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Rod Rocket

{{short description|American animated television series}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}}

{{Infobox television

| image =

| caption =

| alt_name =

| genre = Adventure

| runtime = 5 minutes

| creator =

| starring = Sam Edwards
Hal Smith
Pat Blake

| opentheme =

| director = Lou Scheimer
Hal Sutherland

| executive_producer = Mark Lipsky
Walter N. Bien

| writer = Dick Robbins

| company = Filmation Associates
Sib Tower 12 Productions

| country = United States

| language = English

| network =

| first_aired = {{start date|1963}}

| last_aired =

| num_seasons =

| num_episodes = 65{{citation needed|date=February 2017}}

| list_episodes =

}}

Rod Rocket is an American animated television series, the first produced by Filmation, and debuted in syndication in 1963. The show was produced in five-minute cliffhanger segments, with five segments making a full story. Television stations could broadcast the single-segment version daily on their local children's afternoon show, or package them together to make 26 weekly half-hour shows.{{cite book |last1=Woolery |first1=George W. |title=Children's Television: The First Thirty-Five Years, 1946-1981, Part 1: Animated Cartoon Series |date=1983 |publisher=Scarecrow Press |isbn=0-8108-1557-5 |url=https://archive.org/details/childrenstelevis0000wool/page/240/mode/2up |accessdate=14 March 2020 |pages=241}}

History

Rod Rocket was originally produced by True Line, a small Los Angeles animation studio which subcontracted it to the newly formed Filmation Associates created by Lou Scheimer and Hal Sutherland in 1963.{{cite book|last1=Scheimer|first1= Lou |last2= Mangels|first2= Andy|title=Lou Scheimer: Creating the Filmation Generation| location=Raleigh, North Carolina| publisher=TwoMorrows Publishing |year= 2012|pages=38–39}}[http://toonopedia.com/rodrockt.htm Rod Rocket] at Don Markstein's Toonopedia. [https://archive.today/20240528014234/https://www.webcitation.org/6o9y6cJwR?url=http://toonopedia.com/rodrockt.htm Archived] from the original on February 9, 2017. Scheimer and Sutherland had met while working at Larry Harmon Productions on the made-for-TV Bozo the Clown and Popeye cartoons. They produced the series for SIB Productions, a Japanese company.

Plot

A boy named Rod Rocket and his best friend, Joey, are sent by wise codger Professor Argus on an exploratory mission in a spaceship called the Little Argo. He waits for them at home with his teenage granddaughter, Cassie. While in space, Rod and Joey constantly battle two bumbling cosmonauts.{{cite book |last1=Erickson |first1=Hal |title=Television Cartoon Shows: An Illustrated Encyclopedia, 1949 Through 2003 |date=2005 |edition=2nd |publisher=McFarland & Co |isbn=978-1476665993 |pages=685–686}}

Voices

The voice cast included:{{cite book |last1=Perlmutter |first1=David |title=The Encyclopedia of American Animated Television Shows |date=2018 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=978-1538103739 |page=516}}

Episodes

  • "Slave Labor in Space"
  • "The Lava Trap"
  • "Lost in a Lunar Mist"
  • "Lights On"
  • "The Acid Test"

References

{{reflist}}

External links

  • {{IMDb title|1129009}}
  • [https://web.archive.org/web/20081205034550/http://www.toontracker.com/rodrock/rodrock.htm Rod Rocket] at Toon Tracker

Category:1960s American animated television series

Category:1963 American animated television series debuts

Category:1963 American television series endings

Category:American children's animated space adventure television series

Category:Television series by Filmation

Category:Television series by MGM Television

Category:First-run syndicated animated television series

Category:Television series about astronauts

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