Tennessee Tuxedo and Underdog...

[MarkTheShark]

...are airing on the "Black Family Channel" (of all places).

Tennessee Tuxedo airs M-F 8:30 a.m. (Chicago time)

Underdog airs M-F 2:30 p.m. (Chicago time)

There also is a show called "Fun Farm" which has public domain cartoons on it. What I have seen so far usually (but not always) have no titles and quality is not good. They showed "Fresh Hare," but possibly understandably, the "Camptdown Races" part was edited with the film abruptly ending before that scene.

[JIM ENGEL]

What's the "Black Family Channel"? Mark, do you have COMCAST cable?

[bobchief]

Originally known as MBC (Major Broadcasting Cable), founded in 2003 in the Atlanta area by attorney/activist Willie Gary, now in about 16 million homes.

www.blackfamilychannel.com (http://www.blackfamilychannel.com)

[corey3rd]

the good part is that these have the original openings and theme music. The bad part is that they are in horrible condition.

[MarkTheShark]

the good part is that these have the original openings and theme music. The bad part is that they are in horrible condition.

From what I can remember of watching these in Chicago in the 1970s and 1980s...

The Underdog and Tennessee Tuxedo syndicated shows were remastered around 1980 or so (at least as shown on Channel 32 in Chicago at the time). Prior to that, they had been aired from 16mm film prints, but around 1980 the shows were all remastered onto a tape source. If you watch closely, for instance, the closing credits of Tennessee Tuxedo are from the same film print every day. There is a very noticeable big white spot that shows up in the middle of the screen just a second or two before the closing credits start. But that's practically obsessive-compulsive.

Anyway, these are the same masters done at that time, actually, probably dupes of them with the Program Exchange logo added at the end. I believe what DFS did back in 1980 was find the best (or least damaged) 16mm TV prints they had on hand at the time, and just mastered the tapes from there. A lot of things became standardized and repeat in each episode. (This is different from the remastered Bullwinkle shows done ten years later, which were done from 35mm and not from old TV prints.)

The syndicated Tuxedos I saw in Chicago used to always begin cold with a short clip (the same one every day) of Mr. Whoopee opening up the closet looking for the three-dimensional blackboard. I have yet to be able to identify what cartoon it's from, but it's possibly the only instance of viewers actually *seeing* the contents of the closet falling out on top of Tennessee, Chumley and Mr. Whoopee. Now, I don't remember ever seeing the fireworks billboard in syndication (pre-1980) but according to 16mm prints I have, the opening billboard was the first thing shown, followed by the closet clip, then the opening theme song. The fireworks billboard went on slightly longer in 16mm, and actually cut off just as the final explosion started to form the "Big G" logo. But what we see since 1980 is the billboard (which ends a little earlier, with the words "this portion presented by" dubbed out), then the opening titles.

The Underdog syndicated shows are a real jigsaw puzzle. The shows have a cold opening teaser (this was not on the remastered shows as aired on Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network and Boomerang) making reference to "all four parts of this Underdog adventure on today's show," then inviting viewers to watch a clip, which is then not shown. Later in the show, there is often another segment inserted (with announcer George S. Irving) making reference to all four parts of the storyline being shown on today's show, followed by a bunch of clips from various episodes. Of course, both of these segments make no sense in this context because in the syndicated shows, you never see all four parts of a storyline in one half-hour. (These segments originate from late 1960s-early 1970s Saturday morning NBC reruns.)

The Tennessee Tuxedo and Commander McBragg cartoons appearing in the Underdog half-hours are an artifact of a forgotten 1960s syndicated show called "Cartoon Cut-Ups," which aired on WGN in Chicago. The closing credits (which combine parts of the original Underdog and Tuxedo closings) are actually "Cartoon Cut-Ups" credits. The teaser at the end, "Looks like this is the end..." originally said, "but don't miss our next Cartoon Cut-Ups show!" but was later redubbed to say "don't miss our next Underdog show!"

I agree about the general quality of the shows. The Tuxedos in particular are very, very faded. But this is pretty much the way these shows have looked for the last quarter-century.

I don't get Boomerang. Is it true that there is some kind of a completely rescrambled "Underdog" airing on there now which includes cartoons like King & Odie and Hunter, or did I completely misunderstand something I read on line somewhere?

One other Tuxedo question...I recorded a boatload of these shows from Me-TV in Chicago when they were running them last year. They skipped shows #31-40 (officially numbered #931-940) and they got up to 100 shows, then went back to the beginning. (There are 70 Tuxedo cartoons, and each one appears twice with different supporting segments each time, for a total of 140 half-hours.)

I remember in the early 1980s seeing some episodes in Chicago (on Channel 32) which did not have the usual opening song. Instead, it was another segment (which I have in black and white from original network prints, where it played in the middle of the show to lead off the second half of the show) where there is an instrumental version of the theme song playing at a football game, with the crowd cheering "Rah! Rah! Rah! Tennessee Tuxedo!" I believe one team consists of all Chumleys and the other team consists of all Tuxedos and Tennessee Tuxedo also is dressed as a coach. This never showed up on Me-TV. Anyone else ever seen this in reruns? Is it on any of the "final 40?"

[MarkTheShark]

What's the "Black Family Channel"? Mark, do you have COMCAST cable?

Yeah, Comcast. I was kind of surprised to see that I get it.

How's it going, Jim?

[corey3rd]

I don't get Boomerang. Is it true that there is some kind of a completely rescrambled "Underdog" airing on there now which includes cartoons like King & Odie and Hunter, or did I completely misunderstand something I read on line somewhere?


The recent Boomerang run were butchered episodes. The killed all the intros and even some outtros in order to squeeze more adventures into the 30 minutes - every Total TV Tune was featured in the show. It was rather frustrating to watch the Turtle since they'd end right when he started spinning around. And it hurt to watch them since the prints looked great.