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'''George of the Jungle''' was a Saturday-morning animated television program produced by Devon Corey, Jay Ward, and Bill Scott, the same people responsible for ''Rocky & Bullwinkle''. It ran for 17 episodes from 1967 to 1968 on the American TV network ABC. The half-hour program was for many years distributed by Worldvision Enterprises, currently part of CBS Paramount Domestic Television.

Contents

Program format

''George of the Jungle''

2007 Series

Cultural references

References

Program format

The show actually featured three segments in each episode in the form of three unrelated cartoons. The cartoons were ''George of the Jungle'', ''Tom Slick'' and ''Super Chicken''. The voices were primarily handled by the same three people over all three segments, Bill Scott, June Foray and Paul Frees.

''George of the Jungle''

The title segment, ''George of the Jungle'', was a spoof of the popular Tarzan story. The title character, George (voiced by Bill Scott), was a dim-witted but big-hearted "ape man" who lived in the jungle. He is called upon each episode to save its inhabitants from various threats. He is famous for not looking where he is swinging and thus slamming face-first into trees or other obstacles. George's love interest is Ursula (voiced by June Foray), whom George refers to as "Fella." He has an ape for a friend, appropriately named Ape (voiced by Paul Frees), who is far more intelligent than George. Then there is Shep, George's pet elephant who acts like a lap dog, or as George calls him, "great big peanut-luvin' poochie." Also of note is the Tooky Tooky (or Tookie Tookie) bird famous for his call: "ah ah ee ee tooky tooky".
In 1997, the segment was adapted into a live action film, titled ''George of the Jungle''. Brendan Fraser played the title role, with Leslie Mann as Ursula and John Cleese as the voice of Ape. A direct-to-video sequel, George of the Jungle 2 (without Fraser and Mann) was released in 2003.

2007 Series

Classic Media developed a new ''George of the Jungle'' Flash animation series in 2007. It was co-produced with Studio B Productions and Teletoon Canada. The series aired on Teletoon in Canada and is scheduled to air on Cartoon Network in the United States and Nicktoons UK in the United Kingdom. [1] [2] [3]

Cultural references

"Weird Al" Yankovic did a cover version of the George of the Jungle theme on his 1985 album Dare to Be Stupid.

References

★ WGBH & Studio B to Produce Martha Speaks Animated Series For Public TV