Wally Gator

Wally Gator is an American animated television series produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions that originally aired as one of the segments from the 1962-1963 block The Hanna-Barbera New Cartoon Series.[1] The other two segments that compose the series are Lippy the Lion and Hardy Har Har and Touché Turtle and Dum Dum.[2] The segment consisted of 52 episodes over two seasons.[3] He will appear in the upcoming HBO Max series Jellystone! and will be voiced by Jeff Bergman.

Wally Gator
Title card
GenreAnimated
Comedy
Directed byWilliam Hanna
Joseph Barbera
Voices ofDaws Butler
Don Messick
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons2
No. of episodes52
Production
ProducersWilliam Hanna
Joseph Barbera
Running time24 minutes
Production companyHanna-Barbera Productions
DistributorScreen Gems
Release
Original networkSyndication
Original releaseSeptember 3, 1962 (1962-09-03) –
August 30, 1963 (1963-08-30)

Plot

Wally Gator (voiced by Daws Butler impersonating Ed Wynn) is an anthropomorphic, happy-go-lucky alligator who wears a collar and a pork pie hat. Although his catchy theme song describes him as a "swingin' alligator of the swamp," his home is in the city zoo.[4] Mr. Twiddle (voiced by Don Messick) is the zookeeper who keeps a close watch on Wally, who likes to check out what life is like in the outside world.[5]

Analysis

Animation historian Christopher P. Lehman noted that Wally Gator follows the formula that Hanna-Barbera established in the previous series, such as the Yogi Bear series. The set up in which of these shows placed an animal character within a human-controlled environment and had these characters deal with the social boundaries placed and enforced by humans.[6] An example being: Yogi lives in a park under the care of a park ranger; Wally lives in a zoo under the supervision of a zookeeper. The theme that drives the series is Wally's desire to escape the zoo, a derivative of the Top Cat series, where the titular character keeps trying to get away from life in the alley.[6]

Lehman notes a rather depressing underlying theme: the zoo and life in captivity seem to be the proper place for Wally. No matter how much he struggles to fit in the society of the outside world, Wally remains an "Other" and is doomed to fail. The status quo is following every unsuccessful attempt at change.[6]

Episodes
Main article: The Hanna-Barbera New Cartoon Series § Episode list

Cast

Home media

Episodes of Wally Gator were released on VHS many times. A DVD set release of the complete series was originally announced for 2006 from Warner Bros. for the Hanna-Barbera Classics Collection but was later canceled due to the poor condition of the masters and was delayed. In 2006, a Warner spokesperson said of the DVDs: "They were pulled because significant remastering work needed to be researched. We are exploring adding them back to the schedule next year." The first episode is available on the DVD set Saturday Morning Cartoons 1960's Vol. 2.[7] The show was released on iTunes video in 2017 as part of Hanna-Barbera's 60th anniversary and was released on a made to order DVD set from Warner Archive on June 25, 2019.[8]

See also

References
  1. Sennett, Ted (1989). The Art of Hanna-Barbera: Fifty Years of Creativity. Studio. p. 121. ISBN 978-0670829781. Retrieved 2 June 2020.
  2. Perlmutter, David (2018). The Encyclopedia of American Animated Television Shows. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 681. ISBN 978-1538103739.
  3. Woolery, George W. (1983). Children's Television: The First Thirty-Five Years, 1946-1981, Part 1: Animated Cartoon Series. Scarecrow Press. pp. 129–130. ISBN 0-8108-1557-5. Retrieved 22 March 2020.
  4. Rovin, Jeff (1991). The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Cartoon Animals. Prentice Hall Press. p. 281. ISBN 0-13-275561-0. Retrieved 8 April 2020.
  5. Erickson, Hal (2005). Television Cartoon Shows: An Illustrated Encyclopedia, 1949 Through 2003 (2nd ed.). McFarland & Co. pp. 895–896. ISBN 978-1476665993.
  6. Lehman (2007), p. 27
  7. "tvshowsondvd.com". Archived from the original on 2011-05-25.
  8. "Wally Gator: The Complete Series (MOD)". WB Shop. Retrieved Aug 5, 2020.

Sources
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