Amigo and Friends

Amigo and Friends is an educational children's cartoon that was based on the Mexican cartoon series Cantinflas Show in 1979. The show, which concentrates on a wide range of subjects intended to educate children, follows Amigo, a little Mexican character, who goes on educational adventures through time and space and gets to visit Shakespeare, see the ancient pyramids, and even travels to other planets. The animated Amigo is based on the legendary character, Cantinflas played by the Mexican actor and comedian Mario Moreno Reyes. The show was created and produced by Televisa, then known as Telesistema Mexicano. The company was also responsible for the distribution of the show in Mexico. In 1982, Hanna-Barbera Productions dubbed the series into English and retitled it Amigo and Friends and aired in syndication across the United States through Viacom. The only two known actors were John Stephenson who narrates each episode and Don Messick, who voiced Amigo. It was one of several Hanna-Barbera TV shows that featured famous Hollywood stars in cartoons, but in the case of 'Amigo', the project originated in Mexico with Hanna-Barbera handling and releasing the English version. The American animation company did cartoons featuring the Three Stooges, Laurel and Hardy, and Abbott and Costello.