured a girl band that was trying to play music while solving any mystery that came their way!
Josie was known for the music, the in-your-face leopard-print costumes, and for being the first show to feature a Black character regularly on a Saturday morning cartoon. The show ran for one season and had sixteen episodes, and got a live-action movie in 2001!
The Little Rascals (Our Gang)
Aired: 1955-58
Budget: $10,000 per episode
"The Little Rascals" was a series that blossomed from the series of short films from the 1920s, "Our Gang." The show featured a group of children growing up in a poor neighborhood in the early twentieth century.
TLR aired thirty years after the first show aired, and MGM signed on as distribution of the show's episodes. The second the show hit the TV screen, its popularity came rushing back. In 1994 Universal Pictures release a family comedy by the same name.
The Jackson 5ive
Aired: 1971-73
Budget: $6.6 million in total
As you may have already guessed by the name, the show followed the lives of Jermaine, Marlon, Tito, Michael, and Jackie Jackson - The Jackson Five. The show was animated and was created for ABC by Jules Bass.
The band got their start in 1965, so they had been around for a few years before they got their own animated series. The famous five brothers were voiced by actors, though Diana Ross voiced herself, and like most 1970s Saturday morning series, "The Jackson 5ive" had an adult laugh track.
The Osmonds
Aired: 1972
Budget: $40,000 per episode
Much like "The Jackson 5ive," "The Osmonds" was an animated series based on the Osmond family. Though unlike The Jackson 5ive, the show was voiced by the brothers themselves. The show aired for a few months in 1972 and had seventeen episodes in total.
The show was an interesting one as it followed the Osmonds as they traveled around the world performing music. Each episode opened with the family in a new location.