Friday, June 10, 2011

Saturday Morning's Forgotten Heroes: Mightor vs. the Monster Keeper (1967)

While it could never be proven that Dino Boy in the Lost Valley, the backup feature on Space Ghost, was actually set in the Stone Age, Hanna-Barbera decided to return to that era with the original caveman superhero, Mighty Mightor, in 1967.

As the origin story goes at the beginning of the show, a young caveman, Tor, rescued a hermit, who then rewarded him with a mystic club, which, when raised, transforms Tor into Mightor.

As The Flintstones transposed the Stone Age into a semi-modern setting from 1960-66, Mightor would seem to be in a more traditional setting depicting the era. Here, Mightor battles "The Monster Keeper" in this excerpt:



Only one season's worth of episodes was produced. Mightor somehow found his way into the 21st century, thanks to the wackjobs at [adult swim], who decided that Mightor would now be a judge named Hiram Mightor, a supporting character on Harvey Birdman, Attorney-At-Law. Those blasphemous dullards wouldn't know the value of quality entertainment if it came up and bit them on their tuchis. I digress.

Rating: A-.

2 comments:

magicdog said...

Along with Space Ghost, Birdman and the Impossibles, I remember Mightor very well in large part to its twist on a classic premise.

A prehistoric super? Who knew?

Two things used to stick in my craw about the show however; Tog never changed that much. He just got bigger and could breathe fire but otherwise he seemed like himself. You'd think someone would have recognized him and put two and two together as to who Mightor really was!

The other was the obligatory love interest, Sheara. I thought she was rather stuck up and not worthy of Tor's affections. She only had eyes for Mightor and would only heap scorn upon poor Tor.

It was still a fun show though. I also think it has good reboot potential.

hobbyfan said...

Ah, yes. Shera's hot for Mightor, but not for Tor. Sound familiar? Of course. It's the whole Superman/Clark Kent-Lois Lane angle done H-B style.