Tooter Turtle is a cartoon about a turtle that first appeared on TV in 1960, as a segment of the King Leonardo and His Short Subjects program. "Tooter Turtle" debuted on NBC, on Saturday, October 15, 1960, and ran for 39 original episodes through July 22, 1961.[1] These episodes were later rerun as backups on other cartoon shows,[2] but no more original episodes were made.

Plot

The plots followed the same general format.[3][4] Tooter (voiced by Allen Swift) calls on his friend Mr. Wizard the Lizard (voiced by Sandy Becker), an anthropomorphic lizard wearing a wizard cone hat, a robe, and pince-nez eyeglasses. Mr. Wizard lived in a tiny cardboard box at the base of a tall tree. The introductory segment had Tooter knocking on the cardboard box, having "another favor to ask." From inside the box, Mr. Wizard would shrink Tooter small enough to enter through the box's front door and invite him in. Mr. Wizard has the magic to change Tooter's life to some other destiny, usually sending him back in time and to various locales.

As Tooter is fulfilling his destiny, Mr. Wizard narrates the story. When Tooter's trip finally became a catastrophe, Tooter would request help with a cry of "Help me, Mr. Wizard, I don't want to be X any more!" where X was whatever destiny Tooter had entered. Mr. Wizard would then rescue Tooter with the incantation, "Drizzle, Drazzle, Druzzle, Drome, time for this one to come home."[5] Then, Mr. Wizard would always give Tooter the same advice: "Be just what you is, not what you is not. Folks what do this has the happiest lot."[6]

Critical reception and impact

Mr. Wizard's phrase "Drizzle, Drazzle, Druzzle, Drome; Time for this one to come home" [7] is echoed in the phrase "Razzle, dazzle, drazzle, drone, Time for This One to Come Home" that was used later by the band The Replacements as a lyric in Hold My Life from the album Tim.[8]

Created and aired during the Vietnam War, although before the Gulf of Tonkin Incident, the episode featuring Tooter traveling back to WW I as a fighter pilot ("Tailspin Tooter") features what one historian has called some of "the most gruesome pro-war imagery" in cartoons of the period.[9]

The 1984 novel Bright Lights, Big City includes childhood recollections of the cartoon series by a narrator while in a similar predicament.[10]

In the 1999 film The Matrix, Neo (Keanu Reeves) calls his operator Tank for an exit from the Matrix, saying, "Mr. Wizard, get me the hell out of here!".[11]

Episode list

(Every Saturday from October 15, 1960 to July 22, 1961)

  • Two Gun Turtle
  • Tailspin Tooter (Plane Failure)
  • Sea Haunt
  • Highway Petrolman (Road Block-Head)
  • Knight of the Square Table
  • Mish-Mash-Mush (Panting for Gold)
  • The Unteachables (The Lawless Years)
  • Kink of Swat (Babe Rube)
  • One Trillion B.C. (Dinosaur Dope)
  • Olimping Champion (Weak-Greek)
  • Stuper Man (Muscle-Bounder)
  • Buffaloed Bill (Custard's Last Stand)
  • Moon Goon (Space Head)
  • Robin Hoodwink (Thimple Thief)
  • Steamboat Stupe (Captains Outrageous)
  • Souse Painter (Brush-Boob)
  • Railroad Engineer (Stupefied Jones)
  • Quarterback Hack (Pigskinned)
  • Drafthead (Overwhere?)
  • Lumberjack (Topped)
  • Jerky Jockey (Kenducky Derby)
  • Fired Fireman (Hook And Batter)
  • Sky Diver (Jump, Jerk, Jump!)
  • Tuesday Turtle (Private Pie)
  • Snafu Safari (Trackdown Tooter)
  • Anti-Arctic (North Pole Nuisance)
  • The Master Builder (Rivet Riot)
  • Taxi Turtle (My Flag Is Down)
  • Canned Camera (Peek-a-Boob)
  • Slowshoe Mountie (One, Two, Buckle My Snowshoe)
  • Duck Haunter
  • Bull Fright (Olay Down)
  • News Nuisance (Sub Scribe)
  • The Sheep of Araby (Beau Geste Goes West)
  • Waggin' Train (California Bust)
  • Anchors Awry (Nautical Nut)
  • Vaudevillain (Song and Dunce Man)
  • Rod and Reeling (Field and Scream)
  • The Man in The Blue Denim Suit (Hay! Hay!)

References

  1. ↑ Woolery, George W. (1983). Children's Television: The First Thirty-Five Years, 1946-1981. Scarecrow Press. pp. 165-166. ISBN 0-8108-1557-5. Retrieved 14 March 2020.
  2. ↑ Brown, Arthur (2010-12-01). Everything I Need to Know, I Learned from Cartoons!. Arthur Brown. pp. 69–. ISBN 9781435732483. Retrieved 3 December 2012.
  3. ↑ Vernezze, Peter J. (2011-04-30). Socrates in Sichuan: Chinese Students Search for Truth, Justice, and the (Chinese) Way. Potomac Books, Inc. pp. 97–. ISBN 9781597977487. Retrieved 3 December 2012.
  4. ↑ Woolery, George W. (1991). Children's Television: The First Thirty-Five Years, 1946-1981: Part I: Animated Cartoon Series. Scarecrow Press. ISBN 9780810815575. Retrieved 3 December 2012.
  5. ↑ Hyatt, Wesley (1997). The Encyclopedia of Daytime Television. Watson-Guptill Publications. p. 250. ISBN 978-0823083152. Retrieved 19 March 2020.
  6. ↑ "Mr. Wizard, get Me Out of Here," by S.D. Smith, The Rabbit Room (30 July 2009). Retrieved 13 May 2014.
  7. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6coPVnJSsPg, Uploaded on Oct 25, 2008, from Season One 1960 Episode "The Unteachables", troydog's original 16mm color film stock.
  8. ↑ Burke, Timothy; Burke, Kevin (1998-12-15). Saturday Morning Fever: Growing up with Cartoon Culture. Macmillan. pp. 94–. ISBN 9780312169961. Retrieved 3 December 2012.
  9. ↑ Lehman, Christopher P. (2006). American Animated Cartoons of the Vietnam Era: A Study of Social Commentary in Films And Television Programs, 1961–1973. McFarland. pp. 14–. ISBN 9780786428182. Retrieved 3 December 2012.
  10. ↑ McInerney, Jay (1984). Bright Lights, Big City. New York: Vintage Contemporaries. p. 33.
  11. ↑ "Mr. Wizard, get me out of here!". Yarn. Retrieved September 19, 2022.
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