''Doctor Dolittle'' (also known as ''The Further Adventures of Dr. Dolittle'') is a 1970–1971 Saturday morning animated series produced by

DePatie–Freleng Enterprises DePatie–Freleng Enterprises (also known as Mirisch-Geoffrey-DePatie-Freleng Productions when involved with the Mirisch brothers and Geoffrey Productions; and DFE Films) was an American animation production company that was active from 1963 to 1 ...

in association with

20th Century Fox Television 20th Television (formerly 20th Century Fox Television, 20th Century-Fox Television, and TCF Television Productions, Inc.) is an American television production company that is a division of Disney Television Studios, part of The Walt Disney Compa ...

. The series is loosely based on the books by

Hugh Lofting Hugh John Lofting (14 January 1886 – 26 September 1947) was an English American writer trained as a civil engineer, who created the classic children's literature character Doctor Dolittle. The fictional physician to talking animals, based in a ...

, as well as the 1967 film of the same title which center around

Doctor Dolittle Doctor John Dolittle is the central character of a series of children's books by Hugh Lofting starting with the 1920 ''The Story of Doctor Dolittle''. He is a physician who shuns human patients in favour of animals, with whom he can speak in the ...

, an animal doctor who has the ability to talk to animals. The show was created for television by

David H. DePatie David Hudson DePatie (December 24, 1929 – September 23, 2021) was an American film and television producer who was the last executive in charge of the original Warner Bros. Cartoons studio and the longest-living until his death. He also formed ...

and

Friz Freleng Isadore "Friz" Freleng (August 21, 1905May 26, 1995), credited as I. Freleng early in his career, was an American animator, cartoonist, director, producer, and composer known for his work at Warner Bros. Cartoons on the ''Looney Tunes'' and '' ...

in association with Paul Harrison and

Lennie Weinrib Leonard Weinrib (April 29, 1935 – June 28, 2006) was an American actor, comedian and writer. He is best known for playing the title role in the children's television show ''H.R. Pufnstuf'', Grimace in McDonaldland commercials, the title role in ...

. The series was broadcast on the

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...

network. An altered version of the song "Talk to the Animals" was heard during the opening credits. The series only has a DVD release in Germany from Pidax.

Synopsis

Doctor Dolittle travels around the world on his ship called the Flounder to help out any sick animal in need. He is aided in his missions by his first mate, young sailor Tommy Stubbins. They share the ship with its animal crew. Wherever Doctor Dolittle's ship was, Sub-Mar Island was never far behind. A disguised

submarine A submarine (or sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability. The term is also sometimes used historically or colloquially to refer to remotely op ...

, Sub-Mar Island is actually the stronghold of Sam Scurvy and his pirate crew. The pirates dress in an unusual mixture of old-fashioned pirate and gangster gear. The pirate crew were also a branch of the Democratic Order of Pirates International (or "DOPI" for short). Sam Scurvy has one goal in life: world domination. He believes that if he can get the secret to talking to animals from Doctor Dolittle, he will be able to raise an army of "creepy creatures" to help him take over the world. By using his eavesdropping device the Sneaky Snorkel, Scurvy gets wind of Doctor Dolittle's latest missions and then plots to hinder, disrupt, or even kidnap the Doctor, Tommy, or any one of his animals, in order to force him to reveal how he is capable of talking to animals. However, due to Doctor Dolittle's skills as well as the pirates' ineptitude, they never succeed.

Characters

(voiced by Bob Holt in an English accent impersonating

Rex Harrison Sir Reginald Carey "Rex" Harrison (5 March 1908 – 2 June 1990) was an English actor. Harrison began his career on the stage in 1924. He made his West End debut in 1936 appearing in the Terence Rattigan play ''French Without Tears'', in what ...

) - an animal doctor who can talk to animals. * Tommy Stubbins (voiced by Hal Smith in an English accent) - a sailor and Doctor Dolittle's first mate who can also talk to animals. * Chee-Chee (voiced by

Don Messick Donald Earle Messick (September 7, 1926 – October 24, 1997) was an American voice actor. He was best known for his performances in Hanna-Barbera cartoons. His best-remembered vocal creations include Scooby-Doo, Bamm-Bamm Rubble and Hoppy in ...

) - the cabin

monkey Monkey is a common name that may refer to most mammals of the infraorder Simiiformes, also known as the simians. Traditionally, all animals in the group now known as simians are counted as monkeys except the apes, which constitutes an incomple ...

