The Adventures of King Leonardo - the 1960s animated series

The Adventures of King Leonardo - the 1960s animated series

The Adventures of King Leonardo (King Leonardo and His Short Subjects in the American original) is an animated series for TV that first aired in the United States on Saturday morning 1960 - until 1963 published by Total Television (which would later be renamed Leonardo Productions after the main character of this show) , sponsored by General Mills, and is one of the first Saturday morning cartoons. In Italy the series was broadcast in 1964.

The Adventures of King Leonardo

History

The cartoons tell the adventures of Leonardo the Lion, the well-meaning but often inept king of Bongo Congo, a fictional African nation notable for its bongos. King Leonardo is assisted in everything by a quiet and competent skunk named Odie Cologne or "Odie O. Cologne". Odie, the one who truly keeps the kingdom in balance, has been by the king's side since they were children.

King Leonardo's main arch enemy is the gangster Biggie Rat, who routinely attempts to oust Leonardo and take control of Bongo Congo for himself with the help of Leonardo's stupid brother, Itchy Brother. Biggie is also often assisted by an evil German inventor named Professor Messer or Odie's flirtatious sister Carlotta. Biggie and Itchy's various plans always end with them landing in the dungeon or running away.

The episodes of “The King and Odie” that were exclusive to Tennessee Tuxedo and His Tales feature Biggie Rat and Itchy Brother employed by Mr. Mad, a mad scientist with a domineering personality that even gives Biggie a bad vibe. Mr. Mad has his own plans for Bongo Congo. When each of his plans fail, Mr. Mad disappears "as if by magic" before he can be captured.

Each half-hour episode of King Leonardo consisted of five animated segments. Each half hour included a two-part episode of King and Odie, with other characters in between:

Tooter Turtle : The Adventures of a Turtle takes him to various locations, only to realize that he was better at home after all. When Tooter was trapped in a situation he couldn't get out of, he would call the wizard, who sent him home with this spell: "Drizzle drazzle druzzle drome, it's time for this to come home."
The hunter : A crime-fighting sleuth detective with southern accent chases a criminal fox named The Fox. The Fox often commits a plan that always ends with him being caught in the end.
Another segment of the original King Leonardo show was Twinkles, an orange elephant that served as the mascot of Twinkles Cereal, a product of the show's main sponsor, General Mills. The 90-second Twinkles segments continued to air in syndication throughout the 60s and were presented in a 15-minute format under the title The King and Odie, but were later phased out after a firefighter character replaced. the elephant as a cereal mascot. The segments also appeared during some retransmissions of Underdog's NBC network. Twinkles segments weren't included when King Leonardo And His Short Subjects was syndicated in a half hour format during the 80s.

Early in the NBC series, a few Columbia Pictures cartoons aired on the program, some featuring The Fox and the Crow and Li'l Abner.

These cartoons were added to fill the time when the production of the first shows was delayed. The Columbia cartoons were featured during NBC screenings of Hanna-Barbera's Ruff and Reddy, but were not included in subsequent syndicated releases of the series.

The animation for the early segments of the show was produced by TV Spots, with subsequent episodes by Gamma Productions, the same Mexico-based studio that did much of the work for Jay Ward Productions. For this reason, and thanks to the sponsorship shared by General Mills, Gamma has often been associated with both Total Television Productions and Jay Ward Productions. TV Spots was primarily a producer of animated commercials, but was also in charge of some segments of Rocky and His Friends for Jay Ward Productions.

Technical data

Gender Animation, comedy
Original dubbing: Jackson Beck, Sandy Becker, Kenny Delmar, Ben Stone, Allen Swift
Narrated by Allen Swift ("The King and Odie"), Kenny Delmar ("The Hunter")
country of origin United States
Original language English
Number of episodes: The King and Odie: 102, The Hunter: 61, Tooter Turtle: 40
Executive producer Peter M. Piech
Manufacturers Joe Harris, Treadwell Covington, W. Older Watts, Chet Stover
Duration 30 minutes
Studio: Total Television, Leonardo Television Productions

Transmission date: Format Films (1960-1961) (Season 1)
Halas and Batchelor (1960-1961) (Season 1)
Gerald Ray Studios (1960-1962) (Seasons 1-2)
TV Spots, Inc. (1960-1962) (Seasons 1-2)
Creston Studios (1961-1962) (Season 2)
Gamma Productions (1961-1963) (Seasons 2-3)
Jack Kinney Productions (1962-1963) (Season 3)
Rembrandt Films (1962-1963) (Season 3)
Hal Seeger Productions (1962-1963) (Season 3)


Gianluigi Piludu

Author of articles, illustrator and graphic designer of the website www.cartonionline.com