| Genre: | Animated television series |
| Creator: | Gene Deitch |
| Developer: | Gene Deitch |
| Director: | Gene Deitch |
| Starring: | Lionel Wilson |
| Theme Music Composer: | Thomas Lee Morrison, Philip A. Scheib |
| Num Seasons: | 1 |
| Num Episodes: | 26 |
| Executive Producer: | William M. Weiss |
| Producer: | Gene Deitch |
| Editor: | Jack MacConnell |
| Company: | Terrytoons |
| Channel: | CBS |
Tom Terrific is a 1957–1959 animated series on American television, presented as part of the Captain Kangaroo children's television show.[1]
Created by Gene Deitch under the Terrytoons studio (which by that time was a subsidiary of CBS, the network that broadcast Captain Kangaroo), Tom Terrific was made as twenty-six stories, each split into five episodes, with one five-minute episode broadcast per day. The first thirteen stories were filmed in 1957, with the second set in 1958. Captain Kangaroo continued to rerun the episodes for many years. Starting in 1962, Captain Kangaroo broadcast Tom Terrific every other week, alternating with Terrytoons' Lariat Sam.[2]
Drawn in a simple black-and white style reminiscent of children's drawings, the show features a gee-whiz boy hero, Tom Terrific, who lives in a treehouse and can transform himself into anything he wants, thanks to his magical funnel-shaped "thinking cap", which also enhances his intelligence. He has a comic lazybones of a sidekick, Mighty Manfred the Wonder Dog, and an arch-foe named Crabby Appleton, whose motto is, "I'm rotten to the core!"[3] Other foes include Mr. Instant the Instant Thing King, Captain Kidney Bean, Sweet Tooth Sam the Candy Bandit, and Isotope Feeney the Meany. Some of the dialogue was written by cartoonist Jules Feiffer.[4]
Gene Deitch adapted the feature from his earlier newspaper comic strip, "Terr'ble Thompson!" distributed during the 1950s by United Features Syndicate.[5] Terr'ble Thompson was a six-year-old boy who imagined himself to be the "Hero of Hist'ry" and freely travelled back in time to assist historical figures. An illustrated book reprinting the adventures of this precursor to Tom Terrific was published by Fantagraphics Books.
All the voices were performed by Lionel Wilson (who later voiced Eustace Bagge from the Cartoon Network series Courage the Cowardly Dog).
The character Tom Terrific was ranked #32 by TV Guide magazine on its 2002 list of "50 Greatest TV Cartoon Characters".[6]
Each episode was shown in five installments, one per day, Monday through Friday.
| Episode | Title | Air Date[7] | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Nasty Knight | ||
| 2 | The Pill of Smartness | ||
| 3 | Sweet Tooth Sam | ||
| 4 | Snowy Picture | ||
| 5 | Crabby Appleton's Dragon | ||
| 6 | Captain Kidney Bean | ||
| 7 | The Gravity Maker | ||
| 8 | Scrambled Dinosaur Eggs | ||
| 9 | Who Stole the North Pole | ||
| 10 | Instant Tantrums | ||
| 11 | Track Meet, Well Done | ||
| 12 | The Great Calendar Mystery | ||
| 13 | Elephant Stew | ||
| 14 | The Missing Mail Mystery | ||
| 15 | The Prince Frog | ||
| 16 | Isotope Feeney's Foolish Fog | ||
| 17 | Moon Over Manfred | ||
| 18 | Go West, Young Manfred | ||
| 19 | The Silly Sandman | ||
| 20 | Crabby Park | ||
| 21 | The Million Manfred Mystery | ||
| 22 | The Flying Sorcerer | ||
| 23 | The Big Dog Show-Off | ||
| 24 | The End of Rainbows | ||
| 25 | Robinsnest Crusoe | ||
| 26 | The Everlasting Birthday Party |
, there has not been an authorized VHS, DVD or Blu-ray release of the series.