[5] The series consisted of short animated stories intended to set up visual illustrations of Beatles songs.

The songs were taken from the albums up to Revolver as well as non-album singles up to "Strawberry Fields Forever"/"Penny Lane".

The producers attempted to acknowledge the band members' contemporary appearances with photographs of them in the series' title sequences during its production run.

The Beatles borrowed Richard Lester's fast-cutting directorial style of A Hard Day's Night and its 1965 follow-up, Help!.

Hal Erickson writes in Television Cartoon Shows that the frenetic cuts "[gave] the series its breezy pace and comic impudence — which often had to compensate for some distressingly sloppy animation and infantile scripting".

[8] Initially, the opening credits theme was a guitar riff from "A Hard Day's Night" segueing into "Can't Buy Me Love", over a cartoon sequence of the group running down a fire escape, echoing a scene in A Hard Day's Night.

Although uncredited, Dennis Marks, along with Jack Mendelsohn, Heywood Kling and Bruce Howard, wrote all 39 episodes of the series.

[9] Most of the episodes of the series were produced by Artransa Park Film Studios in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia,[10] and George Dunning's company TVC Animation in London,[11] with some episodes made in Hollywood,[8] with a crew supervised by veteran cartoon writer John W.

He gestures with his hands in a mocking “showbiz" manner, especially when giving orders, showing that he does not take his job as leader seriously.

He has a fine face, with eyebrows that are wide and far apart and eyes that are partly closed and open when he is excited or frightened.

George has an angular and wry figure and is about the same height as Paul, with a mop-top that is longer in the back compared to the others.

He and Ringo often do work for John and Paul, such as in the episode "Do You Want to Know a Secret", where they carry the bands' luggage into their vacation cottage.

Although he is the eldest Beatle, born three months before John, he is the smallest of the four, with a thin neck that gets smaller as it reaches the base and a small chin.

During the introductions to the Sing-Along segments, he substitutes for the prop-man, who is often absent, and sets the stage according to John, Paul, or George's description, often to their surprise or chagrin.

He is often the subject of the show's slapstick humor, being the butt of jokes and the victim of pranks or bad luck.

Epstein finally appears in the beginning of the episode "Thank You Girl", but only his arm is seen as he grounds the Beatles for gaining weight after dining on French cooking.

Epstein and the other real-life Beatles appear in a lost deleted scene featuring the series' production.

The series was an instant ratings hit on ABC in the Saturday morning time slot after it debuted on 25 September 1965 at 10:30 AM ET.

Only when the band saw and were impressed by the Yellow Submarine's finished footage did they realize the film was a more ambitious creation.

In December 2004, McFarlane Toys released a line of figures based on the cartoon series, featuring all four band members with their instruments.