TV: “The Beatles”

May 31, 1965 - The A.C. Gilbert Company hopes to sing a different financial tune this year, and it will draw on the musical talents of four mop-haired salesmen from Liverpool to help swing it.

In an apparent all-out effort to get out of the red, the toy maker will be the major sponsor of an unusual weekly children’s show beginning in the fall on ABC-TV.

The show is unusual in that it will center on “live” entertainers in animated-cartoon form. And the entertainers in this case — the Beatles — are about as “live” as you can get. 

Gilbert’s sponsorship is for 52 weeks. The show, entitled simply “The Beatles,” will be seen on Saturday mornings from 10:30 to 11 o’clock — in color.

Each half-hour show will contain two animated adventures by the Beatles as they travel around the world, from the jungles of Africa to the North Pole. Each adventure will be built around one song, and each show will have a sing-along but without the bouncing ball.

The singing heard during the shows will be from recordings made by the Beatles themselves. The speaking parts, however, will be imitations done by actors in somewhat exaggerated voices. The reason given for this is that it would be too difficult for Americans to understand the Beatles speaking in their native Liverpoolese.

The company is relying heavily on the new Beatles show to sell its new line of toys, which includes a Ride-Em Erector set, an auto-race set, a Chem Lab, and an American Flyer train layout.

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