King Leonardo and His Short Subjects
| King Leonardo and His Short Subjects | |
|---|---|
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| Genre | Animation |
| Voices of |
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| Narrated by |
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| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| No. of episodes |
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| Production | |
| Executive producer | Peter M. Piech |
| Producers |
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| Running time | 30 minutes |
| Production companies |
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| Original release | |
| Network | NBC |
| Release | October 15, 1960 – December 23, 1961 |
| Network | CBS |
| Release | September 28, 1963 – March 21, 1964 |
King Leonardo and His Short Subjects (also known as The King and Odie Show) is an American
Plot
The show focuses on Leonardo Lion (voiced by
King Leonardo's main archenemy is the gangster-type character Biggie Rat (voiced by Jackson Beck impersonating Edward G. Robinson), who routinely attempts to overthrow Leonardo and take over Bongo Congo for himself, with Leonardo's dimwitted sibling Itchy Brother (voiced by Allen Swift) being his puppet king. On occasion, Biggie and Itchy are assisted by an evil German inventor named Professor Messer (voiced by Jackson Beck). Biggie and Itchy's schemes always end with them either landing in the dungeon or escaping.
Episodes of The King and Odie that were exclusive to Tennessee Tuxedo and His Tales feature Biggie Rat and Itchy Brother employed by Mr. Mad (voiced by Norman Rose), a mad scientist with a domineering personality. Mr. Mad has his own plans for Bongo Congo and indulges in his diabolical studies of behavior where he collected different types of people whilst lacking a King for his studies. Mr. Mad also threatened to throw Biggie and Itchy in "The Room" which contains unseen stuff that frightens both of them should they fail him. When his schemes fail, Mr. Mad disappears "as if by magic" before he can be apprehended.
Other segments
Each half-hour episode of King Leonardo consisted of five animated segments. Each half-hour included a two-part King and Odie episode, with other characters featured in between:
- Tooter Turtle: The adventures of a turtle (voiced by Allen Swift) who has Mr. Wizard the Lizard (voiced by Sandy Becker) transport him to various settings, only to realize he was better off at home after all. When Tooter was trapped in a situation he couldn't get out of, he would call to the wizard, who sent him home with this incantation: "Drizzle drazzle druzzle drome, time for this one to come home."[5]
- The Hunter: A Southern-accented, crime-fighting bloodhound detective (voiced by Kenny Delmar, reprising his Senator Claghorn voice from The Fred Allen Show) chases after a criminal fox named The Fox (voiced by Ben Stone). The Fox would often commit a scheme which always ends with him being apprehended in the end.
Another segment of the original King Leonardo show was Twinkles, an orange elephant who served as the mascot of Twinkles Cereal, a product of the show's chief sponsor, General Mills.[6] The 90-second Twinkles segments continued to air in syndication during the 1960s, and were presented in a 15-minute format under the title The King and Odie with George S. Irving narrating each segment. It later phased out after a firefighter 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.
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 of the early shows was delayed. The Columbia cartoons were featured during NBC showings of Hanna-Barbera's The Ruff and Reddy Show, but not included in subsequent syndicated versions of the series.
The animation for the show's early segments was produced by
Later appearances
After King Leonardo and his Short Subjects ended, one season 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 from September 1963 to March 1964. 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.
In reruns, Total Television shorts often have been packaged alongside Jay Ward cartoons. Despite similar limited-animation styles, they were two separate studios. The animation for both studios was done by a small startup company called Gamma Productions; hence, the similar "look."
King Leonardo, despite its earlier episodes repackaged for syndication as The King and Odie during the mid-1960s, never attained the popularity of Total Television's other series, Underdog and Tennessee Tuxedo, and is rarely seen on television today. Beginning in 2006,
Episodes
Cast
- Jackson Beck – King Leonardo, Biggie Rat, Professor Messer
- Allen Swift – Odie Cologne, Itchy Brother, 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 1963-64 episodes of "The King and Odie")
- Delo States – various female and children's voices
- George S. Irving – Narrator ("Twinkles"), various voices
References
- ISBN 978-1538103739.
- ISBN 0-8108-1557-5. Retrieved March 14, 2020.
- ^ Markstein, Don. "King Leonardo and His Short Subjects". Don Markstein's Toonopedia. Retrieved April 2, 2020.
- ISBN 0-13-275561-0. Retrieved April 8, 2020.
- ISBN 978-0823083152. Retrieved March 19, 2020.
- ISBN 978-1476665993.
- ^ Beck, Jerry (July 30, 2006). "King Leonardo on Black Family Channel". Cartoon Brew.