Underdog (TV series)

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Underdog
Underdog (animated TV series).jpg
Underdog in the opening credits
Genre
Created by W. Watts Biggers
Chet Stover
Joe Harris
Starring
Narrated by George S. Irving
Theme music composer
  • W. Watts Biggers
  • Chet Stover
  • Joe Harris
  • Treadwell Covington
Country of originUnited States
No. of episodes62 (124 segments)
Production
ProducerW. Watts Biggers
Running time30 minutes
Production companies
Original release
Network
ReleaseOctober 3, 1964 (1964-10-03) 
March 4, 1967 (1967-03-04)

Underdog is an American Saturday morning animated television series that ran from October 3, 1964, to March 4, 1967, [1] starting on the NBC network until 1966, with the rest of the run on CBS, under the primary sponsorship of General Mills, for a run of 62 episodes. [2] [3] It is one of the early Saturday morning cartoons. The show continued in syndication until 1973.

Contents

Underdog, Shoeshine Boy's heroic alter ego, appears whenever love interest Sweet Polly Purebred is being victimized by such villains as Simon Bar Sinister or Riff Raff. Underdog nearly always speaks in rhyming couplets, [4] as in "There's no need to fear, Underdog is here!" His voice was supplied by Wally Cox.

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. In 1969, Total Television folded when General Mills dropped out as the primary sponsor, but continued to retain the rights to the series until 1995 and TV distribution rights, through NBCUniversal Television Distribution, to the present day.

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 one-three, 28–30, and 55–57). The final two syndicated Underdog half-hours feature two one-shot cartoons that were 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, never more than two parts of the Underdog stories were ever shown in any half-hour program. Prints of such would either be followed by a closing and credits or no credits at all. The closing (which showed the first portion of a variation of the Underdog theme showing a giant terrorizing the city with George S. Irving, the series narrator, saying, "Looks like this is the end! But don't miss our next Underdog Show!" 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,[ citation needed ] most likely out of fear that kids would see medication that looked like the Underdog pills (red with a white "U" on them) 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 is where he keeps the pill—but the part where he actually swallows it was still deleted.

Most stories had multiple parts, but the first four were stand-alones:

Reruns of the show aired on Nickelodeon from 1992 to 1994, Cartoon Network from 1996 to 1999, and on Boomerang from 2002 to 2007. However during its broadcasting on Cartoon Network and Boomerang, two notable episodes, "The Molemen" and "A New Villain", were not included on the channels’ schedule due to depicted dangerous elements subjected within the segments.[ citation needed ]

In 1995, Biggers, Stover, Covington, and Harris (with General Mills) negotiated a sale of their creations to Saturday Night Live producer Lorne Michaels' Broadway Video, who later sold the rights to Golden Books. When Classic Media took over Golden Books, it acquired the underlying rights to Underdog. In 2012, Classic Media was sold to DreamWorks Animation, and ultimately became the property of the series' current owners, Universal Television. TV Guide ranked Underdog as number 23 on its "50 Greatest Cartoon Characters of All Time" list, IGN ranked it as number 74 on its Best 100 Animated Series list.

Characters

Episodes

Episode 301
Episode 302
Episode 303
Episode 304
Episode 305
Episode 306
Episode 307
Episode 308
Episode 309
Episode 310
Episode 311
Episode 312
Episode 313
Episode 314
Episode 315
Episode 316
Episode 317
Episode 318
Episode 319
Episode 320
Episode 321
Episode 322
Episode 323
Episode 324
Episode 325
Episode 326
Episode 327
Episode 328
Episode 329
Episode 330
Episode 331
Episode 332
Episode 333
Episode 334
Episode 335
Episode 336
Episode 337
Episode 338
Episode 339
Episode 340
Episode 341
Episode 342
Episode 343
Episode 344
Episode 345
Episode 346
Episode 347
Episode 348
Episode 349
Episode 350
Episode 351
Episode 352
Episode 353
Episode 354
Episode 355
Episode 356
Episode 357
Episode 358
Episode 359
Episode 360
Episode 361
Episode 362

Superpowers

When he is not Underdog, he is incognito as Shoeshine Boy. Like Superman, when trouble calls, he hurriedly runs into a telephone booth (which would inexplicably explode upon his transmutation). On occasion, to replenish his powers, he would take an "Underdog Super Energy Pill". This pill was first introduced in episode 9. He keeps one of these pills inside a special ring he wears at all times. (Before taking one, he would often utter the words: "The secret compartment of my ring I fill / With an Underdog Super Energy Pill.") Several episodes, starting with RiffRaffville, show Underdog without his ring and being powerless, since he must take another pill as his super powers begin to fail ("Without my Energy Vitamin Pill / I grow weaker and weaker and weaker still.") and, as a result, he can die; but of course, this being a children's cartoon show, no one actually kills him, even when he is at their mercy. He tells everyone who will listen this secret of his super powers. When the series was syndicated in the 1980s and 1990s, the scenes of him taking his energy pill were edited out. In the recent release Underdog: The Ultimate Collection, the word "Energy" was replaced with "Vitamin".

Underdog is shown to have incredible superhuman powers. However, the number and scope of his superpowers are inconsistent from episode to episode, being subject not only to the conventions of superhero comics, but also to the conventions of humorous cartoons. In one episode, he easily moved planets, safely butting against them with his rear end. In another episode, his Super Energy Pill, diluted billions of times when added to a city's water system, was capable of giving normal humans who drank the water enough strength to easily bend thick steel bars. Among his many powers shown on the show are: super strength, super speed, supersonic flight, physical invulnerability, X-ray vision, super breath, cosmic vision, atomic breath, atomizing eyes, heat vision, ultrasonic hearing, a supersonic high-pitch hi-fi voice and a great calculating brain.

