January 29th, 2021 
Michael Lyons 
The studio Rankin/Bass conjures up comfortable, Christmas images of Rudolph, Frosty and Santa, but many forget that the Studio also brought the Jackson 5 to Saturday Morning television, with a landmark animated series based on the iconic musical group during the heyday of their juggernaut popularity.
The Jackson 5ive show, which debuted on ABC on September 11th, 1971, celebrates its fiftieth anniversary later this year. For the original generation who grew up watching the show, to legions of Jackson 5 fans through the years, this milestone is the perfect time to look back and celebrate.
The series came about from collaborate meetings between Arthur Rankin and Jules Bass with the Jackson Brothers and their management team. As author Rick Goldschmidt details in his book, The Enchanted World of Rankin/Bass, an early champion of the show was none other than Michael Eisner. Before leading the Disney Company to great successes, Eisner was the head of children’s programming at ABC and help shepherd the show through production.
Noted artist Jack Davis, with his distinct style that was on display as a contributor to Mad Magazine and his numerous and very spot-on celebrity caricatures, created the character designs for the show. Davis had also collaborated with Rankin/Bass on their 1967 film Mad Monster Party?. His trademark look that he gave to these characters – large heads, skinny bodies and long feet (usually with shoe laces untied) – is all there in his conceptual art work for The Jackson 5ive show. Davis’ work gave the show a unique style that differentiates its slightly from other Rankin/Bass animation.
Each episode of The Jackson 5ive would open in an explosive and dynamic way that captured the energy of the group. Visuals of each brother’s picture would transition into their animated counterparts, as we would then see the animated group dancing. Over this was played a medley of the Jackson 5 hits ABC and I Want You Back.
The format of the show was very similar to that of Hanna-Barbera’s Josie and the Pussycats, where a music group finds themselves in a different adventure each week. On The Jackson 5ive show, the brothers were even given “pet sidekicks,” here it was a snake named Rosey and two mice named Ray and Charles (no prize if you guess who the mice were named after).
As this was the peak of the Jackson Five’s popularity, the brothers’ schedules didn’t allow them to record the voices of their animated counterparts. These were provided by sound-alike voice actors. Rankin/Bass’ stalwart actor Paul Frees provided the voice of their unnamed manager. The Jackson Five were even able to pull-out some true star power in the debut episode with none other than Diana Ross voicing an animated version of herself.
Each episode also featured one of the group’s hit songs played over the soundtrack (the songs were lifted directly from one of the Jackson Five’s albums)
The Jackson 5ive ran on ABC through October of 1972 and then ran in syndication for a number of years afterward. In 1984, when Michael Jackson’s solo career skyrocketed, the show was brought back to Saturday Morning. In 2013, the show was released on Blu-Ray and DVD.
The show is important, in that it is credited as being one of the first Saturday morning cartoon to feature a Black cast of characters. In the midst of Scooby-Doo and sugary cereals, let’s not forget that there was a lot of groundbreaking that happened, thanks to Rankin/Bass’ The Jackson 5ive show.
Many feel that essentially, if you were popular, getting a Saturday Morning show was as “easy as 1-2-3!” but The Jackson 5ive was much more.
The show is important, in that it is credited as being the first Saturday morning cartoon to feature a Black cast of characters. In the midst of Scooby-Doo and sugary cereals, let’s not forget that there was a lot of groundbreaking that happened, thanks to Rankin/Bass’ The Jackson 5ive show.
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