Maguilla le gorille

Wouldnt you want a gorilla like MAGILLA you could call your own? Of course not! He was a dopey over-bearing oaf as the other poster stated. I was just working on my 70s & 80s website (http://mysite.verizon.net/vze6spdi/) when I realized I had almost "forgotten" about MAGILLA: then it all came flooding back to me and I couldnt believe I ever forgot! MAGILLA GORILLA was a 70s cartoon (in the 70s when we kids had no cable and thus had to watch whatever slim pickins TV offered) it was about a gorilla that lived in the window of Mr Peebles pet shop. Mr Peebles wanted like the devil to rid himself of Magilla but even when Magilla got bought the unsatisfied customer would bring him back by episodes end. The one person who actually loved Magilla was the cutest little girl in the world O.G. ("Because I always say "oh gee!") But even that must not have worked out cuz sure enough tomorrow morning Magilla was back in the shop. This show also featured Mush-Mouse and Pumpkin-Puss(who I vaguely remember but not as well as I remember...)and Ricochet Rabbit and Droop-Along("Bing bing bing!!!Ricochet Rabbit!!!") This is a show that as much as I loved it as a kid Im sure that I would feel rather CLOCKWORK ORANGE trying to sit through it as an adult.

Standard 60's fare from H/B. Obnoxious but good hearted gorilla is always trying to find someone to buy him so he can escape the clutches of Mr. Peebles and his pet shop. I never could figure out why he wanted to leave, though...he was paired with Ricochet Rabbit, a sheriff in the old west who ran so fast he bounced off of stuff, mostly cacti. Ouch. Voices were done by the usual H/B gang, Mel Blanc, Don Messick, etc. Allan Melvin, the voice of Magilla, was also the voice of Drooper from the Bannana Splits. Howard Morris, the voice of Mr. Peebles, also did Atom Ant as well as the Gopher from the Winnie the Pooh series. Jean Vander Pyl (Wilma from the Flintstones) also did some voices...

It's curious how you can remember a show "better" than what it really was. That's my feeling for Magilla Gorilla. In almost every episode, Magilla makes this annoying "hew, hew" sound. I don't know why anyone thought this was funny, but it's something that I could have done without. Some of the episodes are better than others. I was also disappointed that "Ogee" made so few appearances in the series. This is another aspect of the show that I thought I remembered differently. Jean Vander Pyl was better as Ogee than Allan Melvin was as Magilla. In fact, Ogee looked like an older version of Pebbles Flintstone. It would have also been nice if the other two cartoons hadn't always been the same for every episode. Ricochet Rabbit was pretty good, but Pumpkin Puss got old very fast. These were Hanna-Barbera cartoons. Virtually all of the voice actors here also appeared on the Flintstones, a much better show.

I remember the Magilla Gorilla Show growing up in New Jersey. It had an interesting history, starting out in syndication, then moving over to ABC's Saturday morning lineup and back in syndicated reruns.

The theme song was memorable. If you listen closely, the line "he's really ideal" is a reference to the show's original sponsor Ideal Toys. To me, that is one of the first examples of product placement in a TV show.

Poor Mr. Peebles. He desperately tries to sell Magilla but the customer usually returns him, putting a drain on his business. But wait, there's a little girl named Ogee, who sounds a lot like Pebbles from The Flintstones since it's the same voice, Jean VanderPyl. She really wants to have Magilla for a pet but her parents won't let her.

Also featured on the show were Ricochet Rabbit and Droop-a-Long, set in the Old West. It's best known for the catchphrase "Sheriff BING BING BING! Ricochet Rabbit" Also there was Mushmouse and Punkin' Puss which I vaguely remember since I primarily watched the title character's cartoons.

Even though Magilla Gorilla hasn't been on the air in years, it's one of Hanna Barbera's memorable shows of the mid 1960s. I'll close this review with Magilla's familiar phrase after a customer returns him "We'll try again next week."

I sure would love to see pumpkin puss n mushmouse cartoons with magilla Wally gator ricochet rabbit Peter potamus on tv