Tom Terrific

*Tom Terrific*
Tom Terrific
Genre	Animated television series
Created by	Gene Deitch
Developed by	Gene Deitch
Written by	William Bernal, Phil Eastman, Bud Evsalin, Bob Kuwahara, Ralph Newman
Directed by	Gene Deitch
Starring	Lionel Wilson
Theme music composer	Thomas Lee Morrison, Philip A. Scheib
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	26
Production
Executive producer	William M. Weiss
Producer	Gene Deitch
Editor	Jack MacConnell
Production company	Terrytoons
Original release
Network	CBS
Release	June 10, 1957 –; 1959

Tom Terrific is a 1957–1959 animated series on American television, presented as part of the Captain Kangaroo children's television show.

Production

Created by Gene Deitch under the Terrytoons studio (which by that time was a subsidiary of CBS, the network that broadcast Captain Kangaroo), Tom Terrific was made as twenty-six stories, each split into five episodes, with one five-minute episode broadcast per day. The first thirteen stories were filmed in 1957, with the second set in 1958. Captain Kangaroo continued to rerun the episodes for many years. Starting in 1962, Captain Kangaroo broadcast Tom Terrific every other week, alternating with Terrytoons' Lariat Sam. It was drawn in a simple black-and-white style reminiscent of children's drawings. Some of the dialogue was written by cartoonist Jules Feiffer.

Gene Deitch adapted the feature from his earlier newspaper comic strip, "Terr'ble Thompson!" distributed during the 1950s by the United Features Syndicate. Terr'ble Thompson was a six-year-old boy who imagined himself to be the "Hero of Hist'ry" and freely time traveled to assist historical figures. An illustrated book reprinting the adventures of this precursor to Tom Terrific was published by Fantagraphics Books.

All the voices were performed by Lionel Wilson (who later voiced Eustace Bagge from the Cartoon Network series Courage the Cowardly Dog).

Plot

The show features a gee-whiz boy hero, Tom Terrific, who lives in a treehouse and can shapeshift into anything he wants, thanks to his magical funnel-shaped "thinking cap", which also enhances his intelligence. He has a comic lazybones of a sidekick, Mighty Manfred the Wonder Dog, and an archenemy named Crabby Appleton, whose motto is, "I'm rotten to the core!" Other foes include Mr. Instant the Instant Thing King, Captain Kidney Bean, Sweet Tooth Sam the Candy Bandit, and Isotope Feeney the Meany.

Episodes

Each episode was shown in five installments, one per day, Monday through Friday.

Episode	Title	Air Date
1	The Nasty Knight	June 10, 1957 (1957-06-10)
2	The Pill of Smartness	June 17, 1957 (1957-06-17)
3	Sweet Tooth Sam	June 24, 1957 (1957-06-24)
4	Snowy Picture	July 1, 1957 (1957-07-01)
5	Crabby Appleton's Dragon	July 8, 1957 (1957-07-08)
6	Captain Kidney Bean	July 15, 1957 (1957-07-15)
7	The Gravity Maker	July 22, 1957 (1957-07-22)
8	Scrambled Dinosaur Eggs	July 29, 1957 (1957-07-29)
9	Who Stole the North Pole	August 5, 1957 (1957-08-05)
10	Instant Tantrums	August 12, 1957 (1957-08-12)
11	Track Meet, Well Done	August 19, 1957 (1957-08-19)
12	The Great Calendar Mystery	August 26, 1957 (1957-08-26)
13	Elephant Stew	August 2, 1957 (1957-08-02)
14	The Missing Mail Mystery	August 9, 1957 (1957-08-09)
15	The Prince Frog	September 16, 1957 (1957-09-16)
16	Isotope Feeney's Foolish Fog	September 23, 1957 (1957-09-23)
17	Moon Over Manfred	September 30, 1957 (1957-09-30)
18	Go West, Young Manfred	December 2, 1957 (1957-12-02)
19	The Silly Sandman	September 7, 1957 (1957-09-07)
20	Crabby Park	October 14, 1957 (1957-10-14)
21	The Million Manfred Mystery	October 21, 1957 (1957-10-21)
22	The Flying Sorcerer	October 28, 1957 (1957-10-28)
23	The Big Dog Show-Off	November 4, 1957 (1957-11-04)
24	The End of Rainbows	November 11, 1957 (1957-11-11)
25	Robinsnest Crusoe	November 18, 1957 (1957-11-18)
26	The Everlasting Birthday Party	November 25, 1957 (1957-11-25)

Reception

The character Tom Terrific was ranked #32 by TV Guide magazine on its 2002 list of "50 Greatest TV Cartoon Characters".

