The ABC Saturday Superstar Movie was a series of made-for-television films, often cartoons, that were broadcast on Saturday mornings from September 9, 1972 to November 17, 1973. Considered the ABC Movie of the Week for kids, this series was produced by several production companies like Hanna-Barbera, Filmation and Rankin/Bass and featured hour-long movies with Yogi Bear, The Brady Bunch and Lost in Space, among other popular shows. Some of these episodes were also pilots.

Over two seasons, episode aired like The Brady Kids on Mysterious Island (The Brady Kids pilot), Yogi’s Ark Lark (the pilot for Yogi’s Gang), Mad, Mad, Mad Monsters (a spiritual sequel Mad Monster Party), an animated Nanny and the Professor, Willie Mays and the Say-Hey Kid, Oliver and the Artful Dodger, The Adventures of Robin Hoodnik, Lassie and the Spirit of Thunder Mountain (the pilot for Lassie’s Rescue Rangers), Gidget Makes the Wrong Connection, The Banana Splits in Hocus Pocus Park, an unsold Bewitched cartoon pilot called Tabitha and Adam and the Clown Family, The Red Baron, Daffy Duck and Porky Pig Meet the Groovie Goolies, Luvast U.S.A. (a child version of Love, American Style), an animated That Girl movie by the title of That Girl in Wonderland, an unsold Lost In Space pilot, The Mini-Munsters and Nanny and the Professor and the Phantom of the Circus.

This cartoon is the first time that Steve Canyon, The Phantom, Tim Tyler and Flash Gordon would be animated. Professor Morbid Grimsby (Bob McFadden, who did nearly every voice other than the Popeye and female voices) is getting rid of the comics pages in the newspaper, working with Popeye’s enemy Brutus. The President of the U.S. gets everyone — Barney Google, Snuffy Smith, Blondie Dagwood, Beetle Bailey and characters from that strip, people from Bringing Up Father, Flash Gordon, Henry, Hi and Lois, The Katzenjammer Kids, Little Iodine, The Little King, Mandrake the Magician, Lothar, The Phantom, Popeye, Prince Valiant, Quincy, Steve Canyon, Tiger and Tim Tyler — must all work to get the professor to laugh for the first time.

Directed by Lou Silverton and written by Hal Seeger and Jack Zander, this was animated by Filmation, who would go on to make the early 80s Flash Gordon adaption. It’s quick and most of the characters barely get a part, but for someone who grew up with the Sunday comics, it’s awesome to see them all appear in one movie.

You can watch this on YouTube.