The Peter Potamus Show

Last updated
The Peter Potamus Show
Peter Potamus Show.png
Peter Potamus and So-So in their Magic Flying Balloon.
Also known as
  • The Peter Potamus Show
  • Peter Potamus and His Magic Flying Balloon
Genre
Created by
Written by
Directed by
Voices of
Composer Hoyt Curtin
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
No. of episodes27
Production
Producers
  • William Hanna
  • Joseph Barbera
Running time22–26 minutes
Production company Hanna-Barbera Productions
Original release
Network
ReleaseSeptember 16, 1964 (1964-09-16) 
October 23, 1966 (1966-10-23)
Related

The Peter Potamus Show is an American animated television series produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions and starring Peter Potamus, a purple hippopotamus. [1]

Contents

The Peter Potamus Show is divided into three segments: Peter Potamus and So-So, Breezly and Sneezly and Yippee, Yappee and Yahooey . [2] Peter Potamus was broadcast as a companion series to The Magilla Gorilla Show . Both series premiered in first-run syndication before being picked up by ABC in January 1966. Peter Potamus ran on Sunday mornings and The Magilla Gorilla Show went to Saturday mornings before moving to Sundays the following year. At that time, the Breezly and Sneezly segment was swapped with Ricochet Rabbit & Droop-a-Long , a segment on The Magilla Gorilla Show. After the ABC run ended in 1967, cartoons from Magilla Gorilla and Peter Potamus shows were syndicated together.

The Ideal Toy Company sponsored the television series, [3] and during the original run of the cartoon, the theme song ended with the phrase: "And there he goes Peter Potamus, our ideal". A similarly subtle sponsor reference appeared in the Magilla Gorilla theme song lyrics: "He's really ideal". Early promotional materials for the series carried the title Peter Potamus and His Magic Flying Balloon, but that title never appeared on screen. The original Peter Potamus series was broadcast on the cable TV channel Boomerang, often as part of its anthology series Boomerang Zoo.

Plot and segments

Peter Potamus and So-So

The main segment features Peter Potamus (voiced by Daws Butler impersonating Joe E. Brown; Butler uses an identical voice for Lippy the Lion) and his diminutive sidekick So-So the monkey (voiced by Don Messick). [4] Peter is big, purple, and friendly, dressed in a safari jacket and hat. Episodes generally consist of Peter and So-So exploring the world in his hot air balloon, which has a gondola shaped like a boat and is capable of time travel at the spin of a dial. When faced with a precarious situation, Peter uses his Hippo Hurricane Howler to blow away his opponents.

Breezly and Sneezly

A polar bear named Breezly Bruin (voiced by Howard Morris) and his friend Sneezly Seal (voiced by Mel Blanc) use various schemes to break into an army camp in the frozen north, while trying to stay one step ahead of the camp's leader Colonel Fuzzby (voiced by John Stephenson).

Yippee, Yappee and Yahooey

Three dogs named Yippee (voiced by Doug Young), Yappee (voiced by Hal Smith), and Yahooey (voiced by Daws Butler impersonating Jerry Lewis) aka The Goofy Guards, work for the King (voiced by Hal Smith), a short, complaining ruler who is often on the receiving end of their antics. The trio's plumed hats and swords are reminiscent of The Three Musketeers.

