The Alvin Show

***The Alvin Show*** is an American animated television series that aired on CBS from October 1961 to September 1962. It is the first series to feature the singing characters Alvin and the Chipmunks. *The Alvin Show* aired for one season in prime time and was originally sponsored by General Foods through its Jell-O gelatin and Post Cereal brands. The series was initially telecast in black and white, but was later colorized for rebroadcasts; these episodes began airing in 1965 on CBS and have since aired at various intervals on other stations.

The series rode the momentum of creator Ross Bagdasarian, Sr.'s original hit musical gimmick and developed the singing Chipmunk trio as rambunctious kids–particularly the show's namesake star–whose mischief contrasted to his tall, brainy brother Simon and his chubby, gluttonous brother Theodore, as well as their long-suffering, perpetually put-upon manager-father figure, David Seville. The animation was produced by Herbert Klynn's Format Films. The pilot episode, an early version of the fifth episode "Good Neighbor", was written and produced to sell the show to CBS. The actual show featured a re-worked version, which aired as part of the fifth episode.

The show was followed in 1983 by another Chipmunks series, *Alvin and the Chipmunks*.

## Characters

* The Chipmunks: The title characters of the series
	+ Alvin: The talented troublemaker of the group.
	+ Simon: The intelligent realist and the most responsible of the group.
	+ Theodore: The cute, funny and innocent member of the group who often giggles and likes to eat a lot.
* David "Dave" Seville: The Chipmunks' adoptive father, songwriter and manager, Dave's patience is tested nearly every day by Alvin, usually to the point where he yells his trademark yell "ALVIN!!!" and Alvin responded immediately by yelling "OK!!!!". Despite all this, he loves all of his boys equally.

## Clyde Crashcup

Aside from the seven-minute Chipmunk segments, in which David Seville was portrayed as a hapless bachelor who managed and mentored the three singing rodents, the show also had segments featuring a character called Clyde Crashcup (voiced by Shepard Menken impersonating Richard Haydn's Edwin Carp character), a scientist/inventor. Each segment was introduced by Alvin, who was told by Dave that he was introducing a great inventor and was dumbfounded or dumbstruck when he heard it was Clyde Crashcup; Alvin was never a fan of Clyde Crashcup, as during the show intro montage he gives him a cold, dirty look whenever he appears.

Clyde's "inventions" were really items that had already been invented, but with his own personal touches. His "creations" often backfired on him until his silent, level-headed assistant, Leonardo, who was diminutive, balding and perpetually whispering in Clyde Crashcup's ears, saved him from any further self-destruction.

## Commercials

As was the case for many television series of the day, the Chipmunks appeared in commercials for their respective sponsors that were aired during the run of the series. In addition, there were two sponsor plugs shot with the characters.

On weeks where Jell-O sponsored the program, Alvin, Theodore, and Simon (in that order) would sing the product's jingle and reveal the letters in the word. Alvin would then annoy Dave by trying to upstage his brothers, then would hold up the O to complete the sign while shouting "O-kay!" When Post Cereals was the sponsor on a given week, Dave would offer a description of the product and the Chipmunks would respond by performing a jingle.

As for the ads themselves, there were several different ones created for Jell-O, with the theme being "What's For Dessert?":

* In one, Dave wants to perform a little "dinner music" with the Chipmunks and leads them in singing the "What's For Dessert?" song. Alvin, however, keeps trying to get his hands on the Jell-O, which by the end of the commercial he succeeds in doing much to the annoyance of Simon and Theodore.
* In another, Dave extols all the positive things about Jell-O while the Chipmunks perform various actions to reinforce the points. The commercial ends with the boys devouring the Jell-O much to Dave's chagrin.
* In still another, all three Chipmunks are experimenting different ways to make food items with Jell-O. Simon tops black cherry Jell-O with ice cream while Theodore puts marshmallows in grape Jell-O. Alvin, meanwhile, sticks a hot dog in some orange-pineapple Jell-O and Dave suggests he come up with a better idea. Seconds later, Simon presents that idea...Jell-O, with Alvin in it.

Two commercials were created for Post Cereals, both focusing on Alpha-Bits and featuring the Chipmunks telling the story of Red Riding Hood. Alvin plays the role of the wolf while Simon and Theodore take on the role of delivering cereal to their grandmother like Red Riding Hood. Both commercials are the same except that one features a longer jingle and also promotes Post's Treat-Pak line of cereals.Link to all five commercials

Later on, after *The Alvin Show* was cancelled, the Chipmunks appeared in a commercial for Soaky bubble bath soap with the product's mascot, the Soaky Kid. This commercial premiered in 1965 and promoted the Chipmunks as the latest in a continuing line of cartoon characters licensed by Colgate-Palmolive for the product; each bottle of Soaky was also intended to be used as a bath toy for children once empty.

