Hoppity Hooper (1964– ) User Reviews

One of the offbeat TV series from the 60's

[mhlong · 8/10 · 31 January 2008]

I have always liked those strange little, maybe bizarre shows that have always seemed to just appear on TV and then disappear almost as quickly. Few people even know they existed, but for the serious TV watcher, they were what made television exciting. Shows like Gerald McBoingBoing, WinkyDink, Smilin' Ed's Gang (with Froggie the Gremlin). Shows that most likely were the ancestors of later shows like Fraggle Rock, Futurama, and Trippin the Rift, and currently South Park, Family Guy, Drawn Together. (Yes, The Simpsons, too, but that show is way too popular,and no to Beavis and Butthead - just gross for no reason, and no to King of the Hill, actually a rather sad show. Though, Beany and Cecil was really close). Shows that from a distance looked like kids fare,but if you actually took the time to watch and listen, you'd see very mature, adult writing and themes done with humor- shows that challenged you to think a little, while poking fun at every cultural reference one could think of.

Of course, I watched Rocky and Bullwinkle, but when Hoppity Hooper appeared, my immediate thought was that, aha, the writers of R&B are pulling out all the stops and just going for joke after joke, but all rather deep. You had to really know what was going on, to catch it all. And it was all hilarious. All three leads were way over the top, Hoppity with his oh so serious, wide eyed innocence, Waldo with his angles to scam everything and everybody, and Filmore with his absolutely brainless utterances.

I could just see the writers and lead voices having a blast with the barest of plots, but with the sarcasm and irony going full bore. These shows aren't for everyone, but if you like that kind of humor, there are some places around here you can see an episode or two.

Too bad they didn't get that magic 100 shows so there would be enough for repeat syndication. A little gem of a show for the all too brief time it was on.

In the Shadow of Frostbite Falls, Minnesota was Foggy Bottom, Michigan.

[theowinthrop · 8/10 · 16 July 2008]

It was a cute experiment that did not get as far as it could have. Jay Ward made television (and cartoon) history in the late 1950s and early 1960s with ROCKY AND HIS FRIENDS, which introduced a degree of savvy and sophistication to children's television cartooning that current cartoons rarely met. When I was growing up the old Warner Brother cartoons with Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, etc., and the older Popeye and Betty Boop cartoons, all of which were rich in very grown-up humor and jokes. That was because those cartoons were meant to entertain grown-ups more than kids when the studios made them. But those cartoons done on television were rarely as clever. The Harvey cartoons (Herman and Catnip, Little Lotta, Casper the Friendly Ghost) were rarely good - they repeated the basic stories again and again (Lotta for example was fat and stupid, but constantly accidentally trouncing a fox who wanted to eat her - and at the end she realized it and beat up the fox). The Hanna-Barbera group had made good cartoons in MGM with both Tom and Jerry, Droopy, and the works of Tex Avery. But the television shows they constructed for kids with Huckleberry Hound, Yogi Bear, Quick Draw Magraw, Doggy Daddy, Snooper and Blabber, repeated the same basic joke situations (Yogi going after "pickinic" baskets under the nose of Ranger Smith; Huckleberry Hound falling on his face trying to calmly show how to do various jobs; Doggy Daddy forced - despite his own intelligence - in doing things to maintain his son's respect). There were a few good television cartoons made for children, most notably Heckyll and Jeckyll, but those were a rarity.

Ward changed that with ROCKY and it's cast of satyric nitwits like spies Boris and Natasha, Fearless Leader, and Bullwinkle. Somehow only Ward would make a rare element (sought by the spies for Pottsylvania) that is anti-gravity, and call it "Upsidaisium". Only he would have made the dangerous actions stop long enough for two old codgers on a nearby bench named "Chauncey and Edgar" to comment cynically about.

ROCKY became a hit and a permanent highpoint in television history with three years of cartoons that have been repeated very frequently. But Ward could fail badly. And HOPPITY HOOPER is the proof of it.

HOPPITY appeared immediately after Ward stopped doing cartoons about Rocky and Bullwinkle. He was a frog from Foggy Bottom, Michigan, a name that would register a chuckle with grown-ups, but only with some straining. Rocky's "Frostbite Falls, Minnesota" made sense because it dealt with the image of snow and cold in the land of a thousand lakes, but "Foggy Bottom" is a term really reserved for Washington, D.C. which was founded on swamp land - and the word suggests a fog surrounding the government area - but it has nothing to do with Michigan's national image. It was sadly symptomatic.

