The Super 6 was a half hour cartoon series produced by David H Patie and Friz Freleng
of Depatie-Freleng productions in 1966, who also produced Pink Panther, Super President,
Spy Shadow and others.
The Super 6 were six strong men who worked for the super service, facing danger for
kicks, battling criminals and all their evil games using special
super powers. Usually the Super 6 did not appear together in each episode.
The half hour show always included an episode of "Super Bwoing" first, then an
episode of "The Brothers Matzoriley" (see at end) who were a separate cartoon
and then one of the other Super 6 Agents.
SUPER BWOING
He was the skinny guy with a red helmet with wings on it. He was the clumsy
one, always messing up but eventually always got his man. He flew through the air on his
guitar, using the strings like reins on a horse. On his guitar was a signal light
which flashed an alert from the Super Service Headquarters when his services were
required. He emitted a super lazer beam from his eyes. When in attack mode he
would call out ZIP, ZAM, ZOWIE and SWOOSH . Super Bwoing being the clumsiest seemed to
only get jobs if the others were busy or on holidays. He was usually the last choice
and better than nothing.
ELEVATOR MAN
He wore a grey safari suit and wore a large belt with a button on the buckle which he
would press
to shrink into the size of an ant or grow into a giant.
GRANITE MAN
He was made out of granite rock and when not working for the secret service was
a statue in the park. Percible, a messenger pigeon was his companion and friend and
when Granite Man was needed, Percy was sent by the Secret Service to wake him up with the
words
"Oh rock of power, Awaken face, this dangerous hour"
Granite Man had incredible strength and a great uppercut and Percy the pigeon
often saved his life when in danger.
SUPER SCUBA
He wore a green outfit with flippers, had eyes shaped like a fish and lived in a rock
house underwater with his secretary "Bubbles" the mermaid
who was infatuated with Super Scuba. Bubbles would also accompany Scuba on his
missions. Scuba was a relaxed, over confident and self centred superhero who used
his brains to defeat evil.
MAGNETO MAN
His hands were powerful magnets, attracting anything that was
magnetic. He had blond hair, wore a dark round glasses with a magnet drawn on his
red suit. A little boy named "Cal" accompanied him and was the brains
behind the operation giving us kids an education in science at the same time. Both
were from London and had British accents with Magnetos being like Cary Grant .
CAPTAIN ZAMMO (some people remember him as being named Captain Whammo???)
Captain Zammo didn't appear much and was the one I was always hoping to see. He
occasionally appeared in some of the other Super 6 Agents segments, before heading off to
another assignment He flew in the air with the words "Tither, Yonder and
Away"
He wore a peaked military officers cap (looks like a witches hat) and pointy shoes, dark sunglasses and like the other super 6 had
incredible strength.
Mark Cannon (Mark.Cannon@dcita.gov.au) - a Super 6 fan has fond memories of Captain
Zammo/Whammo?
Captain Whammo - who I can only recall having about two adventures. He seemd to travel
back in time to various historical events in his too-few adventures; I loved the way that
he hogged all the glory, while leaving all the real work ot his loyal assistant, Private
Hammo ("yes, SIR!"). I remember in one episode, Hammo jumped in front of a
cannon aimed at Whammo, with the usual cartoon results (ie, Hammo was carbonised). Whammo
awarded him a distinguished service medal for bravery and valour - and then immediately
confiscated it, "For having a dirty uniform!" Hilarious!
The following information about the name change of this particular
character came from Om (om@io.com)
According to Friz Freeling in an interview back in the early 80’s, the name change also explains why there were only three segments featuring this character – Wham-O, creators of such wonders as the Super Ball, filed a legal grievance against Depatie-Freeling over the trademark, claiming that D-F had infringed on Wham-O’s name. The thing that triggered this was that, reportedly, the first commercial to air after the first televised “Captain Whammo” toon was for the Super Ball! Some legal weenie at Wham-O saw this while watching with his kid, and from there the ball rolled downhill. D-F changed the name for the last two shorts, but seeing as how the character was rather lame to begin with – even compared to the rest of the Six – they simply dropped him from equal time and left it at the three shorts.
...One other side note: Freeling also alluded that the real problem Wham-O had with the Captain wasn’t so much in the name, but the fact that his appearance was more of a pouf than anyone else on Saturday Morning Kidvid shows(*). This was the 60’s, so go figure.
The Super 6 worked at the Super Service Headquarters and to them was just a paying
job. The building they worked in had flashing lights and signs for advertising such
as
"All Night Service"
"Hot Super Heroes Here"
"Super Specials"
"Get Your Red Hot Super Heroes Here"
"World Famous Home Of The Super 6"
The Super 6 were only some of the Super Heroes who worked there. They would sit
in a waiting room reading comics while the Dispatcher - "Super Chief" would sit
in a booth, smoking a cigar and and give out jobs as they came in.
Thanks to Mark Cannon for the following information on other Super Heroes in the show. Some
of the other heroes had names like Super Lightning, Super Viking and others. One of
these "additional" heroes even co-starred with Super Bwoing in one of his
adventures. This was a hero of living fire, called the Scorch (he even looked rather like
the Human Torch of Marvel's "FantasticFour"). At one point in the adventure the
baddies extinguished his flame, and he looked like a giant match! Fortunately, Super
Bwoing was able to douse him in petrol and relight him.
It was also revealed in one episode that the Agency had been in business for some time.
The Chief showed Super Bwoing photos of some of the old-time Super Hereos who had
originally worked there; one of them, Trashman, had gone bad according to the Chief, and
he turned up as that episode's bad guy. I remember that one of the other heroes shown in
the photo album was a mustouchioed fellow called Captain Teddy, who had the word
"BULLY" written across his shirt.
It wasn't until many years after that I realised that this character looked like former US
President Teddy Roosevelt, one of whose favourite words was"Bully!" (as in
"that's bully", meaning "That's very good"). I thought this was a
pretty subtle throwaway joke for a kid's show.
Thanks to Steve Mollett(email - mollet@cinci.rr.com) for some corrections
THE BROTHERS MATZORILEY
These were 3 bald headed siamese triplets. They had two arms,
two legs, but three heads. One head was mean and tough, the other was
cowardly and the middle head was Chinese. Funny combination! This was the
middle cartoon of The Super 6 series and followed the adventures of the 3 brothers in
different situations and time periods. In one cartoon segment they were
knights, and in others they were a pilot, baseball players, circus performers, Canadian
mounties to name a few.
The Brothers Matzoriley appeared on "The Pink Panther Show" in an episode of the cartoon "Inspector Clouseau" titled "The Great DeGaulle Stone Operation", back in 1969 as thieves who stole the diamond, and got away with it. The chinese character was noted for saying "Confucious Say, Shut Up" (snippet of info from "Jordan Kamnitzer" - nitzer1@earthlink.net)
SUPER EPISODE GUIDE (supplied by John Farlow - Email - graduate@ihug.com.au)
Voices Magnet Man: Daws Butler, Super Scuba: Arte Johnson, Elevator Man: Paul Stewart,The Brothers Matzoriley
Ruin And Board
A Knights Hard Day
You Go To My Heads
Dirty Pierre
High Moon
The Jolly Green Gorilla
Hecks Angels
Highway Slobbery
Moby Richard
Road Scholars
Heau-Beau Jest
Window Pains
The Three Matzoteers
No Biz Like Shmoe Biz
A Tree Grows In Matorania
A Lone Shark
Hide And Shriek
Dog Napper
The Natzonuts
Willy Of The Wilderness