The Professor Morlock Bunch

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An attempt to introduce the Professor Morlock character to a new generation came with the Hanna-Barbera animated cartoon “The Professor Morlock Bunch,” in which the professor led a group of kids and a massive but friendly gorilla named Brains on adventures to save the ecology. It was quickly discovered that the Morlock character didn’t translate well to the new medium as the professor would inevitably perform horrific experiments on the children during every episode which left them tragically disfigured or dead, and the show lasted only one season.

Desperate for money after failing to find work after his type-casting as Morlock, Jesse Merlin voiced the character to the delight of hardcore fans. Tom Ackerman was also slated to voice occasional guest appearances as Morlock’s evil henchman Ruprecht, but his addiction to reefer made him too unreliable for employment and he was replaced by veteran voice actor Don Messick. Ackerman supported himself at the time by submitting himself for medical experiments and by selling oral sex to Japanese businessmen.