Due to high demands on the group, the roles of
Jackie,
Tito,
Jermaine,
Marlon, and
Michael were played by voice actors, with records of the group's songs being used for the musical tracks of the show. The group did make some contribution to the cartoon in the form of live photographs of each member morphing into a cartoon which was shown in the title screen medley. Although the musical scenes of the cartoon were chiefly animation, an occasional live-action footage of a concert or music video of The Jackson 5 would be spliced into the cartoon series. The actual Jackson 5 also contributed to the show by posing for pictures prior to the cartoon's debut which were used as posters, newspaper clips and
TV Guide spots advertising the forthcoming TV series. Though
Berry Gordy did not provide the original voice (his character was voiced by
Paul Frees) nor advertised his name, his character was frequently involved as the "adult figure" to the group.
R&B/
Pop singer Diana Ross contributed to voice her fictionalized self in the debut episode. The premise of the show is that the Jackson Five would have adventures similar to
Josie and the Pussycats,
Alvin and the Chipmunks or
The Partridge Family, with the unique addition being that Berry Gordy, the manager of the band in the show's universe, would come up with an idea for
publicity for the band, such as having to do farm work or play a concert for the
President of the United States. The series was followed by
The Jacksons, a live action variety show, in 1976. One enthusiastic viewer of the show was Michael Jackson himself. He admitted years later that he would watch and yell with delight, "I'm a cartoon!"
Music A specially recorded medley of four of the group's biggest hits at the time ("
I Want You Back", "
The Love You Save", "
ABC" and "
Mama's Pearl") served as the show's theme song. Each episode would feature two songs by The Jackson 5. The songs were derived from their albums
Diana Ross Presents The Jackson 5 (1969),
ABC,
Third Album (both 1970) and
Maybe Tomorrow (1971). For the Season 2 episodes, eight songs were derived from Michael Jackson's album
Got to Be There (1971) and two songs from The Jackson 5 album ''
Lookin' Through the Windows'' (1972).
Pets Because Michael Jackson owned many pets in real life, a few pets were added as extra characters to the cartoon. They included Michael's pet
mice, Ray and Charles (alluding to singer
Ray Charles, one of his idols), and his pet
snake Rosey the Crusher. Other than the mice squeaking, the pets never spoke, but usually contributed either assistance or mischief, or joined the Jackson brothers in their performances.
Laugh track Like most 1970s-era Saturday morning cartoon series,
The Jackson 5ive contained an adult
laugh track. Rankin-Bass experimented with creating their own laugh track, a practice
Hanna-Barbera had implemented, in 1971. This was done to avoid paying large fees to
Charley Douglass, who edited laugh tracks onto the majority of network television shows at the time. Like Hanna-Barbera, Rankin/Bass isolated several snippets of canned chuckles from Douglass’ library, and inserted them onto the soundtrack. The laughs initially consisted of only loud eruptions; mild jokes received unnatural bouts of laughter, while other times, the laughter would erupt mid-sentence. The studio had improved the process by the second season, using more modulated laughs culled from Douglass's 1971–1972 library. Laughs did not erupt mid-sentence like the first season and were better timed by Rankin/Bass sound engineers. The improved technique was also utilized for the sister series
The Osmonds. Unlike Hanna-Barbera's laugh track, Rankin/Bass provided a larger variety of laughs. Rankin/Bass ceased using laugh tracks after
The Jackson 5ive and
The Osmonds both ended their original runs. == Cast ==