After mentioning 1967 The Fantastic 4 series in my aforelinked piece, I searched for it on the major streaming services. For apparent legal reasons, it’s not available on any of them.

I found a few stray episodes on YouTube, but only one place had all 20 episodes:

The Internet Archive.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: Protect the Internet Archive.

As media companies merge and movies and TV shows stop being profitable, classics like this will simply disappear, as if they never existed—unless we take strides to preserve them. I’m glad someone cared enough about this show to upload it to the Internet Archive, and I hope IA will continue to exist long into the future to host it. Just in case, though, I’ve downloaded my own archive of the show.

Having watched a few episodes, a couple of thoughts:

• The opening sequence is still etched in my brain: the theme song (especially the sound effects!), the four-hands-to-the-center, The Thing toppling Dr. Doom, and Johnny hot-footing some guards—all like I’d watched it yesterday.
• I was struck by how wonderfully, hilariously, extra cheesy it was. From line readings to jokes to painfully expository dialogue. It was a joy. I’m confident my 12-year-old self had no idea.
• Sue “Invisible Girl” Richards was voiced by Jo Ann Pflug. For reasons I can’t quite fathom, I very clearly remember her as a panelist on Match Game.