Chuck and Nancy come across a cave off the coast of Maine where they find a mysterious chest containing halves of a strange ring. When they first joined the rings, they end up transported back to the fabled land of the Arabian Nights where they meet their genie Shazzan. Shazzan creates a magical flying camel named Kaboobie to serve as their transportation. Shazzan tells Chuck and Nancy that he can't return them home until they deliver the two rings to his rightful owner. Shazzan is very large, being able to hold Chuck, Nancy and Kaboobie in the open palm of his hand. He is wise and jolly in nature, usually appearing with a cheerful "Ho-ho ho-HO!" and addressing the two children as his "little masters". Chuck and Nancy each wear one half of the broken ring, which has to be joined to bring forth their magical servant. A frequent plot device is that the two teenagers became separated, most often by the act of a villain. They can not summon the omnipotent genie until they manage to find each other. Once Shazzan materializes, it is extremely bad news for the villain.
Style
The series is similar in its style and production details to the other Alex Toth-created CBS Saturday morning cartoons of 1966–1968, relying heavily on music and sound effects earlier created for Jonny Quest. As is typical for both animated and live-action TV series of the era that revolve around an ongoing dilemma, the heroes never resolve their long-term situation. Chuck and Nancy never find the ring's owner and thus never return to their American teenage lives.
Each half-hour episode consists of two 11-minute cartoons.
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Other appearances
Shazzan has appeared on an episode of Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law voiced by Maurice LaMarche. In the episode "Mufti Trouble," he had a long-standing rivalry with Mentok the Mindtaker. Shazzan appeared in "The Final Encounter", an episode of Space Ghost. It was last episode of the six part "The Council of Doom". Space Ghost falls in a trap that transports him to the dimension of Shazzan. Shazzan helps him defeat the Sultan of Flame and transports him back to his own dimension. A satirized version of Shazzan named Shazzang! appeared as an animated short as part of Robert Smigel's "TV Funhouse" feature on the late nightsketch comedy series Saturday Night Live, on the May 14, 2005 episode. The parody depicted the genie Shazzang quickly defeating the villain, but then maiming and executing the villain in an increasingly sadistic fashion, to the horror of Chuck, Nancy, and Kaboobie, eventually babbling about having to "please his dad". It is shown on the DVD version of the SNL special "The Best of TV Funhouse".
Home media
Two episodes of Shazzan were released on a Saturday morning cartoon compilation, along with a short video containing some background information. On April 3, 2012, Warner Archive released Shazzan: The Complete Series on DVD in region 1 as part of their Hanna–Barbera Classics Collection. This is a Manufacture-on-Demand release, available exclusively through Warner's online store and Amazon.com. All episodes, while not perfect, have been faithfully remastered for this release.
