Underdog is an American animated television series that debuted October 3, 1964, on the NBC network under the primary sponsorship of General Mills, and continued in syndication until 1973, for a run of approximately 124 episodes.
Underdog, Shoeshine Boy’s heroic alter-ego, appeared whenever love interest Sweet Polly Purebred was being victimized by such villains as Simon Bar Sinister or Riff Raff. Underdog always speaks in rhymes, such as, “There’s no need to fear, Underdog is here!” His voice was supplied by the frequent guest on Hollywood Squares , Wally Cox (probably best remembered as Mr. Peepers).
History
In 1959, handling the General Mills account as an account executive with the Dancer Fitzgerald Sample advertising agency in New York, W. Watts Biggers teamed with Chet Stover, Treadwell D. Covington and artist Joe Harris in the creation of television cartoon shows to sell breakfast cereals for General Mills. The shows introduced such characters as King Leonardo, Tennessee Tuxedo and Underdog. Biggers and Stover contributed both scripts and songs to the series. When Underdog became a success, Biggers and his partners left Dancer Fitzgerald Sample to form their own company, Total Television, with animation produced at Gamma Studios in Mexico. At the end of the decade, Total Television folded when General Mills dropped out as the primary sponsor in 1969 (but continued to retain the rights to the series until the mid-'90s).
Abroad and in syndication
The syndicated version of The Underdog Show consists of 62 half-hour episodes. The supporting segments differ from the show's original network run. The first 26 syndicated episodes feature Tennessee Tuxedo as a supporting segment ( Tennessee Tuxedo originally aired as a separate show, and also has its own syndicated adaptation). Thereafter, for most of the balance of the package, the middle segments include Go Go Gophers and Klondike Kat for three consecutive, half-hours, and Tennessee Tuxedo in the fourth. Commander McBragg is featured in the majority of episodes, replaced by three segments of The Sing-A-Long Family (in shows #1-2-3, #28-29-30, and #55-56-57). The final two syndicated Underdog half-hours feature one-shot cartoons originally part of an unsold pilot for a projected 1966 series, The Champion ( Cauliflower Cabbie and Gene Hattree ), with Commander McBragg appearing in show #61 and Go Go Gophers in show #62.
The syndicated series (as shown in the United States) is a potpourri of segments from previously aired versions of the show. Prior to a 1994 remaster, each episode included a "teaser" at the top of the show, asking viewers to stay tuned for a clip from "today's four-part story" (this originates from a 1969–1973 NBC Saturday morning rerun version of the show). However, there were never more than two parts of the Underdog stories shown in any half-hour program. Prints of such would either be followed by a closing outro and credits or no credits at all. The closing outro (which showed the first portion of a variation of the Underdog theme showing a big ape terrorizing the city with a narrator saying "looks like this is the end..." in place of the theme music) followed by the end credits (re-edited from the cast credits for Underdog and Tennessee Tuxedo ), originated from a 1965 repackaged syndicated series, Cartoon Cut-Ups , which originally featured Underdog, Tennessee Tuxedo and Commander McBragg.
For many years starting with NBC's last run in the mid-1970s, all references to Underdog swallowing his super energy pill were censored, most likely out of fear that kids would see real medication that looked like the Underdog pills (red with a white "U") and swallow them. Two instances that did not actually show Underdog swallowing the pills remained in the show. In one, he drops pills into water supplies; in the other, his ring is damaged and he explains that it's where he keeps the pill – but the part where he actually swallows it was still cut.
Most stories were multi-parters, but the first four were stand-alones:
- "Safe Waif" (the pilot, which featured a rescue, but no villain)
- "March of the Monsters" (first appearance of Sweet Polly Purebred.)
- "Simon Says" (first appearance of Simon Bar Sinister. "Simon says, HOLD IT!," is the maniacal refrain, as Bar Sinister uses a weird camera to turn his victims into full-size, two-dimensional photographs.)
- "Tricky Trap by Tap Tap" (an epilogue to the multi-part story "From Hopeless to Helpless", featuring Riff Raff.)
Underdog also aired on ABC in Australia in February 18, 1966. In 1995, Biggers, Stover, Covington and Harris (with General Mills) negotiated a sale of their creations to Saturday Night Live producer Lorne Michaels, who later sold the rights to Golden Books. Classic Media currently owns the underlying rights to Underdog .
