God, I loved this show! It was in syndication when I was little and I watched it everyday. There was nothing better than watching Underdog match wits with the likes of Simon Bar Sinister and Riff-Raff. With a gulp of a power pill, he would be off to save Sweet Polly Purebread. The stories were fun and the music helped keep the pace frantic. The great Wally Cox provided the voice of our hero, with his rhyming speech patterns. Man, you gotta love this show and names like Underdog and Simon Bar Sinister.
The show also featured Tennessee Tuxedo and his Tales, the Go-Go Gophers, Klondike Kat, Commander McBragg, and the Hunter. The Go-Go Gophers were a pair of indians who delighted in confounding the Colonel and his Sergeant, in the Old West. It was hardly PC, but the Gophers always pulled one over on the Army, so some good came from it. Klondike Kat was a feline Mountie who persued the thieving Savior Faire, who constantly shouted his motto, "Savior Faire is everywhere!," as he stole cheese; but, Klondike Kat always got his mouse. Commander McBragg was an old British gentleman who would regale his friend (an unwilling audience) with tales of his amazing (and far-fetched) adventures, while smoking his briar pipe. The Hunter was a dog detective, on the trail of the Fox. It was pretty much the same as Klondike Kat, but with different animals. The best of these sideshows was Tennessee Tuxedo.
Tennessee Tuxedo (a penguin) and his pal, Chumly (a walrus), lived in the Metropolitan Zoo. They spent their days outsmarting the zoo director, Stanley Livingston, and their rival, Jereboah Jump (a mouse). Their plans would often backfire and they would seek the help of Mr. Whoopee, a man with all of the answers, and a 3DBB (3 Dimensional Blackboard). The duo would escape from the zoo and seek Mr Whoopee's help to solve their latest problem. Mr Whoopee wold illustrate the solution on the 3DBB, where the pictures would come to life. Then, Tennessee and Chumley would return to the zoo and triumph (more or less). Don Adams provided the voice of Tennessee. The show was great fun and very educational.
I later saw these shows on Nickelodeon. They had edited out every scene of Lovable Shoeshine Boy taking his power pill to become Underdog. This riled me up as much as ABC censoring the Warner cartoons. I saw these cartoons as a child, uncut, and did not grow up to shoot people in the face with a shotgun, or pop pills to change identities. Sometimes people go overboard to protect children. I'm glad to see that at least a few of these cartoons are available on DVD and VHS. They beat most cartoons aimed at kids these days.
