Animation in the United States in the television era was a period in the history of American animation that slowly set in with the decline of theatrical animated shorts and the popularization of television animation that started in the late 1950s, reached its peak during the 1970s, and ended around the mid-1980s. This era is characterized by low budgets, limited animation, an emphasis on television over the theater, and the general perception of cartoons being primarily for children. Due to the perceived cheap production values, poor animation, and mixed critical and commercial reception, the era is generally looked back upon negatively by critics and animation historians. The television animation of this period is often referred to as the dark age of American animation, while the theatrical animation from the time is sometimes referred as the bronze age.
Tiny Toon Adventures is an American animated television series created by Tom Ruegger that was broadcast from September 14, 1990, to December 6, 1992. It was the first animated series produced by Steven Spielberg's Amblin Television in association with Warner Bros. Animation. The show follows the adventures of a group of young cartoon characters who attend Acme Looniversity to become the next generation of characters from the Looney Tunes series.
The Skatebirds is an American live-action/animated package program produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions and broadcast on CBS from September 10, 1977, to January 21, 1978.
Robert Lewis Bell, better known as Bob Bell, was an American actor and announcer famous for his alter-ego, Bozo the Clown. He was the original portrayer of the character for Chicago superstation WGN-TV.
George of the Jungle is an American animated television series produced and created by Jay Ward and Bill Scott, who also created The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends. The character George was inspired by the story of Tarzan and a cartoon characterization of George Eiferman drawn by a cook on his minesweeper in the Navy during World War II. The series aired first-run for 17 episodes on Saturday mornings from September 9 to December 30, 1967, on the ABC-TV network. Then, rather than commissioning new episodes, the network was content to repeat the 17 episodes, keeping George of the Jungle on its Saturday schedule until September 19, 1970.
Garfield Goose and Friends is a children's television show produced by WGN-TV in Chicago, Illinois, United States from 1955 to 1976. The show was known as Garfield Goose and Friend from 1952 to 1955 when it aired on WBKB and WBBM-TV. It was the longest running puppet show on television until Sesame Street broke that record. The host of the show was Frazier Thomas, who did all of the talking. The show centered on a clacking goose puppet named Garfield Goose, who considered himself "King of the United States." There were many other puppet characters such as Romberg Rabbit, Macintosh Mouse, Chris Goose and a sleepy bloodhound called Beauregard Burnside III. The show used a "Little Theater Screen", upon which the camera would zoom before cartoons such as Total Television, The Funny Company, Clutch Cargo, The Pink Panther, Jay Ward, Hanna-Barbera, Space Angel and The Mighty Hercules were broadcast.
Colonel Bleep is a 1957 American animated TV series which was the first color cartoon series made for television. It was created and written by Robert D. Buchanan and Jack Schleh on June 8, 1956, and was animated by Soundac, Inc. of Miami. The show was originally syndicated on September 21, 1957, as a segment on Uncle Bill's TV Club. One hundred episodes, of varying length of between three and six minutes each, were produced. Of these episodes, 45 episodes are known to exist in some form, eight of which are only available in monochrome.
Ray Rayner was an American television presenter, actor and author. He was a staple of Chicago children's television in the 1960s and 1970s on WGN-TV.
William Frazier Thomas was a Chicago television personality. Although Thomas wrote nine children's books, he was best known for creating, hosting, writing and producing the long-running children's television program Garfield Goose and Friends on WGN-TV.
Bill Ray Jackson was an American television personality, cartoonist, and educator. He was best known for having hosted the children's programs The BJ and Dirty Dragon Show and Gigglesnort Hotel.
Gigglesnort Hotel is a syndicated children's television program which ran for 78 episodes between 1975 and 1978. It was hosted by Bill Jackson, previously the host of several Chicago-based children's programs including Clown Alley and The BJ and Dirty Dragon Show. The program was set, as the title implies, at an old hotel, where Jackson's role was a desk clerk. The program featured many of the characters from the previous show, including Dirty Dragon, the Old Professor, Weird, Old Mother Plumtree, and several others who were created just for the program, such as the hotel's owner, Old Man Gigglesnort.
Roy Thomas Brown was an American television personality, puppeteer, clown and artist known for playing "Cooky the Cook" on Chicago's Bozo's Circus.
The BJ and Dirty Dragon Show is a Chicago children's television program that aired on WFLD and later WGN-TV from 1968 to 1974. It starred Bill Jackson and his puppets.
Super Circus is an American television program that aired live on Sunday afternoons from 5 to 6pm Eastern Time from 1949 to 1956 on ABC. The show was produced in Chicago by WENR-TV, continuing through its call letter change to WBKB through 1955, and its production moved to New York City and WABC-TV for its final season. The award-winning show featured circus and clown acts performing in front of a studio audience. Mary Hartline and Claude Kirchner were the hosts, and Bruce Chase conducted the band. Phil Patton was the producer, and Ed Skotch was the director. Sponsors for the show included Kellogg's, Mars, Canada Dry Ginger Ale, and Sweetheart Soap.
Bob Singer is an American animation artist, character designer, layout and background artist and storyboard director of animated television programs, most memorably of several Hanna-Barbera productions such as The Flintstones, Jonny Quest, Scooby-Doo, Yogi Bear, Droopy, Tom and Jerry, The Jetsons, The Smurfs, Super Friends, Richie Rich and the Harlem Globetrotters cartoons.
Samuel Singer was an American animator and animation producer. He is best known as executive producer of The Adventures of Pow Wow, a cartoon which also later appeared as a segment in early episodes of Captain Kangaroo. He also directed The Adventures of Paddy the Pelican and produced Bucky and Pepito. Animation historian Jerry Beck has referred to Singer as "the Ed Wood of animation" for his low-budget and generally ill-reviewed cartoons.
Elaine Mulqueen was an American children's television host and personality in Chicago, Illinois.
Joe Jitsu is a fictional police officer, one of Dick Tracy's crimefighters in the 1961 syndicated animated cartoon series of the popular comic strip. He has since been criticised as a Japanese stereotype. He is named after Ju-Jitsu, a Japanese martial art. His method of subduing criminals was to grab them by the wrist, and exclaim "So solly!" and "Excuse, prease!" while repeatedly judo-flipping them on the ground violently. The voice for this character was provided by Benny Rubin.
Lego Unikitty! was a Lego theme based on the animated television series of the same name. It was licensed from The Lego Group and Warner Bros. Animation for Cartoon Network and the series starred the character of the same name from The Lego Movie and its sequel, The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part. The theme was first introduced in August 2018. The product line was discontinued by the end of December 2019.
This is a list of American television-related events in 1952.
