Underdog

It was great stuff, fun, educative, and morals were a bit higher then than they are now.

10/10

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.

The cartoon was not only a favorite of mine as a child, but of my late father's as an adult. There were the gimmicks of where every phone booth he heads into to change from Shoe Shine Boy to Underdog explodes, as well as how he always crashes through roofs and walls even when there are door or window openings nearby, as well as his talking in rhyme. But what makes the comic work is the witty writing.

Examples include how he makes Simon Bar Sinister dizzy by flying in circles around him, thus preventing him from using his snow gun, or the clever ways he defeats a flotilla of alien flying saucers, or how he makes the Wicked Witch of Pickayoon wealthy by compressing lumps of coal into diamonds, or how he sends villains directly into confinement or jail. Too bad the DC Superman didn't have that level of cleverness...but then he didn't have Underdog's computer brain.

Trivia has the villian, known as Riff Raff, to be imitating George Raft. I've seen and heard George Raft in the movies. He didn't sound like that at all. If anything, Riff Raff sounds like Sheldon Leonard who, frequently, played "heavies / tough guys" in the movies.

I'm no authority but I do watch a lot of TV and movies. See if I'm wrong. If I am then I'll be glad to retract this review, if possible, asap.

When I was a kid, this show would come on TV at 6 AM, and I would force myself to get up that early to watch it. I remember always feeling that the other cartoons (Gopher Indians and Commander McBragg) were underwhelming. I just wanted to get back to the Underdog stories. Some other reviewers here mention Tennessee Tuxedo and other cartoons as being part of the show. I'm almost at the end of season 2, and the other cartoons have all been the Gopher Indians and McBragg. It would be nice to get some variety here. Before reading the other reviews, I predicted that a few people would have an issue with the lack of political correctness in the Gopher Indian cartoons. I found these cartoons repetitive and only mildly amusing. However, I wasn't offended by them. Too bad, that we can't rewrite history, and make everything the way some people think it should have been. It's only a silly cartoon! Get over it! Overall, the Underdog segments were more imaginative and more interesting. My only quibble with Underdog was Sweet Polly singing "Where, oh where has my Underdog gone?" I could have easily done without that.