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Hey kids (of all ages), it's Saturday Morning Cartoon time again!

Giant monsters were a big deal in the 1960s. While Godzilla would have to wait until the '70s for his own Saturday Morning series, King Kong showed up just a few years after their brawl in the most successful kaiju film of the Showa era.

THE KING KONG SHOW was produced by Rankin/Bass, who are best known for holiday specials, but also did series animation from THE JACKSON 5IVE all the way through SILVERHAWKS. They teamed up with Toho (Godzilla) to produce the live-action feature film KING KONG ESCAPES, which was loosely based on this cartoon's version of the big ape. It is unclear whether this Kong is supposed to share continuity with the one who fought Godzilla in KING KONG vs GODZILLA (1962). Kong fought a Gorosaurus (oversized therapod dinosaur) in KING KONG ESCAPES who would share the screen with Godzilla in later movies.

This episode is the first half of the 1966 pilot, as it was split for US distribution. After the pilot, each show featured a pair of six minute King Kong cartoons with a TOM OF T.H.U.M.B. (basically INCH HIGH PRIVATE EYE, but seven years earlier) short sandwiched between them.

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