Episodes

#PlotOriginal air date
1
  • Fee Fi Fo Fun
  • No Place like Nome
  • The Volunteers
September 16, 1964
2
  • Lion Around
  • All Riot on the Northern Front
  • Black Bart
September 23, 1964
3
  • Cleo Trio
  • Missile Fizzle
  • Double Dragon
October 7, 1964
4
  • No Rest for a Pest
  • Mass Masquerade
  • Outlaw In-law
October 7, 1964
5
  • Wagon Train Strain
  • Furry Furlough
  • Horse Shoo Fly
October 14, 1964
6
  • Monotony on the Bounty
  • Bruin Ruin
  • Wild Child
October 21, 1964
7
  • The Good Hood
  • Freezing Fleas
  • Witch Is Which
October 28, 1964
8
  • Stars on Mars
  • Stars and Gripes
  • Wise Quacking
November 4, 1964
9
  • Kooky Spook
  • Armoured Amour
  • Nautical Nitwits
November 11, 1964
10
  • The Island Fling
  • As the Snow Flies
  • Job Robbed
November 18, 1964
11
  • Courtin Trouble
  • Snow Biz
  • Unicorn on the Cob
November 25, 1964
12
  • Big Red Riding Hood
  • Unseen Trouble
  • Mouse Rout
December 2, 1964
13
  • Hurricane Hippo
  • Nervous in the Service
  • Handy Dandy Lion
December 9, 1964
14
  • What a Knight
  • Birthday Bonanza
  • Sappy Birthday
December 16, 1964
15
  • Mask Task
  • Wacky Waikiki
  • King of the Roadhogs
September 11, 1965
16
  • Pre-Hysterical Pete
  • General Nuisance
  • Palace Pal Picnic
September 18, 1965
17
  • Trite Flite
  • Rookie Wrecker
  • Sleepy Time King
September 25, 1965
18
  • Marriage Peter Potamus Style
  • Noodick of the North
  • Pie Pie Blackbird
October 2, 1965
19
  • Calaboose Caboose
  • The Fastest Bear in the North
  • What the Hex Going On?
October 9, 1965
20
  • Eager Ogre
  • Snow Time Show Time
  • Eviction Capers
October 16, 1965
21
  • The Reform of Plankenstein
  • Goat a Go-Go
  • Hero Sandwiched
October 23, 1965
22
  • Debt and Taxes
  • Spy in the Ointment
  • Throne for a Loss
January 2, 1966
23
  • Wrong Time No See
  • All Ill Wind
  • Royal Rhubarb
January 9, 1966
24
  • America or Bust
January 16, 1966
25
  • Rebel Rumble
January 23, 1966
26
  • Pilgrims Regress
January 30, 1966
27
  • The Crossbow Incident
February 6, 1966

Other appearances

Home media

The episode Fe Fi Fo Fun is available on the DVD Saturday Morning Cartoons 1960s Vol. 1. The episode Wagon Train Strain is available on the Saturday Morning Cartoons 1960's Vol. 2 set. The episode Cleo Trio is on the Hanna Barbera 25 Cartoon Collection DVD, part of The Best of Warner Bros. series.

On November 1, 2016, Warner Archive released The Peter Potamus Show- The Complete Series on DVD in region 1 as part of their Hanna–Barbera Classics Collection. This is a Manufacture-on-Demand (MOD) release, available exclusively through Warner's online store and Amazon.com. [8]

See also

Related Research Articles

<i>The Ruff and Reddy Show</i> American animated television series

The Ruff and Reddy Show is an American animated television series produced by H-B Enterprises for NBC. It has been referred to as the earliest original color Saturday-morning cartoon, following "Mighty Mouse Playhouse", which was made up of theatrical shorts. This was the first series made by Hanna-Barbera. The series follows the adventures of Ruff and Reddy. It was presented by Screen Gems, the television arm of Columbia Pictures. It premiered in December 1957 and ran for 156 episodes until April 1960, comprising three seasons total. It was repeated on NBC Saturday mornings from 1962 to 1963. In the late 1950s, it was sponsored by Post Consumer Brands.

<i>Pixie and Dixie and Mr. Jinks</i> American animated television series

Pixie and Dixie and Mr. Jinks is one of the three segments of The Huckleberry Hound Show. This show was produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions between October 2, 1958, and October 13, 1961, and consist of 57 episodes.

<i>The Magilla Gorilla Show</i> American animated television series

The Magilla Gorilla Show is an American animated television series starring Magilla Gorilla. The series was produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions for Screen Gems, and was originally sponsored in syndication by Ideal Toys from 1964 through 1967. The show had other recurring characters, including Ricochet Rabbit & Droop-a-Long and Punkin' Puss & Mushmouse. In syndication, the main and supporting characters from the Peter Potamus show were also added. Prior to the show's launch, the show made an interview on their "upcoming" series in between the middle-and-late December 1963 on first-run syndication entitled Here Comes A Star. Like many of Hanna-Barbera's animal characters, Magilla Gorilla was dressed in human accessories, sporting a bow tie, shorts held up by suspenders, and an undersized derby hat. After a year on airing its original runs, repeats of all 31 episodes were aired between 1966 and 1967 during ABC-TV's Saturday morning schedule and on Sunday mornings the following season.

