''Here Comes the Grump'' is an animated cartoon 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 ...

and aired on NBC from 1969 to 1970. It was later shown in reruns on

Sci-Fi Channel Syfy (formerly Sci-Fi Channel, later shortened to Sci Fi; stylized as SYFY) is an American basic cable channel owned by the NBCUniversal Television and Streaming division of Comcast's NBCUniversal through NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment. ...

Cartoon Quest Cartoon Quest was the name of a block of mostly animated television shows that aired on the Sci Fi Channel starting in 1992. Similar to USA's '' Cartoon Express'', it featured reruns of various older cartoons interspersed with interstitial segm ...

. Structured as a battle between good and evil, the show was played for comedy. The Grump, the purportedly-threatening villain of the piece, was voiced by extravagant prop comic

Rip Taylor Charles Elmer "Rip" Taylor Jr. (January 13, 1931 – October 6, 2019) was an American actor and comedian, known for his exuberance and flamboyant personality, including his wild moustache, toupee, and his habit of showering himself (and others ...

History

The main character was a small, grumpy wizard who put a spell of gloom on the kingdom of the Princess Dawn. The Princess and her friend Terry Dexter (a boy from the "real" world) searched for the Cave of the Whispering Orchids to find a crystal key to break the spell, while the Grump tried to stop them. In each episode the Grump flew a dragon named Dingo, chasing Terry and Princess Dawn. This led them to bizarre places with strange characters, such as the Blabbermouth of Echo Island, where the mountains were made of living Swiss cheese. The Princess had a pet named Bip — a vaguely doglike creature with tentacular legs, that sniffed clues like a hound dog, turned around by pulling in its tail and head and popping them back out at opposite ends, and communicated in the sounds of a soprano bugle. In most episodes, the Princess and her friends traveled in a flying car supported by a big balloon. A recurring gag was that at the last minute when the Grump was about to catch up with Princess Dawn, the Dragon would sneeze and burn the little wizard. The character of the Grump was based upon

Yosemite Sam Yosemite Sam ( /joʊˈsɛmɪti/ ''yoh-SEM-ih-tee'') is a cartoon character in the ''Looney Tunes'' and ''Merrie Melodies'' series of short films produced by Warner Bros. His name is taken from Yosemite National Park. He is an adversary of Bugs ...

, also created by Friz Freleng. The Grump's Dragon was similar to Sam's in "

Knighty Knight Bugs ''Knighty Knight Bugs'' is a 1958 Warner Bros. ''Looney Tunes'' cartoon directed by Friz Freleng, The short was released on August 23, 1958, and stars Bugs Bunny and Yosemite Sam. ''Knighty Knight Bugs'' is the only Bugs Bunny cartoon to win ...

", right down to the fiery nasal explosions upon its master.

Broadcast

The series was broadcast by

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

from September 6, 1969 to December 27, 1969. NBC continued to air reruns until December 28, 1970. The series lasted one season and was rerun, the most recent airing was on the

in the mid 1990s. The complete series was released on DVD on January 31, 2006. The series was called ''Ahi viene Cascarrabias'' in Spanish and was retransmitted into the 1970s and well into the 1980s by

Televisa Grupo Televisa is a Mexican multimedia mass media company. A major Latin American mass media corporation, it often presents itself as the largest producer of Spanish-language content. In April 2021, Televisa and Univision Communications announce ...

, in Mexico, with another rerun in 2006 after the DVD set was launched. It was "Grump, o feiticeiro trapalhão" in Brazilian Portuguese and was rerun in Brazil until 1993 by

Rede Globo TV Globo (, "Globe TV", or simply Globo), formerly known as Rede Globo, is a Brazilian free-to-air television network, launched by media proprietor Roberto Marinho on 26 April 1965. It is owned by media conglomerate Grupo Globo. The TV stati ...

. The only known merchandise for the show was a "Here Comes the Grump" Halloween mask, produced by the Ben Cooper Costume Company, for the 1969 holiday season.

Episode guide

There were 17 episodes, each containing two ten-minute shorts, giving a total of 34 separate cartoons. # The Bloonywoonie Battle (First aired: 9/6/1969) # The Great Grump Crunch (First aired: 9/13/1969) # The Great Thorn Forest (First aired: 9/20/1969) # The Eenie Meenie Miners (First aired: 9/27/1969) # The Good Ghost Ship (First aired: 10/4/1969) # Grump Meets Peter Paintbrush (First aired: 10/11/1969) # The Lemonade Sea (First aired: 10/18/1969) # Beware of Giants (First aired: 10/25/1969) # Joltin' Jack-In Boxia (First aired: 11/1/1969) # Visit to a Ghost Town (First aired: 11/8/1969) # A Mess for King Midix (First aired: 11/15/1969) # The Shoes of Shoe-Cago (First aired: 11/22/1969) # Witch Is Witch? (First aired: 11/29/1969) # The Yuks of Gagville (First aired: 12/6/1969) # Toilin' Toolie Birds (First aired: 12/13/1969) # The Grand Slam of Door City (First aired: 12/20/1969) # Under the Pea Green Sea (First aired: 12/27/1969) # Sugar and Spite (First aired: 1/3/1970) # The Great Shampoo of Snow White City (First aired: 1/10/1970) # The Grump Meets the Grouch Grooch (First aired: 1/17/1970) # The Wily Wheelies (First aired: 1/24/1970) # The Blabbermouth of Echo Island (First aired: 1/31/1970) # With Malice in Blunderland (First aired: 2/7/1970) # Apachoo Choo-Choo (First aired: 2/14/1970) # A Hitch in Time (First aired: 2/21/1970) # The Shaky Shutter-Bugs (First aired: 2/28/1970) # S'No Land Like Snow Land (First aired: 3/7/1970) # Good Grief, Mother Goose (First aired: 3/14/1970) # The Balled-Up Bloonywoonies (First aired: 3/21/1970) # Cherub Land (First aired: 3/28/1970) # Meet the Blockheads (First aired: 4/4/1970) # Hoppy-Go-Lucky Hippetty Hoppies (First aired: 4/11/1970) # The Blunderful Flying Machine (First aired: 4/18/1970) # The Absent-Minded Wizard (First aired: 4/25/1970)

