Hoppity Hooper

Today, two types of people know anything about "Hoppity Hooper"-Cartoon historians and collectors, and sixties children who fondly remember this the first time around. I fall in the former category, being born the year it came out in 1964 (it left the air when I was 3, so I have no childhood memory of it). But I saw a good number of episodes recently on the "Giant 600 Cartoon" DVD.

I liked what I saw. Essentially the younger brother of "Rocky and Bullwinkle," this Jay Ward production succeeded the more famous moose and squirrel after they were canceled in 1964. Hoppity is a boyish, Rocky-type frog who travels the country with a con man fox named "Uncle Waldo" (in the pilot, the crooked fox hides out from the cops at Hoppity's house by claiming to be the frog's long-lost uncle) and Waldo's dumb partner, a bear named Fillmore with a classic "duh" voice.

Jay Ward and co. let their imaginations run wild on this one. Adult satire mixes with kiddie fantasy (when Fillore turns into a giant turnip, the frightened townspeople form a lynch mob and shouts "would you let your daughter marry a giant turnip?" Any adult recalling race relations in that era would get the joke). Another bonus is that the stories were ultra-clever and never told the same story twice. However, the humor probably went over the mass audiences head and doomed it to oblivion.

However, if you catch it, it is an acquired taste and you will find yourself searching for more rare episodes. "Hoppity Hooper" is really a lost gem.