Rickety Rocket

Rickety Rocket was a Saturday Morning cartoon about the adventures of a Black group of friends that created a robot rocket complete with the personality and voice befitting another Black friend which helped them run a detective agency.

The animated television series, produced by Ruby-Spears Productions, ran from 1979 to 1980 on ABC as a segment on The Plastic Man Comedy/Adventure Show. There were a total of 16 episodes created and aired. The episodes can be sometimes be found on the Boomerang streaming service and there are a few episodes on YouTube. You can also find out some information on the voice actors here. Some of them may be familiar to you.

They were sort of a Scooby Gang in a Jetsons type future with a little bit of Fat Albert thrown in but that's just my take. The group called themselves the Far-Out Detective Agency. Rickety sounded like a Black version of Speed Buggy which by the way came out in 1973 and only lasted one season as well. Their office appeared to be a wooden shack surrounded by the futuristic buildings of the time. Rickety Rocket appeared to be patched together from junkyard parts and had big lips which were his front fenders. One thing I liked is that none of the characters or anyone on the show even noticed they were Black despite the stereotypical quirks and attitudes. I can't say it was a great show but it's worth taking a look at as one of the few All-Black cast cartoon shows of the time. As the series is not actually from Hanna Barbara, it is unlikely we will ever see a new incarnation but it remains a part of history.