Tom Terrific is a 1957–1959 animated series on American television , presented as part of the Captain Kangaroo children's television show.
52-665: Created by Gene Deitch under the Terrytoons studio (which by that time was a subsidiary of CBS, the network that broadcast Captain Kangaroo ), Tom Terrific was made as twenty-six stories, each split into five episodes, with one five-minute episode broadcast per day. The first thirteen stories were filmed in 1957, with the second set in 1958. Captain Kangaroo continued to rerun the episodes for many years. Starting in 1962, Captain Kangaroo broadcast Tom Terrific every other week, alternating with Terrytoons' Lariat Sam . Drawn in
104-485: A "UPA man", Deitch had misgivings about the latter property, thinking they were "needlessly violent". However, after being assigned to work on the series, he quickly realized that "nobody took [the violence] seriously", and it was merely "a parody of exaggerated human emotions". He also came to see what he perceived as the "biblical roots" in Tom and Jerry's conflict, similar to David and Goliath , stating "That's where we feel
156-491: A Farmer Al Falfa short for Edison Pictures , called "Farmer Al Falfa's Wayward Pup" (1917), and some later cartoons were made for Paramount Pictures . Around 1921, Terry founded the Fables animation studio, named for its Aesop's Film Fables series, in conjunction with the studio of Amedee J. Van Beuren . Fables churned out a Fable cartoon every week for eight years in the 1920s. In 1928, Van Beuren, anxious to compete with
208-451: A connection to these cartoons: the little guy can win (or at least survive) to fight another day." Contemporary critics often regarded Deitch's shorts as the worst in the Tom and Jerry series; Deitch said some fans wrote positive letters to him, stating that his Tom and Jerry shorts were their personal favorites. Alongside Rembrandt's head William L. Snyder , Deitch co-produced and directed
260-594: A lifetime contribution to the art of animation. Deitch met his first wife, Marie, when they both worked at North American Aviation, and they married in 1943. Their three sons, Kim , Simon, and Seth Deitch, are artists and writers for underground and alternative comics . Several days after arriving in Prague in October 1959, Deitch met Zdenka Najmanová , the production manager at the studio Bratři v triku where he worked. They married in 1964. Deitch's memoir, For
312-465: A parody of late-night talk shows with Heckle and Jeckle serving as hosts of the show, along with their assistant Dinky Duck, and would have featured new cartoons featuring Terrytoon characters like Deputy Dawg, Sidney the Elephant, and Mighty Mouse. Curbside features talented voices of Toby Huss and Bobcat Goldthwait as Heckle & Jeckle, Dee Bradley Baker as Dinky Duck, Mighty Mouse and Sidney
364-487: A predecessor of Marvel Comics , in 1942. St. John Publications took over the license from 1947 to 1956, Pines Comics published Terrytoons comics from 1956 to 1959, Dell Comics made an attempt from 1959 to 1962 (and again later from 1966 to 1967), and finally Western Publishing published Mighty Mouse comics from 1962 all the way up to 1980. The lead title, Terry-Toons Comics , was published by Timely from Oct. 1942–Aug. 1947. With issue #60 (Sept. 1947), publication of
416-469: A series of TV shorts of Krazy Kat for King Features from 1962 to 1964. The Bluffers , which was based on one of Deitch's ideas, was also co-produced by him. He directed the 1966 film Alice of Wonderland in Paris . In 1966, he worked with Czech animator Jiří Trnka on a feature-length animated film adaptation of The Hobbit . However, producer Snyder could not secure the funds, and in order to not let
468-490: A simple black-and white style reminiscent of children's drawings, the show features a gee-whiz boy hero, Tom Terrific, who lives in a treehouse and can transform himself into anything he wants, thanks to his magical funnel -shaped "thinking cap", which also enhances his intelligence. He has a comic lazybones of a sidekick , Mighty Manfred the Wonder Dog, and an arch-foe named Crabby Appleton, whose motto is, "I'm rotten to
520-607: A well-known Disney animator. Through much of its history, the studio was considered one of the lowest-quality houses in the field, to the point where Paul Terry noted, "Let Walt Disney be the Tiffany's of the business. I want to be the Woolworth's !" Terry's studio had the lowest budgets and was among the slowest to adapt to new technologies such as sound (in about 1930) and Technicolor (in 1938). While its graphic style remained remarkably static for decades, it actually followed
572-581: The Deputy Dawg series for television in 1959. Another television production for the Captain Kangaroo show was The Adventures of Lariat Sam , which was written in part by Gene Wood , who would later become the announcer for several TV gameshows including Family Feud . Phil Scheib continued as the studio's musical director through the mid-1960s when he was replaced by Jim Timmens and Elliott Lawrence. The best-known talent at Terrytoons in
