Samson & Goliath

Samson & Goliath
Also known asYoung Samson
Created byWilliam Hanna
Joseph Barbera
Written byTony Benedict
Walter Black
Dalton Sandifer
Ed Brandt
Directed byJoseph Barbera
William Hanna
Voices ofTim Matheson
Don Messick
John Stephenson
Narrated byDon Messick
Theme music composerTed Nichols
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
No. of episodes20
Production
ProducerJoseph Barbera
Running time30 minutes
Production companyHanna-Barbera Productions
Original release
NetworkNBC
ReleaseSeptember 9, 1967 (1967-09-09) 
August 31, 1968 (1968-08-31)

Samson & Goliath, also known as Young Samson, is an American animated television series produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions for NBC, where it debuted on September 9, 1967. Primarily sponsored by General Mills, who controlled the distribution rights through its agency Dancer Fitzgerald Sample, Samson & Goliath was retitled Young Samson in April 1968 to avoid confusion with the stop-motion Christian television series Davey and Goliath.

Twenty-six 12-minute episodes of the series were produced, six of which no longer exist. Samson & Goliath cartoons were paired with other General Mills-sponsored shows such as Tennessee Tuxedo and Go Go Gophers to form a full half-hour for their original network broadcasts. Young Samson was later shown in syndication with The Space Kidettes as The Space Kidettes and Young Samson, distributed by The Program Exchange. The rights were acquired by Warner Bros. Television Distribution when it became rights owner of the Hanna-Barbera catalog.

The series was the only Dancer Fitzgerald Sample-sponsored cartoon to be outsourced to Hanna-Barbera; the agency's in-house studio, Gamma Productions, had closed shortly before the series began. It was also the only cartoon in the DFS portfolio not to be created either by Jay Ward Productions or by Total Television.