Here are two shows I remember only dimly, although I can still hum the theme tunes to both! I get a lot of correspondence from people saying "wow! my friends have never heard of this show, but it was one of my favorites!"

Prince Planet

'Prince Planet' was known as Usei Shonen Papi (Planet Boy Papi) in Japan. It was released in Japan in 1965-1966.

Click to see Prince Planet, for all who remember him. Mark, for whom I have no e-mail address, scanned it off the back of a playing card!

Links

Theme

Thanks to Lisa for:

music   Prince Planet full theme - real audio (202K)   music
music   Prince Planet part theme - wav (332K)   music
music   Prince Planet voiceover - wav (167K)   music

Marine Boy

Marine Boy was produced in 1966 - 1967 in Japan

Snippets of information on Marine Boy have been cropping up on the Internet.

Kevin Collins wrote me, saying "Do you remember how Marine Boy stayed underwater? The oxygenated chewing gum?" Wow. Yes, I do now.

Tony Kehoe writes:

    "Marine Boy was originally a Japanese anime called Kaitei Shonen Marin (Marine Youth at the Bottom of the Sea). In addition ot the Oxygum you mention, his ship was called the P-1 (Piloted by Bolton and Piper, a kind of futuristic Laurel & Hardy). His father was Professor Mariner, and the guy with the big nose who invented all sorts of equipment that ultimately could be used against Marine Boy (a recurring theme in many adventures) was called Professor Fumble. In addition, the mermaid was called Neptina (the pearl around her neck was a sort of crystal ball), and Marine Boy's principle weapon was an electric boomerang. Seen today, the colours appear really washed out... I saw an episode during a sort of "nostaltgia week" here, when all the old anime from the late 60s/early 70s were broadcast. In 1970, Marine Boy was my favourite TV show..."

Links

Click to see Marine Boy. This photo was auctioned off January 30, 1998, on eBay. Text accompanying the listing follows:

A very rare and out-of-print postcard-size picture of Marine Boy riding his Dolphin. Personally AUTOGRAPHED by Corinne Orr and Peter Fernandez! The same voice cast as that of the original classic Speed Racer series also were the voices on the 78 episode series MARINE BOY! Corinne Orr (the voice of Trixie, Spritle and all females on Speed Racer) was Marine Boy himself on that series (as well as all females)! She is also the voice of Snuggle, the fabric softener bear! Peter Fernandez (the voice of Speed and Racer X on Speed Racer) played Marine Boy's father as well as many villains on Marine Boy! He also wrote the words for the classic theme song "Go, Speed Racer, Go!"

Theme

Marine Boy music   Marine Boy theme - wav (2.6 Meg)   Marine Boy music