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#1732791361730624-581: The "K" Building in downtown New Rochelle. The studio created many cartoon characters including Fanny Zilch , Mighty Mouse , Heckle and Jeckle , Gandy Goose , Sourpuss, Dinky Duck , Little Roquefort, the Terry Bears, Dimwit, and Luno ; Terry's pre-existing character Farmer Al Falfa was also featured often in the series. The "New Terrytoons" period of the late 1950s through the mid-1960s produced such characters as Clint Clobber , Tom Terrific , Deputy Dawg , Hector Heathcote , Hashimoto-san , Sidney
676-609: The CBS Films subsidiary. Later, in 1957 CBS put it under the management of UPA alumni Gene Deitch , who had to work with even lower budgets. Deitch's most notable works at the studio were the Tom Terrific cartoon segments for the Captain Kangaroo television show. He also introduced a number of new characters, such as Sidney the Elephant, Gaston Le Crayon, John Doormat, and Clint Clobber . Before Deitch
728-537: The United Feature Syndicate comic strip The Real-Great Adventures of Terr’ble Thompson!, Hero of History , starring a courageous child in fantastical adventures. A skit about Terr'ble Thompson had been recorded by Little Golden Records , with actor Art Carney and bandleader Mitch Miller participating. That led to the daily strip, which ran from Sunday, October 16, 1955, to April 14, 1956. In early 1958, his theatrical cartoon Sidney's Family Tree
780-514: The public domain and have either been issued on low-budget VHS tapes and DVDs or have been uploaded on sites such as Internet Archive . On January 5, 2010, the first official release of any Terrytoons material by CBS DVD was issued in the form of the complete series of Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures . In 1999, Nickelodeon attempted to revive the Terrytoons characters as part of a TV series called Curbside . Curbside would have been
832-619: The "Hero of Hist'ry" and freely travelled back in time to assist historical figures. An illustrated book reprinting the adventures of this precursor to Tom Terrific was published by Fantagraphics Books . All the voices were performed by Lionel Wilson (who later voiced Eustace Bagge from the Cartoon Network series Courage the Cowardly Dog ). The character Tom Terrific was ranked #32 by TV Guide magazine on its 2002 list of "50 Greatest TV Cartoon Characters". Each episode
884-585: The 1930s, giving the Terry cartoons wide exposure. Following the merger between Fox Film and 20th Century , the newly formed 20th Century Fox withdrew its support from Educational Pictures, and the company both backed and distributed Terrytoons. Farmer Al Falfa was Terry's most familiar character in the 1930s; Kiko the Kangaroo was spun off the Farmer Al Falfa series. Most of the other cartoons featured stock generic animal characters and designs, one of which
936-527: The 1960s was animator/director/producer Ralph Bakshi , who started with Terrytoons in the 1950s as an opaquer, and eventually helmed the Mighty Heroes series. Bakshi left Terrytoons in 1967 for Paramount 's own cartoon studio , which closed its cartoon unit later that year. He would later go on to produce Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures for television in 1987, which was also produced by future Ren & Stimpy creator John Kricfalusi . After
988-412: The 1970s Terrytoons cartoons (especially Mighty Mouse and Deputy Dawg ) being syndicated to many local TV markets, and they were a staple of after-school and Saturday-morning cartoon shows for over three decades, from the 1950s through the 1980s, until the television rights to the library were acquired by USA Network in 1989. However, any new cartoons of the studio's stars came from other studios. In
1040-468: The Elephant, Billy West as Deputy Dawg, Haley Joel Osment as Tom Terrific, and additional voices of Baker, West, Charlie Adler , and Rob Paulsen . However, it was never picked up, making it the only Terrytoons show that was never officially released. Between 2001 and 2002, the Terrytoons characters returned to television in original commercials for Brazilian blue cheese (for what is now America's Dairy Farmers) and fine wine. One such infamous commercial
1092-408: The Elephant, Possible Possum, James Hound, Astronut , Sad Cat , The Mighty Heroes , and Sally Sargent. Also during that time, Ralph Bakshi got his start as an animator, and eventually as a director, at Terrytoons. Terrytoons shorts were originally released to theaters by 20th Century Fox from 1935 until 1973. After Paul Terry had retired, Terrytoons was sold to CBS , which would later purchase
