I recently reviewed the Underdog Complete Series and really enjoyed it, but little did I know that I would enjoy the Tennessee Tuxedo set significantly more. What makes the tales of Tennessee and his pal Chumley so much better is the variety of plots and the interesting educational segments. While only about two minutes long, the educational parts are all accurate, for the time that they were created, and nicely presented.
But before I get ahead of myself, allow me to set the premise of the show if you aren’t familiar with it. In the opening episode, Tennessee, voiced by Don Adams of Get Smart and Inspector Gadget fame, and his buddy Chumley (voiced by Bradley Bolke), are sitting in the North Pole, freezing. Along comes zookeeper Stanley Livingston, eager to add to his zoo collection. He spots Chumley, a walrus species found on the South Pole. It was odd that he was here at the North Pole, so Stanley had to have him. Thinking this would get him out of the cold, Tennessee tags along, and the two wind up in the Megapolis Zoo.
Despite more comfortable temperatures, Tennessee, the only brains of this two animal operation, decides that they don’t want to be caged up in a zoo. Over the course of seventy episodes and three seasons, the duo gets involved in numerous attempts to both escape and improve the quality of life at the zoo. Any opportunity to be a menace to Stanley Livingston and his worker named Flunkie is just a bonus. Tennessee and Chumley get mixed up in all kinds of things — from their first adventure in taking jobs as mechanics just to escape the zoo, only to wind up having to fix a gangster’s car, to getting into a boxing match with Tiger Tornado, the sheer variety of plots is a very strong reason this show keeps you coming back for more.
The voice of Don Adams and the character of Tennessee is a great reason to keep watching as well. A determined and alway-up-to-something type of character, Tennessee is very likeable figure. Chumley is purposefully dumb; he goofs up constantly and combined with his overly dumbed-down voice and dialogue, he gets a bit old and irritating. Other lead characters are fine, especially the short educational segments that feature Dr. Phineas J. Whoopee, aka the man with all of the answers.
Whoopee is a professor who uses his special 3D Blackboard every time Tennessee and Chumley stop by for advice. No matter what their situation is, the duo always ends up going to Whoopee for guidance, and this is where the show is able to spend a quality two minutes educating viewers on a variety of subjects. Topics include sculpture, combustion engines, knights armor, and a plethora of other things. Voiced by Larry Storch, Dr. Whoopee is a really great character and one that I looked forward to seeing from episode to episode.
Buck Biggers, one of the lead writers for this series and Underdog, likened the formula of Tennessee to Popeye. To paraphrase him, you get your characters in a tree, you throw rocks at them, and then you get them out. In Popeye’s case, he would get into a bad situation — then, he would get some spinach. After downing the spinach, he got his strength and he was able to mop up anything and anyone in his way to set things right. With Tennessee and Chumley, their spinach was Dr. Whoopee — down on their luck and without a plan, the two would talk to Dr. Whoopee who would give them the knowledge they needed to execute a plan. The end result is entertaining and educational television that is a treat to watch and is more easily re-watched again due to the clever troubles and plots Tennessee gets into.
Shout! Factory could have left this box set at that, just including the seventy episodes of Tennessee Tuxedo, but they included a bunch of other Total Television cartoons as well. Not complete sets, but an additional eighty or so cartoons from Tooter Turtle, The King And Odie, The Hunter, and Klondike Kat. The Commander McBragg shorts were all put on the Underdog set for those wondering where those are. I should also point out, as a general note, that the episodes in this release are all segmented. I think originally there was some concatenation to these, but Shout! elected to make each episode its own chapter basically. It works for me, but purists may take issue with that.
The additional cartoons are a huge plus, even if they are somewhat out of place given that the title of this set leads you to believe this is solely a Tennessee Tuxedo collection. Additionally, we may see these cartoons re-released should these other Total Television series’ get their own DVD sets, although I personally do not see that happening. All that to say, as a casual fan of older cartoons, the additional content is more than welcomed here.
In terms of presentation quality, I went into this set expecting a standard 4:3 frame with mono or stereo audio, no subtitles, and an overall decent-to-good presentation quality. At the end of the day, you’re talking about a fifty year old cartoon, so some presentation inconsistencies are to be expected. As always, I would have appreciated the inclusion of subtitles, but I doubt Shout! will ever do those on a consistent basis. Other than that, keeping in mind I don’t get all fired up over some minor quality issues on an old cartoon box set like this, I was pleased with the presentation.
There are several extra features to be found here. The first one you will discover is a nice full color, twenty page booklet that is inside of the box. The first eleven pages include some various images related to the show and a well written article by animation historian Mark Arnold. The latter pages of the book are a disc-by-disc content breakdown, which is also included on the back of the artwork of the DVD cases. There are nine audio commentaries spread out over the set and three video features:
-Tennessee Tuxedo Never Fails (23m30s) – Animation historian Mark Arnold, who was also prominent in the Underdog DVD set, talks about all of the different characters and general history of the series. His segments are split up with recent interviews of Buck Biggers, Larry Storch, and a few other gentlemen close to the show. It’s well put together and definitely worth a watch.
-Riddles (3m34s) – I believe in the original airings back in the sixties, the riddles were included as part of the show. Here, you get a set of ten or eleven of them back to back. Why they weren’t integrated with the shows on the disc I’m not sure, and I don’t think this is a complete set of all of the original riddles, either.
-Bumpers/Opens/Previews (6m39s) – A miscellaneous collection of bumpers (brief clips before/after commercials or at the end of episodes), the original theme song opening, and previews of other episodes. It’s a nice assortment that nostalgic fans should enjoy. The presentation quality varies a lot, but that isn’t too surprising.
To the summary…