The Mighty Heroes (1966)
The Mighty Heroes are a quintet of diverse, if inept, crime fighters of the town of Goodhaven. The heroes are Strongman, Tornadoman, Ropeman, Cuckooman and Diaperman. The series was part of the Saturday morning series Mighty Mouse & The Mighty Heroes on CBS. A two-part Mighty Heroes episode was feature with two classic Mighty Mouse cartoons sandwiched in between. Voices were provided by Herschel Bernardi (Narrator, Diaperman) and Lionel Wilson (everyone else). Ralph Bakshi, who began working at the Terrytoons studio in 1960, created this series for CBS. After one of the show's myriad villains establishes the crime of the episode, "a call goes out to the Mighty Heroes" in the form of a massive fireworks display. The heroes' identities are those of a mechanic (Strongman), a bird shop owner (Cuckooman), a meteorologist (Tornadoman), a navy tar (Ropeman) and a baby (Diaperman). Once engaged in battle, the Heroes had a propensity of pratfalls. In fact, the villains really didn't have to do much to capture them--the Heroes would wind up capturing themselves. Eventually, in the episode's second half, the Heroes would come through and win the day. In 1987, Bakshi revived the Mighty Heroes--as middle-aged accountants--in the episode "Heroes And Zeroes" on Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures.
