Sport Billy is an American animated television series produced by Filmation Associates, initially for broadcast in Germany and Cannes, France.
[1][2][3] In 1982, Filmation carried the show over to the United States for syndication, and as a summer replacement for The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends in NBC's Saturday morning children's programming.
Sport Billy was originally a German comic character created by Rolf Deyhle in 1977, and already had a presence in Europe and parts of Latin America.
It first premiered in Germany and was also shown in the United Kingdom, Cannes, France, Gibraltar, Italy, Yugoslavia, Brazil, Australia, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Greece, Cyprus, Spain, Turkey, Peru, Mexico, Portugal, Romania, Czechoslovakia and other countries.
[4][1][5][6][7][8][9][23] In contrast to its international success, the series did fewer numbers in syndication than Rocky and Bullwinkle, The Jetsons and Jonny Quest, but more than The Space Kidettes, The Roman Holidays and Samson & Goliath.
[24] In addition to its broadcast in Germany and Cannes, the series was also shown as a feature film on Showtime and HBO in 1980 and RTÉ2 in 1986, written by Reubin Guberman, produced by William L. Cooper Jr. and Wolfgang Stein, and directed by Peter Fernandez.
[25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][17] The story revolves around a young boy named Sport Billy, who is from the planet Olympus (a twin of Earth on the opposite side of the Sun), which is populated by athletic god-like beings, ruled by the benevolent President Sportikus XI and his wife, Pandusa.
The group was named "Sport-Billy", and consisted of Fabiana Íncola, Analía Santos, Luis Gasparini, Marcelo Ragonesse and Walter Ferreyra.
[42][43] In May 1982, they visited Peru to promote themselves and perform at the Estádio Nacional and the Jesús Obrero Coliseum in Comas, as well as in other towns in the country such as Iquitos, Tacna, Trujillo and Piura.
At that time in Argentina, amidst bitter discussions between the parents of the children and the record company, they released a shared album with the Spanish group Sus Amigos/Viva's (made up of former members of Parchis) entitled Vamos a la Playa.
[42][45] Íncola recorded a song by the group Sin Bandera, "Que Me Alcance la Vida", although she stated that she no longer dedicates herself professionally to singing.