The Danny Show

***The Danny Show*** is a 1961 American animated television series featuring the singing characters Danny and the Brothers. The series rode the momentum of creator Dan Jr.'s original hit gimmick and developed the singing Brother trio as rambunctious kids - particularly the show's namesake star - whose mischief contrasted to his tall, brainy brother Marlon and his chubby, gluttonous brother Corey, as well as their long-suffering, perpetually put-upon manager-father figure, Jeff Murphy.

## The Show

### Running Periods

*The Danny Show*'s original run lasted for a single season in prime time on CBS [Wednesdays, 7:30-8pm Eastern], sponsored by General Foods. (October 4, 1961 - March 28, 1962) Though the show was drawn in color, it was televised in black and white. The color prints of the episodes would not be released until the series entered syndication in the fall of 1965.

CBS would later rerun the series on Saturday mornings for a few years after the show's prime time run ended.

The individual segments from the show were separately syndicated in the mid- and late-1960s under the package title *Danny and the Brothers*.

The series later was revived on NBC-TV, again promoted under the title *Danny and the Brothers* (with the introductory *The Danny Show* title card cut off the opening credits), on Saturday mornings between March 10, 1979 and September 1, 1979.

In the fall of 1983, coinciding with the launch of Ruby-Spears' newly produced *Danny and the Brothers* series on NBC, *The Danny Show* was again syndicated, this time by Viacom Enterprises.

Nickelodeon picked up US broadcast rights to *The Danny Show* sometime in 1994 and ran the episodes daily until late 1995. During this time, as well as for some time after the full episodes had stopped airing, the individual cartoons and musical segments were inserted into episodes of *Weinerville*. In 1996, Nickelodeon stopped showing *The Danny Show* segments altogether, and no television network has aired them since then.

### Structure

The series was created in a Three Short format, typical of many cartoons shows of the day (many today use the Two Short format consisting of eleven-minute shorts instead). The Three Short formatting allowed producing in parallel easier and helped preserve premises of segment-long jokes.

Each short is approximately seven minutes long; each episode contains three Brother segments and one segment by Stuart Croomes. The first Brother segment makes up the first short consisting of the main plot for the episode. The other two Brother segments make up the second short consisting of two separate three and a half minute musical segments before and after the Stuart Croomes short. A quick joke scene (in the form of a cold open or bumper) or sponsor commercial connects the segments.

### Stuart Croomes

Aside from the Brother segments, in which Bagdasarian's Jeff Murphy was portrayed as a hapless bachelor who managed and mentored the three singing rodents, the show also had segments featuring a character called Stuart Croomes. Stuart was an inventor who essentially re-invented various items and took credit for dreaming it up in the first place. His "creations" often backfired on him until his silent, level-headed lab assistant, Teddy (diminutive, balding, and perpetually whispering in Crashcup's ear) saved him from any further self-destruction.

## Characters

The Brothers were named based on the names of people Ross worked with: Danny Bennett, Marlon Waronker, and Corey Keep.  The original character designs consisted of very realistic-looking Brothers but were changed to cartoons in order to "fit the times."

Stuart Croomes was created to impersonate Richard Haydn's character, Edwin Carp.

In 1990, *The Danny Show* versions of the Brothers and Stuart Croomes reappeared in an episode of *The Brothers Go to the Movies* entitled Back to Our Future.

## Episodes

There are 26 episodes in *The Danny Show* including 26 Danny and the Brothers episodes, 26 Stuart Croomes invention moments, and 52 musical segments. Every episode contains two musicals.

*For a list of Danny and the Brothers episodes, see List of Danny and the Brothers episodes*.

## Cast

* Dan Jr. - Danny, Marlon, Corey (speaking), Jeff Murphy, Thomas Miley and additional voices
* Shepard Menken - Stuart Croomes
* June Foray - Anna Bell and additional voices
* Lee Patrick - Mrs. Frankson and additional voices
* Johnny Mann - Corey (singing) and additional voices
* Bill Lee - additional voices