October 3, 1964 (1964-10-03) – March 4, 1967 (1967-03-04)
Underdog, also known asThe Underdog Show, is an American Saturday morninganimated television series that ran from October 3, 1964, to March 4, 1967,[1] starting on theNBC network until 1966, with the rest of the run onCBS, under the primary sponsorship ofGeneral Mills, for a run of 62 episodes.[2][3] It is one of the earlySaturday morning cartoons. The show went into syndication starting in 1969.
Underdog, Shoeshine Boy's heroic alter ego, appears wheneverlove interest Sweet Polly Purebred is being victimized by such villains asSimon Bar Sinister orRiff Raff. Underdog always speaks inrhyming couplets,[4] as in "There's no need to fear, Underdog is here!" His voice was supplied byWally Cox. When appearing as Shoeshine Boy, he described himself as "humble and loveable"; possibly a tongue-in-cheek reference to "mild-mannered reporter" Clark Kent from the opening narration of theAdventures of Superman television series.
In 1959, handling theGeneral Mills account as an account executive with theDancer Fitzgerald Sample advertising agency in New York,W. Watts Biggers teamed with Chet Stover, Treadwell D. Covington, and artistJoe Harris in the creation of television cartoon shows to sell breakfast cereals for General Mills. The shows introduced such characters asKing Leonardo,Tennessee Tuxedo, and Underdog. Biggers and Stover contributed both scripts and songs to the series. WhenUnderdog became a success, Biggers and his partners left Dancer Fitzgerald Sample to form their own company,Total Television, with animation produced at Gamma Studios in Mexico. In 1969, Total Television folded when General Mills dropped out as the primary sponsor, but continued to retain the rights to the series until 1995 and TV distribution rights, throughNBCUniversal Television Distribution, to the present day.
The syndicated version ofThe Underdog Show consists of 62 half-hour episodes. The supporting segments differ from the show's original network run. The first 26 syndicated episodes featureTennessee Tuxedo as a supporting segment (Tennessee Tuxedo originally aired as a separate show and also has its own syndicated adaptation). Thereafter, for most of the balance of the package, the middle segments includeGo Go Gophers andKlondike Kat for three consecutive half-hours andTennessee Tuxedo in the fourth.Commander McBragg is featured in the majority of episodes, replaced by three segments ofThe Sing-A-Long Family (in shows one-three, 28–30, and 55–57). The final two syndicatedUnderdog half-hours feature two one-shot cartoons that were originally part of an unsold pilot for a projected 1966 series,The Champion (Cauliflower Cabbie andGene Hattree), withCommander McBragg appearing in show 61 andGo Go Gophers in show 62.
The syndicated series, as shown in the United States, is a potpourri of segments from previously aired versions of the show. Prior to a 1994 remaster, each episode included a "teaser" at the top of the show, asking viewers to stay tuned for a clip from "today's four-part story" (This originated from a 1969-1973 NBC Saturday morning rerun version of the show, though this bumper was also seen during CBS reruns in the preceding years.); however, outside of CBS-TV airings of the show, no more than two parts of theUnderdog stories were ever shown in any half-hour program. There have also been different syndication packages bundled with both elements fromJay Ward'sThe Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends, andThe Most Important Person short films. Prints of such would either be followed by a closing and credits or no credits at all. The closing (which showed the first portion of a variation of theUnderdog theme showing a giant terrorizing the city withGeorge S. Irving, the series narrator, saying, "Looks like this is the end! But don't miss our next Underdog Show!" in place of the theme music) followed by the end credits (re-edited from the cast credits forUnderdog andTennessee Tuxedo), originated from a 1969 repackaged syndicated series,Cartoon Cut-Ups, which originally featured Underdog, Tennessee Tuxedo, and Commander McBragg. As theUnderdog,Rocky and Bullwinkle, andThe Most Important Person segments are all now separately owned by different entities, the syndicated prints are no longer in distribution.
