I guess I'll be the first after the late, lamented, F.Gwynplaine MacIntyre from North Wales to do a review here.
This may have been a "commercial" for General Foods Post cereals but the characters within were NEVER the product, just the spokes-uh, if you will critters. Imagine Tony the Tiger, Toucan Sam, etc.(Kellogg's), Lucky the Leprechaun, Sonny and now, long sadly discontinued, Cocoa PUFFS Gramps the Cuckoo Birds, the Trix Rabbit,etc. (General Mills not to be confused, not that it isn't, with General Foods Post), or Captain Crunch, Jean La Foote the Pirate (Quaker Oats), with their own respective Saturday morning (or other outlets, theatrical included, just to mention mascots created exclusively for cereals) cartoon shows.
That's essentially what Linus was, along with fun writing, and the voices of Sheldon Leonard as Linus, Carl Reiner (who worked on many TV shows with Leonard) as the Mel Blanc to Leonard's one man voice, as Dinny Kangaroo, Billie Bird, Croc, and that grousiest of grouses, or "grice", Sascha, show producer-director Ed Graham (Jr.) as Mocking Bird (all of them in the Linus series), Gerry Matthews (NOT Sterling Holloway) as Sugar Bear, Ruth Buzzi as Granny Goodwitch, Bob McFadden as forgetful absentminded Benji Wolf and evil Mervyn the Magician (Sugar Bear), Bob McFadden as Lovable Truly the postman in his segment and Rory Raccoon in his, both sounding like Liberace with Jesse White as Claudius Crow in the Rory segment, and finally (NON-RACIST) Ed Graham again as So Hi and one of the greatest performers and a favorite of mine, and one of Ed's as well, Johnathan Winters as a giant, in the So Hi series.
Also throw in a cliff hanging segment, "The Company", bridging all of the above segments, with two or more of the above characters and music from several stock libraries (Ron Hanmer, Van Philips and others among composers), and original stuff from Johnny Mann and singers and Hoyt Curtin, borrowed from Hanna-Barbera when this started in 1964 (which thus explains Ted Nichols's presence over at HB) and a rather New York Terrytoons 60s type animation style (it was partly done back East and on the West coast under directors Lew Irwin and Irv Spector),m and you have a show.
A postman (Loveable Truly) who loves dogs. A raccoon who has to battle a crow and many more made up "Linus the Lion-hearteds", 1964-1969, various networks, excluding NBC. Actually, pulled in 1969 due to charges of commercialism yet syndicated in the next decade.
(1970s) Still a decade (eighties) after that: a new generation of decidedly inferior later "informercials" that had toys (both boy and girl), making one realise how (Lovable) truly great Linus truly was, going back to its initial, network run in the 1960s. Far better than twenty years later, a huge gap when (in my very HUMBLE opinion) toy commercials not just with mascots advertising, with, to damn with faint praise, a fraction of "Linus the Lionhearted wit or or goofiest, would dominate: "Transformers", ":He-Man","Care bears","Strawberry Shortcake"(popularity notwithstanding, ironically taking still decades for HER series), and "My Little Pony" (and coming from THIS self-confessed Brony), one realises, in conclusion, that the 1960s "Linus" was pretty good.. or.."He's the Host of which we boast". YouTube has had many episodes.... just get ready to feel a bit sad when the end credits... and note the "Bashful Bigshots" in the Season 1 voice credits.
