Tom Terrific

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GenreAnimated television series
Created byGene Deitch
Developed byGene Deitch
Written byWilliam Bernal, Phil Eastman, Bud Evsalin, Bob Kuwahara, Ralph Newman
Directed byGene Deitch
StarringLionel Wilson
Theme music composerThomas Lee Morrison, Philip A. Scheib
No. of seasons1
No. of episodes26
Production
Executive producerTemplate:Pluralize from textWilliam M. Weiss
ProducerTemplate:Pluralize from textGene Deitch
EditorTemplate:Pluralize from textJack MacConnell
Production Template:Pluralize from textTerrytoons
Original release
NetworkCBS
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Tom Terrific is a 1957–1959 animated series on American television, presented as part of the Captain Kangaroo children's television show.[1]

Production

Created by Gene Deitch under the Terrytoons studio (which by that time was a subsidiary of CBS, the network that broadcast Captain Kangaroo), Tom Terrific was made as twenty-six stories, each split into five episodes, with one five-minute episode broadcast per day. The first thirteen stories were filmed in 1957, with the second set in 1958. Captain Kangaroo continued to rerun the episodes for many years. Starting in 1962, Captain Kangaroo broadcast Tom Terrific every other week, alternating with Terrytoons' Lariat Sam.[2] It was drawn in a simple black-and-white style reminiscent of children's drawings. Some of the dialogue was written by cartoonist Jules Feiffer.[3]

Gene Deitch adapted the feature from his earlier newspaper comic strip, "Terr'ble Thompson!" distributed during the 1950s by the United Features Syndicate.[4] Terr'ble Thompson was a six-year-old boy who imagined himself to be the "Hero of Hist'ry" and freely time traveled to assist historical figures. An illustrated book reprinting the adventures of this precursor to Tom Terrific was published by Fantagraphics Books.

All the voices were performed by Lionel Wilson (who later voiced Eustace Bagge from the Cartoon Network series Courage the Cowardly Dog).

Plot

The show features a gee-whiz boy hero, Tom Terrific, who lives in a treehouse and can shapeshift into anything he wants, thanks to his magical funnel-shaped "thinking cap", which also enhances his intelligence. He has a comic lazybones of a sidekick, Mighty Manfred the Wonder Dog, and an archenemy named Crabby Appleton, whose motto is, "I'm rotten to the core!"[5] Other foes include Mr. Instant the Instant Thing King, Captain Kidney Bean, Sweet Tooth Sam the Candy Bandit, and Isotope Feeney the Meany.[6]

Episodes

Each episode was shown in five installments, one per day, Monday through Friday.

Episode Title Air Date[7]
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12 The Great Calendar Mystery Script error: No such module "Date time".
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14 The Missing Mail Mystery Script error: No such module "Date time".
15 The Prince Frog Script error: No such module "Date time".
16 Isotope Feeney's Foolish Fog Script error: No such module "Date time".
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19 The Silly Sandman Script error: No such module "Date time".
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26 The Everlasting Birthday Party Script error: No such module "Date time".

Reception

The character Tom Terrific was ranked #32 by TV Guide magazine on its 2002 list of "50 Greatest TV Cartoon Characters".[8]

Home video

As of 2024, there has not been an authorized VHS, DVD or Blu-ray release of the series.

  • The character also appeared in a comic book published by Pines Comics for six issues from Summer 1957 to Fall 1958, with some stories drawn by Ralph Bakshi.
  • Tom Terrific appeared in a few Wonder Books, an imitation of Little Golden Books.
  • Crabby Appleton was the name of a rock group, which used the character's image on a 1971 album, Rotten to the Core.
  • In the introduction to his book, The Great Big Book of Tomorrow, Tom Tomorrow (Dan Perkins) says that he chose his pseudonym through misremembering the name of Tom Terrific.
  • Tom Terrific appeared in the 1999 pilot Curbside, voiced by Haley Joel Osment.[9]
  • American football player Tom Brady attempted to trademark the phrase for himself, but was turned down in August 2019, to prevent confusion with baseball player Tom Seaver.[10]

References

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  1. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Woolery, George W. (1983). Children's Television: The First Thirty-Five Years, 1946-1981, Part 1: Animated Cartoon Series. Scarecrow Press. pp. 295–296. ISBN 0-8108-1557-5. Retrieved March 22, 2020.
  2. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Hamonic, W. Gerald (2018). Terrytoons: The Story of Paul Terry and His Classic Cartoon Factory. John Libbey Publishing Ltd. pp. 289–290. ISBN 978-0861967292.
  3. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Erickson, Hal (2005). Television Cartoon Shows: An Illustrated Encyclopedia, 1949 Through 2003 (2nd ed.). McFarland & Co. pp. 862–863. ISBN 978-1476665993.
  4. ^ Terrible Thompson strip
  5. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Perlmutter, David (2018). The Encyclopedia of American Animated Television Shows. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 653. ISBN 978-1538103739.
  6. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Erickson, Hal (2005). Television Cartoon Shows: An Illustrated Encyclopedia, 1949 Through 2003 (2nd ed.). McFarland & Co. pp. 862–863. ISBN 978-1476665993.
  7. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.DataBase, The Big Cartoon. "Tom Terrific Episode Guide -CBS Prods @ BCDB". Big Cartoon DataBase (BCDB). Retrieved September 3, 2019.[dead link]
  8. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."TV Guide's 50 greatest cartoon characters of all time - July 30, 2002". CNN.com. Retrieved June 11, 2022.
  9. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Curbside". The Big Cartoon Database. Retrieved January 2, 2017.[dead link]
  10. ^ New York Post: "Tom Brady denied Tom Terrific trademark" Aug. 23, 2019

Further reading

  • Kevin Scott Collier. The Amazing Transformations of Tom Terrific. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2017. Template:ISBN
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