''Hoppity Hooper'' is an American

animated Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most ani ...

television series A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, or cable, excluding breaking news, advertisements, or trailers that are typically placed be ...

produced by Jay Ward, and sponsored by

General Mills General Mills, Inc., is an American multinational manufacturer and marketer of branded processed consumer foods sold through retail stores. Founded on the banks of the Mississippi River at Saint Anthony Falls in Minneapolis, the company or ...

, originally broadcast on ABC from September 12, 1964 until 1967. The series was produced in Hollywood by Jay Ward and Bill Scott, with animation done in Mexico City by Gamma Productions.

Premise

The three main characters were Hoppity Hooper, a plucky

frog A frog is any member of a diverse and largely Carnivore, carnivorous group of short-bodied, tailless amphibians composing the order (biology), order Anura (ανοὐρά, literally ''without tail'' in Ancient Greek). The oldest fossil "proto-f ...

, voiced by Chris Allen; Waldo P. Wigglesworth, a

patent medicine A patent medicine, sometimes called a proprietary medicine, is an over-the-counter (nonprescription) medicine or medicinal preparation that is typically protected and advertised by a trademark and trade name (and sometimes a patent) and claimed ...

-hawking fox, voiced by Hans Conried, who posed as Hoppity's long-lost uncle in the

pilot episode A television pilot (also known as a pilot or a pilot episode and sometimes marketed as a tele-movie), in television in the United States, United States television, is a standalone episode of a television series that is used to sell a show to a te ...

; and Fillmore, a

bear Bears are carnivoran mammals of the family Ursidae. They are classified as caniforms, or doglike carnivorans. Although only eight species of bears are extant, they are widespread, appearing in a wide variety of habitats throughout the No ...

wearing a

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government polici ...

hat and coat, (poorly) playing his

bugle The bugle is one of the simplest brass instruments, normally having no valves or other pitch-altering devices. All pitch control is done by varying the player's embouchure. History The bugle developed from early musical or communication ...

, 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 Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

, seeking their fortune together through different jobs or schemes, usually ending in misadventure. 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 ''

The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show ''The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends'' (commonly referred to as simply ''Rocky and Bullwinkle'') is an American animated television series that originally aired from November 19, 1959, to June 27, 1964, on the ABC and NBC te ...

'', ''Hoppity Hooper'' used pun-based titles to identify each upcoming segment and a narrator (voiced by

Paul Frees Solomon Hersh "Paul" Frees (June 22, 1920November 2, 1986) was an American actor, comedian, impressionist, and vaudevillian. He is known for his work on Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Walter Lantz, Rankin/Bass, and Walt Disney theatrical cartoons during ...

and later by

William Conrad William Conrad (born John William Cann Jr., September 27, 1920 – February 11, 1994) was an American actor, producer, and director whose entertainment career spanned five decades in radio, film, and television, peaking in popularity when he s ...

), who often interacted with the characters and broke the

fourth wall The fourth wall is a performance convention in which an invisible, imaginary wall separates actors from the audience. While the audience can see through this ''wall'', the convention assumes the actors act as if they cannot. From the 16th cen ...

. Interspersed were recycled second features from the earlier series '' Peabody's Improbable History'', ''Fractured Fairy Tales'', ''Aesop and Son'' and '' The World of Commander McBragg''. 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''. 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 Fred Flintstone is the main character of the animated sitcom '' The Flintstones'', which aired during prime-time on ABC during the original series' run from 1960 to 1966. Fred is the husband of Wilma Flintstone and father of Pebbles Flintsto ...

on ''

The Flintstones ''The Flintstones'' is an American animated sitcom produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions. The series takes place in a romanticized Stone Age setting and follows the activities of the titular family, the Flintstones, and their next-door neighb ...

'' 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 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 ...

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 2022,

Wildbrain WildBrain Ltd. (formerly known as DHX Media, Ltd.) is a Canadian media, animation studio, production, and brand licensing company, mostly associated as an entertainment company. The company is known for owning the largest library of childr ...

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)

Season 2 (1965–1966)

Season 3 (1966–1967)

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, Ponsonby Britt,

O.B.E. The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(pseudonym of Jay Ward and Bill Scott) *A Jay Ward Production *In cooperation with Producers Associates of Television, inc.

Voice cast

*Chris Allen - Hoppity Hooper * Hans Conried - Uncle Waldo P. Wigglesworth * Alan Reed (eps. 1) and Bill Scott (eps. 2-52) – Fillmore Bear *

(eps. 1–50) and Bill Conrad (eps. 51–52) – Narrator

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

External links

*
''Hoppity Hooper''
at

Don Markstein's Toonopedia Don Markstein's Toonopedia (subtitled A Vast Repository of Toonological Knowledge) is an online encyclopedia of print cartoons, comic strips and animation, initiated February 13, 2001. Donald D. Markstein, the sole writer and editor of Toonopedi ...

Archived
from the original on February 6, 2016.
"Fight Fiercely, Young Teddy!" - The Hoppity Hooper theme
{{Children's programming on the American Broadcasting Company in the 1960s 1960s American animated television series 1964 American television series debuts 1967 American television series endings American children's animated comedy television series Jay Ward Productions American Broadcasting Company original programming NBC original programming Animated television series about frogs Television shows set in Wisconsin General Mills