Harlem Globetrotters

The Harlem Globetrotters are a comic basketball team that combines athleticism and comedy to create one of the best-known sports franchises in the world. Created by Abe Saperstein in 1927 in Chicago, Illinois, the team adopted the name Harlem because of its connotations as a leading African-American community. Over the years it has toured more than 100 countries putting on more than 20,000 exhibition games, mostly against hapless opposition like the Washington Generals (until 1995) and the New York Nationals (1995-present).

Media

Hanna-Barbera produced a Saturday morning cartoon, The Harlem Globetrotters, from 1970 to 1972. Originally broadcast on CBS, and later re-run on NBC as The Go-Go Globetrotters, The Harlem Globetrotters cartoon featured animated versions of Lemon, Neal, Tatum, and several other Globetrotters alongside their bus driver and manager Granny and their dog mascot. The Harlem Globetroters and Josie and the Pussycats, another Hanna-Barbera offering, were the first Saturday morning cartoons to feature African-American characters. After the show was cancelled, the animated Globetrotters made three appearances on Hanna-Barbera's The New Scooby-Doo Movies in 1972 and 1973.

Related Topics:
Hanna-Barbera - Saturday morning cartoon - 1970 - 1972 - CBS - NBC - Josie and the Pussycats - The New Scooby-Doo Movies - 1973

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In 1974, the Globetrotters appeared in the live-action Saturday morning variety show The Harlem Globetrotters Popcorn Machine, which featured comedy skits, blackout gags, and educational segments. The show was produced by Funhouse Productions and Yongestreet Productions for CBS

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A second animated series, The Super Globetrotters, was created by Hanna-Barbera in 1979. It featured the Globetroters as undercover superheroes, who would transform from their regular forms by entering magic portable lockers carried in Globetrotter "Sweet" Lou Dunbar's Afro.

Related Topics:
1979 - Locker - "Sweet" Lou Dunbar - Afro

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A 1981 TV-movie, The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan's Island, featured the Globetrotters alongside Bob Denver and the rest of the cast of Gilligan's Island. In more recent years, the Harlem Globetrotters have made appearances on the animated show Futurama.

Related Topics:
1981 - Bob Denver - Gilligan's Island - Futurama

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