Ward and his writers and artists did their best. Hoppity meets a fox named "Professor" Waldo Wigglesworth - voice of Hans Conreid. Wigglesworth travels with his associate Filmore Bear (who is so dumb he makes Bullwinkle look intelligent). Wigglesworth is a con artist, but he and Fillmore befriend Hoppity and they proceed to travel together. The difference here though is that Waldo is always looking for the main chance, while Hoppity is serious enough to believe in ethics and morality. It's not quite the mingling of personality in ROCKY where the flying squirrel was naive but smarter than Bullwinkle, and both were constantly fooled by Boris and Natasha (who were usually thwarted by their over-planning events).

Now this new combination was not a bad one - it changed the adventures into moral debates, and the dialog never let us forget it was a comedy. Conried went to town with his Waldo - in every cartoon there was a moment where Waldo would launch into a tear stained soliloquy about life, hope, or some other theme - all with the intention of somehow pulling the wool over the eyes of Hoppity or some other character. Hoppity would be there like a brake on the fox's actions, and Fillmore would accidentally utter a truism that shattered everything.

The spoofing was not forgotten either. In one episode where the situation is border-line weird or spooky, a Rod Sterling narrator's voice is heard about how Professor Waldo Wigglesworth has just entered the "Twilight Zone" continuum. And finally, a fed-up Waldo tells the narrator to knock it off!

The result were a pleasing series of cartoon adventures. But they never captured the audience used to ROCKY. It's a pity because, for a series that ultimately failed, it was worth watching. As pointed out in several other comments on this thread only one season of cartoons were made, and then it was canceled. Without 100 episodes (like ROCKY) there was no chance of the revivals of the show that kept its name and memory alive. Hopefully the show will be revived at some point on the cartoon network - if it is try to catch it.

A Watered Down "Rocky and Bullwinkle"

[Tornado_Sam · 7/10 · 16 August 2019]

The other reviewers are right that "Hoppity Hooper" has been largely underrated, but not without reason. When it comes to remembering the work of Jay Ward, this particular show is little recognized today, mostly due to the few years it ran. "Rocky and Bullwinkle" had a total of five seasons, had a large cast of recurring characters, creative plots each time, and long-spanning story arcs sometimes lasting more than ten half-hour shows. Albeit poorly and cheaply animated (understandable since most sixties cartoons were every bit as bad) it lived to please both kinds of audiences: the adults could see it for its witty and sophisticated puns, the kids could watch it for its funny character designs and lovely colors. It is no wonder then, that because of all the lovable characters and witty jokes that R&B is a remembered classic.

"Hoppity Hooper" had lots of potential. It makes me sad to think how little of it was used. The show ran for about two seasons and is hugely overshadowed by its longer-running predecessor. Furthermore, each story-line feels cramped and little-used since all story arcs run for only two half-hour shows ("Jet Fuel Formula" from R&B had a total of twenty) and all of the various adventures Hoppity and his friends go through could have been more filled with gags. The characters are all great: Filmore makes a good Bullwinkle while Waldo's brilliant ideas make his person a success, but Hoppity himself is uninteresting and lacking in any real noticeable traits apart from being the smartest of all three. The stories are creative and fun, but as stated above are not exercised like those of "Rocky and Bullwinkle".

Jay Ward and his company unmistakably stumbled upon some excellent characters and ideas, but they didn't seem to realize it. "Hoppity Hooper" is cheaply made, conformed to a very tight space to where it's only decent entertainment, and little effort appears to have been put into it. It's sad, because the premise could have been just as good as "Rocky and Bullwinkle", but with four-part stories, great ideas left un-exercised, and great characters unused to their full extent, the show is mainly one for younger kids and serves as little more than decent entertainment. I like what I see, and I think it's sad that the studio never realized all the things they could have done with it.

Underrated Show

[Sargebri · 25 August 2004]

This has to be one of the more underrated shows in the history of cartoons. To me this show was always overshadowed by the show that Jay Ward was always famous for "Rocky and Bullwinkle". Hans Conreid will always be remembered for being one of the classic comedic actors in television history. But it was what he did in his characterization of "Uncle Waldo" that helped make this what it was. Also, the characters of the serious Hoppity and the dimwitted Filmore helped balance out Waldo's outrageousness. However, the main factor that made it great was the fact that it contained the element of social satire that made all Jay Ward shows enjoyable for both children and adults. Its just too bad that this show always gets lost in the shuffle whenever Jay Ward and his creations are mentioned.