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#17327913617301144-653: The Love of Prague , is based on his experience of being what he called "the only free American living and working in Prague during 30 years of the Communist Party dictatorship". According to Deitch, although he was followed by the StB and his phone was tapped, he was never aware of their presence and was never interrogated nor arrested. In 2008, Deitch retired from making cartoons. Deitch died in Prague on April 16, 2020, at
1196-604: The Timely run. That series eventually ran 71 issues with St. John, moving to Pines for 16 issues from Apr. 1956 to Aug. 1959, to Dell for 12 issues from Oct./Dec. 1959–July/Sept. 1962, and Western for 17 issues from Oct. 1962 to Jan. 1980 (with a hiatus from Sept. 1965 to Mar. 1979), finally ending with issue #172. St. John's Terrytoons comics include the field's first 3-D comic book, Three Dimension Comics #1 (Sept. 1953 oversize format, Oct. 1953 standard-size reprint), featuring Mighty Mouse. According to Joe Kubert , co-creator with
1248-491: The age of 95. Shortly before his death, Deitch had noted intestinal problems. Terrytoons Terrytoons was an American animation studio headquartered in New Rochelle, New York that produced animated cartoons for theatrical release from 1929 to 1973 (and briefly returned between 1987 and 1996 for television in-name only). It was founded by Paul Terry , Frank Moser , and Joseph Coffman, and operated out of
1300-577: The characters (such as Mighty Mouse, Heckle and Jeckle, Dinky Duck, Deputy Dawg, and others) were slated to make cameos in the 1988 film Who Framed Roger Rabbit , but only Oscar the Timid Pig, Looey Lion, and a character resembling Gandy Goose appeared. They can all be seen during the film's finale. They were also planned to appear in the deleted scene of Marvin Acme's funeral. In 1994, Fox would sell its Terrytoons theatrical distribution to Paramount, which
1352-805: The city. Munro premiered in Czechoslovakia in September 1960 and in the U.S. on October 5, 1961, as a short preceding Breakfast at Tiffany's . It won an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film in 1961, the first short created outside of the United States to be so honored. Munro was preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2004. From 1960 to 1963, Deitch was hired by Rembrandt to direct Popeye cartoons for television for King Features , and from 1961 to 1962 he directed 13 new Tom and Jerry shorts for MGM . Being
1404-678: The core!" Other foes include Mr. Instant the Instant Thing King, Captain Kidney Bean, Sweet Tooth Sam the Candy Bandit, and Isotope Feeney the Meany. Some of the dialogue was written by cartoonist Jules Feiffer . Gene Deitch adapted the feature from his earlier newspaper comic strip, "Terr'ble Thompson!" distributed during the 1950s by United Features Syndicate. Terr'ble Thompson was a six-year-old boy who imagined himself to be
1456-513: The departure of Ralph Bakshi , the studio petered out, and finally closed in 1973. As a result of the FCC banning TV networks from owning cable television and syndication of television programs, CBS created Viacom Enterprises to handle all network programs beyond TV production and network broadcasting. On July 4, 1971, Viacom Enterprises spun off from CBS; neither Viacom Enterprises nor CBS had any interest in Terrytoons. The Terrytoons film library
1508-506: The entire library. Paramount Pictures would eventually take theatrical rights ownership of the Terrytoons library in 1994 (which was then already purchased by Viacom ), and would purchase CBS in 2000. As of 2019, Paramount Pictures has owned the rights to the studio and its library after the re-merger of Viacom and CBS. Terry first worked for Bray Studios in 1916, where he created the Farmer Al Falfa series. He would then make
1560-420: The late 1970s, Filmation Studios licensed the rights to make the new Mighty Mouse and Heckle & Jeckle series from Viacom International. The series was The New Adventures of Mighty Mouse and Heckle & Jeckle and aired from 1979 to 1980 on CBS. Ralph Bakshi would later produce Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures in 1987, which lasted for two seasons. Bakshi and his friend John Kricfalusi inspired
1612-506: The network, but otherwise found little success and eventually abandoned music only to be rediscovered decades later, through recordings Deitch had made of her music in 1954. In 1955, Deitch took an apprenticeship at the animation studio United Productions of America (UPA), and later became the creative director of Terrytoons , creating such characters as Sidney the Elephant, Gaston Le Crayon, Tom Terrific , and Clint Clobber . Beginning in 1955, while working at UPA, Deitch wrote and drew
