Thursday, March 16, 2006

Tennessee Tuxedo and His Tales DVD Review

"Tennessee Tuxedo and His Tales" arguably was one of the best series to come out of Total Television (now owned by Classic Media who also owns the rights to Casper, hence the promo), next to "The Underdog Show". Unfortunately, Classic's treatment of the TTV material pales in comparison to their treatment of the Jay Ward material (which they also now own). They should offer complete seasons instead of "best of's" as there were 70 "Tennessee Tuxedo" episodes" in total. Also, the theme song has been changed to a 'demo' version instead of the actual one sung by Don Adams and Bradley Bolke (Tennessee and Chumley, respectively). The prints are good, and the cartoons are still entertaining, despite my misgivings on the packaging.

FYI, Total Television produced the following series (in no particular order) from 1959-1969:

King Leonardo
The Hunter
Tooter the Turtle
Tennessee Tuxedo
Klondike Kat
Commander McBragg
Underdog
Go-Go Gophers
The Beagles

According to Wikipedia, the rug was pulled from TTV and Gamma Productions (the animation house that also animated much of Jay Ward's stuff) when General Mills (the show's sponsor) pulled out in 1969. The last show to be produced was going to be called "The Colossal Show" which was never completed, although there is a comic book out there. The rights reverted back to the creators who sold it to Lorne Michaels (of "Saturday Night Live") who in turn sold it to Golden Books, and then was acquired by Classic Media, the current owners.

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Regards,

Mark Arnold
http://funideas.home.att.net

1 comment:

bill said...

Howdy,

I just discovered your blog today. However I could not easily find your interview
with the founders of TTV animation studio. Can you please reply with
a link for it?

Thank you so much. You have a very enjoyable blog.

Bill
bewriters@yahoo.com