The Peter Potamus Show 1-Disc Box Set DVD

The Peter Potamus Show is the mid-1960s Hanna-Barbera Saturday morning series about a purple hippopotamus named Peter Potamus and his small monkey companion So-So, who travel through history aboard a hot-air balloon, dropping in on figures and events from across world history for self-contained adventures. The series aired on ABC and in syndication across 1964 through 1966, with a 27-episode run.

The format is short-form historical-comedy: each episode pairs a fresh era or place (giants, lions, ancient Egypt, the Bounty, Mars, the pilgrims, knights) with Peter and So-So's running misadventures, holding the show's signature blend of time-travel comedy and Hanna-Barbera physical gags as the engine. Episode titles like "Fee Fi Fo Fun," "Cleo Trio," "Stars On Mars," "Pre-Hysterical Pete," and "The Crossbow Incident" telegraph the show's commitment to historical-pun storytelling. The animation has the unmistakable mid-1960s Hanna-Barbera look.

For mid-1960s ABC and syndicated programming, this was a piece of the studio's deep run of time-traveling-character cartoons, sitting alongside other history-and-fantasy-themed shorts of the era. Suited for fans of vintage Hanna-Barbera, viewers with affection for the era's particular brand of historical-comedy programming, and anyone curious about the lineage of time-travel cartoons that the studio loved to revisit.

Memorable installments include "Fee Fi Fo Fun" (the opener), "Cleo Trio" (a classic Egypt-set early episode), "Stars On Mars" (a sci-fi swing), "Pre-Hysterical Pete" (a prehistoric peak), and "The Crossbow Incident" (the closer). This single-disc collection brings all 27 episodes of The Peter Potamus Show into one place, the complete time-traveling-hippo run in one set.