King Leonardo and His Short Subjects

***King Leonardo and His Short Subjects*** is an American animated *Total Television Productions* series that aired on NBC Saturday mornings from 1960 to 1964. It was sponsored by General Mills and was one of the earliest of the children's Saturday morning programs. It aired until March 1964 with four seasons. The show was syndicated afterwards under a new title, ***The King and Odie Show**.*

The animation was done by TV Spots in the early episodes, with the later ones being animated by Gamma Productions, primarily the King and Odie segments made exclusively for *Tennessee Tuxedo and His Tales* runs.

## Segments

* The King and Odie
* The Hunter
* Tooter Turtle
* Twinkles the Elephant

## Summary

The main character of the show is King Leonardo, a lion who is the ruler of Bongo Congo, a place known for its African drums. Leonardo's assistant is Odie O. Cologne, a skunk who is more calm and is willing to help the inept Leonardo on tasks, they also have been pals since they were little kids. In each cartoon, the antagonists Biggy Rat and Itchy Brother (who is Leonardo's sibling) do all they can to overthrow Leonardo from his throne, but always fail. Sometimes they get help from others to defeat Leonardo, noticeably from "Professor Messer" and in the later cartoons, Mr. Mad.

## Episodes

1. Riches to Rags
2. Nose for the Noose
3. Drumming Up the Bongos
4. How High is Up?
5. Royal Amnesia
6. Loon from the Moon
7. Royal Bongo War Chant
8. Showdown at Dhyber Pass
9. Duel to the Dearth
10. Ringside Riot
11. Bringing in Biggy
12. Confound It! Confusion
13. Paris Pursuit
14. The Awful Tower
15. Beatnik Boom
16. Call Out the Kids
17. Trial of the Traitors
18. Battle Slip
19. Heroes Are Made... with Salami
20. The Big Freeze
21. Perfume Panic
22. Style Awhile
23. Sticky Stuff
24. Am I Glue
25. Double Trouble
26. Switcheroo Ruler
27. The Legend of Leonardo the Neat
28. Home Neat Home
29. No Bong Bongos
30. The Ad Game
31. Debased Ball
32. Bats in the Ballpark
33. Long Lost Lennie
34. Ghosts Guests
35. Fatal Fever
36. Pulling the Mane Switch
37. Dim Gem
38. The Big Castle Caper
39. The King and Me
40. The Loves of Lynetta Lion
41. The Sport of Kings
42. Black is White
43. True Blue Blues
44. My Dog Has Fleas
45. Lead Foot Leonardo
46. The Rat Race
47. The Obey Ball
48. Out of the Depths
49. The Loco Play
50. Romeo and Joliet
51. If at First You Don't Succeed
52. Try, Try Again
53. Long Laugh Leonardo
54. He Who Laughs Last
55. East Side, West Side
56. Coney Island Calamity
57. An Ode in Code
58. Two Beneath the Mast
59. Hip Hip Hypnosis
60. Odie Hit the Roadie
61. Hunting a Hobby
62. Teeing Off
63. Smarty Gras
64. Bayou Blues
65. Stage Struck
66. One Way Ticket to Venus
67. Back to Nature
68. My Vine is Your Vine
69. The Tourist Trade
70. Bye Bye Bicycle
71. Chicago Shenanigans
72. Loop the Loop
73. Uranium on the Cranium
74. Mistaked Claim
75. The Trail of the Lonesome Mine
76. The Treasure of Sierra Bongo
77. Fortune Feller
78. Wild and Wobbly *- Note: Episodes after this one were made for Tennessee Tuxedo and His Tales.*
79. Introducing Mr. Mad
80. Falling Asleep
81. Hup-2-3-Hike
82. Spring Along with Itch
83. Left Alone Leonardo
84. A Tour de Farce
85. Get 'Em Up Scout
86. The King Camps Out
87. Offensive Defensive
88. A Long Long Trail A-Binding
89. Treasure Train
90. Handcar Heroes
91. Honey Hungry
92. Bye Bye Bees
93. The Royal Race
94. The Shifty Sail
95. Asleep on the Deep
96. An Ace for a King
97. Odie Takes a Dive
98. Go and Catch a Falling King
99. Royal Rodeo
100. Ride 'Em Cowboy
101. S.O. Essex Calling
102. The Big Falling Out
103. Long Days Journey Into Fright
104. Making a Monkey Shine

## Lyrics

King Leonardo and His Short Subjects/Lyrics

## Cast

* Jackson Beck – King Leonardo, Biggie Rat, Professor Messer
* Allen Swift – Odie Cologne, Itchy Brother, Duke, Earl, Tooter Turtle, The King and Odie narrator
* Sandy Becker – Mr. Wizard
* Kenny Delmar – The Hunter, The Hunter narrator
* Ben Stone – The Fox, Officer Film Flanagan
* Norman Rose – Mr. Mad, The King and Odie narrator
* Delo States – various female and children's voices
* George S. Irving – Twinkles the Elephant narrator, various voices

## Gallery

King Leonardo and His Short Subjects/Gallery

## Trivia

* Producers Associates for Television, TTV's co-producers, would later nickname itself *Leonardo Productions* after the character.
* The now defunct cable *Black Family Channel* reran the show in 2006 as part of its kids programming block, until the channel shut down a year later.
* The characters of this show were also featured in an eight-issue comic book produced by Dell Comics and Gold Key.
* *Twinkles the Elephant* wasn't seen in syndication, particularly because it was an animated tie-in with the "*Twinkles"* cereal that had been discontinued, also because of the FCC.
* While all the stories are told in two-part cartoons, the final four are a four-part story.