9.1 /10 2 Votes
Genre Cartoon series Final episode date 2 September 1971 Number of seasons 1 | 8.2/10 IMDb First episode date 12 September 1970 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Created by David H. DePatieFriz FrelengPaul HarrisonLennie Weinrib Written by Paul HarrisonLennie Weinrib Voices of Bob HoltDon MessickHal SmithRobert TowersLennie Weinrib Cast Similar Baggy Pants and the Nitwits, The Barkleys, Bailey's Comets, The Houndcats, The Oddball Couple | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Doctor dolittle episode 1 the grasshoppers are coming hooray hooray
Doctor Dolittle is an animated series produced by DePatie-Freleng Enterprises in association with 20th Century Fox Television. It was created for television by David H. DePatie and Friz Freleng in association with Paul Harrison and Lennie Weinrib. The series was broadcast on the NBC network. An altered version of the song "Talk to the Animals" was heard during the opening credits.
Contents
- Doctor dolittle episode 1 the grasshoppers are coming hooray hooray
- Synopsis
- Cast
- Syndication problems
- References
Synopsis
The series is loosely based on the books by Hugh Lofting, as well as the 1967 film of the same name which center around Doctor Dolittle (voiced by Bob Holt), an animal doctor who has the ability to talk to animals. Doctor Dolittle travels around the world by ship to help out any sick animal in need. He is aided in his missions by his first mate, young sailor Tommy Stubbins (voiced by Hal Smith), who can also talk to animals. Tommy who was apparently taught how to talk to animals by Dolittle share the ship with its animal crew, which includes
The series' other notable characters are George and the Grasshoppers (a rock group of grasshoppers that lives inside Doctor Dolittle's medicine case). At one point during each episode of the series, the group would launch into a rock or pop song, popping the sides of the medicine case open and using it like a stage, with Doctor Dolittle's bottles of pills and medicines glowing and flashing into different psychedelic colors behind the group as they sang.
Wherever the Doctor Dolittle's ship was, Sub-Mar Island is never far behind. A disguised submarine, Sub-Mar Island is actually the stronghold of Sam Scurvy (voiced by Lennie Weinrib) and his pirate crew:
The pirates dress in an unusual mixture of old-fashioned pirate and gangster gear. Sam Scurvy wears a fedora and a business suit and speaks with a Brooklyn accent. The pirate crew were also a branch of the Democratic Order of Pirates, International, or "DOPI" for short. Sam Scurvy has one goal in life: world domination. He believes that if he can get the secret to talking to animals from Doctor Dolittle, he will be able to raise an army of "creepy creatures" to help him take over the world. By using his eavesdropping device the Sneaky Snorkel, Scurvy gets wind of Doctor Dolittle's latest missions and then plots to hinder, disrupt, or even kidnap the Doctor, Tommy, or any one of his animals, in order to force him to reveal how he is capable of talking to animals. However, due to Doctor Dolittle's skills as well as the pirates' ineptitude, they never succeed.
Cast
Syndication problems
Aside from a brief period in the early 1980s as part of "The Krofft Supershow," the series has never been shown in syndication, possibly due to the politically incorrect stereotypes of the pirate crew, as well as the strong drug implications present during George and the Grasshoppers' rock and pop numbers.
It first appeared on British TV on BBC 1 on Thursday, 25 November 1971. It was dubbed in Sinhala in Sri Lanka as "Dosthara Hoda hitha"