Underdog: The Canine Crusader
by David Krell
david@davidkrell.com
Familiar themes abounded in 1960’s animation.
Hanna-Barbera ruled the cartoon kingdom with depictions of famous favorites
Fred Flintstone Ralph Kramden
Yogi Bear Ed Norton
Top Cat Sergeant Bilko
Huckleberry Hound Tennesee Ernie Ford
Doggie Daddy Jimmy Durante
Courageous Cat and Minute Mouse parodied the elements of Batman and Robin, not surprising as Bob Kane created both sets of characters.
Rocky and Bullwinkle battled Boris and Natasha, the personification of Russia’s Evil Empire during the dark days of the Cold War.
Also familiar in the era -- a superhero parody who reminded audiences of a certain alien of the planet Krypton, one who spoke in rhyme possessed a bespectacled mild-mannered alter ego, and obtained super energy from a pill.
Two years before the 1966 television superhero craze triggered by Batman and culminating in CBS’ Saturday morning lineup consisting of superhero programs, a canine superhero captured notice with his adventures. Underdog debuted on NBC on October 3, 1964. It featured the title character with alternate job-descriptive name of Shoeshine Boy constantly fetching his romantic interest, television reporter Sweet Polly Purebred, from peril. The general theme paralleled Superman stories for Superman constantly rescued newspaper reporter Lois Lane from danger. Wally Cox voiced Underdog. Norma McMillan voiced Sweet Polly Purebred.
The show’s opening mimicked that of the Superman stories.
Look! In the sky!
It’s a plane!
It’s a bird!
It’s a frog?
A frog?
The Canine Crusader answered the mystery, stating, Not plane or bird or even frog. It’s just li’l ol me! Underdog!
In an inside joke, the creators placed a not-so-slight reference to the show’s production company by giving Polly’s station the initials TTV, short for Total Television.
Viewers knew Underdog had the situation well in hand when he declared his mission with rhyming phrases.
When Polly’s in trouble, I am not slow! It’s hip, hip, hip and away I go!
There’s no need to fear! Underdog is here!
To thoroughly discuss the genesis of Underdog, one must examine other segments within the show.
The Beginning
Before creating Underdog, Leonardo Television / Total Television assembled a hodgepodge of characters in the series King Leonardo and His Short Subjects. The show premiered on NBC on October 15, 1960. Joe Harris enjoys a unique position as one of the creators and a significant behind-the-scenes force in Leonardo/TTV. In an interview with this article’s writer, Mr. Harris provided the back story of King Leonardo, beginning with some of the major players.
Gordon Johnson was the Senior Account Executive for General Mills at Dancer, Fitzgerald, Sample, Inc. W. Watts ‘Buck’ Biggers was an Account Executive for the cereal brands. Chester A. Stover was Copy Supervisor. He also worked in cereal brands. I was Vice President, Supervisor of Animation for General Mills.
At that time, there was a very strict delineation among writers, art directors, and producers. I actually wore three hats, working in all fields.
General Mills informed Johnson of its desire to develop a show for children’s television, then relatively unexploited. Buck suggested the three of us actually create a show. We came up with the idea of King Leonardo and His Short Subjects and they bought it.
Hal Erickson also details the series’ beginnings in his 1995 book Television Cartoon Shows, 1949-1993. Created at the behest of NBC and General Mills to fill a Saturday morning gap vacated by Hanna-Barbera’s Ruff and Reddy, King Leonardo followed the Hanna-Barbera format of one main character sharing half hour space with two component cartoons.
King Leonardo ruled over Bongo Congo with his trusty skunk aide-de-camp, Odie Colognie. King and Odie constantly battled antagonist Biggy Rat, a nefarious character who teamed up with Itchy Brother, a fraternal connection of King Leonardo. Jackson Beck voiced King Leonardo and Biggy Rat while Allen Swift voiced Odie Colognie and Itchy Brother.
Biggy Rat recalled Edward G. Robinson in voice and intonations. Another animation offering of 1960 also provided a character with similar qualities. As a caricature of the film star, Flat-Face Frog tried to dominate Empire City and foil the heroic exploits of the title characters in Courageous Cat and Minute Mouse (Syndicated, 1960).
King Leonardo promptly devoured the competition in the cartoon jungle. In a letter addressed to C.W. Plattes of General Mills, dated November 29, 1960, Gordon Johnson explains the instant rise to success.
The King Leonardo show after only three national ratings is the top rated children’s program on daytime network television. As you know, the initial rating produced a 40% share of audience and we were very excited about this performance. The second and third ratings exceeded 50% in share which makes it by far the best performing new show of any type on television this year.
