Danger Island (TV series)

*Danger Island*
Danger Island
	Title card
Genre	Adventure
Directed by	Richard Donner
Starring	Frank Aletter; Jan-Michael Vincent; Ronne Troup; Rockne Tarkington; Kim Kahana; Victor Eberg
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of episodes	36
Production
Executive producers	Joseph Barbera; William Hanna
Running time	10 minutes (per episode)
Production company	Hanna-Barbera Productions
Original release
Network	NBC
Release	September 7, 1968 –; January 11, 1969
Related
	The Banana Splits Adventure Hour

Danger Island is a live-action adventure serial produced by Hanna-Barbera and originally broadcast in 1968–69 as a segment of The Banana Splits Adventure Hour.^[1] It was filmed in Mexico, directed by future Superman, The Goonies and Lethal Weapon director Richard Donner, and featured Jan-Michael Vincent as Lincoln 'Link' Simmons.^[2]

The series comprises a six-hour adventure yarn broken down into 36 short chapters. Each chapter is roughly ten minutes long and includes a suspenseful cliffhanger ending that is resolved in the next installment. The live-action segment was created to cut production costs on the mostly-animated hour-long show.^[3]

Plot

Inspired by the animated Hanna-Barbera series Jonny Quest,^[4] Danger Island depicted the adventures of a trio of explorers in an unnamed tropical island group: Prof. Irwin Hayden, an archaeologist; Lincoln "Link" Simmons, the professor's youthful assistant; and Leslie, the professor's daughter, who serves as both a love interest for Link and the series' token damsel in distress.

Several years earlier, the professor's brother (also an archaeologist) disappeared in the same island chain while searching for the mythical lost city of Tobanya. They are joined on their quest by Morgan, a shipwrecked merchant mariner, and his sidekick Chongo, who speaks only in a series of monkey-like chatters and birdcalls. They are pursued by a group of bumbling, but heavily armed, modern-day pirates led by the murderous Captain Mu-Tan, and by three tribes of cannibal natives known as "the Headhunters", "the Skeleton Men" and "the Ash Men". The show spawned a popular^[5] catchphrase, "Uh-oh, Chongo!", among children of that time.

Characters

Main characters

Prof. Irwin Hayden – Frank Aletter
Lincoln 'Link' Simmons – Jan-Michael Vincent (as Michael Vincent)
Leslie Hayden – Ronne Troup
Elihu Morgan – Rockne Tarkington
Chongo – Kim Kahana (as Kahana)

Villains

Captain Mu-Tan – Victor Eberg
Chu – Rodrigo Arrendondo

References

^ Erickson, Hal (2005). Television Cartoon Shows: An Illustrated Encyclopedia, 1949 Through 2003 (2nd ed.). McFarland & Co. pp. 109–111. ISBN 978-1476665993.
^ "Cinematic Lost Civilizations" (PDF). Retrieved 29 April 2015.
^ Woolery, George W. (1983). Children's Television: The First Thirty-Five Years, 1946-1981, Part I: Animated Cartoon Series. Scarecrow Press. p. 34. ISBN 0-8108-1557-5. Retrieved 9 April 2020.
^ The history of Danger Island
^ TV Tropes:Banana Splits

[1] Erickson, Hal (2005). Television Cartoon Shows: An Illustrated Encyclopedia, 1949 Through 2003 (2nd ed.). McFarland & Co. pp. 109–111. ISBN 978-1476665993.

[2] "Cinematic Lost Civilizations" (PDF). Retrieved 29 April 2015.

[3] Woolery, George W. (1983). Children's Television: The First Thirty-Five Years, 1946-1981, Part I: Animated Cartoon Series. Scarecrow Press. p. 34. ISBN 0-8108-1557-5. Retrieved 9 April 2020.

[4] The history of Danger Island

[5] TV Tropes:Banana Splits

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v t e The Banana Splits
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Music	Discography "The Tra La La Song (One Banana, Two Banana)"
Films	The Banana Splits in Hocus Pocus Park (1972) The Banana Splits Movie (2019)
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