Credits vs Credits: Mighty Atom vs Astro Boy 1963 ED

[Alwin2007]

Why does it say Written and Directed by Fred Ladd? At least one year of animation was based on Tezuka's manga, Tezuka's own work. I don't get it. How could Fred Ladd have written it? On Wikipedia it says that Tezuka worked on the anime with 5 of his assistants. Fred Ladd wasn't mentioned. If it had to do with translation then it should say so. Directed? Come on. What's that all about? Tezuka wrote the work himself.

[MrPeterbs]

Actually NBC had a syndication/distribution division (Kimba The White Lion was one of theirs as well) but to the best of my recollection- it didn't air on NBC stations- at least not here in the Los Angeles area.

[hilarioph]

Astro boy was aired on NBC 

back then?

[ebwarg]

@hilarioph Actually it was syndicated by NBC's syndication division, NBC Films. I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of the stations that aired it were NBC affiliates, but it was not part of NBC's network programming.

[hilarioph]

Hmm if NBC could be the 1st Anime

they aired. This could be the 1st time

they did on NBC. Right now 4kids

are carry those Anime they did

[ebwarg]

@hilarioph I *was* the first Anime TV series to be aired in America. It was the essentially the first anime TV series, period. To be specific: "Tetsuwan Atom" was the second animated TV series to be made for Japanese television, and the first to air in a weekly, half-hour format. The first, "Otogi Manga Calendar," was three to five minutes a day, six days a week.

[hilarioph]

Saban handles this classic 70's Anime

of Kimba the white lion. I saw the series

on ABC 5 in the Philippines and also

Leo the lion was the sequel of Jungle

emperor. It was aired on Citynet 27

back in the 90's

[blind51de]

Fun fact: The wordless ending was actually the original Astro Boy opening, it was only after NBC redid it with English lyrics that Japan did the same (and thus was the first anime to have an opening song).

[1952kid]

I think it would have stayed on tv , if they would have continued the series in color, but they waited until the 1980's to put Astroboy new episodes on tv. Another one is 8th man, went off the air because it was b/w . In the mid 1960's tv stations wanted all the color programs they could get. I still think its a treat to see a 1963 Astroboy in color., it doesnt look that old in color. But i watched it in B/W as a child and it looks normal to me that way.

[Lehnerd57]

Okay i will and thanks for tellin me did u like the movie they had of astro boy on big screen since oct

[1952kid]

I went on Tezuka in English site, yep, the only 1963 episode in full color #32 Moon Monsters. But was aired in b/w on tv. Havent seen the new movie yet.

[1952kid]

No ,its not a 1980 episode,its 1963 Moon Monsters , i found it in b/w with the original 1963 opening and in color too, i know some people have made errors on u tube , But really check this one out ,its definetly 1960's in color in japanese with sub titles , take a minute and type in ASTROBOY MOON MONSTERS, and watch both b/ w and the color one. IM not wrong on this one!

[1952kid]

Im in shock !!!!!! i just watched a color episode of 1963 Astroboy ,YES the real 1963 cartoon in color ,its on u tube, Moon Monsters. And a few others with color back grounds only. Anyone have any information on this 1960's color episode. This is totally new to me,having watched them in 1963 all in b/w.

[tht707]

@sygo: thank you. It would be interesting to know. So far I've just found out the first episode aired on September 7, 1963. If they were scheduled weekly, the others could be deduced, unless there's been interruptions.

It would be great to have all the Japanese episodes in a subtitled edition. I would buy that

[1952kid]

im thankfull we have over 100 episodes of the original 1963 Astroboy to watch. And there are quite a few 8THMAN saved too.

[tht707]

ebwarg, could you help me? I am trying to see if it's possible to find a list of the original USA air dates of Astro Boy. The Japanese ones could be easily found on TV databases, but I don't know where to look for the US dates of the 104 episodes aired in your country (I'm a comics follower from Italy)

[Starcomet]

Pretty interesting indeed, thanks for sharing :).

[GadGades]

pretty similar until the singing began. And at least it mentioned tezuka.

[CaptainNomura]

Fred Ladd is actually a very nice guy, at least the time when I worked with him on a computer colored comicbook version of "Gigantor" with Ben Dunn ten years ago. At least he kept most of the original "Tetsuwan Atom" (Astroboy)music theme but the original Japanese "Tetsujin 28-Go" (Gigantor) music sounded too much like wartime song that he had it changed to more jungle (like King Kong) theme.

