The New Fantastic Four was an animated series produced by DePatie-Freleng Enterprises, and featured the talents of both of The Fantastic Four's creators - Stan Lee (as one of the series' writers) and Jack Kirby (as a storyboard artist), as well as the comics writer Roy Thomas behind the series. The series is famous for not including the Human Torch/Johnny Storm character from the comics and replacing him with the original character of Herbie the robot (who would later appear in the original comics). This was done due to the fact that the character of the Human Torch was optioned for a live-action version at around the same time, and not, as some people have mentioned, due to network concerns that children would set themselves on fire to emulate him.