Chuck and Nancy, (no last names,) found a mysterious ring in a chest, "Inside a cave, off the coast of Maine." The introduction tells us that "when joined, the two halves form the word Shazzan, and they are magically sent back to the fabled land of the Arabian Nights..." There, they meet their genie, Shazzan, who'll serve them when called upon but he can't return them home until they return the ring to its rightful owner. Shazzan also presents them with a magical flying camel named Kabubbi. The title of this review's an example of one of the cries for help Chuck and Nancy always made to Shazzan.I used to watch it when I was little, and then again, when it was on in syndication back in the early 1980s. The cartoon was very loosely based on the Arabian Nights. One episode had Aladdin, and even the African Magician, (named Jaffar in the Disney movie,) but I digress. Anyway, Chuck and Nancy were always getting into trouble, and had to bailed out by Shazzan. Good show. Too bad it wasn't longer.

That's what CBS called its 1967-68 Saturday morning line-up, featuring THE HERCULOIDS; MOBY DICK AND THE MIGHTY MIGHTOR; and--last, but not least--SHAZZAN. And, as far as this baby-boomer is concerned, those cartoons lived up to their advertising.Having grown up on live-action fantasy swashbucklers, like "the Thief of Baghdad" (starring Sabu), switching my devotion to an animated version was no problem. No matter how formidable the evil magician-of-the-week might be, Shazzan would almost always laugh in his or her face. Literally! The one exception was the time when Nancy was temporarily disintegrated by an Arabian Nights version of Captain Hook.Man! Did he look p.o.'d when he demanded her return.There were, however, two episodes I considered even more exciting. One involved a wizard who controlled giant hawks made out of glass. The other involved a necromancer with the power to create levitating zombies! Both had dubbed-in scream effects that I found very loud (and very scary), back then.H-B could never do a remake nowadays, of course. You'd have the ACLU complaining about unfair, Arab-bashing stereotypes. You'd have religious ultra-conservatives complaining about the glorification of pagan superstitions. And, you'd probably even have celebrity animal-rights advocates, like Kim Basinger, complaining about the cruel and inhumane exploitation of flying camels! To which I say: long live nostalgia!

I am (still) a big fan of the sixties Hanna-Barbera super-hero cycle which started in 1966 and ended ignominiously with the "Super Friends" around 1973. However, Shazzan was among the best of them. It had action, excitement, imaginative music scoring (also incorporated into 1968's "Arabian Knights" cartoon and i imagine the music originator must have been in overdrive by the sheer dramatics he was able to instill within the action sequences and final showdown between the jolly brown giant and his motley crew of adversaries.But i digress....it seems that Jerry Dexter and Janet Waldo had worked together on other cartoon shows for H-B and for Filmation (notably "Josie and the Pussycats")so their chemistry must have worked in well.Alas, there will never be anything to top the nostalgic 60's. Today's generation of kids are being swamped with rock-band screeching and that, is not what i would like to remember from the team of Hanna-Barbera.Brian T.

I, too, find this show a guilty pleasure. Shazzan is what Robin Williams' genie in the Disney version of Aladdin, aspires to be, and it's a good show. A classic of '60s animation. It begins with an announcer intoning "Inside a cave off the coast of Maine..." It's the story of Chuck and Nancy. They're a brother and sister. They find a mysterious ring in a chest. The ring is in two halves. When joined, it forms the word "Shazzan." Shazzan's a genie complete with mohawk, goatee, and Mr. Clean earring. They can't be returned home by Shazzan until they deliver the ring to its rightful owner.