"The Famous Adventures of Mr. Magoo" (1964) TV series 1964-1965

Seasons:

1

Release Date:

19 September 1964 (USA)

Genre:

Animation | Comedy | Family

Plot:

Animated series featuring Jim Backus's Mr. Magoo character in half-hour adaptations of classic stories for children...

Plot Keywords:

Mr Magoo | Old Man | Gilligans Island Character Similarity | Glasses | Blindness

Cast

Jim Backus	...	Mr. Magoo / ... (26 episodes, 1964-1965)
Joan Gardner		(15 episodes, 1964-1965)

Series Directed by
Abe Levitow		(26 episodes, 1964-1965)

Series Writing credits
Walter Black		(8 episodes, 1964-1965)
Barbara Chain		(6 episodes, 1964-1965)
True Boardman		(5 episodes, 1964-1965)
Sloan Nibley		(4 episodes, 1964-1965)
Alexandre Dumas père		(3 episodes, 1964-1965)
Miguel de Cervantes y Saavedra		(2 episodes, 1964-1965)
Joanna Lee		(2 episodes, 1964)
Robert Louis Stevenson		(2 episodes, 1964)
Jacob Grimm		(2 episodes, 1965)
Wilhelm Grimm		(2 episodes, 1965)

Series Produced by
Henry G. Saperstein	....	executive producer (7 episodes, 1964-1965)

Series Original Music by
Carl Brandt		(22 episodes, 1964-1965)

Series Film Editing by
Earl Bennett		(7 episodes, 1964-1965)
Sam Horta		(7 episodes, 1964-1965)
Wayne Hughes		(7 episodes, 1964-1965)
George Probert		(7 episodes, 1964-1965)
Helen Wright		(7 episodes, 1964-1965)

Series Production Design by
Bob Singer		(4 episodes, 1964)
Tony Rivera		(2 episodes, 1965)

Series Production Management
Earl Jonas	....	production manager (7 episodes, 1964-1965)

Series Camera and Electrical Department
Dennis Cook	....	camera operator (7 episodes, 1964-1965)
John Folk	....	camera operator (7 episodes, 1964-1965)
Bill Kotler	....	camera operator (7 episodes, 1964-1965)
Max Morgan	....	camera operator (7 episodes, 1964-1965)
John Nelson	....	camera operator (7 episodes, 1964-1965)

Series Animation Department
Robert Dranko	....	character designer (7 episodes, 1964-1965)
Lee Mishkin	....	character designer (7 episodes, 1964-1965)
Grace McCurdy	....	checking (6 episodes, 1964-1965)
Robert McKimson	....	animation director (6 episodes, 1964-1965)
Ted Bonnicksen	....	animator (4 episodes, 1964)
Steve Clark	....	sequence director (4 episodes, 1964)
Marion Jeffress	....	ink and paint artist (4 episodes, 1964)
Tom McDonald	....	animator (4 episodes, 1964)
Hank Smith	....	animator (4 episodes, 1964)
Gloria Wood	....	color stylist (4 episodes, 1964)
Xenia	....	animator (4 episodes, 1964)
Alan Zaslove	....	animator (4 episodes, 1964)
Gerard Baldwin	....	sequence director (2 episodes, 1965)
Bob Bransford	....	animator (2 episodes, 1965)
Herman Cohen	....	animator (2 episodes, 1965)
Phil Duncan	....	animator (2 episodes, 1965)
Bob Inman	....	color stylist (2 episodes, 1965)
Auril Thompson	....	ink and paint artist (2 episodes, 1965)
John Walker	....	animator (2 episodes, 1965)
Marvin Woodward	....	animator (2 episodes, 1965)

Series Music Department
Wilbur Hatch	....	composer: additional music / composer: stock music / ... (13 episodes, 1964-1965)
William Lava	....	composer: additional music / composer: stock music (7 episodes, 1964-1965)
Carl Brandt	....	composer: theme music (6 episodes, 1964)
Lyn Murray	....	composer: additional music / composer: stock music (4 episodes, 1964-1965)

Series Other crew
George Gordon	....	story editor (7 episodes, 1964-1965)
George Grandpré	....	production coordinator (7 episodes, 1964-1965)
Don Morgan	....	titles (7 episodes, 1964-1965)
Jacques Rupp	....	titles (7 episodes, 1964-1965)

Production Companies

• United Productions of America (UPA)

Distributors

• Focus Filmes (2006) (Brazil) (DVD)
• National Broadcasting Company (NBC) (1964-1965) (USA) (TV)
• Umbrella Entertainment (2008) (Australia) (video) (VOD)

Also Known As:

Runtime:

30 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Argentina:Atp | Australia:G

Company:

United Productions of America (UPA)

Trivia:

This NBC series was sparked by the enormous success of the earlier Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol, which premiered on 18 December 1962.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Diner (1982)

A Delightful Introduction To Some of the Classics

In 1962 Jim Backus's famous cartoon character Mr. Quincy McGoo (graduate of Rutgers), was dusted off and made to appear in a television cartoon - a musical entitled "Mr. McGoo's "Christmas Carol"", in which he played Ebenezer Scrooge. It happened to be a very charming version of the Dickens' tale, and was well received. It is usually revived on one network or another in December.

Obviously this series from 1964 was to take advantage of the success of "The Christmas Carol". It was a weekly show with McGoo playing a wide variety of characters from fiction. For example, he played Ismael in a half hour version of "Moby Dick", Victor Frankenstein in a version of the Mary Shelley novel, Edmond Dantes in a version of "The Count Of Monte Cristo", D'Artagnan in a version of "The Three Musketeers", Don Quixote,and Dr. Watson in a Sherlock Holmes adventure. He was also Noah in a retelling of the great flood story from Genesis. The most ambitious retelling was Robin Hood and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Instead of the half-hour format these shows were two episodes or so. In the Robin Hood episode he was not Robin but Friar Tuck, and in the Snow White he was all seven dwarfs (fully possible without trick photography of course - just "trick" cartoon drawing). There was also one episode where he played himself and a crook he was pretending to be, as he worked with Dick Tracy to smash a criminal conspiracy.

The series only lasted one season. It was well handled, and of course it did not get deeply involved in the various plot complexities of Melville, Dumas pere, Doyle, or Cervantes. But it held the attention of a young ten year old who watched it - and it did it's job: encouraged the ten year old to read more.

For Jim Backus it was the last real highpoint in his career as the nearsighted cartoon figure. At least here (except when he played himself and when he was Dr. Watson) he acted more straight - although he kept the voice properly. He would say many years later, on a program about the history of cartoons, that he never heard of any real person with a voice like McGoo's. But it was his first boost to stardom. His next was around the corner. Shortly he was cast as Thuston Howell III in "Gilligan's Island".