The Woody Woodpecker Show is an American television series mainly composed of the animated cartoon shorts of Woody Woodpecker and other Walter Lantz characters including Andy Panda, Chilly Willy, The Beary Family and Inspector Willoughby all released by Walter Lantz Productions.[1] The series was revived and reformatted several times, but remained popular for nearly four decades and allowed the studio to continue making theatrical cartoons until 1972 when it shut down. It also kept the Walter Lantz/Universal "cartunes" made during the Golden Age of American animation a part of the American consciousness. The Woody Woodpecker Show was named the 88th best animated series by IGN.[2]
History
Movie theater owners in the 1950s were finding that they could release features with reissued cartoons, or no cartoons at all, and the audiences would still come. Because of the practice, the theatrical cartoon business was suffering and losing money. By 1956 there were only seven animation producers in the short-subjects field, and by the end of the decade that number would dwindle down to three. Walter Lantz and his distributor, Universal Pictures, knew that the only way to subsidize the rising costs of new shorts was to release their product to television. Norman Gluck from Universal's short-subjects department made a deal with the Leo Burnett Agency to release some older Lantz product on television. Burnett handled the Kellogg's cereal account and Lantz soon met with the Kellogg's people to sign the contract.[3] Lantz admitted that he was only working in the medium because he was "forced into TV" and "cartoons for theaters would soon be extinct".[4]
The Woody Woodpecker Show debuted on ABC on the afternoon of October 3, 1957. The series was shown once a week, on Thursday afternoons, replacing the first half-hour of the shortened Mickey Mouse Club. Lantz integrated his existing cartoons with new live action footage, giving the show an updated look that satisfied both viewers and Lantz himself. The live action and animation segments created for the show, called 'A Moment with Walter Lantz', featured an informative look at how the animation process for his "cartunes" worked as well as how the writers came up with stories and characters. The live-action segments were directed by Jack Hannah, who was fresh from the Disney studio where he had done similar live-action/animation sequences for the Disney show.[3]
After the initial year on ABC, The Woody Woodpecker Show was syndicated until 1966. The "A Moment with Walter Lantz" segments were eventually replaced with "Woody's Newsreel" and "Around The World with Woody" which used footage of Universal Newsreels and featured voice-over commentary by Walter Lantz and Woody Woodpecker.
In 1970, the show reappeared on network television, with 26 additional episodes assembled by Lantz for NBC. The show ran on NBC until September 2, 1972, which is the same year the Walter Lantz Productions studio shut down. The show was revived again on September 11, 1976, featuring cartoons made from 1940 to 1965.[5] The show ended its network run on September 3, 1977. Local stations continued to air The Woody Woodpecker Show for the next several years.
In 1984, Lantz sold everything outright to MCA/Universal, though he remained active in overseeing how Universal handled his characters (for merchandise, TV, home video, theme parks, limited edition cels, etc.) up until his death in 1994.[6]
In 1987, MCA/Universal and The Program Exchange returned the show to television with a new 90 episode package for syndication. This Woody Woodpecker Show featured a complete overhaul of the series format. Gone were the newsreels, "Around the World" segments, and live action scenes with Walter Lantz, replaced by vignettes known as "Musical Miniatures", in which new musical compositions were played over montages of classic cartoon footage. New commercial bumpers were added and a new opening sequence was created. This one featured Woody, Andy Panda, Chilly Willy, Smedley the Dog, and Inspector Willoughby along with Woody's nemeses Buzz Buzzard, Gabby Gator, and Wally Walrus as they caused chaos in a small town. Episodes of this Woody Woodpecker Show typically consisted of two Woody cartoons bookending another Lantz cartoon (typically a Chilly Willy cartoon). The series continued airing in syndication until 1998. Around that time, Cartoon Network picked up rerun rights and aired The Woody Woodpecker Show for several months, after which the series disappeared from television.
In August 2023, MeTV acquired the broadcast rights to Walter Lantz cartoons from 1934 to 1972 to air The Woody Woodpecker Show on Saturday mornings on September 2 as part of MeTV's Saturday Morning Cartoons animation block, marking Woody's return to television after 21 years (it was also picked up by MeTV Toons one year later). They were not aired in the actual The Woody Woodpecker Show anthology episodes formats, but the separate theatrical cartoon prints are shown directly from the Universal vaults.
Episodes
Cartoons with an '*' are repeats.
Series 1 (1957–1958)
This series consist of 30s and 40s Walter Lantz cartoons.