Fans may remember King Leonardo under its syndication title, King and Odie. Segments of King Leonardo included The Hunter and Tooter Turtle. Erickson provides the connection between the former offereing and a famous old-time radio character.
Total TV executive Treadwell Covington created The Hunter especially for actor Kenny Delmar, who revived Senator Claghorn’s Southern bombast with which he’d risen to fame in the 1940’s on NBC radio’s The Fred Allen Show.
However, to be thorough, one must note the original animation incarnation of Senator Claghorn -- the similarly named Foghorn Leghorn of Warner Brother’s Looney Tunes / Merrie Melodies stable. Foghorn Leghorn debuted in Walky Talky Hawky, an Academy Award Nominee (Released: August 31, 1946).
As a canine detective, The Hunter trailed The Fox, his criminal nemesis. Good old-fashioned track-the-bad-guy-down-because-crime-doesn’t-pay-theme. Ben Stone voiced The Fox.
Children identified with the uncertainty and fickleness of Tooter Turtle, a character who never quite seemed to find his niche, yet always displayed a dignity and willingness to try new things. Allen Swift voiced Tooter Turtle.
Erickson points out another component to King Leonardo. Often overlooked, it reinforces the connection between the advertising and creative arenas. These areas have co-existed in relatively necessary co-dependency since the days of old-time radio.
As with all General Mills-sponsored cartoon series of the 1960-1963 era, King Leonardo contained an additional component that hasn’t been seen in years: the adventures of Twinkles the Elephant, produced by Leonardo TV and narrated by George S. Irving. The ‘Twinkles’ cartoons were meant as tie-ins to a General Mills breakfast cereal which included as a sales incentive a complete, two-page ‘Twinkles’ comic book story glued to the back of each box.
An Oasis of Quality in a Vast Wasteland
An entertaining, educational, and effective cartoon resulted from FCC Chairman Newton Minow’s call upon broadcasters to offer more programming for the public good, a consequence of the television quiz show scandal of the late 1950’s. Minow described television product as a ‘vast wasteland’ in a May 1961 speech (see below).
Tennessee Tuxedo and His Tales debuted on CBS on September 28, 1963. It featured the curious, scheming, and engaging penguin named Tennesee Tuxedo and his dim-witted sidekick Chumley, a walrus. Don Adams voiced Tennessee Tuxedo. Bradley Bolke voiced Chumley.
Tennesee Tuxedo and Chumley lived at Megapolis Zoo. Stanley Livingston ran the zoo. Inevitably, the pair hatched an idea needing professional, scientific, and calm guidance. Enter Phineas J. Whoopee, ‘the man with all the answers.’ Larry Storch voiced Whoopee.
Mr. Whoopee provided quick studies on various scientific matters with basic, informative, and entertaining visual diagrams, formulas, and explanations.
Despite the lesson, Tennesee Tuxedo and Chumley never quite accomplished their goal, forgetting or omitting and important part of the operation.
Harris explains the effective strategy of the educational discourse.
We were not giving didactic techniques to children. There was a very conscious decision not to preach to children, but to give them surrogates. As we taught Tennessee Tuxedo and Chumley, we taught the child. Then, he or she wants to see how that knowledge can be applied.
By way of example, take the episode entitled The Rain Makers where Tennessee Tuxedo and Chumley set out to prove they’re as smart as human beings. They apply for jobs as weathermen dressed in traditional weather garb -- raincoats! After getting the jobs, a dissatisfied farmer complains about the lack of rain with shotgun inhand. A misguided Chumley follows the Indian custom of beating drums and dancing to create rain. Upon further reflection, the two agree to see Phineas J. Whoopee. At this point in the story, the children are likely drawn to, interested in, and compelled by the problem -- How do you make it rain?
Using his one-of-a-kind three-dimensional blackboard (‘3DBB’), Whoopee thoroughly, effectively, and succinctly explains the rain process and the theory of dropping dry ice from airplanes into clouds to create rain.
George W. Woolery points out the highly significant timing of Tennesee Tuxedo in his 1983 book Children’s Television: The First 35 Years.
Tennessee Tuxedo and His Tales was one of the first humorous educational cartoons introduced in the wake of FCC Chairman Newton R. Minow’s 1961 ‘vast wasteland’ speech.
Minow delivered his infamous address to the 39th Annual Convention of the National Association of Broadcasters in Washington, D.C. on May 9, 1961. In the speech, Minow specifically addresses the plight of children’s programming. He challenges television executives to provide higher quality programming for the children viewership.
