New Book on Total TeleVision productions (Underdog, Tennessee Tuxedo, etc.)

[Marshfish]

Hello all,

A new book was recently released titled "The Total Television Scrapbook" by Mark Arnold and Victoria Biggers (daughter of TTV's co-founder Buck Biggers). The book features images of cels, model sheets, comic book pages, storyboards, and advertisements for the studio's characters Underdog, Tennessee Tuxedo, King Leonardo, The Go Go Gophers, Tooter Turtle, and more. In terms of Underdog, there's a nice chapter regarding the Underdog balloon in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, with interesting photos.

The book is a fun read, and is 259 pages. A couple of weeks ago, I wrote an online review/article about "The Total Television Scrapbook. Here's the link to the review/web article:
https://hubpages.com/hub/The-Total-Tele ... ew?hubview

Do we have some Underdog, Tennessee Tuxedo, etc. fans on Animated Views?

Marshall

[Ben]

Hey Marshall…thanks for posting.

Yes, I fondly remember these shows from reruns back in my day, though admittedly haven’t seen them in a long while. I did also enjoy the recent-ish live-action Underdog Disney film, which may not have been totally faithful but was hugely entertaining fun.

Your review highlights what looks to be a much-needed look at an otherwise underwritten page in animation history, and you raise good points on the book's publication. I’ll be sure to look out for a copy!

[EricJ]

They're currently airing on TubiTV (unfortunately, the cheap Shout Factory disc releases, that had lost the music rights to the original theme songs and openings, and which jumbled all the old King Leonardo toons into the mix), and...they'd fallen a long way from the Jay Ward days of Rocky & Bullwinkle.

Apart from Underdog, as a kid, I always had a thing for the Tennessee Tuxedo toons, than any of the others. Don Adams could make any cartoon hip, and the "educational" Frank Morgan-imitations of Prof. Whoopie were just icing on the cake.

("Good heavens, Commahnder, sounds like you were quite drawn to those toons!"
"...Quite.")

[Daniel]

Hey Marshall, good to see you again! Excellent review. Love me some King Leonardo.

[EricJ]

I started noticing that almost every TotalTV character is a parody/imitation of old 30's stars--
Starts when you find out that Simon Bar-Sinister was a parody of Lionel Barrymore, and so I started trying to identify the others: I take their word on faith that Underdog's Riff-Raff was meant to be a parody on George Raft, but it's pretty obvious that Tennessee Tuxedo's zookeeper was patterned after Frank Pangborn, and that Klondike Kat had a Joe Penner voice while dealing with his British gap-toothed Major, who only resembled Terry-Thomas.

I'd never seen the King Leonardo toons up to now, but could pretty well spot the King as Fred Allen, aside from Odie's glaringly intentional Ronald Colman.

[Marshfish]

Hey Marshall…thanks for posting.

Yes, I fondly remember these shows from reruns back in my day, though admittedly haven’t seen them in a long while. I did also enjoy the recent-ish live-action Underdog Disney film, which may not have been totally faithful but was hugely entertaining fun.

Your review highlights what looks to be a much-needed look at an otherwise underwritten page in animation history, and you raise good points on the book's publication. I’ll be sure to look out for a copy!

Ben,

You're welcome. In the new book, there's a chapter written by Victoria Biggers, as I mentioned, the daughter of Total TV's co-founder Buck Biggers. He was quite proud that the live-action Underdog film was made, and there's a photo of him with the beagle who played the movie's title character. Buck and Victoria Biggers are also pictured a photo from the red carpet event for the movie's premiere in NYC.

Marshall

[Marshfish]

They're currently airing on TubiTV (unfortunately, the cheap Shout Factory disc releases, that had lost the music rights to the original theme songs and openings, and which jumbled all the old King Leonardo toons into the mix), and...they'd fallen a long way from the Jay Ward days of Rocky & Bullwinkle.

Apart from Underdog, as a kid, I always had a thing for the Tennessee Tuxedo toons, than any of the others. Don Adams could make any cartoon hip, and the "educational" Frank Morgan-imitations of Prof. Whoopie were just icing on the cake.

("Good heavens, Commahnder, sounds like you were quite drawn to those toons!"
"...Quite.")

Eric,

Thanks for the info. The Tennessee Tuxedo toons were actually educational, as the Mr. Whoopee segments would show "The Man With All The Answers" explaining how bees made honey, how newspapers were printed, how bridges were built, what made car engines run (decades before the electric car, obviously), and more. BTW, last month, Larry Storch (the voice of Mr. Whoopee) celebrated his 99th birthday.

I liked the your Commander McBragg related quote, too!

Marshall

[Marshfish]

Hey Marshall, good to see you again! Excellent review. Love me some King Leonardo.

Hi Daniel,

Good to see you here again, too! Thanks for the comment regarding the article. I've always enjoyed King Leonardo. About 20 years ago, I bought on eBay an old vinyl single, with picture sleeve, that had the King Leonardo and His Short Subjects show theme song on it. I had the record as a child, but the copy had "disappeared" some time over the years. I know, "That's the most unheard thing I ever heard of!" LOL. BTW, I didn't know until recent years that Jackson Beck, the voice of King Leonardo, was also the voice of Bluto/Brutus in the Popeye cartoons.

Marshall

[Marshfish]

I started noticing that almost every TotalTV character is a parody/imitation of old 30's stars--
Starts when you find out that Simon Bar-Sinister was a parody of Lionel Barrymore, and so I started trying to identify the others: I take their word on faith that Underdog's Riff-Raff was meant to be a parody on George Raft, but it's pretty obvious that Tennessee Tuxedo's zookeeper was patterned after Frank Pangborn, and that Klondike Kat had a Joe Penner voice while dealing with his British gap-toothed Major, who only resembled Terry-Thomas.

I'd never seen the King Leonardo toons up to now, but could pretty well spot the King as Fred Allen, aside from Odie's glaringly intentional Ronald Colman.

Eric,
You're right about the parody/imitation of movie stars of the past in the TotalTV characters and/or voices. Biggy Rat from the King Leonardo series seemed to be patterned on an Edward G. Robinson type gangster character. With the Hanna-Barbera characters, their voices were patterned after several actors, too. Ed Norton (Art Carney) for Yogi Bear, Bert Lahr for Snagglepuss, Phil Silvers for Hokey Wolf, Joe E. Brown for Peter Potamus, and more.

Marshall