Home video

As of 2024^[update], there has not been an authorized VHS, DVD or Blu-ray release of the series.

In popular culture

The character also appeared in a comic book published by Pines Comics for six issues from Summer 1957 to Fall 1958, with some stories drawn by Ralph Bakshi.
Tom Terrific appeared in a few Wonder Books, an imitation of Little Golden Books.
Crabby Appleton was the name of a rock group, which used the character's image on a 1971 album, Rotten to the Core.
In the introduction to his book, The Great Big Book of Tomorrow, Tom Tomorrow (Dan Perkins) says that he chose his pseudonym through misremembering the name of Tom Terrific.
Tom Terrific appeared in the 1999 pilot Curbside, voiced by Haley Joel Osment.
American football player Tom Brady attempted to trademark the phrase for himself, but was turned down in August 2019, to prevent confusion with baseball player Tom Seaver.

References

↑ Woolery, George W. (1983). Children's Television: The First Thirty-Five Years, 1946-1981, Part 1: Animated Cartoon Series. Scarecrow Press. pp. 295–296. ISBN 0-8108-1557-5. Retrieved March 22, 2020.
↑ Hamonic, W. Gerald (2018). Terrytoons: The Story of Paul Terry and His Classic Cartoon Factory. John Libbey Publishing Ltd. pp. 289–290. ISBN 978-0861967292.
↑ Erickson, Hal (2005). Television Cartoon Shows: An Illustrated Encyclopedia, 1949 Through 2003 (2nd ed.). McFarland & Co. pp. 862–863. ISBN 978-1476665993.
↑ Terrible Thompson strip
↑ Perlmutter, David (2018). The Encyclopedia of American Animated Television Shows. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 653. ISBN 978-1538103739.
↑ Erickson, Hal (2005). Television Cartoon Shows: An Illustrated Encyclopedia, 1949 Through 2003 (2nd ed.). McFarland & Co. pp. 862–863. ISBN 978-1476665993.
↑ DataBase, The Big Cartoon. "Tom Terrific Episode Guide -CBS Prods @ BCDB". Big Cartoon DataBase (BCDB). Retrieved September 3, 2019.^{[dead link]}
↑ "TV Guide's 50 greatest cartoon characters of all time - July 30, 2002". CNN.com. Retrieved June 11, 2022.
↑ "Curbside". The Big Cartoon Database. Retrieved January 2, 2017.^{[dead link]}
↑ New York Post: "Tom Brady denied Tom Terrific trademark" Aug. 23, 2019

External links

Tom Terrific at IMDb
Theme song

[Woolery-1] Woolery, George W. (1983). Children's Television: The First Thirty-Five Years, 1946-1981, Part 1: Animated Cartoon Series. Scarecrow Press. pp. 295–296. ISBN 0-8108-1557-5. Retrieved March 22, 2020.

[Terrytoons-2] Hamonic, W. Gerald (2018). Terrytoons: The Story of Paul Terry and His Classic Cartoon Factory. John Libbey Publishing Ltd. pp. 289–290. ISBN 978-0861967292.

[3] Erickson, Hal (2005). Television Cartoon Shows: An Illustrated Encyclopedia, 1949 Through 2003 (2nd ed.). McFarland & Co. pp. 862–863. ISBN 978-1476665993.

[4] Terrible Thompson strip

[Perlmutter-5] Perlmutter, David (2018). The Encyclopedia of American Animated Television Shows. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 653. ISBN 978-1538103739.

[6] Erickson, Hal (2005). Television Cartoon Shows: An Illustrated Encyclopedia, 1949 Through 2003 (2nd ed.). McFarland & Co. pp. 862–863. ISBN 978-1476665993.

[7] DataBase, The Big Cartoon. "Tom Terrific Episode Guide -CBS Prods @ BCDB". Big Cartoon DataBase (BCDB). Retrieved September 3, 2019.^{[dead link]}

[8] "TV Guide's 50 greatest cartoon characters of all time - July 30, 2002". CNN.com. Retrieved June 11, 2022.

[9] "Curbside". The Big Cartoon Database. Retrieved January 2, 2017.^{[dead link]}

[10] New York Post: "Tom Brady denied Tom Terrific trademark" Aug. 23, 2019