Most stories were split into 4 parts, but the first three were stand-alone stories:
"Safe Waif", the pilot, featured a rescue from a bank vault, but no villain. Underdog is shown causing major destruction while trying to help people.
"March of the Monsters", the first appearance of Sweet Polly Purebred, has giant robots running amok.
"Simon Says" is the first appearance ofSimon Bar Sinister. "Simon says HOLD IT!" is the maniacal refrain, as Bar Sinister uses a weird camera to turn his victims into full-sized, two-dimensional photographs.
"Tricky Trap by Tap Tap" is the epilogue to the multi-part story "From Hopeless to Helpless" featuring Riff Raff; this episode was created due to story arcs not airing in their proper order (parts 2 & 3 of a story arc were shown in one half-hour show, then part 4 of the previous arc and part 1 of the next arc in another half-hour show).
Reruns of the show aired onNickelodeon from 1992 to 1994,Cartoon Network from 1996 to 1999,Boomerang from 2002 to 2007, and onMeTV Toons since 2024.[5] However, during its broadcasting on Cartoon Network and Boomerang, two notable episodes, "The Molemen" and "A New Villain", were not included on the channels' schedule due to depicted dangerous elements subjected within the segments.[citation needed]
In 1995, Biggers, Stover, Covington, and Harris (with General Mills) negotiated a sale of their creations toSaturday Night Live producerLorne Michaels'Broadway Video, who later sold the rights to Golden Books Family Entertainment in 1996. WhenClassic Media took over Golden Books in August 2001, it acquired the underlying rights toUnderdog. In 2012, Classic Media was sold toDreamWorks Animation, and ultimately became the property of the series' current owners,Universal Television as a result of Comcast's acquisition of DreamWorks Animation in 2016.TV Guide rankedUnderdog as number 23 on its "50 Greatest Cartoon Characters of All Time" list,IGN ranked it as number 74 on its Best 100 Animated Series list.
All episodes featured are broadcast copies syndicated byThe Program Exchange, and do not represent what was originally broadcast on bothNBC andCBS. Initially, episodes ofUnderdog featured episodes ofGo Go Gophers,The Hunter (a segment ofKing Leonardo and His Short Subjects), andAesop & Son (a segment of Jay Ward'sThe Bullwinkle Show);Klondike Kat was not included until the show moved to CBS in 1966, andCommander McBragg segments were not featured until it aired in syndication starting in 1969.
Episode #01
Underdog #1(Episode 1: Safe Waif) (pilot cartoon; no on-screen title shown)
Tennessee Tuxedo #2(The Rain Makers) (902, 972)
The Sing-A-Long Family #1(Picnic) (Sing-A-Long Family cartoon titles are unofficial and do not appear on screen) (also appears in syndicated shows #328, 355)
Underdog #2(Episode 2: The March Of The Monsters)
Episode #02
Underdog #3(Episode 3: Simon Says)
Tennessee Tuxedo #4(Telephone Terrors or Dial M For Mayhem) (904, 974)
The Sing-A-Long Family #2(Skating) (also appears in syndicated shows #329, 356)
Underdog #32(Episode 4: Tricky Trap By Tap Tap) (Note:Tricky Trap By Tap Tap is the epilogue of the four-episode serialFrom Hopeless To Helpless, which is featured later in the series in shows #315 and #316.)
When he is not Underdog, he isincognito as Shoeshine Boy. Like Superman, when trouble calls, he hurriedly runs into a telephone booth (which would inexplicably explode upon his transmutation). On occasion, to replenish his powers, he would take an "Underdog Super Energy Pill". This pill was first introduced in episode 9. He keeps one of these pills inside a special ring he wears at all times. (Before taking one, he would often utter the words: "The secret compartment of my ring I fill / With an Underdog Super Energy Pill.") Several episodes, starting withRiffRaffville, show Underdog without his ring and being powerless, since he must take another pill as his super powers begin to fail ("Without my Energy Vitamin Pill / I grow weaker and weaker and weaker still.") and, as a result, he can die; but of course, this being a children's cartoon show, no one actually kills him, even when he is at their mercy. He tells everyone who will listen this secret of his super powers. When the series was syndicated in the 1980s and 1990s, the scenes of him taking his energy pill were edited out. In the recent releaseUnderdog: The Ultimate Collection, the word "Energy" was replaced with "Vitamin".
