Underdog Is Here!

There’s no need to fear…Underdog is here!

Thanks, Keith, for hosting this and coming up with this great idea! Today, we go back to Saturday mornings. This was when we sat in front of the TV with our favorite cereal and watched hours of cartoons. So I asked my guests to write about their favorite cartoon or cartoon character growing up.

When I was growing up, we kids had two prime times for cartoons. Saturday mornings were our Super Bowl, packed with classics from Warner Bros. and Hanna-Barbera. Even Land of the Lost—though live-action—was a can’t-miss favorite. But not all the best cartoons aired on Saturdays. Every weekday morning, from 6 to 7 a.m. before school, we had another dose of animated fun, with shows like Rocky and Bullwinkle and Courageous Cat and Minute Mouse keeping us entertained.

Underdog debuted October 3, 1964, on the NBC network under the primary sponsorship of General Mills, and continued in syndication until 1973 (although production of new episodes ceased in 1967, for a run of 124 episodes.

Underdog’s secret identity was Shoeshine Boy. He was in love with Sweet Polly Purebred, who was a news reporter. I would watch this cartoon before going to school in 1st and 2nd grade. Underdog would use his secret ring to conceal pills that he would take when he needed energy. NBC soon put an end to that.

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”) 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.

The shows introduced such characters as King Leonardo, Tennessee Tuxedo, Commander McBragg, Klondike Kat,  and more. Underdog was voiced by Wally Cox. Underdog always talked in rhyme and I’m a sucker for that in this and Dr Seuss. Two of the villains every week were Simon Bar Sinister and Riff Raff.

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; however, they still own TV distribution rights.

Underdog became a pop culture icon, with reruns airing for decades. The character was featured in toys, comics, and even a 2007 live-action film starring Jason Lee as the voice of Underdog. The theme song remains one of the most recognizable in cartoon history.

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

33 thoughts on “Underdog Is Here!”

  3. Underdog was my favorite cartoon and one year I dressed up like him for Halloween. Not bird or plane or even frog. It’s just little old me, Underdog. The odd thing was that everyone knew that shoeshine boy was Underdog.

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    1. Thanks Dave…no I still watch them every once in a while. I’m not ashamed to say…I still watch some cartoons like this and The Pink Panther.

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  9. Pingback: Underdog Is Here! – MobsterTiger

  11. I’d forgotten those other shows were spin-offs from Underdog: “Here comes Leonardo/Leonardo Lion/King of Bongo Congo/A hero Lion of iron”…
    While most of the classics were on Saturday, I remember rare Sundays when I got to stay home from church and watch Heckle and Jeckle.

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    1. I liked those a lot and the Rocky and Bullwinkle show.
      Do you remember a cartoon with a frog as a mobster? I believe he was the bad guy on Courageous Cat.

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  12. Underdog – what a great idea for a show. I’d not heard of it nor seen it, as my childhood was much earlier than yours. My staples were The Flintstones, Yogi Bear, and Popeye. They didn’t air on a saturday morning, though, I don’t think. (I don’t actually remember any tv in the morning til at least the70s or later, in the UK. But I may be misremembering.)

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    1. I watched all of the ones you are talking about…I still watch Yogi and Boo Boo when possible! Over hear…Saturday Morning was huge

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  14. I liked Underdog when I was very small, but he wasn’t on Saturday mornings where I live. The Pink Panther was my favorite of the Saturday cartoons. Then we also had Road Runner, Scooby Doo, Josie and The Pussycats, and The Perils Of Penelope Pitstop. I also remember reruns of The Monkees on Saturday in the early 70’s. I wasn’t much of a fan of Scooby Doo in the day, but I’ve grown to appreciate it more now.

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    1. Oh I love Pink Panther! I have all of them…Bailey was raised on him. Road Runner and the WB stuff I loved. Scooby Doo…yea hat is me as well…I didn’t appreciate it until I got older.

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      1. I just remembered, I think there was a cartoon of the Archie comics on too. I wish I had all of those comic books that I lost in a flood in 1972. I had quite a few.

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      2. Oh I remember a cartoon with them…jughead is who I remember the most. Oh that sucks about losing those.

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