The New Woody Woodpecker Show (titled on-screen as The Woody Woodpecker Show ) is an American animated comedy television series based on the animated short film series created by cartoonist and animator Walter Lantz . It was co-developed by animators Bob Jaques and Kelly Armstrong, was produced by Universal Cartoon Studios and aired from May 8, 1999 to July 27, 2002 on Fox 's Fox Kids programming block.
21-573: It is an updated version of The Woody Woodpecker Show with characters from the original series and a few new ones appearing in their own segments. Each episode consists of two segments featuring Woody Woodpecker dividing one starring Chilly Willy , with Winnie Woodpecker and Knothead & Splinter also starring in some segments. 53 episodes (consisting of 155 segments plus one episode-length Christmas special, as well as one classic Chilly Willy cartoon) were produced. The segments indicate in colors by which characters starred in them: From episode 27 to
42-463: A complete overhaul of the series format. Gone were the newsreels, "Around the World" segments, and live action scenes with Walter Lantz, replaced by vignettes known as "Musical Miniatures", in which new musical compositions were played over montages of classic cartoon footage. New commercial bumpers were added and a new opening sequence was created. This one featured Woody, Andy Panda, Chilly Willy, Smedley
63-555: A deal with the Leo Burnett Agency to release some older Lantz product on television. Burnett handled the Kellogg's cereal account and Lantz soon met with the Kellogg's people to sign the contract. Lantz admitted that he was only working in the medium because he was "forced into TV" and "cartoons for theaters would soon be extinct". The Woody Woodpecker Show debuted on ABC on the afternoon of October 3, 1957. The series
84-773: A popular source of file footage in recent years. The History Channel made them a key part of the TV series Year-By-Year . Also, C-SPAN and CNN regularly use the films for video of events that took place before those networks were founded. Also in the United Kingdom as Universal News from 1930 to 1959, a successor to Empire News Bulletin, and in Ireland as Universal Irish News, both are currently held (including British Paramount News) under Reuters archive. Other U.S. newsreel series included Pathé News (1910–1956), Fox Movietone News (1928–1963), Hearst Metrotone News/News of
105-472: Is an American television series mainly composed of the animated cartoon shorts of Woody Woodpecker and other Walter Lantz characters including Andy Panda , Chilly Willy , The Beary Family and Inspector Willoughby all released by Walter Lantz Productions . The series was revived and reformatted several times, but remained popular for nearly four decades and allowed the studio to continue making theatrical cartoons until 1972 when it shut down. It also kept
126-529: The Dog, and Inspector Willoughby along with Woody's nemeses Buzz Buzzard, Gabby Gator, and Wally Walrus as they caused chaos in a small town. Episodes of this Woody Woodpecker Show typically consisted of two Woody cartoons bookending another Lantz cartoon (typically a Chilly Willy cartoon). The series continued airing in syndication until 1998. Around that time, Cartoon Network picked up rerun rights and aired The Woody Woodpecker Show for several months, after which
147-616: The Walter Lantz/Universal "cartunes" made during the Golden Age of American animation a part of the American consciousness. The Woody Woodpecker Show was named the 88th best animated series by IGN . Movie theater owners in the 1950s were finding that they could release features with reissued cartoons, or no cartoons at all, and the audiences would still come. Because of the practice, the theatrical cartoon business
168-686: The end of the series, all episodes were directed by Alan Zaslove . The New Woody Woodpecker Show aired on Fox Kids from May 8, 1999, through July 27, 2002. The show also aired on YTV in Canada and Cartoon Network in Australia and Latin America. It also aired on CBBC in the UK. Three DVDs were released in the UK, previously on VHS. Twenty DVDs containing episodes from the Latin Spanish dub of
189-504: The films' owner, MCA , made the decision to donate all its edited newsreels and outtakes collection to the National Archives , without copyright restrictions. The decision effectively released the films into the public domain , although some stories may contain other underlying intellectual property or proprietary use rights. Because royalties no longer have to be paid in order to broadcast them, Universal Newsreels have become
210-437: The next several years. In 1984, Lantz sold everything outright to MCA/Universal , though he remained active in overseeing how Universal handled his characters (for merchandise, TV, home video, theme parks, limited edition cels, etc.) up until his death in 1994. In 1987, MCA/Universal and The Program Exchange returned the show to television with a new 90 episode package for syndication . This Woody Woodpecker Show featured