Underdog is shown to have incredible superhuman powers. However, the number and scope of his superpowers are inconsistent from episode to episode, being subject not only to the conventions of superhero comics, but also to the conventions of humorous cartoons. In one episode, he easily moved planets, safely butting against them with his rear end. In another episode, his Super Energy Pill, diluted billions of times when added to a city's water system, was capable of giving normal humans who drank the water enough strength to easily bend thick steel bars. Among his many powers shown on the show are: super strength, super speed, supersonic flight, physical invulnerability, X-ray vision, super breath, cosmic vision, atomic breath, atomizing eyes, heat vision, ultrasonic hearing, a supersonic high-pitch hi-fi voice and a great calculating brain.
Underdog has also appeared in oneLittle Golden Book,Underdog and the Disappearing Ice Cream in 1975.
Charlton Comics produced acomic book that ran 10 issues from July 1970 to January 1972, mainly adapting stories from the cartoon.[6]
Gold Key Comics produced a comic book that ran 23 issues from March 1975 to February 1979.[7] Unlike the Charlton run, these featured original stories.
Harvey Comics did a one-shot in 1993, and a five-issue series from November 1993 to July 1994. These issues reprinted comics from the Charlton Comics run.
American Mythology Comics produced a comic book that ran four issues from September 2017 to September 2018. It was followed by aHalloween ComicFest one-shot in 2019 andUnderdog in Space which ran for one issue in 2020.Underdog: 1975 reprinted comics from the Gold Key Comics run.
The show is also remembered for its title song, "Underdog", which was arranged and produced by Robert Weitz, with lyrics by Chester Stover,W. Watts Biggers, Treadwell Covington, and Joseph Harris.[8] Several notable covers of the theme song have been made. The originalsong was sung by Robert Ragaini. He explained, "As a struggling singer in New York, I'd gotten a job singing a theme song for a newly proposed TV cartoon series named 'Underdog'. I went to the studio, I think 'O.D.O.' on West 54th Street, sang as part of the backup group (ah-ooo, ah-ooo), then quickly sang the theme song over the track and left. I remember how pleased I was that I'd taken that mouthful of words and made them understandable. Oh yes, they paid me 50 dollars. No contract – I wasn't yet a member of SAG – and I was thrilled to get it. Until I heard it again, year after year. By then I'd become a successful jingle singer and I knew what I should have been making. When it came out as the music track of a Reebok commercial I filed a claim with the Screen Actors Guild, but of course I had no documentation. A friend did give me an Underdog T-shirt. I wore it once, but when a man I passed on West 14th Street started singing the song, I retired it."[citation needed]
Ted Kooshian's Standard Orbit Quartet included the song on their 2009 CDUnderdog, And Other Stories...
An extendeda cappella version was done byThe Blanks on the TV programScrubs during the episode titled "My Hero". They later recorded it on their 2004 albumRiding the Wave.
In the early 1990s,UAV Corp. released various VHS tapes ofUnderdog, which wentout-of-print in 1995.
From 2000 to 2001, Sony Wonder released various VHS tapes and DVDs ofUnderdog. Each release, especially the DVD versions, included a coupon for the Underdoglithograph by the series' creator,Joe Harris.