<i>Yogis Gang</i> 1973 American animated television series

Yogi's Gang is an American Saturday-morning cartoon, and the second incarnation of the Yogi Bear franchise, produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions, which aired for 16 half-hour episodes on ABC from September 8, 1973, to December 29, 1973. The show began as Yogi's Ark Lark, a special TV movie on The ABC Saturday Superstar Movie in 1972. Fifteen original episodes were produced for broadcast on ABC, with the hour-long Yogi's Ark Lark thrown in as a split-in-half two-parter. The show confronted social and cultural issues like ecology and bigotry, with villains named Mr. Waste, Dr. Bigot, the Envy Brothers, Lotta Litter, the Greedy Genie and Mr. Cheater.

<i>Yo Yogi!</i> American animated television series

Yo Yogi! is an American animated television series, and the seventh entry in the Yogi Bear franchise, produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions that aired from September 14 to December 7, 1991, on NBC for 13 episodes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yakky Doodle</span> Hanna-Barbera cartoon character

Yakky Doodle is a fictional anthropomorphic yellow duckling with green wings, who appears for the first time in prototype form on The Huckleberry Hound Show in 1958 and on The Quick Draw McGraw Show in 1960, and in regular design on The Yogi Bear Show in 1961, on his own segment. Yakky's name is a spoof of "Yankee Doodle".

Breezly and Sneezly is a Hanna-Barbera cartoon series first broadcast on September 16, 1964, as part of The Peter Potamus Show. From 1964 to 1966, 23 episodes were produced, 14 of which were aired on Peter Potamus with the remaining nine aired on The Magilla Gorilla Show.

Yippee, Yappee and Yahooey is a Hanna-Barbera animated television series that premiered September 16, 1964. It was presented as a segment of The Peter Potamus Show, along with Breezly and Sneezly and Peter Potamus.

<i>The Good, the Bad, and Huckleberry Hound</i> 1988 animated Western TV film

The Good, the Bad, and Huckleberry Hound is a 1988 animated Western television film produced by Hanna-Barbera for syndication as part of the Hanna-Barbera Superstars 10 series. This film marks the final time Daws Butler voiced Huckleberry Hound, Quick Draw McGraw and Baba Looey, Snagglepuss, Hokey Wolf, and Peter Potamus, as he died a couple weeks after its telecast from a heart attack.

<i>Lippy the Lion and Hardy Har Har</i> American animated television series

Lippy the Lion and Hardy Har Har is an American animated television series produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions, and aired as one of the three segments of the syndicated show The Hanna-Barbera New Cartoon Series, the other two being Wally Gator and Touché Turtle and Dum Dum. The segment stars the titular anthropomorphic lion and hyena duo in a series of goofy misadventures.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Boo-Boo Bear</span> American animated television and film character

Boo-Boo Bear is a Hanna-Barbera cartoon character on The Yogi Bear Show. Boo-Boo is a shorter anthropomorphic bear who wears a blue bowtie. Boo-Boo is Yogi Bear's constant companion, and often acts as his conscience. He tries to keep Yogi from doing things he should not do, and also to keep Yogi from getting into trouble with Ranger Smith – often saying, "Mr. Ranger isn't gonna like this, Yogi." It is not readily apparent whether Boo-Boo is a juvenile bear with a precocious intellect, or simply an adult bear who is short of stature.

Douglas Hiram Young was an American voice actor who worked on radio programs and in animated cartoons.

