Super Chicken

Series overview

Usually, Super Chicken (voiced by Bill Scott in a Boston Brahmin accent) with his lion sidekick Fred (dressed in a sweatshirt with a backwards F on the front and voiced by Paul Frees (impersonating Ed Wynn)), begain their adventures with Super Chicken's battlecry: "Quick, Fred, to the 'Super-Coop!" (a play on the word coupe). The Super-Coop was an egg-shaped air vehicle flown by Super Chicken and Fred to the rescue of innocent victims of crime.

Super Chicken's secret identity was well-to-do Henry Cabot Henhouse III (whose name was a play on Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr.); Fred acted as his butler/servant, etc. When danger reared its ugly head, he would take his "Super Sauce" (often from a martini glass) and don his "Super Suit," which consisted of a plumed cavalier's hat, cape, Wellington boots, mask and a sword.

The first pilot featured an all-star comedy cast, including Bill Dana with Don Knotts as the voice of Super Chicken. The project was shelved and eventually recast.

Recurring gags

The cartoon had several running gags, including:

Original concept

The original concept for Super Chicken in the pilot differed from the subsequent 17 episodes. Super Chicken's mild-mannered identity was Hunt Strongbird, Jr. The Super Coupe was a wooden chicken coop with a glass canopy, airplane wings and a jet engine. Also absent was the need for Super Sauce to institute the change into Super Chicken. Super Chicken's sidekick Fred was fundamentally the same, except that instead of sneakers, he wore black boots.

Super Chicken episode names and dates

1. One Of Our States Is Missing 9/5/67
2. Super Chicken vs. the Zipper 9/12/67
3. Rotten Hood 9/19/67
4. The Oyster 9/26/67
5. The Elephant Spreader 10/3/67
6. Merlin Brando 10/10/67
7. Wild Ralph Hiccup 10/17/67
8. The Geezer 10/24/67
9. Salvador Rag Dolly 10/31/67
10. The Easter Bunny 11/7/67
11. The Noodle 11/14/67
12. The Fat Man 11/21/67
13. Briggs Bad Wolf 11/28/67
14. The Laundry Man 12/5/67
15. The Muscle 12/12?/67
16. Dr. Gizmo 12/19?/67
17. The Wild Hair 12/26?/67

Appearances in other media

In 1969, Gold Key Comics published two issues of a George of the Jungle comic book. Each issue contained a story featuring Super Chicken. The artist and writer of the stories, Paul Fung, Jr. was not credited in the comic.

In an episode of Darkwing Duck, Darkwing references a line from the Super Chicken series. When approaching a dangerous target, Darkwing tells his sidekick, "It's like the chicken said, Launchpad--I knew the job was dangerous when I took it."

During the January 27, 2003 episode of Loveline, host Drew Pinsky revealed that as a child he had participated in the test marketing of the show. This followed a rendition of the theme song by guest Emma Caulfield and cohost Adam Carolla. He said "it looked retarded to me", and "I was like eight years old and they marketed that and [...] George of the Jungle and another – it seemed to me more bizarre – "It's About Time" kind of thing: a guy gets frozen and comes back to life".

Jerry Seinfeld referenced Super Chicken in a "Bee Movie TV Junior", in which he recites the Super Chicken theme song.

The late historian Kenneth Cmiel (Ph.D, University of Chicago, 1986; professor of history and American studies at the University of Iowa and director of the U.I. Center for Human Rights until his death in 2006) opens his Democratic Eloquence: The Fight over Popular Speech in Nineteenth-Century America (New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc., 1990) with the famous quote, "You knew the job was dangerous when you took it," which is found on the dedication page.

In the Jerry Pournelle and Roland Green science fiction novel "Clan and Crown", part of the Janissaries series, the mercenary Ben Murphy is in a tight situation and says to himself, "But what the hell, you knew the job was dangerous when you took it, Fred...", a clear reference to the Super Chicken theme song. No character named Fred occurs elsewhere in the novel.

In Hip-Hop artist Ice Cube's Ghetto Bird (from the Lethal Injection album), he makes a derisive reference to police helicopters "up there lookin' like Super Chicken".