Sony Wonder releasedUnderdog Collector's Edition DVD on September 12, 2000, and again on August 6, 2002. These releases were discontinued in the mid-2000s. On July 24, 2007,Classic Media releasedUnderdog on DVD in region 1 in a three-volume collection, following a previous three-volume set released in the late 1990s. Each volume features six digitally remastered and uncut, original broadcast episodes, each featuring twoUnderdog segments alongside additional cartoons from the Total TV library.
On February 21, 2012,Shout! Factory (under license from Classic Media) released a 9-disc Complete Series set containing new bonus material, including commentaries. According to Shout! Factory, "they're rebuilding the shows to their original television airing as best as they can".[9]
In 2005,Variety reported that a live-actionUnderdog motion picture was in development. As announced, the story introduces "a diminutive hound named Shoeshine [who] gets superpowers after a lab accident. When he's adopted by a 15-year-old boy, the two form a bond around the shared knowledge that Shoeshine is really Underdog."[10] ActorPeter Dinklage was cast to play Simon Bar Sinister, while Alex Neuberger was cast to play Underdog's human companion,Jack Unger. The movie started filming inProvidence, Rhode Island, in March 2006 and was released on August 3, 2007. The film was distributed byBuena Vista Pictures Distribution. Shoeshine/Underdog, voiced byJason Lee, was played by agolden beagle named Leo sporting a red sweater and a blue cape. The film got mostly negative reviews, but grossed $65.3 million worldwide.
In 1999, Biggers created a new episode ofUnderdog as a half-hour radio show narrated by veteran Boston newsman Tom Ellis with new original music composed by Biggers. Radio stations were asked to participate in Biggers' Victory Over Violence organization by airing the adventure in which the evil Simon Bar Sinister develops a Switchpitch baseball to turn positive people negative. His attempt to become king of Boston is foiled by Underdog (played by Biggers) and Sweet Polly Purebred (portrayed by Nancy Purbeck).
Instagram artists Elena and Olivia Ceballos revealed they pitched for an Underdog revival titledUnderdog Unleashed back in 2015 toDreamWorks Animation Television, since the parent company owns theClassic Media library, and eventually became part ofNBCUniversal since 2016. The show would have most likely premiered as aNetflix Original series due to DreamWorks' deal with them at the time. The pitch included characters who were in the original show, along with some new ones. According to the artists, nothing went forward after the pitch.[11]
In July 2024, theSuperprod Group announced a CGI-animated revival (separate and entirely different from the Ceballos twins' pitch) ofUnderdog to be co-produced by Superprod Animation and Red Monk Studio, under license from Classic Media (who Superprod previously co-producedLassie for them).M6,Gulli andRAI were announced as broadcast partners, and that the series would air in a 2025 delivery window.[12][13][14] In June 2025, it was announced that the series would be calledUnderdog and the Canine Defenders and premiere in the fall of 2025,[15] with Spanish entertainment companyDeAPlaneta Entertainment joining as co-producer.[16] Distribution rights are shared between the companies, with DeAPlaneta holding distribution for Spain, Portugal, and Central and Eastern Europe while Superights, the in-house distribution arm of Superprod Group, would handle the rest of the world. DeAPlaneta would also handle worldwide merchandising and brand rights for the revival, excluding the US and French/Italian-speaking territories.[17] The series premiered onGulli on November 29, 2025.
The series was broadcast in a handful of foreign markets. In Italy, the series aired onItalia 1 in 2001. A separate theme song byCristina D'Avena was used in the dub.[18] In the last few years of Pahlavi-era Iran, it was broadcast byNational Iranian Radio and Television.[19] The Japanese dub aired onCartoon Network from 2000[20] to December 2002.[21] The series first aired in Brazil onTVS Rio in 1979;[22] then it was picked up for a national airing on the nascentSBT network a few years later. Redubs aired onFox Kids and laterCartoon Network.[23] In Ukraine, the series aired on commercial channelTET in 2010, asПесик-захисник.[24] The series aired on theYorkiddin' block in the early 2000s in the Netherlands.[25]
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