A good show, but could have been better.

[dariosmagata · 6/10 · 29 June 2022]

"Hoppity Hooper" is one of the cartoons I grew up with thanks to its appearance on the low-budget DVD sets made by Mill Creek Entertainment. As a kid, I liked it but didn't love it, and I feel the same now.

It's a lively and funny show, but suffers from two major issues. The first is one that became more common in children's animation in later decades: there is constant noise. Someone is always talking (usually yelling) or else there's a sound effect, without a moment of silence. This makes it a bit grating to watch more than a couple episodes at once. The other problem is that the episodes are only five minutes long with cliffhangers and recaps in each. That doesn't leave enough time to tell a story properly, even with the stories being spread over four episodes each, so the show always seems to be in a rush.

There are some great episodes though - the Twilight Zone parody "Traffic Zone" for one. The very first episode, "Ring-a-Ding Spring" is also a fun one. The show isn't bad at all, but it could have been better - and it might be better remembered today if it had been.

A cartoon I remember fondly from childhood

[kmacdaman-37565 · 9/10 · 5 July 2023]

Big fan of Bullwinkle. Hop pity Hooper used some of the other episodes from Bullwinkle. To this day I use a line - turn it off Fillmore - when something isn't working or is too loud. 17 episodes isn't a lot . But any show with Hans Conried .... And Walks Wigglesworth is so Groucho . Don't even know if it's on DVD . But warm and fuzzy memories. I haven't seen any or these since the 60s . So specifics.. I'm too lazy to watch a bunch of YT to review specific episodes , but just for the Sherman and Peabody and fractured fairy tales made it fun. And the BW universe had so many winking jokes for adults even as a 14'year old , it was good stuff. Turn it on Fillmore!

Fun Show, for what it was worth!!

[briankistler · 14 November 2000]

I really liked this series! It's really a shame that they made only one season of episodes. Never mind about what it says, that the show ran 1964 to 1967; only one year of those three years included NEW episodes.

Had they made two or three years of episodes, probably a lot more people would remember this show today. I, also, probably would have enjoyed watching the re-runs much more if there had been in excess of 25+ shows to choose from.

This was a nice lunchtime companion, for me, in the summers when school was out. The frog, the bear and the wolf (or whatever kind of furry character Uncle Waldo was) were cute and also very funny.

Uncle Waldo, voiced by the late, great Hans Conried (who also did Snidely Whiplash on Dudley Do-Right) was actually more than just cute. He was so much like that elderly great-uncle or grandfather, that everyone has.

I also liked Paul Frees as the narrator. Though never really famous, on-camera (he was a priest in A PLACE IN THE SUN--1951-- and a psychiatrist in Disney's THE SHAGGY DOG), I read up on him, over the internet, and learned that his nickname was "THE MAN OF A THOUSAND VOICES".

The bouncy, energetic theme song, was kind of neat, too, because you could see that it was deliberately designed that way to conjure up the image of its star, Hoppity Hooper, in action.

Maybe someday someone will revive this great cartoon series and create brand new episodes! I would much rather see that than a single two-hour movie (I have never thought that those cinematic endeavors ever do an original cartoon series justice).

Hopefully this cartoon, from the Golden Age era of animation, is not so outdated, by today's standards, that it could not be picked up, by some genius, to entertain the future children of America (and some adults too) with all new adventures (hopefully in the same episodic format)!!

Trippy

[Captain Ed · 30 August 2000]

I haven't seen this since I was a kid, probably close to 30 years ago. I remember this being a trippy, sarcastic, and very funny cartoon. Years later I found out it came from Jay Ward prior to Rocky & Bullwinkle and was not surprised.

There was one very trippy story arc which was supposed to be a spoof on the Twilight Zone. I can't remember the story line but I seem to recall that the resolution was that the entire cast wound up as vegetables in a garden, and that was how they escaped from this weird dimension in which they were trapped. I remember it being a riot, although I was probably eight the last time I saw it.

Maybe someone will bring it back to TV, perhaps as a Jay Ward retrospective. Wouldn't that be a great idea?

Underground classic

[Damonfordham · 2 January 2009]

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.