Not So Nice Mice.

Saturday Morning Cartoon time again kiddies!

Hanna-Barbera was the 900 pound gorilla of TV animation. They did some licensed characters, but their stock and trade was thinly veiled knock-offs of characters and concepts that had already been successful elsewhere.

The closest thing to competition they had was Filmation, who had essentially the opposite approach. Their bread and butter was properly licensed properties (Star Trek, Archies, Fat Albert, etc.) with a few original character based series thrown-in.

In 1975, Filmation tried something new. A hosted kids' show (akin to Bozo, Captain Kangaroo, Howdy Doody) that was also a parody of the genre. Despite featuring the talents of Charles Nelson Reilly, Jonathan Harris, and Phyllis Diller (who have Krofft's "Lidsville", Filmation's "Space Academy", and Hanna-Barbera's "New Scooby Movies" among their Saturday Morning credits), "Uncle Croc's Block" was a colossal failure, and was axed by ABC before its one season of production could be completed.

During his short run, Uncle Croc hosted three regular cartoon segments. This one, "Fraidy Cat", features a feline who is understandably nervous due to having already burned through eight of his nine lives. Making matters worse, any time he says a number, the ghost of one of his previous lives comes to haunt him! From the first episode of Uncle Croc.

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