Tennessee Tuxedo and His Tales

"Tennessee Tuxedo and His Tales" was a popular, semi-educational animated cartoon show that originally aired on CBS from 1963 to 1966. It was produced by Total Television, the same company that produced the earlier "King Leonardo" and the later "Underdog". The title is a play on "tuxedo and tails" formal wear.

Plot / Premise

The cartoon series revolved around the title character, a penguin (voiced by Don Adams of "Get Smart" fame) and his best friend Chumley (voiced by Bradley Bolke), a walrus. The pair lived (not always willingly) at the Megapolis zoo, under the control of the ill-tempered zoo director Stanley Livingston (voiced by Mort Marshall whose character was a play on the missionary David Livingstone and journalist Henry Morton Stanley) and his zookeeper assistant Flunky (voiced by Kenny Delmar). It was on one of Stanley's journeys that Tennessee met Stanley. Actually, it was Chumley that Stanley wanted, as Chumley was at the South Pole. Thus Chumley was a one of a kind: a South Pole walrus. Tennessee agreed to accompany Chumley and Stanley back to the zoo.

At the zoo, Tennessee and Chumley had many friends to help them out, such as Yakkety Yak (also voiced by Kenny Delmar), Baldy the eagle (also voiced by Kenny Delmar), Alfonse the giraffe, Peanuts the elephant, the Gopher brothers, and the Beaver brothers. But they also had a big rival, in the form of Jereboah Jump the kangaroo rat (also voiced by Bradley Bolke). Some of the episodes would center around Tennessee trying to outsmart Jereboah at his own game, and succeeding in the end, of course. They were also constantly bedeviled by Rocky Maninoff (an obvious pun on the composer and musician Sergei Rachmaninoff), a gangster with a Humphrey Bogart-like voice who always called them "dum-dums" and ordered them to do his will at the point of his machine gun.

Tennessee and Chumley regularly escaped from the zoo, only to find trouble in the outside world. When faced with more trouble than they could bear, the pair would turn to their friend, a college professor named Phineas J. Whoopee (voiced by Larry Storch), the "Man with All the Answers". "Mr. Whoopee", as he was known, was extremely knowledgeable on all subjects, and would frequently lecture the pair on such diverse topics as the physics behind the hot air balloon, to how musicians become popular. His lectures were illustrated and animated on the Three Dimensional Blackboard (3DBB for short), that he would retrieve out of an avalanche of junk from his overstuffed hallway closet. At the end of each lecture, Tennessee praised his mentor with the line, "Phineas J. Whoopee, you're the greatest!" The pair would then attempt to use their newly-gained knowledge to get out of the trouble they had created ("Tennessee Tuxedo will NOT fail!"), but would invariably end up in more trouble with Stanley Livingston, who typically punished them in different ways -- ranging from forcing them to work at the rock quarry, to making them scrub pots and pans for six months. Stanley even threatened to skin them alive many times. Occasional back segments included " The World of Commander McBragg", "Klondike Kat", "Tooter Turtle", "The Hunter", and "King Leonardo and his Short Subjects" (The last three rerun from the earlier "King Leonardo" show).

For the voice of the "small penguin, who tries but can't succeed-o", Don Adams used his already-well-known "clippy" voice characterization, which he said was an exaggeration of actor William Powell's voice.

yndication

Like most cartoon series produced by Total Television, later reruns of "Tennessee Tuxedo And His Tales" are quite different from the original network series. The first 34 "Tennessee Tuxedo" cartoons would later be incorporated into syndicated prints of "The Underdog Show". That syndicated package actually was a revised version of another earlier (mid-1960s) syndicated series, "Cartoon Cut-Ups", which featured segments of Underdog, Tennessee Tuxedo and Commander McBragg. In fact, the syndicated "Underdog Show" includes some artifacts including the "Cartoon Cut-Ups" closing (combining portions of the original "Tennessee Tuxedo" and "Underdog" closings, effectively eliminating the punch line of the visual "Post No Bills" joke in the original "Underdog" closing) and the final teaser at the end of the show in which announcer George S. Irving says, "Looks like this is the end...but don't miss our next "Cartoon Cut-Ups" show!" (The line was redubbed to say "Underdog" instead of "Cartoon Cut-Ups.")

