| King Leonardo and his Short Subjects | |
 |
|
| Genre | animation |
|---|---|
| Starring | Jackson Beck Kenny Delmar Allen Swift Sandy Becker |
| Country of origin |  United States |
| No. of episodes | King And Odie: 102 The Hunter: 61 Tooter Turtle: 40 |
| Production | |
| Producer(s) | Joe Harris Treadwell Covington Buck Biggers Chet Stover |
| Running time | 30 minutes |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | NBC |
King Leonardo and his Short Subjects was an animated cartoon series released in 1960 by Total Television (which would later rename itself Leonardo Productions after the main character of this show), sponsored by General Mills.
Contents |
Plot
The show focused on Leonardo the lion (voiced by Jackson Beck), who was the inept yet well-meaning king of the fictional African nation of Bongo Congo. His incompetent brother Itchy's (voiced by Allen Swift) attempts to overthrow Leonardo and rule the kingdom himself along with his friend, gangster, and leader Biggie Rat (voiced by Jackson Beck impersonating Edward G. Robinson). Biggie would mostly employ the help of an evil German inventor named Professor Messer (voiced by Jackson Beck whose character's last name is German for "Knife") and even obtain help from Biggie's sister Carlotta. They were later both employed by Mr. Mad (voiced by Norman Rose), a mad scientist with a domineering personality (easily cowing even the strong-willed Biggie) and his own nefarious plans for Bongo Congo, not to mention a creepy echoing voice.
Leonardo was assisted by a mild-mannered skunk named Odie Cologne AKA "Odio Cologne" (voiced by Allen Swift impersonating Ronald Colman), an ironic play on "Eau de Cologne".
The title was a play on a king ruling over his "subjects", along with the common term "short subjects" for cartoons and other films whose duration is just a few minutes.
Other segments
Each half-hour episode of King Leonardo consisted of five animated segments. Each half-hour included a two-part King and Odie cliffhanger story, with other characters featured in between:
- Tooter Turtle: The adventures of a turtle (Allen Swift) who has Mr. Wizard, a lizard (Sandy Becker), transport him to various settings only to realize he was better off at home
- The Hunter: A Southern-accented crime-fighting bloodhound (voiced by Kenny Delmar) often chases after an evil fox simply named the Fox (voiced by Ben Stone). The Hunter's personality was similar to that of Delmar's earlier radio character Senator Claghorn (the inspiration for character Foghorn Leghorn).
Early in the series' NBC run, selected Columbia Pictures theatrical cartoons were aired on the program, some featuring The Fox and the Crow and Li'l Abner.
These shorts were added to fill time when production on the early shows was delayed. The Columbia cartoons previously had been featured during NBC showings of Hanna-Barbera's Ruff and Reddy.
Later appearances
After King Leonardo and his Short Subjects ended, one season's worth of new segments of "The King and Odie" and "The Hunter" continued to be produced and aired on Total TV's Tennessee Tuxedo and His Tales, which premiered in 1963. The following year, Total TV launched its most popular series, Underdog. When Underdog premiered in 1964, it featured repeats of The Hunter, while The Hunter's former spot on the Tennessee Tuxedo program was filled by repeats of Tooter Turtle.
Another segment of the original King Leonardo show was Twinkles (a pink elephant), which simultaneously appeared as a feature on Jay Ward's Rocky and his Friends [over Ward's objections; after a brief period, it was seen on King Leonardo exclusively]. The title character served as the mascot of Twinkles Cereal, a product of the show's chief sponsor General Mills. The Twinkles segments continued to air in syndicated reruns of the show during the 1960s, which were presented in a 15-minute format under the title The King and Odie, but were later phased out after a fireman character replaced the elephant as the cereal's mascot. The segments also appeared during some NBC network rebroadcasts of Underdog. The Twinkles segments were not included when King Leonardo And His Short Subjects was syndicated in a half-hour format during the 1980s.
King Leonardo and his Short Subjects was part of NBC's Saturday Morning lineup until 1963.
The animation for the show's early segments was produced by TV Spots, with later episodes by Gamma Productions, the same Mexico-based studio that did much of the work for Jay Ward Productions. For this reason, and due to shared sponsorship by General Mills, Gamma has often been associated with both Total Television Productions and Jay Ward Productions. TV Spots was primarily a producer of animated commercials, but also was contracted for some segments of Rocky and his Friends for Jay Ward Productions. The studio also provided the animation for Ward's George of the Jungle.
In reruns, Total Television shorts often have been packaged alongside Jay Ward cartoons. Despite similar limited-animation styles, they were two separate studios.
King Leonardo, despite its earlier episodes repackaged for syndication as The King And Odie during the mid-'60s, never attained the popularity of Total Television's other series' Underdog and Tennessee Tuxedo, and is hardly ever aired on television today. Beginning in 2006, the Black Family Channel aired this show on its BFC Kids TV programming block until the channel's demise a year later. Syndicated episodes can be viewed on the In2TV website.
The characters of this show were also featured in an eight-issue comic book produced by Dell Comics and Gold Key.
Episodes
Cast
- Jackson Beck - Leonardo, Biggie Rat, Professor Messer
- Allen Swift - Odie Cologne, Itchy, Duke, Earl, Tooter Turtle, Narrator {"The King and Odie"}
- Sandy Becker - Mr. Wizard
- Kenny Delmar - The Hunter, Narrator {"The Hunter"}
- Ben Stone - The Fox, Officer Flim Flanigan
- Norman Rose - Mr. Mad, Narrator (several 1963 episodes of "The King and Odie")
- Delo States - various female and children's voices
- George S. Irving - Narrator {"Twinkles"}, various voices
TV Spots Production Staff
- Lee Mishkin -
- Maggi Alcumbrac -
- Fred Madison -
- Bill Butler -
- Barbara Orme -
- Joyce Gard -
- Sam Nicholson -
- Bob Gore -
- Norm Vizents -
- Sam Kai -
- Chuck McCann -
- Bill Kohn -
- John Pratt -
- Ellie Bogardus -
- Harvey Spiegle -
- Norm Gottfredson -
- Dave Hoffman -
- Anna Lois Ray -
- Bob Ganon -
- Thelma Raider -
- Dale Case -
- Gerald Ray -
- Roy Laufenburger -
- Izzy Ellis -
- Tom McDonald -
- John Garling -
- James Partch -
- Chaelotte Huffine -
- Casey Onaitis -
- Bernard Posner -
- Ray Young -
- Philip Roman -
- Glen Scott -
- Ben Washam -
- Beverly Rowe -
- George Jordan -
- Charlies Flekal -
- Dave Weidman -
- Phil Kaye -
- Julian Raymond -
- Alberto Severns -
- Chris Decker -
- Martha Buckley -
Catch phrases
- King Leonardo - "Confound it, that's the most unheard of thing I ever heard of!"
- Odie Cologne - "Ah, Sire!"
- Biggie Rat - "Dig me?"
- Itchy Brother - "Yeah, Big, I dig."
- The Hunter - "That's a joke, son."
- Tooter Turtle - "Please, Mr. Wizard; it's what I want to BE."
- Mr. Wizard - "Drizzle, Drazzle, Druzzle, Drome; time for zis one to come home." and "Be just vhat you is, not vhat you is not. Folks vhat do zis are ze happiest lot."
External links
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