If parents, teachers and ministers conducted their responsibilities by following the ratings, children would have a steady diet of ice cream, school holidays and no Sunday School. What about your responsibilities? Is there no room on television to teach, to inform, to uplift, to stretch, to enlarge the capacities of our children? Is there no room for programs deepening their understanding of children in other lands? Is there no room for a children’s news show explaining something about the world to them at their level of understanding? Is there no room for reading the great literature of the past, teaching them the great tradition of freedom? There are some fine children’s shows, but they are drowned out in the massive doses of cartoons, violence and more violence. Must these be your trademarks? Search your consciences and see if you cannot offer more to your young beneficiaries, whose future you guide so many hours each and every day.
An interesting segment of Tennessee Tuxedo came in the form of a distinguished, British-sounding, tall tale spinning gentleman.
In The World of Commander McBragg, the title character told of previous adventures. A comparative benchmark might be Jonathan Quayle Higgins, foil and comic relief to Hawaii’s favorite private investigator, Thomas Sullivan Magnum IV, on Magnum p.i. (1980-88).
Actually, Erickson theorizes McBragg’s beginnings occurred a quarter-century prior to the segments’ first airings.
The central character, a longwinded Baron Munchhausen type named Commander McBragg, wasn’t new when his ancestor appeared in the [W]arner Bros. cartoon The Major Lied Till Dawn.
Harris dispels this theory in specific, but confirms the character’s source predates the segments by decades. He explains that C. Aubrey Smith of the movie Four Feathers (1939) for McBragg. In addition, Erickson stated that the artists drew McBragg ‘as a caricature of British character actor C. Aubrey Smith.’
Another segment of Tennessee Tuxedo paired a long-horned steer with an American Eagle -- Yap and Baldy
There’s No Need to Fear, Underdog Is Here!
And then there was Underdog. This unlikely champion appealed to the children audiences, not because of what he was, but perhaps because of what he was not. Harris gives some insight, noting that heroes without flaws do not engross the audience.
Heroes are generally uninteresting. Underdog is really almost an anti-hero. He’s not super-proficient. We all know Underdog will get the villain, but he bumbles and stumbles along the way. That makes him interesting to children. Also, he only speaks in rhyme. That makes him different from other superhero characters. In addition, he as vulnerabilities which makes him less certain of achieving his goal which is to capture Riff Raff or Simon Bar Sinister.
Only one year after Underdog’s debut, the canine champion made his first of many appearances in the most visible holiday event of all time -- Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. A shrewd bit of marketing boosted the importance of Underdog’s inaugural parade float.
NBC aired the parade from 10:00 am to 12:00 pm EST on November 25, 1965, Thanksgiving Day. A thirty-minute Underdog episode entitled No Thanksgiving aired immediately following the parade from 12:00 pm to 12:30 pm EST.
An NBC press release dated October 28, 1965 summarizes the action.
The storyline concerns the efforts of Simon Barsinister [sic], the mad scientist, to stop a Thanksgiving Day parade and thereby capture an entire city. His method is to use a ‘time machine’ to return in history to the day before the first Thanksgiving, stirring up enough bad feelings between the Pilgrims and Indians so that nobody has anything to be thankful for.
But Underdog thwarts those evil plans by his usual ingenuity, skill, finesse, and clean-living sneakiness. Of course, his super powers come in handy, too.
A Thanksgiving themed episode of Friends referenced Underdog off-screen, a nod to the consistent appearance of the Underdog balloon in Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
When Underdog move to CBS in 1966 to become part of the Eye Network’s ‘Super Saturday’ lineup, two new segments appeared.
Go Go Gophers used a cowboys-and-Indians premise. The gophers were the Indians. Inept military coyotes conflicted and contended with the gophers, Ruffled Feathers and Running Board, yet they could never quite exercise their military authority in a winning fashion as the gophers outwitted them at every turn.
In the cat-and-mouse themed Klondike Kat, Savoir Faire is a French-Canadian mouse of the criminal persuasion. He frustrates, flusters, and troubles his pursuer, Canadian Mountie Klondike Kat. Viewers know the outcome by Klondike Kat’s exclamations: I’ll make mincemeat out of that mouse! Klondike Kat always gets his mouse!
