You guys all know Total Television, the creators of Tennessee Tuxedo and Underdog.
When you go back to 1959/1960 TTV aired a very unique cartoon called "King Leonardo and his Short Subjects", later renamed, "The King and Odie Show". While only mildly popular at the time this cartoon had one of the most unusual plots:
Biggie Rat, the master criminal, wants to overthrow King Leonardo and take over the royal throne as "King of Beasts". But Biggie Rat knows that the other animals of the kingdom will never accept a rat as their ruler so Biggie Rat convinces the king's stupid brother, Itchy, that he's a more fit ruler than Leonardo and with his help Itchy will be the next King of Beasts. But Biggie knows that Itchy is so dumb he can never rule without his help.
So Itchy will become Biggie's "stooge", a puppet king with Biggie behind the scenes pulling all the strings. Biggie will be the real power behind the throne while the rest of the animal kingdom will be none the wiser with Itchy playing the fool for Biggie the Master.
WOW! Is that a cartoon plot or what?
I never really got into "The King and Odie Show", but there was one fascinating character: Mr. Mad.
Vaporman87 wrote :
Edd, who produced that cartoon? The animation seems very similar to Roger Ramjet, Peabody & Sherman, and others. -end quote
Peter M. Piech is the name I think you're looking for.
I remember watching King Leonardo when I was a kid, along with Rocky & Bullwinkle (with Peabody's Improbable History and Fractured Fairy Tales), and Uncle Waldo (with Hoppity Hooper). I don't remember the overarching plot -- you're right eddstar, that's pretty nuts. Rocky & Bullwinkle, on the other hand, I fully soaked in, and it fed my appetite for satire and days gone by, even at that early age. Such as the story where they had to collect hundreds of cereal box tops. By the time I was getting up at 6 AM to watch this, in the 80s, nobody was calling them box tops. They were UPC codes. But I understood the concept. Or the serial-style pacing and narration that was old-fashioned even at the time of production. I think that gives the series a timelessness in a way that many cartoons being made today, in a bid to appeal to the children being made today, just don't bother with.
Edd, who produced that cartoon? The animation seems very similar to Roger Ramjet, Peabody & Sherman, and others. -end quote
Peter M. Piech is the name I think you're looking for.
I remember watching King Leonardo when I was a kid, along with Rocky & Bullwinkle (with Peabody's Improbable History and Fractured Fairy Tales), and Uncle Waldo (with Hoppity Hooper). I don't remember the overarching plot -- you're right eddstar, that's pretty nuts. Rocky & Bullwinkle, on the other hand, I fully soaked in, and it fed my appetite for satire and days gone by, even at that early age. Such as the story where they had to collect cereal box tops. By the time I was getting up at 6 AM to watch this, in the 80s, box tops were barely a thing any more. You might be able to cut out bar codes (or UPC codes) and mail them with a check to wait 6-8 weeks for something to come in the mail, but nobody was calling them box tops.
Total Television, TTV, was the creative team that came up with new cartoon characters to help sell breakfast cereal. While TTV came up with the designs and the ideas, the production was left to Gamma Studios - the poorboys of the animation world.
Gamma had a hand with early Jay Ward Productions, the guys behind Rocky and Bullwinkle. Gamma's cost cutting techniques were all too obvious and Jay Ward himself was none too happy about it.
For Total Television, shows like Tennessee Tuxedo, The King and Odie Show, Tutter Turtle and of course, Underdog; Gamma freed up funds that TTV was able to pour into the soundtrack. TTV cartoons had well conceived musical scores and in the case of TTV's last cartoon, "The Beagles" each episode featured original songs.
Check out the closing credits for Underdog:
You are all in the presence of one of the few guys that watched every episode of The Beagles. As TTV's last cartoons series, The Beagles featured original songs on each episode. Since the name is a pun on "The Beatles", it's curious that The Beagles was a singing duo in the style of "The Everly Brothers".
The Beagles sound track was actually sold in stores before the show was cancelled by CBS. Original music for a children's show can be either very good or very bad. Take a listen for yourself:
This answer is better than mine; I was looking for the name of a single person, and Piech seemed to be the most prevalent among production credits for these shows.
The soundtrack from The Beagles is stellar. Reminds me of some of the theme and atmosphere music created for 80's cartoons, which are some of the best ever made. Shuki Levy and He-Man... Spencer Michlin did some great stuff with G.I. Joe, My Little Pony, The Great Space Coaster, Transformers... Noam Kaniel who was involved in the theme songs for M.A.S.K., The Popples, X-Men, and Heathcliff... all great stuff.
Vaporman87 wrote :
The soundtrack from The Beagles is stellar. Reminds me of some of the theme and atmosphere music created for 80's cartoons, which are some of the best ever made. Shuki Levy and He-Man... Spencer Michlin did some great stuff with G.I. Joe, My Little Pony, The Great Space Coaster, Transformers... Noam Kaniel who was involved in the theme songs for M.A.S.K., The Popples, X-Men, and Heathcliff... all great stuff. -end quote
Dude - this is what I've been trying to get across to people for over 20 years. The 80's was a confluence of great popular music plus some of the best cartoon sound tracks I've ever heard with a generous helping of video game mania as icing on the cake!
I love the way the 80's seem to come alive for me here at Retro-Daze. It's cool not having to over-explain everything, lol.
Hey SnS, I owe Caps! He's the one that convinced me to learn more about some of the lesser known animation studios. I'm only now starting to key on to the names of some to guys behind cartoons that I grew up with.
I'm gonna hang back and see what else crow can come up with. Along with that tiny elephant I remember a cartoon about flea that was so strong it gave the dog that tried to scratch him a karate chop!
