We all love Jay Ward for the cartoons of Rocky & Bullwinkle, Dudley Do-Right, Mr. Peabody, Fractured Fairy Tales, Aesop and Son, Super Chicken, Tom Slick and George of the Jungle…but that's not the whole list. Whenever people get to discussing the output of the Ward studio, they seem to forget Hoppity Hooper, a series they produced in and around 1964. 52 cartoons were made and they aired for years in various packages, combined with earlier Ward cartoons and sometimes with selections from Total Television, a sister company. I thought it was a clever show with an irresistible performance by Hans Conried as Professor Waldo Wigglesworth.
Hoppity Hooper was created and the first two cartoons were animated in 1960. They comprised a pilot for a prime-time cartoon series, done more or less concurrently with Hanna-Barbera's The Flintstones. Oddly enough, both shows featured actor Alan Reed doing voices. He was Fred on The Flintstones and Fillmore Bear on Hoppity Hooper. When the H-B show sold and Ward's didn't, Jay began shopping his unsold pilot around…and it took until '64 to make a sale. ABC daytime ordered a series and that's when the other 50 cartoons were produced. Alan Reed was busy Yabba-Dabba-Dooing at the time so Bill Scott, who was Ward's producer and head writer, assumed the role of Fillmore Bear.
In today's link, we're going to watch the second episode, which was part of the pilot. Mr. Conried is the voice of Professor Wiggleworth and also of the master villain at the end. Chris Allen, a voice actress about whom little is known, spoke for the title character. Alan Reed is still Fillmore, the narrator is Paul Frees, and all the other roles are Frees, Allen or Bill Scott. Wish someone would put the whole series out on DVD.
