Underdog (TV series) explained

Creator:W. Watts Biggers
Chet Stover
Joe Harris
Runtime:20 minutes
Narrated:George S. Irving
Producer:W. Watts Biggers
Num Episodes:62 (124 segments)
Country:United States

Underdog, also known as The Underdog Show, 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.

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. There have also been different syndication packages bundled with both elements from Jay Ward’s The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends, and The Most Important Person short films. 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. As the Underdog, Rocky and Bullwinkle, and The Most Important Person segments are all now separately owned by different entities, the syndicated prints are no longer in distribution.

For many years starting with NBC's last run in the mid-1970s, all references to Underdog swallowing his Super Energy Pill were censored, 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, Boomerang from 2002 to 2007, and on MeTV Toons since 2024.[5] 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.

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 Family Entertainment in 1996. When Classic Media took over Golden Books in August 2001, 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 as a result of Comcast's acquisition of DreamWorks Animation in 2016. 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

See main article: List of Underdog characters.

Episodes

Episode #01
Episode #02
Episode #03
Episode #04
Episode #05
Episode #06
Episode #07
Episode #08
Episode #09
Episode #10
Episode #11
Episode #12
Episode #13
Episode #14
Episode #15
Episode #16
Episode #17
Episode #18
Episode #19
Episode #20
Episode #21
Episode #22
Episode #23
Episode #24
Episode #25
Episode #26
Episode #27
Episode #28
Episode #29
Episode #30
Episode #31
Episode #32
Episode #33
Episode #34
Episode #35
Episode #36
Episode #37
Episode #38
Episode #39
Episode #40
Episode #41
Episode #42
Episode #43
Episode #44
Episode #45
Episode #46
Episode #47
Episode #48
Episode #49
Episode #50
Episode #51
Episode #52
Episode #53
Episode #54
Episode #55
Episode #56
Episode #57
Episode #58
Episode #59
Episode #60
Episode #61
Episode #62

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.[7] Several notable covers of the theme song have been made. The originalsong 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."

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. 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".[8]

Film adaptation

See main article: Underdog (2007 film).

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."[9] 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, but grossed $65.3 million worldwide.

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).

Revival

Instagram artists Elena and Olivia Ceballos revealed they pitched for an Underdog revival back in 2015 to DreamWorks Animation Television, since the parent company owns the Classic Media (now DreamWorks Classics since DreamWork’s acquisition of Classic Media in 2012) library, and eventually became part of NBCUniversal since 2016. The pitch included characters who were in the original show, along with some new ones. According to the artists, nothing went forward after the pitch.[10]

As of July 2024, a CGI reboot, separate and entirely different from the Ceballos twins' pitch, is currently in production from SuperProd Animation, under license from DreamWorks Classics.[11]

See also

Further reading

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

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

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Tom . Heintjes . "Whatever Happened to Total TeleVision productions?", Hogan's Alley #15, 2009 . Cartoonician.com . 2014-04-15 . September 14, 2014 . https://web.archive.org/web/20140914162424/http://cartoonician.com/whatever-happened-to-total-television-productions/ . dead .
  2. Book: Woolery . George W. . Children's Television: The First Thirty-Five Years, 1946-1981, Part 1: Animated Cartoon Series . 1983 . Scarecrow Press . 0-8108-1557-5 . 22 March 2020 . 301–302.
  3. Web site: Jay. Robert. 2010-03-23. CBS Saturday Morning Advertisement, Circa 1966. 2020-09-18. Television Obscurities. en-US.
  4. Book: Perlmutter . David . America Toons In: A History of Television Animation . McFarland . 2014 . 91–92 . 978-0786476503 . 2015-06-24 .
  5. Web site: Watch The Underdog Show on MeTV Toons. MeTV Toons. July 13, 2024.
  6. Book: Becattini . Alberto . American Funny Animal Comics in the 20th Century: Volume Two . 2019 . Theme Park Press . 978-1683902218 . Super-Animals.
  7. CD liner notes: , 1995 MCA Records
  8. Web site: Underdog DVD news: Box Art and Details for Underdog - The Complete Collector's Edition . TVShowsOnDVD.com . 2014-04-15 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20140304152150/http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/news/Underdog-The-Complete-Collectors-Edition/16066 . March 4, 2014 . mdy-all .
  9. Web site: 'Underdog' on the way . June 20, 2005 .
  10. Web site: Instagram .
  11. Web site: Underdog - Superprod .

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