I have oodles of things I have to do today so to make you feel you didn't waste your time clicking your way to my blog, here are the ten openings — and I think there's a closing or two in here as well — to cartoon shows I enjoyed watching when I was a kid. We're not talking about enjoying the show itself, although I usually did. But here are my ten fave openings, starting with Number Ten: Mighty Mouse Playhouse (1955)…
The next show was originally sponsored by Ideal Toys and they had sponsor plugs in it and worked the word "ideal" into the lyrics. That word remained but they cut out the other sponsorship points in this version of Number Nine: The Magilla Gorilla Show (1964)…
And then we swing — on a vine, no less — to the vocal stylings of musician Stan Worth (with yells by Bill Scott, voice of the title character) for Number Eight: George of the Jungle (1967)…
Our countdown continues — and yes, I'm starting to feel here like Casey Kasem — with Number Seven: The Huckleberry Hound Show (1958)…
You may remember a version of the above with Huckleberry Hound doing all the acrobatics done above by the rooster on the Kellogg's Corn Flakes box. That was the second version which they made up when Kellogg's stopped sponsoring the show. Sponsor plugs were also later edited out of the opening titles on our next two entries. Here's Number Six: The Quick Draw McGraw Show (1959)…
And yes, it always bothered me a little that Quick Draw was a horse commanding a stagecoach pulled by his own species. Next, we have Number Five: The Yogi Bear Show (1961)…
Sometimes, the best thing about a cartoon show was its theme song. Case in point, Number Four: The Underdog Show (1967)…
And this is the original — and to me, vastly superior — opening for one of my favorite shows…Number Three: The Flintstones (1960)…
This strong second-place finisher on our list shows you what you get when the creator of the property and one of the main characters is a recording artist who's had a bunch of number one hit records and then he brings in the Johnny Mann Singers. You get our Number Two: The Alvin Show (1961)…
And I always thought they oughta start the Emmy Awards year with two male hosts coming out and performing this number, ending with a march-through by a lot of big TV stars. This is, of course, Number One: The Bugs Bunny Show (1960)…