Tennessee Tuxedo & His Tales will make viewers "Shout!" for joy

Good morning everyone!  Wow, it's Wednesday.  Can you believe it?  We're almost to the weekend.  And looking at the seven day forecast, we're almost to Spring.  There's still a little ways to go yet, though.  While we wait out the waning days of Winter, classic television specialists, Shout! Factory have given audiences young and old yet another wonderful timelss treasure.  This time, it's the upcoming Complete Collection of Tennessee Tuxedo and His Tales.  The set is due out in stores March 6th.  And it's the focus of today's edition of Reel Reviews. 

Classic television fans rejoice!  First Shout! Factory releases the complete Underdog series.  Now, another Total Television classic will see the light of day March 6th in the form of Tennessee Tuxedo and His Tales:  The Complete Collection, thanks to Shout! Factory.

Underdog and Tennessee Tuxedo both came from the same company.  But the latter was very different in form from the prior.  What set Tennessee Tuxedo apart from Underdog, and TTV's other cartoons, was that Tennessee Tuxedo was an educational cartoon.  It could be argued that it's actually one of the earliest educational kids' shows on television.  As noted in the booklet included with this box set, "Tennessee Tuxedo's educational angle made the program truly engaging...As [Treadwell] Covington pointed out, "Buck [Biggers] and Chet [Stover] really did their research.  They didn't make statements that they didn't check with a college textbook or an encyclopedia.""

While Tennessee Tuxedo was an educational cartoon, what made it so fun was that it didn't shove its educational content down its viewers' throats.  During the 1990's young viewers got a lot of educational programming on the big four (NBC, CBS, ABC and Fox).  But unlike Tennessee Tuxedo, much of that programming was more overt about its educational content. (E.g. Beakman's World, Bill Nye The Science Guy, Cro, etc.)  Tennessee Tuxedo saw its lead character, and his walrus friend, Chumley, escaping from their zoo home in every episode in order to obtain different jobs.  They went from being mechanics to newsmen to sailors to all kinds of professions.  Along they way, Tennessee and Chumley learn all kinds of valuable facts from their friend, Phineas J. Whoopee.  Phineas was really the source of the show's educational content.  Thus he was fittingly portrayed as a wise older scholarly figure.  And who didn't love his expanding 3D BB (that's 3D Blackboard).  Anything that he drew on it, became real, helping to drive home the educational content the show tried to explain.

Of course Tennesse Tuxedo was fun on its own.  But it too had its own companion cartoons, just like Underdog.  It was joined by new episodes of The King and Odie, Tooter Turtle, and The Hunter.  This trio of toons was different from Tennessee Tuxedo in that they weren't educational.  But that doesn't mean they weren't fun.  One subtlety that audiences may or may not catch onto is that in both The Hunter and The King and Odie, both lead characters have to deal with their nephews quite often in their adventures.  And one can't help but laugh at the very fact that King Leonardo's assistant, Odie is a skunk.  Odie's last name is Cologne after all (ba-dump-bump-bump).

The companion cartoons to Tennessee Tuxedo included in this complete collection are great additions to the whole package.  But they're just one part of what makes this such a great box set.  The booklet included with the six-disc set offers a thorough history of the show and its voice actors including one Don Adams (A.K.A. Donald James Yarmy).  The booklet explains how and why Yarmey became Adams.  It also explains that while Adams is most well known for his role as Maxwell Smart, he actually got his start voicing this show's title character.  It also debunks myths about other characters' voices such as that of Mr. Wizard The Lizard in the Tooter Turtle cartoons.  It notes that despite the beliefs and statements made by various outlets, that character was voiced by Sandy Becker, not Frank Milano.  It also clears up the belief surrounding voice actress Delo States.  It notes that it was not she, but Mort Marshall, who was the voice of Stanley Livingstone and that of the original Trix rabbit.

As minute as it may seem, the booklet adds an extra level of enjoyment to the overall viewing experience of this box set.  But it isn't the only positive extra piece of the puzzle.  Shout! Factory has proven yet again, to be the model for dvd packaging.  The discs themselves are set  on their own spots on "plates" inside the cases that prevent any possibility of being scratched.  That prevention, yet again, increases the discs' longevity, thus allowing for plenty of enjoyment time and again.  So kudos are again in order to Shout! Factopry for this.

All said and done, so much time and work went into bringing this Total Television classic back to life.  Many of today's viewers may not even know any of these characters.  But thanks to the work of Shout! Factory, perhaps that generation will find a new enjoyment alongside the generation that grew up with what is yet another timeless television classic.

--

Philip Sayblack can be reached at psayblack@wnct.com