''Hoppity Hooper'' is an American

animated Animation is a filmmaking technique whereby image, still images are manipulated to create Motion picture, moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on cel, transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and e ...

television series A television show, TV program (), or simply a TV show, is the general reference to any content produced for viewing on a television set that is broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, and cable, or distributed digitally on streaming plat ...

produced by

Jay Ward Joseph Ward Cohen Jr. (September 20, 1920 – October 12, 1989), also known as Jay Ward, was an American creator and producer of animated TV cartoon shows. He produced animated series based on such characters as Crusader Rabbit, Rocky & Bu ...

, and sponsored by

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

, originally broadcast on

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting * Aliw Broadcasting Corporation, Philippine broadcast company * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial American ...

from September 12, 1964, until 1967. It is one of the earliest

Saturday morning cartoon "Saturday-morning cartoon" is a colloquial term for the original animated series and live-action programming that was typically scheduled on Saturday and Sunday mornings in the United States on the "Big Three" television networks. The genre was a ...

s and Jay Ward's first original one for this schedule. The series was produced in Hollywood by

and Bill Scott, with animation done in Mexico City by Gamma Productions.

Premise

The three main characters are Hoppity Hooper, a plucky frog, voiced by Chris Allen; Waldo P. Wigglesworth, a

patent medicine A patent medicine (sometimes called a proprietary medicine) is a non-prescription medicine or medicinal preparation that is typically protected and advertised by a trademark and trade name, and claimed to be effective against minor disorders a ...

-hawking fox, voiced by

Hans Conried Hans Georg Conried Jr. (April 15, 1917 – January 5, 1982) was an American actor and comedian. He was known for providing the voices of George Darling and Captain Hook in Walt Disney's '' Peter Pan'' (1953), Snidely Whiplash in Jay Ward's ...

, 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 United Kingdom and United States television, is a standalone episode of a television series that is used to sell a show to a television netwo ...

; and Fillmore, a bear wearing a

Civil War A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, 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 policies.J ...

hat and coat, (poorly) playing his

bugle The bugle is a simple signaling brass instrument with a wide conical bore. It normally has no valves or other pitch-altering devices, and is thus limited to its natural harmonic notes, and pitch is controlled entirely by varying the air a ...

, voiced by Bill Scott (with

Alan Reed Alan Reed (born Herbert Theodore Bergman; August 20, 1907 – June 14, 1977) was an American actor, best known as the original voice of Fred Flintstone on ''The Flintstones'' and various spinoff series. He also appeared in many films, includin ...

portraying the character in the pilot). The stories revolved around the three main characters, who lived in Foggy Bog,

Wisconsin Wisconsin ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest of the United States. It borders Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michig ...

, 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 ''

Rocky and Bullwinkle ''Rocky'' is a 1976 American independent sports drama film directed by John G. Avildsen and written by and starring Sylvester Stallone. It is the first installment in the ''Rocky'' franchise and also stars Talia Shire, Burt Young, Carl Weat ...

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

Paul Frees Solomon Hersh Frees (June 22, 1920November 2, 1986), better known as Paul Frees, 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 the ...

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 dramatic convention, 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. ...

. 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 Commander McBragg is a cartoon character who appeared in short segments (usually 90 seconds) produced by Total Television Productions and animated by Gamma Productions. These segments first appeared in 1963 on the animated series ''Tennessee Tuxedo ...

''. 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 An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its Aircraft flight control system, directional flight controls. Some other aircrew, aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are al ...

was produced in 1960 and featured

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 Flintst ...

on ''

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

'' 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

and

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

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.

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 Shirley Silvey (December 5, 1927 – July 17, 2010) was an American animator, whose credits included ''Mr. Magoo'', ''The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show'', '' Dudley Do-Right Show'' and ''George of the Jungle''. Silvey was considered a pioneer in ani ...

*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 Ponsonby Britt was the credited—but fictional—executive producer of the television series ''The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show'', '' Fractured Flickers'', ''Hoppity Hooper'', and ''George of the Jungle''. In 1959, TV-network executives in ...

O.B.E. The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two 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 *

- Uncle Waldo P. Wigglesworth *

(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 animated television series debuts 1967 American television series endings American children's animated comedy television series Jay Ward Productions American English-language television shows Animated television series about frogs Television shows set in Wisconsin General Mills American Broadcasting Company animated television series Male characters in animation Children's television series about talking animals