Though he was the headlining act of 'The Atom Ant' show (and had dual top billing on the hour-long ' Secret Squirrel/Atom Ant Show'), Atom Ant ultimately proved to be the least memorable or interesting of the three segments of his own show, and close to the least memorable of the six in the hour long version. Well, to me, at least.

It was 1965, and with the exception of the Flintstones/Jetsons, talking animals had completely dominated Hanna Barbera's output since the late 50's appearance of Loopy de Loop in theatres, and Huckleberry Hound on TV. In the second half of the 60's they would effect a transition to largely human characters, especially super-heros (though there were some exceptions like Muttley, or The Cattanooga Cats). This also corresponded to a drop in quality. If this is in doubt, consider the later 70's 80's 'compilation' shows like Yogi's Treasure Hunt. You didn't see too many characters from 'Sealab 2020' or 'The Fantastic Four' being recycled here.

Atom Ant did have the memorable catch-cry "Up and at-em, Atom Ant!" when he flew into action, and he wasn't totally unlikeable, but he suffered from basically being a fairly hollow spoof, with few original traits of his own, other than being an ant (a two legged one, at that). Also the whole thing seems strangely anachronistic, like it should have come out in the late 40's or early 50's when SF was obsessed with atomic energy. Even Roger Ramjet had progressed to protons!

Subsequently, whereas I still have clear memories of ' The Hillbilly Bears and Precious Pupp, Atom Ant himself never really lodged in my memory with any fondness.

Pretty ordinary. If you like super-heroes or super-hero parodies add half a star. However, if this show ever sees the light of day outside of the odd appearance on cable cartoon channels, it'll probably be on DVD along with the 2 (or 5) other cartoons from the original show(s).