King Leonardo

[Martianinvader]

Seeing a Batfink topic reminds me of something else with limited animation...

In 1994 a local TV station ran something called "King Leonardo" in the early afternoon. It appeared to be some ancient kids show from a long-past decade. It had a VERY LONG theme song, and then a VERY LONG reprise of the theme song at the end, to eat up as much space as possible.

Leonardo was, expectedly, a Lion King....though, unexpectedly, he talked like a southern cowboy. "DAD-BURN IT, KEEDS, DON'T MISS MY NEXT SHOW!" His hired help was named "Rodeo Colonie" if my ears are correct, and don't ask me what animal "Rodeo" was.

There was something in the middle of every show where a turtle would visit a magician because he was unhappy with his life, so the magician would zap him somewhere else, with bad results....then he'd come back and the wizard would say some dumb rhyme that ended with "To be one's self, is the happiest lot!"

Yeah, my mind isn't too sharp on how all this went, but I think I actually saw Rocky and Bullwinkle show up in one episode. I was wondering if it was a Pat Ward production, because I've never seen something called "King Leonardo" credited to him. If not, then how did Rocky and Bullwinkle get on there??

[Sharklady]

> His hired help was named "Rodeo Colonie" if my ears are correct, and don't ask me what animal "Rodeo" was. <

Actually, that skunk is 'Odie Colognie' (get the joke? A skunk named after a perfume?)

And if Leonardo is saying DAD-BURN IT these days, he's been dubbed- his original trademark explicative was CONFOUND IT! They even had an episode centered around that proclivity: a flashback about his Mom trying (unsucessfully) to cure him of the habit when he was a kid.

Here's a site with more info:

http://www.toonopedia.com/leonardo.htm

[Martianinvader]

I thought Jim Davis invented the word "Odie."

So, have there also been cartoon characters named "Nermal" before?

[Brainatra]

Tooter Turtle's segments revolved around the turtle in question trying out new jobs in each episode (thanks to the magic of the wizard), only to find he gets himself into trouble and needed to be rescued----thus, the lizard reciting his retrieval spell/catchphrase: "drizzle, drazzle, druzzle, drone---time for *this* one to come *home*!"

(The phrase showed up in a few Simpsons comics, of all places...)

I saw this show as a kid when it aired in syndication (yes, with a long theme song).

-B.

[Kolbar]

This thread belongs in the Boomerang forum.

Thread moved.

[Steve Carras]

This thread belongs in the Boomerang forum.

Thread moved.That explains why it suddenly showed up herer without any sorta "highlighting": like would happen with a new "vBulletin"(the enginge for this board) thread.:bosko:

KING LEONARDO [AND HIS SHORT SUBJECTS] (retitled in syndication to: THE KING AND ODIE SHOW) , UNDERDOG, TENNESEE TUXEDO AND HIS TALES, BEAGLES & GO GO GOPHERS from Leonardo TV(guess how they got that name!)/New York & Total Teleivison/New York and Producer's Associates/New Yorkand ROCKY AND BULLWINKLE aka ROCKY AND FRIENDS aka BULLWINKLE,and DUDLEY DORIGHT
from Jay Ward/Hollywood and Producers Associates/New York and all of their respective compents whatsoever have all had one thing in common besides the cosprodcution and hsared space all of which as mentioned:

The aforementioned Gamma Productions/Mexiico.

(Later Jay Ward shows like GEORGE OF THE JUNGLE and possibly HOPPITY) had Hollywood animaiton entirtely.

As for the content of KING L. the lion (Jackson Beck aka Bluto/Brutus) was the inheritor of a throne intended for hbsi beatnik goofball brother Itchy Brother.Guess why he was ITCHY,brother! :p (voiced by Allen Swift).

The head of the racketeering side was Biggy Rat (voiced like King Leonardso by Jackson Beck). The aide aka retainer was the skunk, Odie Colonge (voiced like Biggy Rat by Allen Swift, the voice of Tooter Turtle :D ). BTW if Moe hare of Paramount Famous as right noted looked by :bugs1: Bunny---then Odie C. sure as heck looked like Pepe Le Pew!:D (No points for guessing if he had a sister named Coco Chantel Cologne).

