The Alvin Show

The Alvin Show
Title card from The Alvin Show.
Format	Animated series
Created by	Ross Bagdasarian
Starring	Ross Bagdasarian Shepard Menken June Foray Lee Patrick Bill Lee Johnny Mann Don Messick (uncredited)
Theme music composer	Ross Bagdasarian Neil Hefti Carl Stalling
Composer(s)	Ross Bagdasarian
Country of origin	United States
No. of episodes	26 Alvin and the Chipmunks episodes, 26 Clyde Crashcup episodes, and 52 musical segments
Production
Executive producer(s)	Herbert Klynn
Running time	30 minutes per episode (7½ for each segment)
Production company(s)	Bagdasarian Film Corporation Format Films
Broadcast
Original channel	CBS
Picture format	Color (originally telecast in Black-and-white)
Original run	October 4, 1961 – September 12, 1962

The Alvin Show was an American animated television series. It was the first to feature the singing characters Alvin and the Chipmunks, although a series with a similar concept The Nutty Squirrels Present had aired a year earlier. It lasted for just one season in prime time (October 4, 1961 – September 12, 1962) on CBS [Wednesdays, 7:30-8pm Eastern], originally sponsored by General Foods (Jell-O, Post cereals), and initially telecast in black and white (color prints of the episodes weren't seen until the series entered syndication in the fall of 1965).

The series rode the momentum of creator Ross Bagdasarian's original hit musical gimmick and developed the singing Chipmunk trio as rambunctious kids–particularly the show's namesake star–whose mischief contrasted to (and usually exasperated) his tall, brainy brother Simon and his chubby, gluttonous brother Theodore, as well as their long-suffering, perpetually put-upon manager-father figure, Dave Seville. The animation was produced by Herbert Klynn's Format Films.

The "Great" Inventor

Aside from the seven-minute Chipmunk segments, in which Bagdasarian's David Seville was portrayed as a hapless bachelor who managed and mentored the three singing rodents, the show also had segments featuring a character called Clyde Crashcup (voiced by Shepard Menken impersonating Richard Haydn's Edwin Carp character).

Clyde was an inventor who essentially re-invented the wheel (and practically everything else) and took credit for dreaming it up in the first place. His "creations" often backfired on him until his silent, level-headed lab assistant, Leonardo (diminutive, balding, and perpetually whispering in Crashcup's ear) saved him from any further self-destruction.

Afterlife

CBS reran the series on Saturday mornings for a few years after the show's prime time run ended, and segments from the show were syndicated in the mid and late 1960s under the package title Alvin and the Chipmunks (this first syndicated package consisted of the individual show segments only, including the Alvin and Clyde Crashcup cartoons, and Chipmunk musical segments, not in the form of half-hour shows). The series later was revived on NBC-TV, again promoted under the title Alvin and the Chipmunks (with the introductory Alvin Show title card cut off the beginning of the show opening) Saturday mornings between March 10, 1979 and September 1, 1979.

Ross Bagdasarian had died of a heart attack in January 1972, precluding any future Chipmunk activity. Years later, his son Ross, Jr. picked up on a disc jockey's joke and produced the hit Chipmunk Punk album from 1980, which spurred new interest for a brand new animated series with an updated look to The Chipmunks and David Seville (now voiced by Ross Bagdasarian, Jr.). In fall 1983, coinciding with the launch of Ruby-Spears' newly-produced Alvin and the Chipmunks series on NBC, The Alvin Show was again syndicated, airing on WGN-TV in Chicago and WTBS in Atlanta. As a result, both the Ruby-Spears-produced Alvin and The Chipmunks (1983–1991) as well as the original Alvin Show could be seen at any given time throughout the 1980s.

The Alvin Show was last seen in the United States on Nickelodeon around 1994, and aired there until 1995. After the network stopped airing episodes the cartoon segments were shown on episodes of Weinerville until the end of 1995. The "Alvin Show Chipmunks" and Clyde Crashcup (without Leonardo) reappear in an episode of "Chipmunks Go To the Movies" in 1990 called "Back to Our Future" (a spoof of the 1985 movie, "Back to the Future"). Although, the "Alvin Show Chipmunks" are referred to "The Chipmunks from the 1950s" despite the fact "The Alvin Show" is from the 1960s.

The show was distributed by Nickelodeon's parent company, Viacom (since it is unknown whether or not Viacom still had the rights at the time of its split into two companies in 2005, it is unclear whether Viacom successor CBS Television Distribution currently holds them).

Voice cast

• Ross Bagdasarian, Sr. - Alvin, Simon, Theodore, David Seville, Sam Valiant
• Shepard Menken - Clyde Crashcup
• June Foray - Daisy Belle and other female voices
• Johnny Mann - Additional voices
• Lee Patrick - Mrs. Frumpington and other female voices
• Don Messick - Various voices
• Joe Besser - Dragon (Sir Alvin)

Episodes

26 episodes each were produced for the Alvin and the Chipmunks and Clyde Crashcup segments, along with 52 musical segments.

General Foods was the show's main sponsor; as such, Dave Seville and The Chipmunks appeared in several humorous half-minute commercials for Jell-O and Post Cereals.

DVD/VHS releases

Other than the two 1994 VHS releases from Buena Vista Home Video, both of which featured 11 songs from The Alvin Show, up until recently, the show has never been released on DVD. However, on September 8, 2009, Paramount Home Entertainment released the first episode of the show, along with two "modern" specials.

Future DVD sets for the full series are not yet planned.

See also

• Alvin & the Chipmunks

External links

• Toon Tracker's The Alvin Show web page
• Alvin and the Chipmunks page at Toonopedia
• The Alvin Show at the Internet Movie Database
• The Alvin Show at TV.com