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1664-439: The new phenomenon of talking pictures , released Terry's Dinner Time (released October 1928). Van Beuren then urged Terry to start producing actual sound films, instead of post-synchronizing the cartoons. Terry refused, and Van Beuren fired him in 1929. Almost immediately, Terry and much of his staff started up the Terrytoons studio near his former studio. One staff member during that time was Art Babbitt , who went on to become
1716-496: The rights for the novel expire, he asked Deitch to produce a short film adaptation in 30 days. Deitch and illustrator Adolf Born made a 13-minute animated film never intended for distribution; the film was long considered lost until it was rediscovered by Snyder's son and released on YouTube in 2012. Also in 1966, Deitch created a young girl adventurer in Terrible Tessie . From 1969 until his retirement in 2008, Deitch
1768-648: The sound cartoon trend of the late 1920s and early 1930s very quickly. Background music was entrusted to one man, Philip Scheib, and Terry's refusal to pay royalties for popular songs forced Scheib to compose his own scores. Paul Terry took pride in producing a new cartoon every other week, regardless of the quality of the films. Until 1957, screen credits were very sparse, listing only the writer (until 1950, solely John Foster; then Tom Morrison thereafter), director (Terry's three main directors were Connie Rasinski , Eddie Donnelly, and Mannie Davis), and musician (musical director Philip A. Scheib). Terrytoons' first distributor
1820-455: The staff to try to get as much Jim Tyer-style drawing in the show as possible. Tyer, a stand-out Terry animator of the original cartoons with a unique style, became a strong influence on the artists of the Bakshi series, such as now recognizable artists and animators— Bruce Timm , Doug Moench , Andrew Stanton , Rich Moore , Lynne Naylor , Jim Reardon , Tom Minton , and Bob Jaques . Many of
1872-544: The studio to a ghost studio with executive producer Bill Weiss and story supervisor Tom Morrison; Viacom kept the studio open until 1972. By October 1972, Viacom International announced that Terrytoons would leave New Rochelle and relocate to Viacom International's office in New York City. By December 29, Viacom sold the now abandoned New Rochelle studio, and the company's fate was forever sealed. Bill Weiss continued Terrytoons production from his New York City office with
1924-501: The title was taken over by St. John Publications, which published another 27 issues until issue #86 (May 1951). The series continued in 1951 (with duplicate issues #85–86) as Paul Terry's Comics , publishing another 41 issues until May 1955, when it was canceled with issue #125. Timely launched the Mighty Mouse series in 1946. The first St. John Terrytoons comic was Mighty Mouse #5 (Aug. 1947), its numbering also taken over from
1976-450: The year, but 20th Century Fox continued to release Terrytoons to theaters for the next two decades. With a new emphasis on "star" characters, Terrytoons featured the adventures of Super Mouse (later renamed Mighty Mouse ), the talking magpies Heckle and Jeckle , silly Gandy Goose , Dinky Duck , mischievous mouse Little Roquefort, and The Terry Bears. Despite the artistic drawbacks imposed by Terry's inflexible business policies, Terrytoons
2028-629: Was Educational Pictures , specialists in short-subject comedies and novelties. Audio-Cinema in the early 1930s backed the production of Terrytoons, and distributed the Educational library internationally, except in the United Kingdom and Ireland where the library was distributed by Educational and Gaumont-British in partnership with the Ideal Film Company . The Fox Film company then released Educational shorts to theaters in
2080-577: Was drafted and underwent pilot training before catching pneumonia and was honorably discharged in May of the following year. From 1940 to 1951, Deitch contributed covers and interior art to the jazz magazine The Record Changer . In the 1950s, Deitch was an early supporter and audio engineer for Connie Converse , one of the first American singer-songwriters, recording sessions that made up her debut album How Sad, How Lovely . Converse appeared once on CBS television due in part to Deitch's connections with
2132-454: Was a scruffy dog with a black patch around one eye; Terry ultimately built a series around this character, now known as Puddy the Pup. Paul Terry may have realized that Educational was in financial trouble because he found another lucrative outlet for his product. In 1938, he arranged to release his older cartoons through home-movie distributor Castle Films . Educational went out of business within
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2184-562: Was cancelled and has been in development hell since then. However, development later revived in April 2019 for Paramount Animation with Jon and Erich Hoeber to write the screenplay and both Karen Rosenfelt and Robert W. Cort to produce. Among the many licensed Terrytoons products are comic books, mainly published throughout the 1940s and 1950s. The company's characters — including Mighty Mouse, Heckle and Jeckle, Dinky Duck, Gandy Goose, and Little Roquefort — were initially licensed to Timely,
