"Now stand by for adventure... three... two... ONE!"

November 20, 2024 10:03 AM

Soundac Film Productions was a small company that produced animation for television. they made info cards and maps for use on news broadcasts, short bits for use as station IDs and over 4,000 commercials. They're perhaps best known for producing Colonel Bleep, the mostly-lost first color cartoon made for TV, and fitness cartoon Mighty Mister Titan. Ziggy Cashmere tracked down Scott Schleh, the son of Soundac co-founder Jack Schleh, and learned the story of the company, recounted in the article Building Zero Zero Island. They also supplied a Flickr collection of photos of Soundac materials and ephemera, likely all that remains of the company.

Soundac was built out of a warehouse, and had an indoor swimming pool! Mighty Mister Titan was produced with the expectation of banking off of President Kennedy's focus on kids' physical fitness, but costs shot up when Kennedy was assassinated and the episodes had to remove present-tense references to him.

We at MST Club were introduced to Colonel Bleep several years ago by long-time member oneswellfoop. This one's for you foop, wherever you are.

posted by JHarris (4 comments total)

Oh! filthy light thief had a previous post on Colonel Bleep back in 2012!
posted by JHarris at 10:20 AM on November 20, 2024 [2 favorites]

You had me all excited that this was going to be a Thunderbirds post, but their intro was "Stand by for Action! 5...4...3...2..1!" I have very vague recollections of Colonel Bleep, and may have him confused with some other spaceman cartoon guy.
posted by briank at 10:22 AM on November 20, 2024 [1 favorite]

It's recently become evident to me that a ton of animation from the time had rocket countdowns as introductions. There's a couple of drive-in theater animations that use that gimmick. The space program really filled the cultural landscape back then, didn't it?
posted by JHarris at 11:14 AM on November 20, 2024 [2 favorites]

Trace and Frank riff Mighty Mister Titan.
posted by wittgenstein at 11:37 AM on November 20, 2024 [1 favorite]