Jackson 5ive (TV series)

Jackson 5ive is a Saturday morning cartoon series that aired for two seasons on ABC from September 11, 1971 to October 14, 1972. Produced by Rankin/Bass and Motown Productions, it is a fictionalized portrayal of the careers of Motown recording group the Jackson 5.[1] The series was rebroadcast in syndication in 1984–85, during a period when Michael Jackson was riding a major wave of popularity as a solo artist. It also briefly re-aired in 1999 on TV Land as part of their "Super Retrovision Saturdaze" lineup. The series was animated mainly in London at the studios of Halas and Batchelor, and some animation done at Estudios Moro (Barcelona, Spain) and Topcraft (Tokyo, Japan).

Overview

Due to high demands on the group, the roles of Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, Marlon, and Michael were played by voice actors, with records of the group's songs being used for the musical tracks of the show.[2]

Music

A specially recorded medley of four of the group's biggest hits at the time ("I Want You Back", "The Love You Save", "ABC" and "Mama's Pearl") served as the show's theme song. Each episode would feature two songs by The Jackson 5. The songs were derived from their albums Diana Ross Presents The Jackson 5 (1969), ABC, Third Album (both 1970) and Maybe Tomorrow (1971). For the Season 2 episodes, eight songs were derived from Michael Jackson's album Got to Be There (1971) and two songs from The Jackson 5 album Lookin' Through the Windows (1972).

Pets

Because Michael Jackson owned many pets in real life, a few pets were added as extra characters to the cartoon. They included Michael's pet mice, Ray and Charles (alluding to singer Ray Charles, one of his idols), and his pet snake Rosey the Crusher. Other than the mice squeaking, the pets never spoke, but usually contributed either assistance or mischief, or joined the Jackson brothers in their performances.

Laugh track

Like most 1970s-era Saturday morning cartoon series, The Jackson 5ive contained an adult laugh track. Rankin-Bass experimented with creating their own laugh track, a practice Hanna-Barbera had implemented, in 1971. This was done to avoid paying large fees to Charley Douglass, who edited laugh tracks onto the majority of network television shows at the time. Like Hanna-Barbera, Rankin/Bass isolated several snippets of canned chuckles from Douglass’ library, and inserted them onto the soundtrack. The laughs initially consisted of only loud eruptions; mild jokes received unnatural bouts of laughter, while other times, the laughter would erupt mid-sentence.

The studio had improved the process by the second season, using more modulated laughs culled from Douglass's 1971–1972 library. Laughs did not erupt mid-sentence like the first season and were better timed by Rankin/Bass sound engineers. The improved technique was also utilized for the sister series The Osmonds.[3] Unlike Hanna-Barbera's laugh track, Rankin/Bass provided a larger variety of laughs.[3]

Rankin/Bass ceased using laugh tracks after The Jackson 5ive and The Osmonds both ended their original runs.[3]

director	Arthur Rankin, Jr. Jules Bass
producer	Arthur Rankin, Jr. Jules Bass
writer	Romeo Muller William J. Keenan Hal Hackady Lou Silverstone Susan Milburn
theme music composer	The Jackson 5
composer	Maury Laws
starring	Cast
country	United States United Kingdom
num seasons	2
num episodes	23
company	Rankin/Bass (copyrighted as Videocraft International) Motown Productions Animation Services Halas & Batchelor Animation Topcraft Estudios Moro
network	ABC
first aired	September 11, 1971
last aired	October 14, 1972

Jackson 5ive (TV series)

Overview

Music

Pets

Laugh track

Cast

Episodes

Season 1 (1971–72)

Season 2 (1972)

Home media

External links

References