Two Underdog villains are reminiscent of actors from the Christmas film It’s A Wonderful Life (1946). Simon Barsinister easily resembles Lionel Barrymore as a super-evil, ultra-villainous, extra-greedy version of Barrymore’s Potter character. In addition, Sheldon Leonard played good-natured bartender Nick. Leonard’s mannerisms from his 1940’s B-movies where he played criminal characters evidence in Riff Raff, Underdog’s other arch-enemy.
Additionally, Colonel Kit Coyote battled his nemesis in Go Go Gophers to no avail, despite the inspiration for the character apparently being the tough, dedicated, and bullish Teddy Roosevelt.
Using a play on words in naming characters also proved effective with the Underdog family. Hanna-Barbera used this approach heavily in The Flintstones (ABC, 1960-66). Ed Sullivan - Ed Sullystone. Tuesday Weld - Tuesday Wednesday. Hollywood - Hollyrock.
Cleverly and aptly named, Savoir Faire has a moniker based on the French phrase ‘savoir faire’ (translation: knowing what to do). Riff Raff’s name pretty much explains his character -- common, in this case, a common hood. Same name game with Simon Barsinister.
Indeed, the franchise character enjoys a name defining his character. An underdog can be defined as one whom nobody expects to win because of circumstances, nature, and history. Notwithstanding the odds, the audience roots for the underdog. Such is the case with the canine crusader.
Also, as with any animation, matching the right voice to a character can be a make or break situation. Who else but Wally Cox could have voiced Underdog? Cox displayed a dignified timidity a decade prior in the title role on the sitcom Mr. Peepers (NBC, 1952-55).
Tim Brooks and Earle Marsh defined the Peepers character, an arguable prequel to Underdog, in The Complete Directory To Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows: 1946-Present.
The central character was Robinson Peepers, a shy, quiet, slow-moving science teacher whose efforts to do the right thing always seemed to backfire.
Further, witness Don Adams’ dead-on verbalization of Tennessee Tuxedo, a character with qualities and voice intonations strongly resembling those of Adams’ best known character, Maxwell Smart a.k.a. Agent 86 on Get Smart (NBC/CBS, 1965-71). Both characters possess the traits of over-confidence, maladroitness, and over-eagerness.
Coda
For audiences who remember Underdog segments as part of Rocky and His Friends (ABC, 1959-64), a quick note may clarify.
In the wonderful world of syndication repackaging, General Mills used its sponsor position to influence the cross-programming of product.
Another common mistake is the linking of Underdog and Rocky with a common factor, the same producers. The two shows did not have the same producers. Erickson addresses this important point, noting the visual similarity between the two offerings and the simple reason for the misperception.
[T]he fact that [Rocky producer Jay] Ward and Leonardo/Total used the same Mexico-based Gamma Studios facilities gave the two companies’ series a superficial resemblance to one another (at one point, in fact, the playful Gamma folks stuck Bullwinkle into a Go Go Gophers adventure.). This in turn has led many viewers to believe that the Ward and Leonardo/Total series were made by the same producers.
In the July 12, 1996 issue of Entertainment Weekly, Kristen Baldwin reviewed the two shows for their debut on The Cartoon Network. She gave Rocky more credit for its witty dialogue and political puns compared with the more facile Underdog and its own satiric qualities.
For the less literary minded, Underdog, with its humble Shoeshine Boy who speaks in rhymes, has a mass-produced look that gives more edge to the cartoon’s parody of glossy superheroes. By the by, if Natasha and Sweet Polly Purebred got in a catfight, who would win?
Although Rocky undoubtedly gets acclaim for its clever allusions to the international political situation of the era, Underdog did not suffer from lack of quips.
In the four-part episode The Vacuum Gun, Simon Barsinister gathers Riff Raff and other members of the underground to defeat Underdog. Reference is made to the third (?!) sinking of the ship christened Lusitanic, an apparent allusion to the Titanic and Lusitania disasters. The Vacuum Gun is believed to be the last Underdog episode produced.
The Lusitanic reference reinforces a thesis provided by noted television critic David Bianculli in his 1992 book Teleliteracy.
I suggest that cultural literacy, while a fine idea, is applying its energies in the wrong direction. If you want to talk about knowledge that is shared by everyone, the area on which to focus is television. Television is our most common language, our most popular pastime, our basic point of reference; it’s also where most of our children are first exposed to allusion, satire, and other ‘literary’ concepts.
In addition to the Rocky producer confusion, some fans may not remember the segments described in this article. The reasoning is simple. When repackaging Underdog for syndication and its second network run on CBS, the powers that be mixed, matched, and removed elements, thereby altering the show from its original appearance on NBC.
Underdog reached the silver screen in 2008 in the live-action feature film Underdog.