Shark Bytes

I like the 6x6 amphibious vehicles they had known as Banana buggies. These vehicles I found to have abilities that newer quad type ATVs do not poses

I love the Banana Splits music the most, I used to watch it in the reruns after school. You couldn't imagine my delight when I saw them on Boomerang. I recorded all the music videos on my DVR. They rock. The Doin' the Banana video had all the Sour Grapes Bunch in it. Check it out on Youtube. What's yellow and wears a mask and cape? Super Banana

This show never jumped, and it beats any kids shows today by a mile. FWIW, the instrument (although I don't remember the song) was the calioposaxaviatrumparimbaclaribassotrombophone.

I can't imagine a show like this going over with todays kids. It's not an infomercial, and it doesn't have a psychotically violent video game to go along with it.

Certainly a show that was a take off of the Monkey's show. I used to watch both, and got used to the frenzied pace and the short vignettes that were interspersed in each show. wonder how short features in a kids show would fair today? The "Danger Island" show was definitely cool, and I liked seeing Chongo going off on people.

The song "Wait 'Till Tomorrow" can be found on the album "25 All-Time Greatest Bubblegum Hits: The Ultimate Bubblegum Collection" which be ALOT easier to find than any of the Banana Splits Albums. I was able to find it on Amazon.

i dont know about anyone here, but i recently saw the ending installment of "danger island", and the black guy and chongo are definitely gay (in subtext). first, after they rescue the blond chick, she tries to kiss chongo and he dodges her and jumps overboard. later when chongo and the black guy (morgan is his name) goes to a familiar island, he and the black wrap arms around each other, and Morgan declares to the professor "chongo and i aren't civilized enough to be in captivity". note that Chongo doesn't freak out when touched by morgan. the two live on this island together and walk off arm-in-arm. never jumped tho.

I feel bad that kids nowadays don't get to watch stuff like this and H.R. Pufnstuf. Shoot, they'll probably end up doing drugs anyway.

This is one of those shows that made sure your butt was up early on Saturday mornings.

'Flippin like a pancake, popping like a cork' are your missing lyrics

I was born back in 1969. I saw this show in the early 70s. Think I was 3 or 4. Years later, I could remember it, but I always thought it was something I dreamed or heard about from someone else. The only thing I could remember was these characters coming down a slide at the start of the show. I did remember it was the Banana Splits.

Recently, I came across this on the cartoon channel. I watched a little of it just to test my memory. Sure enough, it was those characters and there was a slide at the back of the room. I wasn't imagining that I saw this show years ago.

Definitely JTS when Fleagle insisted on writing and playing his own stuff. Who the F*** does he think he is--Davy Jones?

To the poster who forgot the theme song...Flipping like a pancake Popping like a cork

Someone earlier mentioned that some of the opening/closing scenes of the Banana Splits were filmed at Kings Island Amusement Park near Cincinatti.

Half right. Those shots were done in Cincinatti but NOT at Kings Island. Many of those scenes were filmed at Cincinatti's Coney Island.

The Banana Splits was filmed in 1968 and 1969. Kings Island didn't even open until 1972

This show seemed to be a spoof of the Beatles and the Monkees combined. As a kid I enjoyed watching the Splits every Saturday. I especially liked the Adventures of Gulliver and Danger Island. The music used on Danger Island was so cool. The acting was corny, but the suspense music was awesome. My most favorite sequence on the show was the New Adventures of Huck Finn. This was where animation and live sequences collided in the tale of Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn and Becky Thatcher who were trying to find their way home to Missouri after a vortex in a cave led them to their lost existence, all the while trying to evade Injun Joe. When this sequence was featured on the Splits, it was the only time its closing sequence was shown in place of the Coney Island sequence of the Banana Splits. The ending sequence featured Tom, Huck, and Becky on a riverboat waving goodbye as it sailed on down the Mississippi. The end theme song went something like this 'We got the steam up, you built the dream up, we're here to 'stound you, listen my friend, follow the river, that mighty river, there's great adventure around every ben. Hear that whistle blow, see that paddle go, who knows what we're heading for! That Mississippi, she is mystery. She's just waiting there to be explored. Oh can't you hear me, woah, can't you hear me, .....'

Because it wasn't on very long, it never had a chance to jump though it may well have had it gone on for longer. I remember this when I moved up to London in '69 - it coincides with me becoming really conscious of telly in an independent way. I was 6 at the time and of course knew nothing about drugs so it was all just zany fun. To tell you the truth, I still believe that now and it's kind of sad that so many of us can't conceive of colourful whackiness without thinking it's drug induced. As someone who has worked for 23 years with kids, it's easy to access a child's imagination and stimulate it. You can make almost anything appeal to kids. The banana splits were just an extension of general playground lampoonery. And what fun ! I still use the phrase "HOLD THE BUS" to this very day. I used to be scared of the Dilly Sisters in their white dresses and guitars singing that Spanish "la la la la la la la la la !"; I hated the mad cuckoo but I loved the cartoons, the Arabian Knights were superb, I loved them all, the strong man, the princess and prince, the guy that could become water {even to this day when I come into a room and someone didn't see me and they ask how I got in, I'll say 'that's a trick I learned from the Arabian Knights !'} and the one that could turn into animals. I also loved the three musketeers though I always wanted to smash Tooly's face in; I was scared witless and shitless of Chungo in 'Danger Islands', the cartoon about the family that used to shrink and drive in their garden was tolerated rather than liked and I never knew 'Gulliver' was part of the show- it wasn't in England. I remember it as a separate show on the other channel and I remember Glum with his "We'll never make it (x3), I know it !!" and two others that had weird names like Fat-Asia {it was kind of pronounced something like that but I've not seen it since '72 or '73} and Eager. I particularly liked the Split's music, I wish I could find "Wait til tomorrow" coz it was a great tune and I am convinced Bob Marley either consciously or unconsciously latched the memorable part of the theme tune for "Buffalo Soldier". That theme tune is unbelievably good, just check the bassline on it and that melody ! No, all in all it was great value, there was so much packed into just 30 minutes each week. A few years ago, my nephew had a video with about 9 episodes called "UNPEELED" and that alone cracks me up still. And yes, the late Paul Winchell was the voice of Fleagle {I worked that out when I was 12. He was also Dick Dastardly and a host of villainous voices in the Impossibles and other cartoons}. Does anyone remember Drooper's stoopid advice column "and now it's time for deeeeaaar Drooper !" Priceless !