Doctor Dolittle

Doctor Dolittle was an animated adventure series that lasted one season and ran from September 12, 1970 to September 2, 1971 on the NBC network and was produced by DePatie-Freleng Enterprises.

Synopsis

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Based loosely on the books as well as the 1960s movie, Doctor Dolittle centered around the character of the same name, an animal doctor who had the ability to talk to the animals. Dolittle traveled around the world by ship to help out any sick animal in need. He was aided in his missions by his first mate, young sailor Tommy, who could also talk to animals, apparently taught by Dolittle, and the ship's animal crew, which included Chee-Chee, the cabin monkey, Dab-Dab, the duck who was also the ship's cook, Polynesa Parrot, the Pushmi-Pullyu, the two-headed (one head in front, one in back) llama up in the crow's nest that served as lookout, Too-Too, a wise owl, and Jip, a hounddog.

Also of note were George and the Grasshoppers, a rock group of grasshoppers that lived inside Dolittle's medicine case. At one point during each show, the group would launch into a rock/pop song, popping the sides of the medicine case open and using it like a stage, with the Doctor's bottles of pills and medicines glowing and flashing into different psychedelic colors behind the group as they sang.

Whever the Doctor's ship was, Pirate Island was never far behind. Actually a disguised submarine, Pirate Island was actually the stronghold of Sam Scurvy and his Pirate crew, Cyclops, a hulking dimwit with an eye patch, Zig-Zag, an uptight Frenchman, Nico an Italian, and Miko a Chinese pirate (both stereotypical of the times). The pirates dressed in an unusual mixture of old-fashioned pirate and gangster. Sam Scurvy wore a fedora and a business suit and spoke with a Brooklyn accent. The Pirate crew were also to be a branch of the Democratic Order of Pirates, International, or "DOPI" for short.

Sam Scurvy had one goal in life: World Domination. He believed that if he could get the secret to talking to the animals from Doctor Dolittle, he could raise an army of "creepy creatures" to help him take over the Earth. Using his eavesdropping device The Sneaky Snorkel, Scurvy would get wind of Dolittle's latest missions and would plot to hinder, disrupt, or even kidnap the Doctor- anything to force him to reveal his secrets of talking to the animals. However, due to Dolittle's skills- as well as the Pirates' ineptitude- they never succeeded.

Syndication problems

Aside from a brief period in the early 1980s as part of the syndicated "Kroft Supershow," the series has never been shown in syndication, possibly due to the politically incorrect stereotypes of the Pirate Crew, as well as the strong Drug/Rock implications during the Grasshopper musical numbers.