231-789: The series disappeared from television. After Cartoon Network dropped The Woody Woodpecker Show , Universal revived most of the Lantz characters in The New Woody Woodpecker Show with Billy West voicing Woody, which ran from 1999 to 2002 as part of the Fox Kids Saturday morning lineup. In August 2023, MeTV acquired the broadcast rights to Walter Lantz cartoons from 1934 to 1972 to air The Woody Woodpecker Show on Saturday mornings on September 2 as part of MeTV's Saturday Morning Cartoons animation block, marking Woody's return to television after 21 years (it
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#1732798648892252-486: The shorts, which ranged from shorts from restored and intact prints to severely cut TV edits. In 2007, Universal Studios Home Entertainment released The Woody Woodpecker and Friends Classic Cartoon Collection , six behind-the-scenes segments from The Woody Woodpecker Show and a 1964 episode that contained the cartoon "Spook-a-Nanny" were released on the collection as bonus features. The following year, The Woody Woodpecker and Friends Classic Cartoon Collection: Volume 2
273-503: The show reappeared on network television, with 26 additional episodes assembled by Lantz for NBC . The show ran on NBC until September 2, 1972, which is the same year the Walter Lantz Productions studio shut down. The show was revived again on September 11, 1976, featuring cartoons made from 1940 to 1965. The show ended its network run on September 3, 1977. Local stations continued to air The Woody Woodpecker Show for
294-506: The show were also released throughout mid-to-late 2005. As of February 2018, the first 13 episodes can be viewed on Hulu and Yahoo! View . Previously, all 53 episodes were available for streaming on Netflix . The full series had been part of the NBCUniversal streaming service Peacock , ever since its launch on July 15, 2020, but it has been removed from there since 2024. The Woody Woodpecker Show The Woody Woodpecker Show
315-614: The writers came up with stories and characters. The live-action segments were directed by Jack Hannah, who was fresh from the Disney studio where he had done similar live-action/animation sequences for the Disney show. After the initial year on ABC, The Woody Woodpecker Show was syndicated until 1966. The "A Moment with Walter Lantz" segments were eventually replaced with "Woody's Newsreel" and "Around The World with Woody" which used footage of Universal Newsreels and featured voice-over commentary by Walter Lantz and Woody Woodpecker. In 1970,
336-490: Was also picked up by MeTV Toons one year later). They were not aired in the actual The Woody Woodpecker Show anthology episodes formats, but the separate theatrical cartoon prints are shown directly from the Universal vaults. Cartoons with an '*' are repeats. From Series 3 onward, the episode include four cartoons instead of three. In the process of remastering 49th episode, Destination Meatball (from Woody Woodpecker)
357-443: Was involved in originating and producing the newsreels. Nearly all of them were filmed in black-and-white, and many were narrated by Ed Herlihy . From January 1919 to July 1929, Universal released International Newsreel , produced by Hearst 's International News Service —this series later became Hearst Metrotone News released first by Fox Film Corporation 1929–1934 and then by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer beginning in 1934. In 1974,
378-458: Was released, featuring twelve behind-the-scenes segments and two pilot cartoons, "The Secret Weapon" and "Jungle Medics" from The Woody Woodpecker Show . Universal Newsreel Universal Newsreel (sometimes known as Universal-International Newsreel or just U-I Newsreel ) was a series of 7- to 10-minute newsreels that were released twice a week between 1929 and 1967 by Universal Studios . A Universal publicity official, Sam B. Jacobson ,
399-521: Was replaced with one of Andy Panda's shorts for unknown reasons. (*) = total of 59 episodes with original animation In the early 2000s, a series of mail-order Woody Woodpecker Show VHS tapes and DVDs were made available through Columbia House . Each volume featured "cartunes", bumpers, and 'A Moment with Walter Lantz' or "Newsreel" segments set in the 1957-1977 format of The Woody Woodpecker Show , though Volumes 11-15 hardly feature any "Moments" or "Newsreels". There were complaints about cuts made to
420-461: Was shown once a week, on Thursday afternoons, replacing the first half-hour of the shortened Mickey Mouse Club . Lantz integrated his existing cartoons with new live action footage, giving the show an updated look that satisfied both viewers and Lantz himself. The live action and animation segments created for the show, called 'A Moment with Walter Lantz', featured an informative look at how the animation process for his "cartunes" worked as well as how
441-406: Was suffering and losing money. By 1956 there were only seven animation producers in the short-subjects field, and by the end of the decade that number would dwindle down to three. Walter Lantz and his distributor, Universal Pictures, knew that the only way to subsidize the rising costs of new shorts was to release their product to television. Norman Gluck from Universal's short-subjects department made
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