I probably should write a little more about Tom Terrific. A lot of the cartoon shows of my youth do not, to put it simply, hold up too well. I can sometimes retain affection for them in the same way that I remember the enjoyment of Franco-America canned spaghetti when I was ten. That is not necessarily faint praise for a cartoon because obviously, its primary purpose is to please children. If it achieves that in its time and bores the hell out of us as adults, it is not unsuccessful: It did what it was supposed to do. There are a number of cartoons — all the Warner Brothers and Jay Ward productions, most of the MGM and Disney, the early Hanna-Barbera offerings, a few others — which amused me then and which amuse me now. With some others — like most Walter Lantz productions, Terrytoons, and Mister Magoo, to name a few — well, they just aren't as good as they used to be. I can respect the obvious skill involved in some of them and occasionally laugh at a bit, but to me as an adult, the appeal is largely nostalgic. The later Popeye cartoons, for example, are like Franco-American spaghetti…only not as funny.
Which brings me to Tom Terrific. I was five when the Captain Kangaroo program debuted on CBS. (Years later when I worked with Bob Keeshan on a project, I told him I vividly recalled watching the first episode. He said he was flattered but I got the idea that he was just being polite; that everyone in my age bracket tells him that, and that he doesn't believe it. In my case, I really do.) I liked the Captain and Mr. Green Jeans and Dancing Bear but only up to a point. Years later when I watched some old kinescopes, the only part of the show that held my interest was the daily installment of Tom Terrific.
There was a certain simplicity to the show that was irresistible, though I have to wonder if it wouldn't be highly resistible today; whether the absence of backgrounds and color and real music wouldn't cause a lot of kids to feel that someone had slipped them a cartoon made in the back room of the 99-Cent Store. But everything else about it would work today. Tom was a corny but lovable hero, utterly devoted to his dog, the lethargic Mighty Manfred. The bad guys were unbelievably sinister and/or looney, and there was a fine sense of Silly over the entire enterprise. The cartoons were also bang-bang short and their rapid pace made a nice contrast to Captain Kangaroo's gentle, slow-paced delivery. Best of all, the cartoons had a unique voice and style — maybe the first Terrytoons that ever did. I wish whoever owns them now would release them. If I understand, they're controlled by Viacom, which has leased the home video rights to Universal, which has no intention of doing anything with them. If and when they do, maybe you'll see what I saw in Tom Terrific.