Alice in Wonderland
or What's a Nice Kid Like You
Doing in a Place Like This?

Hanna-Barbera Productions produced a one hour animated musical version of Alice in Wonderland, sponsored by Rexall Drugs and Coca-Cola, which aired on ABC-TV March 30, 1966. The special, Alice in Wonderland or What's a Nice Kid Like You Doing in a Place Like This?, was written by comedian Bill Dana, who portrayed his Jose Jimenez character as the White Knight.

This is an ad which was seen in TV Guide during the original airing in 1966.

The special had a high profile vocal cast. Sammy Davis Jr. was cast as the Cheshire Cat and Zsa Zsa Gabor voiced the Queen of Hearts. Gossip columnist Hedda Hopper was Hedda Hatter, the female counterpart of the Mad Hatter (who was voiced by Harvey Korman), and Mel Blanc and Alan Reed did their Barney Rubble and Fred Flintstone characters as the two-headed Caterpillar.

Other voices in the special included Janet Waldo as Alice (with Doris Drew providing Alice's singing voice), Howard Morris as the White Rabbit, Allan Melvin as both Alice's Father and Humphrey Dumpty, Daws Butler as the King of Hearts and the March Hare, and Don Messick as the Doormouse and Alice's dog, Fluff. The music and lyrics were by Charles Strouse and Lee Adams, with musical arrangements by Marty Paitch and Hoyt Curtin. The production was conceived by David Sontag and directed by Alex Lovy.

Sammy Davis Jr., in addition to supplying the speaking voice of the Cheshire Cat, also provided a song entitled What's a Nice Kid Like You. When Hanna-Barbera Records put out the soundtrack album of the special, Sammy Davis Jr. was under exclusive contract to Reprise Records and was replaced on the album by Scatman Crothers, who also re-recorded the song. I've encoded both versions of the song in RealAudio, which you can hear by clicking on the links below.

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While Mel Blanc and Alan Reed both provided the speaking voices for their Flintstone characters, Fred's singing voice in the special was provided by Henry Corden, the man who assumed the role of Fred's voice in 1977 after Reed's death.

I've encoded Fred and Barney singing They'll Never Split Us Apart in RealAudio, and included the speaking portion at the beginning. This will allow you to compare both Reed's and Corden's renditions of the Fred Flintstone character.