George of the Jungle
In the finest Jay Ward tradition, George of the Jungle -
set in the appropriately warped Imgwee Gwee Valley - was a great
kids' cartoon with humour that adults could enjoy.
George was a dim-witted, clumsier version of Tarzan, who,
despite the warning in the catchy opening theme to “watch out
for that tree,” would inevitably eat bark as he splatted into
trunk after trunk.
But his awkwardness was only one of life's daily difficulties
for the hunky, loin-clothed ape man . . .
George would often forget that his curvaceous wife Ursula
(voiced by Jay Ward staple June Foray) was a woman, and that his
pet Shep was an elephant, not "a big, gray, peanut-eating
dog." Luckily, George was often helped out by his
more-human-than-ape friend, the erudite Ape.
Sharing the half-hour was Super Chicken - aka. Henry
Cabot Henhouse III - an ordinary, run-of-the-coup millionaire fowl
who became his alter-ego after downing some Super Sauce.
With the help of his reluctant and cowardly lion pal, Fred,
Super Chicken would fly around in his Supercoupe tracking down
criminals. Fred, who wore a backwards “F” on his shirt and
doubled as Henry’s butler, was always reminded by his employer,
“You knew the job was dangerous when you took it, Fred!”
Rounding out the program was a third segment, Tom Slick.
Tom was the coolest racing driver this side of Speed Racer.
With his never-fail optimism, Tom would calmly tell his
girlfriend, “There’s no such word as failure in auto racing,
Marigold.”
Good-guy Tom would repeatedly have to face cheating competitors
like the Teutonic Baron Otto Matic. Leading the crowd’s
trademark “Boo!” and “Yeah!” was Tom’s sassy
grandmother, Gertie.
The last of the Jay Ward shows, George of the Jungle was
continuously repeated in syndication and brought back in reruns on
Fox in 1992 and ABC in 1995.
In 1997, the show was made into a live-action Disney film
starring Brendan Fraser, which won a new worldwide generation of
fans to the tree-hugging twit.
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