Characters
Main article: List of characters in UnderdogUnderdog was an anthropomorphic superhero parody of Superman and similar heroes with secret identities. The premise was that "humble and lovable" Shoeshine Boy, a cartoon dog, was in truth the superhero Underdog. George S. Irving narrated, and comedy actor Wally Cox provided the voices of both Underdog and Shoeshine Boy. When villains threatened, Shoeshine Boy ducked into a telephone booth where he transformed into the caped and costumed hero, destroying the booth in the process when his super powers were activated. Underdog almost always spoke in rhyme:
Underdog's most frequent saying when he appeared was:
The majority of episodes used a common template when Underdog first reveals himself. A crowd of people look up in the sky would say, "Look in the sky. It's a plane! It's a bird!," after which an old woman wearing glasses exclaims, "It's a frog!" Another onlooker responds, "A frog?" To this, Underdog replies with these words:
Underdog usually caused a lot of collateral damage. Whenever someone complained about the damage, Underdog replied:
The villains almost always managed to menace Sweet Polly Purebred (voiced by Norma MacMillan), an anthropomorphic canine TV reporter, as part of their nefarious schemes; she was a helpless damsel in distress most of the time, and had a habit of singing in a somewhat whining tone of voice, "Oh where, oh where has my Underdog gone?", which she sings to the tune of the song "Oh Where Has My Little Dog Gone" when in jeopardy. Recurring villains included:
- Simon Bar Sinister (voiced by Allen Swift) – A mad scientist with a voice reminiscent of Lionel Barrymore. He has an assistant named Cad Lackey. A 'Barre Sinister' is a diagonal line on medieval family crests indicating the person is a bastard by birth – a clever inside joke typical of animation writing at the time.
- Riff Raff (also voiced by Allen Swift) – An anthropomorphic wolf gangster based on noted actor George Raft. His gang consists of Sandy the Safecracker, Mooch (the underworld syndicate's top gunman), Spinny Wheels (who drives the gang's getaway car), Dinah Myte (the underworld syndicate's greatest bomb tosser), the new members, Nails the Carpenter, Needles the Tailor, Smitty the Blacksmith, the Witch Doctor and other unnamed members.
Other villains include The Electric (Slippery) Eel, Battyman, Tap-Tap the Chisler, and Overcat. Underdog also regularly faced enemies from alien worlds, such as the Marbleheads from Planet Granite, the Magnet Planet, home to the Magnet Men, the Planet of Zot, and the Saucer Planet, home to the Flying Sorcerers.
The majority of the Underdog adventures were presented in the form of four-part serial episodes. Other cartoons, including Go Go Gophers and The Hunter , filled the middle segments. A 1969–1973 NBC run featured all four parts of an Underdog storyline in one half-hour show. The series was first syndicated in the U.S. in the mid-1960s under the title Cartoon Cut-Ups , which presented two Underdog segments along with Tennessee Tuxedo and His Tales and The World of Commander McBragg . This package was revised in the 1970s under the Underdog Show title, now including all 124 Underdog segments and featuring Tennessee Tuxedo , Commander McBragg , Go Go Gophers , and Klondike Kat in various episodes. A syndicated package prepared for distribution outside the United States (and also aired on the Boomerang cable network) usually featured two brief Underdog episodes in a single show along with a wider variety of other Total TV cartoon shorts which appeared in between such segments: Go Go Gophers , King Leonardo and His Short Subjects , Klondike Kat , Tennessee Tuxedo , The Hunter , Tooter Turtle and Commander McBragg .
Tennessee Tuxedo, a penguin, was accompanied by two friends, slow-witted walrus Chumley and Phineas J. Whoopie. Tennessee Tuxedo was voiced by Don Adams of Get Smart (and later Inspector Gadget ) fame; knowledgeable professor Phineas J. Whoopee was voiced by Larry Storch of F Troop fame. With the possible exception of Tennessee Tuxedo, none of these characters ever reached Underdog's level of popularity.
Episodes
Main article: List of Underdog episodesSuper powers
Unlike Superman, Underdog's super powers are not a natural part of his physical makeup. When he is not Underdog, he is
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