Voices

- The Grump *

Jay North Jay North (born August 3, 1951) is an American actor. His career as a child actor began in the late 1950s with roles in eight TV series, two variety shows and three feature films. At age 7 he became a household name for his role as the well-mean ...

- Terry Dexter *

Avery Schreiber Avery Lawrence Schreiber (April 9, 1935 – January 7, 2002) was an American actor and comedian. He was a veteran of stage, television, and movies who came to prominence in the 1960s in a comedy duo with Jack Burns. He acted in an array of roles ...

* Stefanianna Christopherson - Princess Dawn * Marvin Miller * Athena Lorde * Larry D. Mann *

June Foray June Foray (born June Lucille Forer; September 18, 1917 – July 26, 2017) was an American voice actress. She was best known as the voice of such animated characters as Rocky the Flying Squirrel, Natasha Fatale, Nell Fenwick, Lucifer from Disney' ...

Staff

*Direction: Gerry Chiniquy,

Art Davis Arthur David Davis (December 6, 1934 – July 29, 2007) was a double-bassist, known for his work with Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane, Dizzy Gillespie, McCoy Tyner and Max Roach. Biography Davis was born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, United Stat ...

, George Gordon, Sid Marcus,

Hawley Pratt Hawley B. Pratt (June 9, 1911 – March 4, 1999) was an American film director, animator, and illustrator. He is best known for his work for Warner Bros. Cartoons and as the right-hand man of director Friz Freleng as a layout artist and later as ...

, Grant Simmons *Story Supervision: John W. Dunn *Stories: Don Christensen, Nick George, Bill Lutz *Layout:

Pete Alvarado Peter J. Alvarado Jr. (February 22, 1920 – December 27, 2003) was an American animation and comic book artist. Alvarado's animation career spanned almost 60 years. He was also a prolific contributor to Western Publishing's line of comic books. B ...

Bob Givens Robert Herman Givens (March 2, 1918 – December 14, 2017) was an American animator and character designer, responsible for the creation of Bugs Bunny. He was the leading character designer for Leon Schlesinger, creating over 25 successful c ...

, Herb Johnson, Jack Miller, Dick Ung, Don Sheppard, Martin Studler, Al Wilson *Character Design: Art Leonardi *Animation:

Warren Batchelder Warren Batchelder (April 18, 1917 – February 12, 2007) was an animator on many Warner Bros. and DePatie-Freleng cartoons. He also worked as animation director on the '' Dungeons and Dragons'' cartoon show., He also did the animation for the ...

, Robert Bentley, William Carney, Edward DeMattia, Xenia, John Gibbs,

Manny Gould Emanuel Gould (May 30, 1904 – July 19, 1975) was an American animated cartoonist from the 1920s to the 1970s, best known for his contributions as a director, writer and animator for Screen Gems, and solely an animator for Warner Bros. Cartoons ...

Ed Love Edward H. Love (May 24, 1910 – May 6, 1996) was an American animator who worked at various studios during the Golden age of American animation. He is well known for animating Walt Disney Animations' shorts ''Mickey's Trailer'' and '' Fan ...

, Ed Rehberg, Manny Perez, Bob Richardson, Ed Solomon, Robert Taylor,

Lloyd Vaughan Lloyd Lincoln Vaughan I (January 2, 1909 – May 19, 1988) was an American animator known for his work at Warner Bros. Cartoons under the supervision of Chuck Jones. Starting in 1935 as an inbetweener, he became an animator in 1944 under Jones, a ...

Don Williams Donald Ray Williams (May 27, 1939 – September 8, 2017) was an American country singer, songwriter, and 2010 inductee into the Country Music Hall of Fame. He began his solo career in 1971, singing popular ballads and amassing seventeen number ...

*Backgrounds: Richard Thomas, Mary O'Loughlin, Tom O'Loughlin *Film Editing Supervised by Lee Gunther *Film Editing: Allan Potter, Todd McKay, Lloyd Friedgen *Music: Doug Goodwin *Production Supervision: Jim Foss *Prod. Coordinator: Harry Love *Sound by Producers' Sound Service, Inc. *Produced by David H. DePatie, Friz Freleng

Film

On 17 September 2014, ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' reported that a feature film adaptation based on the series was in production. It was produced by Ánima Estudios in

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

and the newly launched GFM Animation, with the animation being done at Prime Focus World in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. The film was released in

on July 26, 2018. Published on 1 December 2017. In Spanish. The film was released in the US on September 14, 2018 under the name ''A Wizard's Tale''.

References

External links

DePatie-Freleng fansite
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Here Comes the Grump 1960s American animated television series 1969 American television series debuts 1970s American animated television series 1970 American television series endings American children's animated comedy television series American children's animated fantasy television series English-language television shows NBC original programming Television series by DePatie–Freleng Enterprises Television series by United Artists Television