Cap'n O. G. Readmore (invented by Puppet Studio) was the fictional character host of the American television

anthology series An anthology series is a written series, radio, television, film, or video game series that presents a different story and a different set of characters in each different episode, season, segment, or short. These usually have a different ca ...

ABC Weekend Special ''ABC Weekend Special'' is a weekly 30-minute American television anthology series for children that aired Saturday mornings on American Broadcasting Company, ABC from September 10, 1977 to August 30, 1997, which featured a wide variety of stori ...

s'' during the 1980s. He was an

anthropomorphic Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities. It is considered to be an innate tendency of human psychology. Personification is the related attribution of human form and characteristics to ...

cat The cat (''Felis catus''), also referred to as the domestic cat or house cat, is a small domesticated carnivorous mammal. It is the only domesticated species of the family Felidae. Advances in archaeology and genetics have shown that the ...

puppet A puppet is an object, often resembling a human, animal or Legendary creature, mythical figure, that is animated or manipulated by a person called a puppeteer. Puppetry is an ancient form of theatre which dates back to the 5th century BC in anci ...

, dressed in a nautical outfit, that encouraged children to read for pleasure. He hosted the show from 1984 through 1989, performing with guest stars including

Vincent Price Vincent Leonard Price Jr. (May 27, 1911 – October 25, 1993) was an American actor. He was known for his work in the horror film genre, mostly portraying villains. He appeared on stage, television, and radio, and in more than 100 films. Price ...

, Harry Blackstone Jr.,

Pat Morita Noriyuki "Pat" Morita (June 28, 1932 – November 24, 2005) was an American actor and comedian. He began his career as a stand-up comedian, before becoming known to television audiences for his recurring role as diner owner Matsuo "Arnold" Takah ...

Joan Lunden Joan Lunden (born Joan Elise Blunden, September 19, 1950) is an American journalist, author, and television host. Lunden was the co-host of ABC's ''Good Morning America'' from 1980 to 1997, and has authored over ten books. She has appeared on th ...

and others. The character also appeared in animated form in a series of ''ABC Weekend Specials'', including ''Cap’n O. G. Readmore's Puss in Boots'' and ''Cap'n O. G. Readmore Meets Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde''. In these features, he was the president of an all-feline book club, the Friday Night Book Club, who often found himself physically pulled into the story he's reading.

Plot

The voice of the character was provided by the American voice actor

Frank Welker Franklin Wendell Welker (born March 12, 1946) is an American actor who specializes in voice acting. He began his career in the 1960s, and held around 850 film, television, and video game credits as of 2020, making him one of the most prolific v ...

in the original

public service announcement A public service announcement (PSA) is a message in the public interest disseminated by the media without charge to raise public awareness and change behavior. Oftentimes these messages feature unsettling imagery, ideas or behaviors that are des ...

s and while hosting the ''ABC Weekend Special''. However, in several of the animated specials, such as ''Cap'n O. G. Readmore Meets Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde'', his voice was provided by

Neil Ross Neil David Ross is a British–born actor. Noted for his Trans-Atlantic accent, he has provided voices in many American cartoons, most notably ''G.I. Joe'', '' Spider-Man: The Animated Series'', '' My Life as a Teenage Robot'', '' Voltron'', a ...

. Many of the regular characters had fanciful names such as Lickety Page (voiced by

Lucille Bliss Lucille Theresa Bliss (March 31, 1916 – November 8, 2012) was an American actress, known in the Bay Area and in Hollywood as the "Girl With a Thousand Voices". A New York City native, Bliss lent her voice to numerous television characters, in ...

) who is the youngest of the Book Club, Kitty Literature (voiced by Ilene Latter) who is the only female member of the Book Club, Wordsy (voiced by Stan Jones), who is the most gentlemanly of the Book Club, and Ol' Tome Cat (voiced by Stanley Jones) who is the oldest and wisest of the Book Club. Other side characters include a Madam Mim-like

witch Witchcraft is the use of magic by a person called a witch. Traditionally, "witchcraft" means the use of magic to inflict supernatural harm or misfortune on others, and this remains the most common and widespread meaning. According to ''Enc ...

named Calypso La Rose (voiced by Lucille Bliss) and a

Count Chocula Count (feminine: countess) is a historical title of nobility in certain European countries, varying in relative status, generally of middling rank in the hierarchy of nobility. Pine, L. G. ''Titles: How the King Became His Majesty''. New York: ...

-like

vampire A vampire is a mythical creature that subsists by feeding on the Vitalism, vital essence (generally in the form of blood) of the living. In European folklore, vampires are undead, undead humanoid creatures that often visited loved ones and c ...

named Vitack (voiced by Hal Smith) who runs an organization called the Villains Agency. Production was by

ABC Entertainment The American Broadcasting Company (ABC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network that serves as the flagship property of the Disney Entertainment division of the Walt Disney Company. ABC is headquartered on Riverside ...

in association with Rick Reinert Pictures of

Burbank, California Burbank is a city in the southeastern end of the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Located northwest of downtown Los Angeles, Burbank had a Census-estimated population of 102,755 as of 2023. The city was ...

. All these specials were directed and produced by legendary animator

Rick Reinert Frederick George Reinert Jr. (September 14, 1925 – November 5, 2018), known professionally as Rick Reinert, was an American animator and the founder of the defunct studio Rick Reinert Productions. In addition to his work on two ''Winnie-the- ...

(''

Winnie the Pooh and a Day for Eeyore ''Winnie the Pooh and a Day for Eeyore'' is a 1983 American animated short film based on the sixth chapter of both books ''Winnie-the-Pooh'' and '' The House at Pooh Corner'' by A.A. Milne. Produced by Walt Disney Productions and distributed by ...

'').

List of shorts

Home media

Four of the ''Cap'n O. G. Readmore'' episodes were made available on Beacon Home Video in 1990; these copies are very rare and hard to find. The ''Chicken Little'' episode, made in 1992, has seen no official release on any video formats in North America. ABC Home Video released the first three episodes in 1993, which were all out-of-print since. The ''Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde'' episode was released on

VHS VHS (Video Home System) is a discontinued standard for consumer-level analog video recording on tape cassettes, introduced in 1976 by JVC. It was the dominant home video format throughout the tape media period of the 1980s and 1990s. Ma ...

by Anchor Bay Home Entertainment in 1998 and is also out-of-print. As of 2020, there are currently no plans for any of the ''Readmore'' episodes to be distributed on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

, but all of the episodes surfaced on DVD in

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

Inspiration

The feline character Cap'n Readmore was drawn on as a source of inspiration when choosing a middle name for

Dewey Readmore Books Dewey Readmore Books (November 18, 1987 – November 29, 2006) was the library cat of the Spencer, Iowa, Public Library. Having been abandoned in the library's drop box in January 1988, he was adopted by the library and gained local attention fo ...

References

External links

Little Red Riding Hood
on

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

Chicken Little
on

Jack and the Beanstalk
on

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
on

Puss In Boots
on

Dailymotion Dailymotion is a French online video platform, online video sharing platform owned by Canal+ S.A., Canal+. Prior to 2024, the company was owned by Vivendi. North American launch partners included Vice Media, Bloomberg L.P., Bloomberg, and Hears ...

TV Commercial at RetroJunk
{{DEFAULTSORT:Readmore, O. G. Readmore, O. G. Television characters introduced in 1984 Puppets ABC Weekend Special