Tom Terrific

Tom Terrific is a 1957–1959 animated series on American television, presented as part of the Captain Kangaroo children's television show.[1]

For the baseball player who went by the nickname, see Tom Seaver.
Tom Terrific
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 producerWilliam M. Weiss
ProducerGene Deitch
EditorJack MacConnell
Production companyTerrytoons
Release
First shown in1957-1958
Original releaseJune 10, 1957 (1957-06-10) –
1959 (pre-reruns)

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]

Drawn in a simple black-and white style reminiscent of children's drawings, the show features a gee-whiz boy hero, Tom Terrific, who lives in a treehouse and can transform himself 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 arch-foe named Crabby Appleton, whose motto is, "I'm rotten to the core!"[3] Other foes include Mr. Instant the Instant Thing King, Captain Kidney Bean, Sweet Tooth Sam the Candy Bandit, and Isotope Feeney the Meany. Some of the dialogue was written by cartoonist Jules Feiffer.[4]

Gene Deitch adapted the feature from his earlier newspaper comic strip, "Terr'ble Thompson!" distributed during the 1950s by United Features Syndicate.[5] Terr'ble Thompson was a six-year-old boy who imagined himself to be the "Hero of Hist'ry" and freely travelled back in time 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).

Tom Terrific was ranked #32 by TV Guide magazine among its "50 Greatest TV Cartoon Characters."[6]

Episodes
  • Each episode was shown in five installments, one per day, Monday through Friday.
Episode Title Air Date[7]
1The Nasty KnightJune 10, 1957 (1957-06-10)
2The Pill of SmartnessJune 17, 1957 (1957-06-17)
3Sweet Tooth SamJune 24, 1957 (1957-06-24)
4Snowy PictureJuly 1, 1957 (1957-07-01)
5Crabby Appleton's DragonJuly 8, 1957 (1957-07-08)
6Captain Kidney BeanJuly 15, 1957 (1957-07-15)
7The Gravity MakerJuly 22, 1957 (1957-07-22)
8Scrambled Dinosaur EggsJuly 29, 1957 (1957-07-29)
9Who Stole the North PoleAugust 5, 1957 (1957-08-05)
10Instant TantrumsAugust 12, 1957 (1957-08-12)
11Track Meet, Well DoneAugust 19, 1957 (1957-08-19)
12The Great Calendar MysteryAugust 26, 1957 (1957-08-26)
13Elephant StewAugust 2, 1957 (1957-08-02)
14The Missing Mail MysteryAugust 9, 1957 (1957-08-09)
15The Prince FrogSeptember 16, 1957 (1957-09-16)
16Isotope Feeney's Foolish FogSeptember 23, 1957 (1957-09-23)
17Moon Over ManfredSeptember 30, 1957 (1957-09-30)
18Go West, Young ManfredDecember 2, 1957 (1957-12-02)
19The Silly SandmanSeptember 7, 1957 (1957-09-07)
20Crabby ParkOctober 14, 1957 (1957-10-14)
21The Million Manfred MysteryOctober 21, 1957 (1957-10-21)
22The Flying SorcererOctober 28, 1957 (1957-10-28)
23The Big Dog Show-OffNovember 4, 1957 (1957-11-04)
24The End of RainbowsNovember 11, 1957 (1957-11-11)
25Robinsnest CrusoeNovember 18, 1957 (1957-11-18)
26The Everlasting Birthday PartyNovember 25, 1957 (1957-11-25)

Home video

As of 2020, there has not been an authorized VHS, DVD or Blu-ray release of the series.

  • The character also appeared in a comic book for six issues in 1957 from Pines Comics, 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.[8]
  • 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.[9]

References
  1. 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 22 March 2020.
  2. 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. Perlmutter, David (2018). The Encyclopedia of American Animated Television Shows. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 653. ISBN 978-1538103739.
  4. Erickson, Hal (2005). Television Cartoon Shows: An Illustrated Encyclopedia, 1949 Through 2003 (2nd ed.). McFarland & Co. pp. 862–863. ISBN 978-1476665993.
  5. Terrible Thompson strip
  6. TV Guide's 50 greatest cartoon characters of all time
  7. DataBase, The Big Cartoon. "Tom Terrific Episode Guide -CBS Prods @ BCDB". Big Cartoon DataBase (BCDB). Retrieved 3 September 2019.
  8. "Curbside". The Big Cartoon Database. Retrieved January 2, 2017.
  9. 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. ISBN 1974583899

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