#
1st cartoon
2nd cartoon
3rd cartoon
Original air date
1
Who's Cookin' Who? (1946)
The Overture to William Tell (1947)
Bathing Buddies (1946)
October 3, 1957 (1957-10-03)
2
Ace in the Hole (1942)
The Bandmaster (1947)
Banquet Busters (1948)
October 10, 1957 (1957-10-10)
3
Life Begins for Andy Panda (1939)
Pied Piper of Basin Street (1945)
Knock Knock (1940)
October 17, 1957 (1957-10-17)
4
Chew Chew Baby (1945)
The Sleeping Princess (1939)
The Dizzy Acrobat (1943)
October 24, 1957 (1957-10-24)
5
Fish Fry (1944)
Pixie Picnic (1948)
Woody Dines Out (1945)
October 31, 1957 (1957-10-31)
6
The Hollywood Matador (1942)
Adventures of Tom Thumb Jr. (1940)
Well Oiled (1947)
November 7, 1957 (1957-11-07)
7
Andy Panda Goes Fishing (1940)
The Poet and the Peasant (1946)
Ski for Two (1944)
November 14, 1957 (1957-11-14)
8
Fair Weather Fiends (1946)
Scrambled Eggs (1939)
Woody The Giant Killer (1947)
November 21, 1957 (1957-11-21)
9
Mousie Come Home (1946)
Apple Andy (1946)
The Dippy Diplomat (1945)
November 28, 1957 (1957-11-28)
10
Pantry Panic (1941)
Kiddie Koncert (1948)
Wacky Bye Baby (1948)
December 5, 1957 (1957-12-05)
11
The Painter and the Pointer (1944)
Dog Tax Dodgers (1948)
The Mad Hatter (1948)
December 12, 1957 (1957-12-12)
12
The Screwball (1943)
Three Lazy Mice (1935)
Solid Ivory (1947)
December 19, 1957 (1957-12-19)
13
Crow Crazy (1944)
Sliphorn King Of Polaroo (1945)
The Reckless Driver (1946)
December 26, 1957 (1957-12-26)
14
The Wacky Weed (1946)
Musical Moments from Chopin (1947)
The Beach Nut (1944)
January 2, 1958 (1958-01-02)
15
Meatless Tuesday (1943)
Jungle Jive (1944)
The Loose Nut (1945)
January 9, 1958 (1958-01-09)
16
Smoked Hams (1947)
Fox and the Rabbit (1935)
The Barber of Seville (1944)
January 16, 1958 (1958-01-16)
17
100 Pygmies and Andy Panda (1940)
Kitten Mittens (1940)
The Coo Coo Bird (1947)
January 23, 1958 (1958-01-23)
18
The Dizzy Acrobat (1943)*
Toyland Premiere (1935)
Woody Dines Out (1945)*
January 30, 1958 (1958-01-30)
19
Life Begins for Andy Panda (1939)*
Fish Fry (1944)*
The Hollywood Matador (1942)*
February 6, 1958 (1958-02-06)
20
Well Oiled (1947)*
Pixie Picnic (1948)*
Ski for Two (1944)*
February 13, 1958 (1958-02-13)
21
Andy Panda Goes Fishing (1940)*
Adventures of Tom Thumb Jr. (1940)*
Fair Weather Fiends (1946)*
February 20, 1958 (1958-02-20)
22
Woody The Giant Killer (1947)*
The Poet and the Peasant (1946)*
The Dippy Diplomat (1945)*
February 27, 1958 (1958-02-27)
23
Mousie Come Home (1946)*
Scrambled Eggs (1939)*
Pantry Panic (1941)*
March 6, 1958 (1958-03-06)
24
Wacky Bye Baby (1948)*
Apple Andy (1946)*
The Mad Hatter (1948)*
March 13, 1958 (1958-03-13)
25
The Painter and the Pointer (1944)*
Kiddie Koncert (1948)*
The Screwball (1943)*
March 20, 1958 (1958-03-20)
26
Solid Ivory (1947)*
Dog Tax Dodgers (1948)*
The Reckless Driver (1946)*
March 27, 1958 (1958-03-27)
Series 2 (1963–1964)
This series consist of 50s and some 40s Walter Lantz cartoons.
In the process of remastering 49th episode, Destination Meatball (from Woody Woodpecker) was replaced with one of Andy Panda's shorts for unknown reasons.
(*) = total of 59 episodes with original animation
Home media
In the early 2000s, a series of mail-order Woody Woodpecker ShowVHS tapes and DVDs were made available through Columbia House. Each volume featured "cartunes", bumpers, and 'A Moment with Walter Lantz' or "Newsreel" segments set in the 1957-1977 format of The Woody Woodpecker Show, though Volumes 11-15 hardly feature any "Moments" or "Newsreels". There were complaints about cuts made to the shorts, which ranged from shorts from restored and intact prints to severely cut TV edits.[16]
In 2007, Universal Studios Home Entertainment released The Woody Woodpecker and Friends Classic Cartoon Collection, six behind-the-scenes segments from The Woody Woodpecker Show and a 1964 episode that contained the cartoon "Spook-a-Nanny" were released on the collection as bonus features. The following year, The Woody Woodpecker and Friends Classic Cartoon Collection: Volume 2 was released, featuring twelve behind-the-scenes segments and two pilot cartoons, "The Secret Weapon" and "Jungle Medics" from The Woody Woodpecker Show.
References
^Erickson, Hal (2005). Television Cartoon Shows: An Illustrated Encyclopedia, 1949 Through 2003 (2nd ed.). McFarland & Co. pp. 915–917. ISBN978-1476665993.