He was among the pioneers of bringing Japanese anime to US with clever and even funny dubbings.

[1952kid]

Where's the NBC part ??

[ebwarg]

I'm guessing Right Stuf cut it out, but I'm just guessing.

[KaiserHudson67]

NOT TO MENTION: World War 2 was still VERY fresh in many Americans' minds at the time, and there was still a LOT of "Japan-o-phobia" persistent in American culture, like it or not. This cartoon (as well as the advent of better quality products from Japan about that time) were some of the things that helped to change that mentality.

[KaiserHudson67]

I don't know why our American producers felt the need to tweak the melody of the original, unless the basic wisdom at the time was that kids would sing louder if they sang higher (re: Howdy Doody). Ladd and Rockwell did give Tezuka, et al. the idea of having kids singing to the music; Tezuka liked it enough to add it to the Japanese version later. However, the kids' singing in the Japanese opening is much more disciplined. AND uses the correct melody.

[dayday1080]

yea...adult swim should consider puts astro boy in their action/anime line-up on saturday nights...i would take a long time to show all the episodes...but imma astro boy fan...so...i can live wit it...lol

[Lehnerd57]

No No was not i just sayin what people were sayin about peter ladd not i was meanin that.....sorry if u think was..

[Lehnerd57]

I find odd peter ladd on kimba but u say if true why hell did NBC allow it and not tell the real truth of who did what with show's of kimba n astroboy

[Lehnerd57]

well what heard is disney makin a astroboy movie this year are late but will take credit as the original people ashame the man who created is Tezuka the man who made astro boy are Mighty atom

[fromthesidelines]

Fernandez DID lend his voice for one episode in 1964 (as the father of a "naughty" alien kid), 'stop'...because Fred Ladd was repsonsible for producing the dubbed English version of the series, he obviously felt his name should be the ONLY one credited as "writer/director".

[stopthemachine]

Oh yeah? Ha. Which episode is it? I'll have to check it out (since I own the complete series). It's funny too that Ladd had almost no part in the creation of the English dub "Kimba" series aside from acting as a go-between with NBC and Ray Owens (who basically ran the show, so to speak, with that series)...yet Ladd still manages to make sure he gets his name on Kimba as well...

[ebwarg]

I'm pretty sure it's the first ep (I made this back when VHS was still a commercially viable format, so my memory may be cheating). I'll check if Ladd's credit is still in later episodes and get back to you.

[dayday1080]

adult swim puts the shows they think are gonna give dem high rating...they dont think about the viewers...its all about the money 2 them

[dayday1080]

my favorite astro boy ending...adult swim never should have taking astro boy off...the 1963 version is a classic...like all white adias shell-toe sneakers or converse

[Lehnerd57]

I like this was ashame NBC not let peter ladd get all espd. In so see all not just 104 out the 193 were put out in my words NBC goof...Now next i guess be a astroboy Movie out soon

[bakertoons]

"Apparently Mushi Productions lost the end credits that actually have credits in them, but retained the "clean" version shown here. Same with "Ribbon no Kishi" and "Dororo.""

I think this is the same with all the Tezuka adaptation from Mushi (save for Wansa Kun, which does have end credits saved in reruns and VHS/DVD releases). End credits are also missing in Kimba and Goku.

[fromthesidelines]

The "American" credits were virtually the same for all 104 episodes; yet, not once were voice credits for its great cast of actors and actresses- Billie Lou Watt, Cliff Owens, Gilbert Mack, Peter Fernandez, etc.- ever given. Fred Ladd added one more vocal chorus at the end...

[stopthemachine]

Yes, that does stink that Watt, Owens, and Mack were never given credit for their great work in this series. Interestingly enough, in an interview, Fernandez cleared up the voice acting question and tells how he only wrote English dubs for this series, yet doesn't work with voice acting until Gigantor came along. (This makes sense too since I don't recognize his voice in any of the 104 episodes.)

[stopthemachine]

ALSO, "Written and Directed by Fred Ladd" is not true. Fernandez himself said that he doesn't believe Ladd wrote a single episode (with the exception of the pilot), and that he (Fernandez) wrote most of them...the rest of the English dubs were written by the voice cast themselves.

[Lehnerd57]

well u know Maybe the fellow kept one he made with credits n took with him n lost at home

[Yogiri]

I found it funny they lost the actual episode credits, but not the textless version. The reverse seems to happen with Toei series.