Tooter Turtle

Tooter Turtle (sometimes spelled Tudor or Tutor) is a cartoon about a turtle that first appeared on TV in 1960, as a segment, along with The Hunter a detective dog, as part of the King Leonardo and His Short Subjects program. "Tooter Turtle" debuted on NBC, on Saturday, October 15, 1960, and ran for 39 original episodes through July 22, 1961. These episodes were later rerun as backups on other cartoon shows,[1] but no more original episodes were made.

Plot

The plots followed the same general format.[2][3] Tooter (voiced by Allen Swift) calls on his friend Mr. Wizard the Lizard (voiced by Sandy Becker), an anthropomorphic lizard wearing wizard cone hat, robe, and pince-nez eyeglasses. Mr. Wizard lived in a tiny cardboard box at the base of a tall tree. The introductory segment had Tooter knocking on the cardboard box, having "another favor to ask." From inside the box, Mr. Wizard would shrink Tooter small enough to enter through the box's front door, and invite him in. Mr. Wizard has the magic to change Tooter's life to some other destiny, usually sending him back in time and to various locales.

As Tooter is doing his destiny, Mr. Wizard narrates about it. When Tooter's trip finally became a catastrophe, Tooter would request help with a cry of "Help me Mr. Wizard, I don't want to be X any more!" where X was whatever destiny Tooter had entered. Mr. Wizard would then rescue Tooter with the incantation, "Twizzle, Twazzle, Twozzle, Twome; time for this one to come home." Then, Mr. Wizard would always give Tooter the same advice: "Be just what you is, not what you is not. Folks what do this has the happiest lot." [4]

Critical reception and impact

Mr. Wizard's phrase "Drizzle, Drazzle, Druzzle, Drome; Time for this one to come home" [5] is echoed in the phrase "Twizzle Twazzle Twozzle Tome, Time for This One to Come Home" that was used later by the band The Replacements as a lyric in one of their songs.[6]

Created and airing during the Vietnam War, although before the Gulf of Tonkin Incident, the episode featuring Tooter traveling back to WW I as a fighter pilot ("Tailspin Tooter") features what one historian has called some of "the most gruesome pro-war imagery" in cartoons of the period.[7]

Episode list

(Every Saturday from Oct 15, 1960 to July 22, 1961)

References

  1. ↑ Brown, Arthur (2010-12-01). Everything I Need to Know, I Learned from Cartoons!. Arthur Brown. pp. 69–. ISBN 9781435732483. Retrieved 3 December 2012.
  2. ↑ Vernezze, Peter J. (2011-04-30). Socrates in Sichuan: Chinese Students Search for Truth, Justice, and the (Chinese) Way. Potomac Books, Inc. pp. 97–. ISBN 9781597977487. Retrieved 3 December 2012.
  3. ↑ Woolery, George W. (1991). Children's Television: The First Thirty-Five Years, 1946-1981: Part I: Animated Cartoon Series. Scarecrow Press. ISBN 9780810815575. Retrieved 3 December 2012.
  4. ↑ "Mr. Wizard, get Me Out of Here," by S.D. Smith, The Rabbit Room (30 July 2009). Retrieved 13 May 2014.
  5. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6coPVnJSsPg, Uploaded on Oct 25, 2008, from Season One 1960 Episode "The Unteachables", troydog's original 16mm color film stock.
  6. ↑ Burke, Timothy; Burke, Kevin (1998-12-15). Saturday Morning Fever: Growing up with Cartoon Culture. Macmillan. pp. 94–. ISBN 9780312169961. Retrieved 3 December 2012.
  7. ↑ Lehman, Christopher P. (2006). American Animated Cartoons of the Vietnam Era: A Study of Social Commentary in Films And Television Programs, 1961-1973. McFarland. pp. 14–. ISBN 9780786428182. Retrieved 3 December 2012.
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