Tennessee Tuxedo and His Tales

***Tennessee Tuxedo and His Tales*** is an American animated *Total Television Productions* series that aired on CBS Saturday mornings from 1963 to 1966. It was sponsored by General Mills and Pillsbury. It aired until January 1966 with three seasons and was later syndicated afterwards. A five-episode "revival" of the series was made in 2014 for Trix Cereal's website, by Chuck Gammage Animation in Toronto, and Cartoon Lagoon Studios in New York. This revival was referred to as *Tennessee Tuxedo and Chumley.*

Unlike all the other TTV series, *Tennessee Tuxedo* is considered a much more "educational" program. The idea for the series was partially born after FCC's chairman at the time, Newton N. Minow, gave his "Television and the Public Interest" speech that considered TV a vast wasteland in terms of educational shows. What was also included in the show, was instead of viewers feeling that they were being lectured to, the show's two main characters were the ones being lectured instead.

## Segments

* Tennessee Tuxedo and His Tales
* The World of Commander McBragg
* Go Go Gophers
* Klondike Kat
* The King and Odie
* The Hunter
* Tooter Turtle (reruns)

## Summary

Each episode centers on the titular Tennessee Tuxedo, a penguin living in the Megapolis Zoo with his clumsy, less-brighter sidekick Chumley, a walrus. The primary antagonist of the cartoons is Stanley Livingston, the hotheaded zookeeper, or Jerboa Jump, a mouse. In most episodes, Tennessee is tired or raises complaints of living in a zoo, and wants to do something else that is more on the levels of a human being. He and Chumley escape the place and get hired at a job, such as weathermen. But soon enough they realize the job is more knowledge-consuming than they were expecting, so they see "the man with all the answers", Mr. Whoopee. There, Whoopee answers their question by demonstrating how something works, using his "3D Blackboard", or "3DBB" for short. Tennessee and Chumley go back to their job figuring they know what they're doing. One catchphrase Tennessee says is "Tennessee Tuxedo will not fail!", but unless otherwise, most cartoons end with them failing comically at their job. Some cartoons also have Tennessee falling asleep and dreaming that he is something (and still fails).

## Episodes

1. Mixed-Up Mechanics
2. The Rainmakers
3. The Lamplighters
4. Telephone Terrors
5. Giant Clam
6. Tick Tock
7. Scuttled Sculptor
8. Snap That Picture!
9. Zoo's News
10. Aztec Antics
11. Coal Minors
12. Hot Air Heroes
13. Irrigation Irritation
14. TV Testers
15. By the Plight of the Moon
16. Lever Levity
17. Bridge Builders
18. Howl, Howl, the Gang's All Here!
19. Sail Ho!
20. Tell-Tale Telegraph
21. Rocket Ruckus
22. All Steamed Up
23. Tale of a Tiger
24. Dog Daze
25. Brushing Off a Toothache
26. Funny Honey
27. The Treasure of Jack the Joker
28. Wreck of a Record
29. Miner Forty-Niner
30. Helicopter Hi-Jinx
31. Oil's Well
32. Parachuting Pickle
33. Telescope Detectives
34. Wish Wash
35. The Eyes Have It
36. Mad Movie Makers
37. Snow Go
38. The Big Question
39. Brain Strain
40. Rocky Road to Diamonds
41. X-Ray X-Perts
42. Food Feud
43. How Does Your Garden Grow?
44. Perils of a Platypus
45. Hail to the Chief
46. Physical Fatness
47. Playing it Safe
48. House Painters
49. Admiral Tuxedo
50. Three Ring Circus
51. The Big Drip
52. Boning Up
53. Smilin' Yak's Sky Service
54. Teddy Bear Trouble
55. Sword Play
56. Phunnie Munnie
57. The Romance of Plymouth Rock
58. The Zoolympics
59. The Tree Trimmers
60. Goblins Will Get You
61. The Cheap Skates
62. Going Up
63. Monster from Another Planet
64. Signed and Sealed
65. The Barbers
66. Catch a Falling Hammock
67. Peace and Quiet
68. Robot Revenge
69. There Auto Be a Law
70. Samantha *- Note: This is the final episode of the original 1963-1966 series.*
71. Go South
72. Be Like Baldy
73. Dinner Party
74. Catch the Cable Man
75. Yakety Yak

## Cast

* Don Adams - Tennessee Tuxedo
* Bradley Bolke - Chumley
* Larry Storch - Mr. Phineas J. Whoopee
* Mort Marshall - Stanley Livingston
* Kenny Delmar - Narrator, Yak, Baldy, Flunky, Commander McBragg

## Trivia

* Tennessee Tuxedo is currently the only TTV production to be rebooted decades after cancellation, not counting *The Underdog Show* that got revived with a feature film in 2007.
	+ Said reboot features voice talent of Chris Phillips (Tennessee) and Robb Pruitt (Chumley).
* The series debuted the last day *King Leonardo and His Short Subjects* ran on NBC.
* Austin Russell, a prominent employee and cast member of the History Channel's *Pawn Stars,* is nicknamed Chumlee after the show's character.
* In between the show's segments/each episode, there are little clips where Chumley, Tennessee, and Mr. Whoopee say a riddle, and Mr. Whoopee says the punchline.
* Not counting TTV's pilots, Cauliflower Cabby and Gene Hattree, each full length cartoon is 10 minutes long, the longest of any TTV series which are normally 4-5 minutes long.
* The show had four different theme songs - two of each, while different visually and lyrically, were both sung by Don Adams and Bradley Bolke. The other two themes were the same visuals and lyrics each, but were sung by a session of female singers. The female voices were used in the DVD release.