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Underdog was an American animated television series that debuted on October 3, 1964, on the NBC network and continued in syndication until 1973 for a run of approximately 124 episodes over NBC and CBS. Kabillion has began airing episodes of the show on both their online and VOD platforms.
In 1969, 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, Tread 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 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. At the end of the decade, Total Television folded when General Mills dropped out as the sponsor in 1969. The show is also remembered for its theme song, which began:
When criminals in this world appear,
And break the laws that they should fear,
And frighten all who see or hear,
The cry goes up both far and near for
Underdog! Underdog! Underdog! Underdog!
Speed of lightning! Roar of thunder!
Fighting all who rob or plunder!
Underdog! Underdog!
Underdog was an anthropomorphic superhero parody of Superman and similar heroes with secret identities. The premise was that "humble and lovable" Shoeshine Boy, a cartoon dog, was in truth the superhero Underdog. George S. Irving narrated, and comedy actor Wally Cox provided the voices of both Underdog and Shoeshine Boy. When villains threatened, Shoeshine Boy ducked into a telephone booth where he transformed into the caped and costumed hero, destroying the booth in the process when his super powers were activated. Underdog almost always spoke in rhyme:
When Polly's in trouble, I am not slow,
So it's hip! hip! hip! and away I go.
Underdog's most frequent saying when he appeared was:
There's no need to fear,
Underdog is here.
The majority of episodes used a common template when Underdog first reveals himself. A crowd of people look up in the sky would say, "Look in the sky. It's a plane! It's a bird!," after which an old woman wearing glasses exclaims, "It's a frog!" Another onlooker responds, "A frog?" To this, Underdog replies with these words:
Not plane, nor bird, nor even frog,
It's just little old me, (at this point, Underdog crashes into something) Underdog.
Underdog usually caused a lot of collateral damage. Whenever someone complained about the damage, Underdog replied:
I am a hero who never fails.
I cannot be bothered with such details.
The villains almost always managed to menace Sweet Polly Purebred (voiced by Norma MacMillan), an anthropomorphic canine TV reporter, as part of their nefarious schemes; she was a helpless damsel in distress most of the time, and had a habit of singing in a somewhat whining tone of voice, "Oh where, oh where has my Underdog gone?", which she sings to the tune of the song "Oh Where Has My Little Dog Gone" when in jeopardy. Recurring villains included:
Simon Bar Sinister (voice by Allen Swift) - A mad scientist with a voice reminiscent of Lionel Barrymore. He has an assistant named Cad Lackey. A 'Barre Sinister' is a diagonal line on medieval family crests indicating the person is a bastard by birth - a clever inside joke typical of animation writing at the time.
Riff Raff also voiced by Allen Swift - An anthropomorphic wolf gangster based on noted actor George Raft. His mafia consists of Sandy the Safecracker, Mooch (the Mafia's top gunman), Spinny Wheels (who drives the Mafia's getaway car), Dinah Myte (the Mafia's greatest bomb tosser), the new members, Nails the Carpenter, Needles the Tailor, Smitty the Blacksmith, the Witch Doctor and other unnamed members.
Other villains include The Electric (Slippery) Eel, Battyman, Tap-Tap the Chisler, and Overcat. Underdog also regularly faced enemies from alien worlds, such as the Marbleheads from Planet Granite, the Magnet Planet, home to the Magnet Men, the Planet of Zot, and the Saucer Planet, home to the Flying Sorcerers.
Underdog at 1979 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.The majority of the Underdog adventures were presented in the form of four-part serial episodes. Other cartoons, including Go Go Gophers and The Hunter, filled the middle segments. A 1969-1973 NBC run featured all four parts of an Underdog storyline in one half-hour show. The series was first syndicated in the U.S. in the mid-1960s under the title Cartoon Cut-Ups, which presented two Underdog segments along with Tennessee Tuxedo and His Tales and The World of Commander McBragg. This package was revised in the 1970s under the Underdog Show title, now including all 124 Underdog segments and featuring Tennessee Tuxedo, Commander McBragg, Go Go Gophers, and Klondike Kat in various episodes. A syndicated package prepared for distribution outside the United States (and also aired on the Boomerang cable network) usually featured two brief Underdog episodes in a single show along with a wider variety of other Total TV cartoon shorts which appeared in between such segments: Go Go Gophers, King Leonardo and his Short Subjects, Klondike Kat, Tennessee Tuxedo, The Hunter, Tooter Turtle and Commander McBragg.
Tennessee Tuxedo, a penguin, was accompanied by two friends, slow-witted walrus Chumley and Phineas J. Whoopie. Tennessee Tuxedo was voiced by Don Adams of Get Smart (and later Inspector Gadget) fame; knowledgeable professor Phineas J. Whoopee was voiced by Larry Storch of F Troop fame.[1] With the possible exception of Tennessee Tuxedo, none of these characters ever reached Underdog's level of popularity.
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