Tooter,as mentioned was voiced by Al Swift (then doing the camp Gene Deitch/Bil Snyder-Rembrandt :tomcat: and :jerry: toons(some partly by England's Halas-Batcheldor) as the Terrytons-esque "Clint Clobber" tough amtser of :tomcat:) and mentor Mister Wizard, Frank Milano.

Kenny Delmar aka Foghorn Leghorn's voice influence (Senator Claghorn) used that same voice of the dog,m Hunter whose voice also did a differnet voice for Commander McBragg a few years later on the same studio's TENNESSE (1963).

George S.Irving (HEAT MISER of Rankin-Bass's YEAR WITHOUT A SANTA CLAUS ['74] and Cinnamon Collectible Altoids fame) narrated the KING and TWINKLES ELEPHANT segments and provided the voices for the latter---------KennY Delmar narrated the HUNTER and Milano as his lizard narrated TOOTER.


All of these segments wound up on UNDERDOG and other Leonardo/TTV seriees, and on Jay Ward's DUDLEY and HOPPITY HOPPER in one way and at one time or another.

[Steve Carras]

"King Leonardo and His Short Subjects" is NOT Jay Ward, but Total Television Production (studio later renamed Leonardo Production)
So THAT"s why there were those two names united in the credits! THe voices (quiite large at that time--New York's acting rules probaly didn't allow as few as did Hollywood in those days--in the 90s some BEAVIS & BUTTHEADS and many RENA DNS TIMPY just had the few basic players (Mike Judge for B&B'HEAD and John Kircfalusi and Billy West for R&S with no or very few supports--rare for ANY modern toon done in USA!:p )

Back thern in the WEST coast, and handful of New York toons, few actors sufficed till 9as Mark Evanier notes in POVoinline.com in Animtion:Caqrtoon voices:Part 1-3,'tilll mid-November 1967 when a new SAG ruling took effect,requring more actors wqhich is what at least overall the TOTAL shows had.UNDERDOG seemed to have Georse S "Heat Miser" Iring narratin and doing the intelliligible Go Go Gopher (Sandy becker was the other one as well as the Sarge to ken Delmar's Kit Coyote) in GO GO GOPHERS), for the UNDERDSOG segemtn andf the KLONDIE KAT one using the same voice and did that functionas I mentioned for KING LEONARDO AND ODIE tritle and TWINKLLES segment (for which, as I've alwso mentioned G.S.Irving did all the voices).

Waly Cox did UNDERDOG, Norma McMillan Sweet Polly, and Al Swift as Simon Bar Sinister (a la veteran character actor Lionel Barrymore, whose great ganddaughter is FEVEWR PITCH/50 FIRST DTAES star Drew Barrymore--she had MANY famous family members,didn't she?John & Ethel well and many others), and possibly as the vulpine Riff Raff (a poardy of character acotr/.comic Sheldon Leonard-maybe his then current shedule on a post LEONARDO lion king show--LINUS THE LIONHEARTED as the title King o' Beasts kept him off UNDERDOG-both done in YC).

The similiar animation styles and on-network and off-netowkr syndication packages of Ward and Total shows tend to confuse a lot of folks as wlel.

(Many other toons NOT lumped with those had the same animation style show many mentally lumped the following with UNDERDOG or HOPPITY whithout them even being bracketed with those shows: DICK TRACY (UP)A, MAGOO (UPA of course!), LINUS (Ed Graham), PINNOCHIO (Rankin-Bass then known as Videocraft just as Leonardo TV was then still called Total TV), WIZARD OF OZ (Videocraft-RB) , ALVIN SHOW (Format and Jack KMinney),some POPEYES (King Feature/Format/Kinney) and ROGER RAMJET (Kenneth Snyder/Pantomime Pictures!).

All of them ahev the above mentioned Gamma Production style (to one extent or antoehr) though animated elsewhere.

[Dudley]

I think Klondike Kat was one of the segments shown with King Leonardo.

Didn't this show aired on Cartoon Network as "The King and Odie"?