The Hollywood Reporter announces that Ted Nichols, musical conductor of Jonny Quest, Space Ghost, and Wacky Races, has passed away. He worked on various other cartoons for nearly a decade. Nichols fought long and hard with Alzheimer’s and died January 9, in hospice. He was with his daughter in Auburn, Washington.
The Hollywood Reporter reports that Nichols had worked for Hanna-Barbera Productionsfor nine years (1963 to 1972) and served as the musical director for eight of them. He worked with Hoyt Curtin (Top Cat, The Jetsons) before taking over for him. Nichols made the music for the sixth and final primetime airing of ABC’s The Flintstones, as well as the 1966 feature The Man Called Flintstone. Nichols also worked on Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!, which premiered in 1969. Nicholas composed the music for the series through 1985.
“Ted Nichols’ underscores [for Scooby-Doo] are what I consider to be a near perfect set of music for a cartoon,” Cade Utterback said in his 2021 Hanna-Barbera music documentary via The Hollywood Reporter. “It’s perfect for the show it was in. You can’t tell me it doesn’t help set the mood…There are a few tracks that run for a few minutes and have several sections. And the music editors knew this was a bonus as they mixed and matched parts from all the tracks to make a beautiful Frankenstein monster of a music bed in each episode.”
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Nichols was an only child born October 1928, in Missoula, Montana. His family moved to Washington where he started to play the violin at 10. After graduating high school, he joined the U.S. Navy in 1946, where he joined a swing band. He also served as commanding officer of the U.S. Air Force Bandsmen Training School during the Korean War. He picked up various music degrees from Baylor University and Texas A&I, as well as taught in public school. Nichols moved to California where he conducted a band at Santa Ana Junior College and sang with the Dapper Dans of Disneyland for a few years.
The Hollywood Reporter announces that Nichols was an only child born October 1928, he was born in Missoula, Montana where he started to play the violin at 10. He joined the US Navy where he joined swing band and was commanding officer of the US Air Force bandsmen training school. He picked up various music degrees from Baylor University and Texas A&I, as well as taught in a public school. In California, The Hollywood Reporter writes he met Hanna-Barbera co-founder William Hanna, which led to him working on Jonny Quest with Curtin. Additional credits under his name included Birdman and the Galaxy Trio, Josie and the Pussycats, The Pebbles and Bam-Bam Show and, the rare live-action series, The New Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, his survivors include his daughter, his son David; grandkids Tawny, Kevin, Brian, Alex, Carson and Cammie; and six great-granddaughters.