The wraparounds featured the adventures of a musical quartet, meant to be reminiscent of The Beatles and The Monkees, consisting of Fleegle, a beagle; Bingo, a gorilla; Drooper, a lion, and Snorky (called "Snork" in the theme song lyrics), an elephant. Fleegle would often assume the role as leader of the Banana Splits. The characters were played by actors in fleecy costumes similar to later Sid and Marty Krofft series such as H.R. Pufnstuf. (Krofft Enterprises designed the costumes and sets for The Banana Splits Adventure Hour, and their work impressed NBC-TV executives, who picked up the Krofft's own H.R. Pufnstuf for the following season.)

The Splits' segments, including songs-of-the-week and comedy skits, served as wraparounds for a number of individual segments. In the United States, The Banana Splits Adventure Hour featured the first appearances of the animated segments The Arabian Knights, The Three Musketeers, and Micro Ventures. In the second season, The Three Musketeers segments were replaced with repeats of The Hillbilly Bears, a cartoon segment that previously appeared on The Atom Ant Show (1965-1968).

Some of the live action segments (specifically those used during the musical segments) were shot at Six Flags Over Texas in Arlington (during the first season) and, the following year, at Coney Island located in Cincinnati. In many episodes you would see The Banana Splits riding on the Runaway Mine Train rollercoasters, Log Flumes, Bumper Cars, Merry-Go-Rounds, and many other rides. Contrary to popular misconception, the amusement park scenes in the original series actually were not filmed at Kings Island; Kings Island did not open until 1972, while filming for The Banana Splits Adventure Hour wrapped in 1969. However, some of the rides seen in the series eventually were relocated to Kings Island (following a flood which led to the closing of Coney Island; the park later reopened on a smaller scale) and the live-action scenes in the 1972 production The Banana Splits In Hocus Pocus Park were indeed filmed at Kings Island. The first season of The Banana Splits Adventure Hour, including the Banana Splits and Danger Island sequences, was directed by future Superman director Richard Donner.

The original show, as well as the syndicated package, also contained the live-action segment Danger Island, a cliffhanger serial starring a young Jan-Michael Vincent, billed as Michael Vincent, as Lincoln "Link" Simmons. Also, Ronne Troup, who later joined the cast of My Three Sons, played Leslie Haydn. (Each of the ten-minute chapters was cut into two five-minute segments in syndication.) Danger Island was meant to be a live action equivalent to Jonny Quest, another Hanna-Barbera property.

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