A colorized public service advertisement from the United States Forest Service was made by the same animation team in 1964. In the sixty second ad, Dave and the Chipmunks are recording a fire safety message at the behest of Smokey Bear. Despite Alvin's troublemaking, the boys do manage to offer useful tips to prevent forest fires.

## Syndication

CBS reran the series on Saturday mornings for a few years after the show's prime time run ended in 1965.

In the mid- and late 1960s, the individual show segments were culled together and sold as a syndication package under the title *Alvin and the Chipmunks*. The original episodes began airing under the *Alvin and the Chipmunks* title on NBC Saturday mornings in 1979 for a shorter period.

Ross Bagdasarian, Sr. died of a heart attack on January 16, 1972, seemingly bringing to an end any further Chipmunk productions. Years later, his son, Ross Jr., picked up on a disc jockey's joke and produced the album *Chipmunk Punk* in 1980. The success of *Chipmunk Punk* spurred renewed interest a new animated series by Ruby-Spears, which launched in fall 1983 on NBC and was titled *Alvin and the Chipmunks*, with Ross, Jr. taking over for his father as the voices of Alvin, Simon and Dave Seville. His wife, Janice Karman, voiced Theodore, as well as The Chipettes, who are the Chipmunks' female counterparts; which ran until 1988 when a reboot of the show takes place on the same network by Murakami-Wolf-Swenson and later taken over by DIC Entertainment. At the time, the Ruby-Spears episodes were later picked it up on mostly FOX and a few independent stations in the same year until as late as early 1994. To coincide with the new series, Viacom Enterprises distributed reruns of *The Alvin Show* to local (mostly independent and future FOX) stations; the rerun package was also carried nationally over superstations WGN and WTBS at various times beginning in 1983 and ran for mostly a few years on half of the markets. However, some stations continue to run the show in various times as late as 1993. Prior to its superstation runs, The Alvin Show can be picked up in a few markets such as New York, Cleveland, and even in Australia and Brazil in the early 1970's.

In 1981, Clyde Crashcup made an appearance during a dream sequence in *A Chipmunk Christmas*. During recent network airings of the special, the sequence has been cut out, due to network time constraints concerning commercial ad time.

In 1990, *The Alvin Show* versions of the Chipmunks and Clyde Crashcup reappeared in an episode of *The Chipmunks Go To the Movies* titled "Back to Our Future" (a spoof of the 1985 movie, *Back to the Future*).

A majority of the songs and clips from *The Alvin Show* were featured in the *Alvin and the Chipmunks Sing Along Songs* VHS releases that were released in the mid-1990s. The songs, however, were slightly remastered.

Nickelodeon picked up US broadcast rights to *The Alvin Show* on March 7, 1994 after the last of a few independent stations pulled the show. The network aired digitally restored versions of each episode as it originally was broadcast (save for the commercial plugs and Alvin's addition of his name to the closing), adding its logo to the opening. The show aired on weekday mornings for approximately a year.

During this time, as well as for sometime after the full episodes stopped airing, the individual Chipmunk and Clyde Crashcup cartoons and musical segments were inserted into episodes of *Weinerville*. In 1996, Nickelodeon stopped showing *The Alvin Show* segments altogether and no television station has aired them since then.

## Voice cast

* Ross Bagdasarian Sr. - Alvin Seville, Simon Seville, Theodore Seville, David Seville, Sam Valiant, Gondaliero; additional voices
* Shepard Menken - Clyde Crashcup, Neighbor; additional voices
* June Foray - Daisy Bell, Mrs. Frumpington; additional voices
* Bill Lee - Additional voices
* Johnny Mann - Additional voices
* Lee Patrick - Mrs. Frumpington; additional voices
* Don Messick - Additional voices (uncredited)
* Joe Besser - Dragon (uncredited)
* Mel Blanc - Additional voices (uncredited)
* Paul Frees - Additional voices (uncredited)
* Tim Matheson - Additional voices (uncredited)

## Episodes

26 episodes each were produced for the *Alvin and the Chipmunks* and *Clyde Crashcup* segments, along with 52 musical segments.

General Foods was the show's main sponsor; as such, Dave Seville and The Chipmunks appeared in several humorous half-minute commercials for Jell-O and Post Cereals.

Due to the fact that everything is lost, Clyde Crashcup is currently unavailable