Other media

Books and comics

Theme song

The show is also remembered for its title song, "Underdog", which was arranged and produced by Robert Weitz, with lyrics by Chester Stover, W. Watts Biggers, Treadwell Covington, and Joseph Harris. [6] Several notable covers of the theme song have been made. The original song was sung by Robert Ragaini. He explained, "As a struggling singer in New York, I'd gotten a job singing a theme song for a newly proposed TV cartoon series named 'Underdog'. I went to the studio, I think 'O.D.O.' on West 54th Street, sang as part of the backup group (ah-ooo, ah-ooo), then quickly sang the theme song over the track and left. I remember how pleased I was that I'd taken that mouthful of words and made them understandable. Oh yes, they paid me 50 dollars. No contract  I wasn't yet a member of SAG  and I was thrilled to get it. Until I heard it again, year after year. By then I'd become a successful jingle singer and I knew what I should have been making. When it came out as the music track of a Reebok commercial I filed a claim with the Screen Actors Guild, but of course I had no documentation. A friend did give me an Underdog T-shirt. I wore it once, but when a man I passed on West 14th Street started singing the song, I retired it."[ citation needed ]

VHS releases

In 1990, generic company UAV Corp. released Underdog in separate episodes, which went out-of-print in 1995. On June 14, 1996, Sony Wonder released Underdog on VHS in region 1 in a four-volume collection. These sets were reissued on the same format on September 12, 2000, as each set, especially the DVD versions, included a coupon for the Underdog lithograph by the series’ creator, Joe Harris.

DVD releases

Sony Wonder released Underdog Collector’s Edition DVD on September 12, 2000, and again on August 6, 2002, which these releases were discontinued in the mid 2000s. On July 24, 2007, Classic Media released Underdog on DVD in region 1 in a three-volume collection, following a previous three-volume set released in the late 1990s. Each volume features six digitally remastered and uncut, original broadcast episodes, each featuring two Underdog segments alongside additional cartoons from the Total TV library.

On February 21, 2012, Shout! Factory (under license from Classic Media) released a 9-disc Complete Series set containing new bonus material, including commentaries. According to Shout! Factory, "they're rebuilding the shows to their original television airing as best as they can". [7]

Film adaptation

In 2005, Variety reported that a live-action Underdog motion picture was in development. As announced, the story introduces "a diminutive hound named Shoeshine [who] gets superpowers after a lab accident. When he's adopted by a 15-year-old boy, the two form a bond around the shared knowledge that Shoeshine is really Underdog." [8] Actor Peter Dinklage was cast to play Simon Bar Sinister, while Alex Neuberger was cast to play Underdog's human companion, Jack Unger. The movie started filming in Providence, Rhode Island, in March 2006 and was released on August 3, 2007. The film was distributed by Buena Vista Pictures Distribution. Shoeshine/Underdog, voiced by Jason Lee, was played by a golden beagle named Leo sporting a red sweater and a blue cape. The film got mostly negative reviews, and despite grossing $65.3 million worldwide, it underperformed at the box office.

Radio

In 1999, Biggers created a new episode of Underdog as a half-hour radio show narrated by veteran Boston newsman Tom Ellis with new original music composed by Biggers. Radio stations were asked to participate in Biggers' Victory Over Violence organization by airing the adventure in which the evil Simon Bar Sinister develops a Switchpitch baseball to turn positive people negative. His attempt to become king of Boston is foiled by Underdog (played by Biggers) and Sweet Polly Purebred (portrayed by Nancy Purbeck).

International broadcast

See also

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References

  1. Heintjes, Tom. ""Whatever Happened to Total TeleVision productions?", Hogan's Alley #15, 2009". Cartoonician.com. Archived from the original on September 14, 2014. Retrieved April 15, 2014.
  2. Woolery, George W. (1983). Children's Television: The First Thirty-Five Years, 1946-1981, Part 1: Animated Cartoon Series. Scarecrow Press. pp. 301–302. ISBN   0-8108-1557-5 . Retrieved March 22, 2020.
  3. Jay, Robert (March 23, 2010). "CBS Saturday Morning Advertisement, Circa 1966". Television Obscurities. Retrieved September 18, 2020.
  4. Perlmutter, David (2014). America Toons In: A History of Television Animation. McFarland. pp. 91–92. ISBN   978-0786476503 . Retrieved June 24, 2015.
  5. Becattini, Alberto (2019). "Super-Animals". American Funny Animal Comics in the 20th Century: Volume Two. Theme Park Press. ISBN   978-1683902218.
  6. 1 2 CD liner notes: Saturday Morning: Cartoons' Greatest Hits , 1995 MCA Records
  7. "Underdog DVD news: Box Art and Details for Underdog - The Complete Collector's Edition". TVShowsOnDVD.com. Archived from the original on March 4, 2014. Retrieved April 15, 2014.
  8. https://variety.com/2005/film/features/underdog-on-the-way-1117924734/

Further reading

Mark Arnold. Created and Produced by Total Television Productions. BearManor Media, 2009. ISBN   1593933452

W. Watts Biggers and Chet Stover. How Underdog Was Born. BearManor Media, 2016. ISBN   1593930259