Mr. Magoo

Trust me, there is one reason and one reason only that these incredibly lame cartoons hung around TV in syndication for decades: THEY WERE CHEAP.

The ONLY good and memorable thing about this abysmal single-season hack job is the theme music and title sequence, which are really very good and which promise infinitely more fun that you will ever actually get watching these dull, amateurish cartoons. Compared with the truly classic and apparently immortal "Mr. McGoo's Christmas Carol," this is just sheer garbage to be avoided at all costs. Proof that even superior performing talent can never, ever overcome bad writing and and cheapjack production budgets.

Even though the cartoons were cranked out at a rushed pace and focused a lot on Mr. Magoo's nearsightedness, I thought the cartoons were so funny as well as non-violent. The key to the show's success was the outstanding voice work of Jim Backus as the title character. I read in another source that a lot of his lines were ad-libbed and that's what I felt contributed to the zaniness of the cartoons.

The one cartoon I remember was when Magoo was going bowling and instead he wandered into a bottle factory instead of a bowling alley. Let's not overlooked the supporting players such as youngsters Wheeler and Dealer, Mother Magoo (the only character to refer to him by his given name Quincy), his nephew Waldo and his Chinese cook Charlie.

My only dislike of the show was the cartoons that focused on Waldo instead of Magoo and used pretty much the same opening footage of Magoo talking on the phone with his nephew. Oh Magoo, you've done it again.

I'm not like the others, but I feel episode 16 onward, the show went from lackluster to insufferable. It's really hard for me to get through the episodes when it's all redubbed. It's just a really hot take on my end, but do we REALLY need a Chinese house boy in the show in the 1960s? Not that it wouldn't make sense because it technically doesn't.

Personally, I try to avoid the show on my own end, but I won't stop anyone else who has fond memories of watching the show, even if nothing ages right at all. It was a different time, but I can't stop thinking of this without dealing with an awful line reading that gives me uncanny Yu-Gi-Oh dub vibes.

Give me the Spanish voices any day.

Even if the premise (nearly blind little old man acting as if he had good vision) is difficult to accept by an adult, Mr. Magoo is a character that has similarities with many kids' grandparents or elderly neighbors that refuse to accept their obvious age-related limitations, making him situation-comedy funny, and more because of the charm given to him by a great voice artist, Jim Backus (the Mexican voiceover was great too.)

Some of the visuals may need explaining for today's kids of how the things in the 1960s and before worked, like for example very old wall telephones or UHF band television channels. The minimalistic but stylish visual design was good and very modern for its time, maybe too dated for today's taste, although not a problem.

Again, the most difficult obstacle for this show is today's adult mind. The very simplified animation and many of the stories with coincidental plot points, always about nearsightedness denial, make it difficult for grownups to remember how much they laughed at simple, repeated gags during early childhood years.

My bet is that kids can still enjoy this show if not having a zillion other options at the same time and if given the chance by skeptical adults.