. * Dab-Dab - a

duck Duck is the common name for numerous species of waterfowl in the family Anatidae. Ducks are generally smaller and shorter-necked than swans and geese, which are members of the same family. Divided among several subfamilies, they are a form t ...

who is also the ship's cook. * Polynesia - the Doctor's pet

parrot Parrots, also known as psittacines (), are birds of the roughly 398 species in 92 genera comprising the order Psittaciformes (), found mostly in tropical and subtropical regions. The order is subdivided into three superfamilies: the Psittacoid ...

who taught him how to talk to animals. * The Pushmi-Pullyu (voiced by

) - a

llama The llama (; ) (''Lama glama'') is a domesticated South American camelid, widely used as a List of meat animals, meat and pack animal by Inca empire, Andean cultures since the Pre-Columbian era. Llamas are social animals and live with othe ...

which has two heads (one of each) at opposite ends of its body. It serves as the ship's lookout where it would often warn Dr. Dolittle about the approaching pirates. One head has a blue collar, while the other has an orange collar and wears glasses. * Too-Too - the wise

owl Owls are birds from the order Strigiformes (), which includes over 200 species of mostly solitary and nocturnal birds of prey typified by an upright stance, a large, broad head, binocular vision, binaural hearing, sharp talons, and feathers a ...

. * Jip (voiced by

) - the Doctor's pet

dog The dog (''Canis familiaris'' or ''Canis lupus familiaris'') is a domesticated descendant of the wolf. Also called the domestic dog, it is derived from the extinct Pleistocene wolf, and the modern wolf is the dog's nearest living relative. Do ...

. * George and the Grasshoppers - a rock group of

grasshopper Grasshoppers are a group of insects belonging to the suborder Caelifera. They are among what is possibly the most ancient living group of chewing herbivorous insects, dating back to the early Triassic around 250 million years ago. Grasshopp ...

s that lives inside Doctor Dolittle's medicine case and are led by George (voiced by

). At one point during each episode of the series, the group would launch into a rock or pop song, popping the sides of the medicine case open and using it like a stage with Doctor Dolittle's bottles of pills and medicines glowing and flashing into different psychedelic colors behind the group as they sang. The singing voices of the Grasshoppers are provided by Robbie Faldoon, Annadell, Colin Johnson, Mike Sherwood, and Glyn Nelson. * Sam Scurvy (voiced by

in a Brooklyn accent) - the leader of a faction of pirates of the organization D.O.P.I. who plans to learn how to talk to animals so that he can take over the world. Sam Scurvy wears a fedora and a business suit. ** Cyclops - a hulking dimwit pirate with an eyepatch over his good eye. ** Zig-Zag (voiced by

) - an uptight French pirate. ** Nico (voiced by

) - an Italian pirate. ** Miko - a Chinese pirate.

Episodes

Cast

* Bob Holt – Dr. John Dolittle, additional voices * Hal Smith – Tommy Stubbins *

– Sam Scurvy, Zig-Zag, George Grasshopper *

– Jip the Dog, Pushmi-Pullyu, Chee-Chee, Nico * Robert Towers – additional voices

Syndication problems

Aside from a brief period in the early 1980s as part of ''

The Krofft Supershow ''The Krofft Supershow'' was a Saturday morning children's variety show, produced by Sid and Marty Krofft. It aired for two seasons from September 11, 1976, to September 2, 1978, on ABC. Background The show was composed of several live-action se ...

'', the series has never been shown in syndication, possibly due to the

politically incorrect ''Political correctness'' (adjectivally: ''politically correct''; commonly abbreviated ''PC'') is a term used to describe language, policies, or measures that are intended to avoid offense or disadvantage to members of particular groups in socie ...

stereotypes of the pirate crew, as well as the strong drug implications present during George and the Grasshoppers' rock and pop numbers. It first appeared on

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

TV on

BBC1 BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, ...

on Thursday, 25 November 1971. It was dubbed in Sinhala in

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

as "Dosthara Hoda hitha".

References

External links

''Doctor Dolittle''
at

Internet Movie Database IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, ...

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Doctor Dolittle (Tv Series) NBC original programming 1970s American animated television series 1970 American television series debuts 1971 American television series endings American children's animated fantasy television series Television series by DePatie–Freleng Enterprises Television series by 20th Century Fox Television Animated television shows based on films Animated musical groups Television shows based on British novels Doctor Dolittle