The Famous Adventures of Mr. Magoo

The Famous Adventures of Mr. Magoo is an American animated television series produced by United Productions of America that aired for one season on NBC from September 19, 1964 to April 24, 1965.^[1] It is the follow-up to the 1960/61 series Mister Magoo, with Jim Backus reprising the title role.^[2]

The Famous Adventures of Mr. Magoo
Genre	Animation
Written by	Walter Black Barbara Chain
Directed by	Bob McKimson
Voices of	Jim Backus Marvin Miller Paul Frees Dal McKennon Joan Gardner Howard Morris Shepard Menken Everett Sloane Julie Bennett
Theme music composer	Carl Brandt
Composer	Carl Brandt
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	26 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producer	Henry G. Saperstein
Editor	Sam Horta
Running time	30 minutes
Production company	United Productions of America
Original release
Network	NBC
Release	19 September 1964 (1964-09-19) – 24 April 1965 (1965-04-24)

Unlike the theatrical cartoons, which focused on the extremely nearsighted Quincy Magoo's bumbling, the show features the Magoo character as an actor in adaptations of such literary classics as Don Quixote and "Gunga Din".^[3] Each of these roles is played seriously, with few, if any, references to Magoo's nearsightedness. However, introductory segments in each program feature Magoo backstage stumbling into scenery and talking to props, thus connecting the older cartoons to this series. Some stories are contained in a single half-hour episode, but others run for two to four episodes. As UPA did not have its own studio facility, the production was farmed out to the Grantray-Lawrence and Format Films studios.

Among the most ambitious adaptations mounted in this format were the four-part Robin Hood, in which he took the role of Friar Tuck; Treasure Island, in which he played the villainous Long John Silver; and a version of Snow White in which he portrayed all seven of the Seven Dwarfs.

The series was inspired by the success of the 1962 television special Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol, a serious remake of the Charles Dickens classic novel with Magoo playing Ebenezer Scrooge.

The series was re-shown in the early 1970s on early Saturday mornings and the early 1980s as part of certain channels' weekday afternoon cartoon blocs. Certain episodes were released on VHS, but these have since gone out of print.

The series was originally shown in prime time and not as part of an animated block for juvenile viewers. Therefore, certain more mature elements were present. These included death threats (William Tell, Robin Hood, Don Quixote, The Three Musketeers, Sherlock Holmes), children in danger (Treasure Island, Gunga Din, William Tell), insanity (Don Quixote, Moby Dick), heroic self-sacrifice (Gunga Din), religious themes (Noah's Ark), and realistic, although mostly bloodless, violence; including swordplay, shooting, clubbing, drowning and character deaths in most of the episodes.

Episodes

#	Broadcast date	Title	Adapted for Television by
01	September 19, 1964	"William Tell"	Barbara Chain
02	September 26, 1964	"Treasure Island"— Part 1	Walter Black
03	October 3, 1964	"Treasure Island"— Part 2	Walter Black
04	October 10, 1964	"Gunga Din"	Sloan Nibley
05	October 17, 1964	"Moby Dick"	True Boardman
06	October 24, 1964	"The Three Musketeers"— Part 1	Joanna Lee
07	November 7, 1964	"The Three Musketeers"— Part 2	Joanna Lee
08	November 14, 1964	"Robin Hood"— Episode 1	Walter Black
09	November 21, 1964	"Robin Hood"— Episode 2	Walter Black
10	November 28, 1964	"Robin Hood"— Episode 3	Walter Black
11	December 5, 1964	"Robin Hood"— Episode 4	Walter Black
12	December 19, 1964	"Don Quixote de la Mancha"— Episode 1	True Boardman
13	December 26, 1964	"Cyrano de Bergerac"	True Boardman
14	January 2, 1965	"Snow White"— Episode 1	Barbara Chain
15	January 9, 1965	"Snow White"— Episode 2	Barbara Chain
16	January 16, 1965	"Rip Van Winkle"	Barbara Chain
17	February 6, 1965	"Dick Tracy and the Mob"	Sloan Nibley
18	February 13, 1965	"A Midsummer Night's Dream"	Barbara Chain
19	February 27, 1965	"The Count of Monte Cristo"	Walter Black
20	March 13, 1965	"Doctor Frankenstein"	Sloan Nibley
21	March 20, 1965	"Don Quixote de la Mancha"— Episode 2	True Boardman
22	March 27, 1965	"Captain Kidd"	Walter Black
23	April 3, 1965	"Noah's Ark"	Barbara Chain
24	April 10, 1965	"Sherlock Holmes"	True Boardman
25	April 17, 1965	"King Arthur"	Sloan Nibley
26	April 24, 1965	"Paul Revere"	Jerry D. Lewis

Home video

In November 2011, Shout! Factory released Mr. Magoo: The Television Collection 1960-1977 on DVD in Region 1.^[4] This 11-disc collection contains all the episodes from all three Mr. Magoo television series, including all 26 episodes of The Famous Adventures of Mr. Magoo.

References

1. Woolery, George W. (1983). Children's Television: The First Thirty-Five Years, 1946-1981, Part 1: Animated Cartoon Series. Scarecrow Press. pp. 193–196. ISBN 0-8108-1557-5. Retrieved 14 March 2020.
2. Perlmutter, David (2018). The Encyclopedia of American Animated Television Shows. Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 401–403. ISBN 978-1538103739.
3. Erickson, Hal (2005). Television Cartoon Shows: An Illustrated Encyclopedia, 1949 Through 2003 (2nd ed.). McFarland & Co. pp. 554–559. ISBN 978-1476665993.
4. "Mr. Magoo DVD news: Box Art and Contents for Mr. Magoo on TV Collection: 1960-1977". TVShowsOnDVD.com. Archived from the original on 2012-10-20. Retrieved 2012-06-13.

External links

• The Famous Adventures of Mr. Magoo at IMDb