George della giungla

I make no excuses about my love for Jay Ward cartoons. They were an essential part of my childhood and partly responsible for my love of the absurd.

George of the Jungle is the story of a dim witted jungle man and his adventures in the jungle. Along side him for the ride are his faithful companions. There's the talking and refined ape called Ape. There's his big peanut loving elephant called Shep who George insists is a dog. And there's Ursula who's George's mate but he can never remember her name or the fact she's a woman and frequently calls her "Fella" or even Ingrid in one episode. This is actually a point in the show and is included in the theme song.

In any case it's filled with wacky hijinks that if you've ever watched a Jay Ward cartoon you'll be familiar with. Puns, sight gags and ridiculous situations fly at you with incredible speed. There's also a lot of 60's type references which might go over some people's heads but it was a product of the times. It's been said that the table readings would often take a lot longer than they should have because the actors were too busy laughing at the situations they were put into.

Joining George are two other cartoons, namely "Super Chicken" and "Tom Slick". Like George of the Jungle they're wacky little cartoons with a similar plot. Super Chicken is a mild mannered playchicken who when he drinks his super sauce turns into Super Chicken who then fights crime. Along with him is his faithful companion Fred the lion who tends to be the voice of reason.

And finally rounding it out is Tom Slick, the best racer car driver in the world. Every episode involves him racing whether it's in the air, under water or on land. His car, the Thunderbolt Greaseslapper, being modified for whatever terrain they find themselves on. He's joined by Gertie Growler, his manager and mechanic and Marigold, Tom's love interest.

All in all it's a great little cartoon filled with Jay Ward's trademark wacky sense of humor. If you want something silly that will make you giggle, this is the cartoon for you.

Super Chicken was so WICKEDLY funny.....even HILARIOUS....the way it took all those super heroes, like Superman, Aquaman, etc., and brought them DOWN.....quite a few notches!!.....and completely destroyed their dignity. It was equally hilarious to see that puny, masked chicken, with an assistant side-kick, who was ten times bigger than he......that huge, goofy, lion, Fred, who talked just like Ed Wynne from MARY POPPINS (Fred Wynne sang that song, I LOVE TO LAUGH, in that movie).

Tom Slick was about a lot more than just a race car star. There was a whole assortment of villains, and even monsters, whom he raced against (or was confronted with)......vampires, sea monsters......you name it!.......whatever you would least expect could be in a story, about Tom Slick, they were there!!

George of the Jungle, though the starring show of the series, was not my very favorite of the three shows, but, so much of America loves George, (as evidenced by the release of that movie, just a few years ago), that pay me no mind, with that comment.

I will say that the concept of "taking on" Tarzan, like that, was incredibly creative and innovative, in a cartoon. I also truly loved the theme song, and all the footage that accompanied it (including the real life car, that explodes into flames!). I must say that it was a happy day, for me, when I discovered this late 60s show!

Like Rocky and Bullwinkle and Dudley Do-Right, this show was hilarious in that fashion. Anyone who has seen the movie will be able to recognize the premise of this cartoon. George is aided by the super smart ape Ape, Ursula, and his pet elephant (who thinks he's a dog) Shep. The Super Chicken and Tom Slick portions of this show were not that funny at all and pale in comparison to George. The George of the Jungle segments are the funniest part of this show.

This is definitely one of the most underrated shows ever produced by Jay Ward. It was by far the easiest one for me to get into due to the fact that unlike Rocky and Bullwinkle, it didn't go into long out story lines. Also the supporting features Super Chicken and Tom Slick could have been series in their own right. George is just as funny today as it was back in 1967 and his supporting cast of Ape, Ursula and his elephant/doggie Shep all made this a classic show.

Oh, my, did this Saturday morning toonfare burn holes in my brainpan at an impressionable age. True, I'd seen Rocky and Bullwinkle (and Friends) and Hoppity Hooper and Fractured Flickers, and very dimly recalled Crusader Rabbit, but none of it quite connected 'til after I'd met George, Tom Slick, and Henry Cabot Henhouse the Third (formerly Hunt Strongbird Jnr) and learned they'd all descended from a long line of animated anarchists.

Three different sets of characters, each in six-or-so fast-paced minutes saturated in true Jay Ward style with puns, sight gags, character impressions and contemporary references. Animated radio sketches, if you will, along the lines of Stan Freberg and latter-day Spike Jones, but with an innocence that makes today's Adult Swim humor scattered, scatological, and unfathomable.

Varying quality in animation and backgrounds, to be sure, but before any of it truly gets the chance to register you're into the next sketch. Visualize an elephant that thinks it's a pet dog ("Good boy, Shep!"), a race car driver rolling downhill in a doughnut ("Didja ever try to eat one?"), and a monstrous toupee rampaging through Pittsburgh ("To the Souper Coop, Fred!"), then work from there with three of the catchiest theme songs you'll ever hear.

And though the IMDb lists four voice actors you may as well hear forty. I very much would've liked to have seen these legends in the recording booth. Likely lost on recent-generation viewers are characterizations of William Bendix, Eric Blore, Humphrey Bogart, Ronald Colman, Frank Fontaine, Sydney Greenstreet, Alec Guinness, Richard Haydn, Katharine Hepburn, Boris Karloff, Marjorie Main, Chico Marx, Marilyn Monroe (or is that Jayne Mansfield?), Robert Newton (bass register), David Niven, Edward G. Robinson, Phil Silvers, Terry-Thomas, John Wayne and Ed Wynn. Not to mention Boris Badenov and Natasha Fatale...

Definite bonuses are the pilot episodes of George (Hans Conried narrates) and Super Chicken (William Conrad narrates). I suspect "The Bigg Race" is Tom Slick's first. And after all these years I finally heard "Fella" instead of "Bella," which solved one mystery, but who was Roger Wilcox?