In syndication, "Tennessee Tuxedo And His Tales" features different supporting cartoon segments compared to the show's original network run, including some cartoons from the Jay Ward studio. The first 39 syndicated episodes (#901-939) include "Tooter Turtle," "Bullwinkle's Corner" (followed by a vintage "Rocky And His Friends" commercial bumper) and "Aesop And Son." For syndicated episodes #940-945 and again from #956 through the end of the episode cycle, the supporting segments are all Jay Ward cartoons: "Peabody's Improbable History," "Mr. Know-It-All," and "Fractured Fairy Tales." Syndicated shows #946 through #955 repeat the "Tooter Turtle," "Bullwinkle's Corner" and "Aesop And Son" cartoons already shown in episodes #901-910. The 70 "Tuxedo" cartoons themselves each appear twice over the 140 syndicated shows, in addition to the aforementioned repeats of the first 34 segments as part of the syndicated "Underdog Show". (During a recent run on the Black Family Channel cable network, only shows #901-934 were aired.)

In its first season during its original network run, "Tennessee Tuxedo And His Tales" featured segments of "The Hunter" and "The King And Odie." Both segments originated on the 1960 series "King Leonardo And His Short Subjects," but "Tennessee" included 26 newly-produced segments of both, which were not seen on the original "King Leonardo" program (and were not syndicated as part of that package either). The following season, "The Hunter" began appearing as a segment on "The Underdog Show," and the "Hunter" spot in "Tennessee Tuxedo And His Tales" was filled by repeated segments of "Tooter Turtle" (a character also previously seen on "King Leonardo And His Short Subjects"). The "Tooter" cartoons shown on "Tennessee" were all repeated segments; no new segments were produced. Between 1968 and 1970, "Tooter Turtle" and "The Hunter" were seen as part of ABC-TV's "The Dudley Do-Right Show". The 26 "Hunter" and "King & Odie" segments originally produced for "Tennessee Tuxedo" are seen in syndicated reruns as part of the "Dudley Do-Right And Friends" package (which also is different from the 1968-1970 "Dudley Do-Right Show").

DVD

A DVD titled "The Best of Tennessee Tuxedo and His Tales" was released in 2006. It contains 15 "sort of educational" episodes from the series, with no series titles or other introductions, except for one of the versions of the theme song, which plays over the table of contents.

One of the two "extras" on the DVD is a set of about ten audio-only out-takes from the recording of this version of the theme song. During the session the engineer is heard speaking to the musicians and singers. The voice of the engineer was revealed on June 28, 2007, on the Howard Stern Show as the voice of Howard's father Ben Stern.

The other "extra" is a short collection of corny riddles posed to Mr. Whoopee and his 3DBB by Chumley and Tennessee. Example: What has four legs and only one foot? A bed.

Episode list

* released on DVD
1. A Wreck of a Record*
2. Admiral Tennessee
3. Aztec Antics
4. Boning Up on Dinosaurs
5. Brain Strain
6. Brushing Off a Toothache
7. By the Plight of the Moon
8. Catch a Falling Hammock
9. Coat Minors
10. Dog Daze
11. Food Feud
12. Funny Honey
13. Getting Steamed Up
14. Going Up
15. Hail to the Chief
16. Helicopter Hi-Jinks
17. Hooray X-Ray
18. Hot Air Heroes
19. House Painters
20. How Does Your Garden Grow
21. Howl, Howl - The Gang's All Here*
22. Irrigation Irritation
23. Lever Levity
24. Madcap Movie-Makers
25. Minor Forty-Niner
26. Mixed-Up Mechanics
27. Monsters from Another Park
28. Oik's Well
29. Parachuting Pickle*
30. Peace and Quiet
31. Perils of a Platypuss
32. Phunnie Munnie
33. Physical Fitness
34. Playing it Safe
35. Private Eye Detectives
36. Robot Revenge
37. Rocket Ruckus*
38. Rocky Road to Diamonds
39. Sail On, Sail On*
40. Samantha
41. Scuttled Sculpture*
42. Signed and Sealed
43. Smilin' Yak's Sky Service
44. Snap That Picture
45. Snow Go
46. Sword Play
47. Tale of a Tiger*
48. Teddy Bear Trouble
49. Telephone Terrors*
50. Tell-Tale Telegraph*
51. The Barbers
52. The Big Drip
53. The Big Question
54. The Bridge Builders*
55. The Cheap Skates
56. The Eyes Have It
57. The Giant Clam Caper*
58. The Goblins Will Get You
59. The Lamplighters*
60. The Rainmakers*
61. The Romance of the Plymouth Rock
62. The Treasure of Jack and the Joker
63. The Tree Trimmers
64. The Zoolympics
65. There Auto Be A Law
66. Three Ring Circus
67. Tic-Tock*
68. TV Testers
69. Wish-Wash*
70. Zoo's News

External links

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