Hoppity Hooper

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Hoppity Hooper
DVD cover
Also known asUncle Waldo's Cartoon Show
GenreChildren's program
Created byBill Scott
Chris Hayward
Written byChris Jenkyns
Bill Scott
Directed byPete Burness
Bill Hurtz
Lew Keller
StarringWaldo Wigglesworth, Fillmore Bear, and Hoppity Hooper
Voices ofChris Allen
Hans Conried
Paul Frees (1-100 only)
Bill Scott
Alan Reed (1-2 only)
William Conrad (101-104 only)
Narrated byPaul Frees
William Conrad
Theme music composerDennis Farnon
Opening theme"Olga Moletoad's Ride"
ComposerDennis Farnon
Country of originUnited States and Mexico
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons3
No. of episodes52 (104 segments) (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producerPeter M. Piech
ProducersJay Ward
Bill Scott
EditorSkip Craig
Running time30 minutes
Production companiesJay Ward Productions, P.A.T.
Original release
NetworkABC (1964–1967)
ReleaseSeptember 12, 1964 (1964-09-12) –
September 2, 1967 (1967-09-02)

Hoppity Hooper is an American

television series produced by Jay Ward, and sponsored by General Mills, originally broadcast on ABC from September 12, 1964, until 1967.[1][2] The series was produced in Hollywood by Jay Ward and Bill Scott, with animation done in Mexico City by Gamma Productions.[3]

Premise

The three main characters were Hoppity Hooper, a plucky

bugle, voiced by Bill Scott (with Alan Reed portraying the character in the pilot). The stories revolved around the three main characters, who lived in Foggy Bog, Wisconsin, seeking their fortune together through different jobs or schemes, usually ending in misadventure.[4]

Each story consisted of four short cartoons, one aired at the beginning and end of each episode, with the four-part story shown over two consecutive episodes. Much like Jay Ward's previous series

In later syndicated runs, each four-part story was assembled into a single half-hour episode.

Background

Early versions of Waldo and Fillmore, under the names "Sylvester Fox" and "Oski Bear," were included in the proposed series The Frostbite Falls Revue, the unsold concept that would eventually form the basis of Rocky and Bullwinkle.[6] The two-part pilot was produced in 1960 and featured Alan Reed as Fillmore. Production did not begin on the series until September 1964, after Rocky and Bullwinkle had ended its run; by 1964, Reed was committed to the role of Fred Flintstone on The Flintstones and was unavailable, and Bill Scott took over the role; the pilot aired as produced with Reed's voice as the first two segments.

The series was broadcast first-run by ABC and NBC on their Saturday morning schedule. The series was later syndicated to local television stations under the title Uncle Waldo's Cartoon Show, beginning in 1965.

As of 2024,

Wildbrain
owns syndication rights to the series.

Episodes

Over the course of three seasons, 52 episodes were broadcast with two segments of Hoppity Hooper each. With two exceptions (as noted), each story line consisted of four episodes (or four shorts – making 27 stories told over 104 segments).

Season 1 (1964–1965)

Episodes Title
1 & 2 Ring a Ding Spring
3 & 4 Rock 'n' Roll Star
5 & 6 Diamond Mine
7 & 8 Costra Nostra
9 & 10 The Giant of Hoot 'n' Holler
11 & 12 Detective Agency
13 & 14 Olympic Star
15 & 16 Ghost
17 & 18 The Masked Martin
19 & 20 Jumping Frog Contest
21 & 22 The Traffic Zone
23 & 24 Wottabango Corn Elixir
25 & 26 Frog Prince of Monomania

Season 2 (1965–1966)

Episodes Title Parts
27 & 28 Colonel Clabber—Limburger Cheese Statue (4 parts)
29 & 30 The Giant Cork (4 parts)
31 & 32 Ferkle to Hawaii (4 parts)
33 & 34 Hallowe'en (4 parts)
35 & 36 Christmas[7] (4 parts)
37 & 38 Horse Race Follies (4 parts)
39 & 40 Jack and the Beanstalk (4 parts)
41 & 42 Granny's Gang (4 parts)

Season 3 (1966–1967)

Episodes Title Parts
43 Golf Tournament (2 parts)
44 The Hopeless Diamond (2 parts)
45 & 46 The Dragon of Eubetchia (4 parts)
47 & 48 Rare Butterfly Hunt (4 parts)
49 & 50 Oil's Well at Oasis Gardens (4 parts)
51 & 52 Wonder Water (4 parts)

Production

  • Producers: Jay Ward, Bill Scott
  • Directors: Pete Burness, Bill Hurtz, Lew Keller
  • Writers: Chris Jenkyns, Bill Scott
  • Film Editor: Skip Craig
  • Designers: Sam Clayberger, Roy Morita, and Shirley Silvey
  • Animation by Gamma Productions S.A. de C.V.
  • Production Director: Harvey Siegel
  • Assistant Director: Jaime Torres
  • Animation Supervisor: Sam S. Kai
  • Layout Supervisor: Joe Montell
  • Executive Producers: Peter Piech,
    O.B.E.
    (pseudonym of Jay Ward and Bill Scott)
  • A Jay Ward Production
  • In cooperation with Producers Associates of Television, inc.

Voice cast

Home video

Hoppity Hooper was released in three separate volumes on VHS in the early 1990s. Volume One was released on DVD in the 2000s (the copyrights for each of these three releases were in question at the time of their respective releases).

In 2008, Mill Creek Entertainment released episodes 1–6 and episodes 8–11 as part of the Giant 600 Cartoon Collection. They also re-released these episodes as part of the Super 300 Cartoon Collection in 2009. Also in 2008, Mill Creek re-released episodes 1-6 as part of the 200 Classic Cartoons: Collectors Edition.

References

  1. ^ "TV-Radio". Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles. 1964-09-12. p. 33 – via Newspapers.com.
  2. .
  3. ^ "The Bootleg Files: Hoppity Hooper". Film Threat. September 24, 2010. Retrieved 15 March 2020.
  4. . Retrieved 14 March 2020.
  5. . Retrieved 19 March 2020.
  6. ^ Farber, Jim (February 8, 1991). "Rock Lives". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on 2012-01-10. Retrieved 2010-11-07.
  7. .

External links