2236-517: Was fired in 1959, Bill Weiss took complete control of the studio. Under his supervision, Heckle and Jeckle and Mighty Mouse went back into production. Besides the three core directors of the Terry era who were still involved as animators and directors, two Famous Studios stalwarts joined the crew, Dave Tendlar and Martin Taras . Other new theatrical cartoon series included Hector Heathcote , Luno and Hashimoto San . The studio also began producing
2288-411: Was folded into CBS Entertainment Group after releasing Jexi on the same day, Paramount Pictures now owns the theatrical distribution on behalf of Paramount Animation and CBS Entertainment Group, while CBS Media Ventures (formed in 2006) owns the television distribution on behalf of CBS Eye Animation Productions to the Terrytoons film library. However, some Terrytoons shorts are believed to be in
2340-704: Was known for creating animated cartoons such as Munro , Tom Terrific , and Nudnik , as well as his work on the Popeye and Tom and Jerry series. Deitch was born in Chicago on August 8, 1924, the son of Jewish parents Joseph Deitch, a salesman, and Ruth Delson Deitch. In 1929, the family moved to California, and Deitch attended school in Hollywood. He graduated from Los Angeles High School in 1942. After graduating, Deitch began working for North American Aviation , drawing aircraft blueprints. In 1943, he
2392-606: Was nominated for an Academy Award. In August 1958, he was fired from Terrytoons and set up his own studio in New York called Gene Deitch Associates, Inc., which primarily produced television commercials. When the client Rembrandt Films promised to fund Munro , an animated theatrical short Deitch wanted to create, Deitch relocated to the company's base in Prague , Czechoslovakia , in October 1959. He originally planned to spend only ten days in Prague. Still, after meeting his future wife, Zdenka, he decided to settle permanently in
2444-520: Was nominated four times for the Academy Award for Animated Short Film : All Out for V in 1942, My Boy, Johnny in 1944, Mighty Mouse in Gypsy Life in 1945, and Sidney's Family Tree in 1958. The studio was sold outright by the retiring Paul Terry to CBS in 1955, but 20th Century Fox (TCF) continued distribution. The deal closed the following year in 1956, and it became a division of
2496-402: Was shown in five installments, one per day, Monday through Friday. As of 2024, there has not been an authorized VHS , DVD or Blu-ray release of the series. Gene Deitch Eugene Merril Deitch (August 8, 1924 – April 16, 2020) was an American illustrator, animator , comics artist, and film director who was based in Prague from the 1960s until his death in 2020. Deitch
2548-479: Was still regularly re-released to theaters by Fox. The studio's one of the last short was an unsold TV pilot called Sally Sargent , about a 16-year-old girl who is a secret agent. Soon after Sally Sargent was completed, Viacom International ended their relationship with Fox and re-releases ceased. Terrytoons’ existence soon came to an end. Art Bartsch, who kept the studio running after Bakshi left, would soon die along with Connie Rasinski, and Bob Kuwahara , reducing
2600-558: Was the Mighty Mouse ad (entitled "Dining With Cheese") dining calmly on cheese in a restaurant, utterly unconcerned with a scene of chaos and terror visibly unfolding in the street outside. That said commercial was then pulled from airing following the September 11th attacks . In 2004, a supposed live-action/animated hybrid Mighty Mouse film adaptation was announced for Nickelodeon Movies and Paramount Pictures with Steve Oedekerk of Omation Animation Studio to produce and direct, but
2652-679: Was the leading animation director for the Connecticut organization Weston Woods Studios , adapting children's picture books. Deitch adapted 37 films for Weston Woods, from Drummer Hoff in 1969 to Voyage to the Bunny Planet in 2008. His studio was located in Prague near the Barrandov Studios , where many major films were shot. In 2003, Deitch was awarded the Annie Awards ' Winsor McCay Award by ASIFA-Hollywood for
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#17327913617302704-517: Was then purchased by Viacom that same year, and would go on to purchase CBS six years later in 2000. However, through the years that have followed since the last Terrytoons TV series material in 1988, the rights have been scattered as a result of prior rights issues and the corporate changes involving Viacom and CBS, especially in 2005. Since CBS Corporation re-merged with Viacom to form ViacomCBS ( Paramount Global as of February 2022), reuniting CBS with Paramount, on December 4, 2019, and CBS Films
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