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King Leonardo and His Short Subjects

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King Leonardo and His Short Subjects
Genreanimation
Voices ofJackson Beck
Sandy Becker
Kenny Delmar
Ben Stone
Allen Swift
Narrated byAllen Swift ("The King and Odie")
Kenny Delmar ("The Hunter")
Country of origin United States
Original languageEnglish
No. of episodesKing And Odie: 102
The Hunter: 61
Tooter Turtle: 40 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producerPeter M. Piech
ProducersJoe Harris
Treadwell Covington
Buck Biggers
Chet Stover
Running time30 minutes
Production companyTotal Television Productions
Original release
NetworkNBC
ReleaseOctober 15, 1960 –
September 28, 1963

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.

Characters and story

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. Leonardo was assisted in his adventures 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".

King Leonardo's incompetent brother Itchy (voiced by Swift) attempts to overthrow Leonardo and rule the kingdom himself along with his friend, gangster and leader Biggie Rat (voiced by Beck impersonating Edward G. Robinson). Biggie would often employ the help of an evil German inventor named Professor Messer (voiced by Beck, whose character's last name is German for "Knife") and even obtain help from Biggie's sister Carlotta.

Episodes of "The King and Odie" that were exclusive to Tennessee Tuxedo and His Tales had Biggie Rat and Itchy Brother 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. 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 (voiced by Swift to sound similar to Mortimer Snerd) who has Mr. Wizard, a lizard (voiced by 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 and were not included in subsequent syndicated versions of the series.

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 (an orange 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 90 second 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.

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-1960s, 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

Main article: List of King Leonardo and his Short Subjects episodes

Cast

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."
  • Tudor Turtle - "Please, Mr. Wizard; it's what I want to be" and "Help, Mr. Wizard!"
  • 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."


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