In the fall of 1972, my younger sister and I were alternating weeks on Saturday mornings (I was 10, she was 9). I liked the cartoons on CBS but after watching "Roman Holidays" after the first few episodes, my sister got me hooked on this show thereafter, as well as most of NBC's Saturday morning lineup (e.g. "The Houndcats," "The Barkleys," "Sealab 2020," and "Runaround;" the last show mentioned no longer survives as NBC "wiped" all the tapes it was recorded on, but that's a different story).
My all-time favorite episode of "Roman Holidays" was #9, "Double Dilemma," which originally aired on Saturday, November 3, 1972. That's the one in which Precocia is practicing her drums for a music recital, but the same night Gus is also involved in a bowling tournament, and he is literally torn between the two.
Something about that particular episode "jumped out" at me and I regarded it as more special than all the other episodes in the series. So much so, in fact, that when NBC reran said episode of "Roman Holidays" on Saturday, February 3, 1973, I had recorded the entire episode's soundtrack (minus the commercials) on my portable cassette recorder (which I received that last Christmas as a present). I practically drove the rest of my family nuts playing that soundtrack of "Double Dilemma!"
Even more related to the topic was that I soon developed a crush on Pamelyn Ferdin; the next morning, on Sundays, I would watch her on "Curiosity Shop" on ABC (which, sadly, is now also lost), and then I would say, "That's Precocia!" (In real life Ms. Ferdin played guitar; she did so on a few episodes of "Curiosity Shop.") And in 2003, when Ms. Ferdin hosted her own website, she wrote back (!) and later sent me a genuine, autographed picture of herself. How cool is that?
It's also hard to believe most of the voice cast is deceased. The only ones still alive besides Ms. Ferdin are (as of this posting) Stanley Livingston (Happius) and Judy Strangis (Groovia).
And to correct a piece of raysond's info: There were *13* episodes of "Roman Holidays" made, not 21. As I said in another show's posting, this was because NBC was able to run the entire series in 4 increments in order to fulfill a 52-week commitment. To be sure, I was rather disillusioned when NBC canceled the show in September 1973, and I didn't see it again until 9 years later when the USA network ran "Roman Holidays" as part of their afternoon "Cartoon Express" block. After that, not again until around 1999 when it was rerun on Cartoon Network, and then again on Boomerang a few years later.
But to raysond, Teach-8 and anyone else who's longing to see this show again: "Roman Holidays" *is* finally available on DVD as a manufactured-on-demand title from the WB Shop, Warner Bros.' online store (you can only purchase the show on DVD through that website; it *isn't* available through any mainstream retail outlets). So that now makes it two ultra-rare Hanna-Barbera faves I finally own on DVD, the other being "Top Cat."
And wouldn't you know it? I have the DVD machine cued up to play "Double Dilemma!" Let the good times roll!