<i>Yogis Ark Lark</i> 1972 American animated television special

Yogi's Ark Lark is a 1972 American animated television special produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions, intended to raise ecological awareness. Written by Bob Ogle and Dick Robbins and directed by Joseph Barbera and William Hanna, it was broadcast on ABC on September 16, 1972, as part of The ABC Saturday Superstar Movie and served as the two-part episode for Yogi's Gang.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Huckleberry Hound</span> American animated television character

Huckleberry "Huck" Hound is a fictional cartoon character, a blue anthropomorphic coonhound dog that speaks with a North Carolina Southern drawl. He first appeared in the series The Huckleberry Hound Show. The cartoon was one of six TV shows to win an Emmy Award in 1960 as an "Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Children's Programming"; the first animated series to receive such an award.

<i>Hanna-Barberas 50th: A Yabba Dabba Doo Celebration</i> 1989 American live-action/animated television special

Hanna-Barbera's 50th: A Yabba Dabba Doo Celebration is a 1989 American live-action/animated television special written, directed and produced by Marshall Flaum, which premiered on TNT on July 17, 1989. It is hosted by Tony Danza, along with Annie Potts; it also stars Whoopi Goldberg, Betty White, Sammy Davis Jr., Tommy Lasorda, Jonathan Winters, Phyllis Diller, Valerie Harper, Shari Belafonte, Joe Ferguson and Tiffany.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Magilla Gorilla</span> American animated television character

Magilla Gorilla is a fictional gorilla and the star of The Magilla Gorilla Show by Hanna-Barbera that aired from 1963 to 1965.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yogi Bear</span> American animated television and film character

Yogi Bear is an anthropomorphic animal character who has appeared in numerous comic books, animated television shows, and films. He made his debut in 1958 as a supporting character in The Huckleberry Hound Show.

<i>The Great Grape Ape Show</i> American animated television series

The Great Grape Ape Show is an American animated television series produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions and broadcast on ABC from September 6 to December 13, 1975. ABC continued to air it in reruns until 1978.

<i>Laff-A-Lympics</i> American animated television series

Laff-A-Lympics is an American animated comedy television series produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions. The series premiered as part of the Saturday-morning cartoon program block Scooby's All-Star Laff-A-Lympics, which consists of 24 episodes, on ABC on September 10, 1977. The show is a spoof of the Olympics and the ABC primetime series Battle of the Network Stars, which debuted one year earlier. It featured 45 Hanna-Barbera characters organized into teams which competed each week for gold, silver, and bronze medals. In each episode, the Really Rottens would try in each event to cheat only to get caught by Snagglepuss each time. One season of 16 episodes was produced in 1977–78, and eight new episodes combined with reruns for the 1978–79 season as Scooby's All-Stars. Unlike most cartoon series produced by Hanna-Barbera in the 1970s, Laff-A-Lympics did not contain a laugh track. Scooby’s Laff-a-Lympics was originally owned by Taft Broadcasting; Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution currently owns the series through its two in-name-only units, Warner Bros. Family Entertainment and Turner Entertainment.

References

  1. Woolery, George W. (1983). Children's Television: The First Thirty-Five Years, 1946–1981, Part 1: Animated Cartoon Series . Scarecrow Press. pp.  219–220. ISBN   0-8108-1557-5 . Retrieved 14 March 2020.
  2. Hyatt, Wesley (1997). The Encyclopedia of Daytime Television . Watson-Guptill Publications. p.  342. ISBN   978-0823083152 . Retrieved 19 March 2020.
  3. Perlmutter, David (2018). The Encyclopedia of American Animated Television Shows. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 454. ISBN   978-1538103739.
  4. Markstein, Don (2008). "Peter Potamus". Don Markstein's Toonopedia. Archived from the original on 2012-06-30.
  5. Rovin, Jeff (1991). The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Cartoon Animals . Prentice Hall Press. pp.  203–204. ISBN   0-13-275561-0 . Retrieved 8 April 2020.
  6. "HBO Max Scores 'Rick and Morty' Library, 'South Park' Deal & Kids Slate". 29 October 2019.
  7. Hemmert, Kylie (June 24, 2021). "Jellystone!: Hanna-Barbera Characters Return in HBO Max Original Animated Series". Comingsoon.net.
  8. "'The Complete Series' Formally Announced by the Warner Archive". Archived from the original on 2016-10-19.