''Linus the Lionhearted'' is an American Saturday morning animated television series that aired on

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

from September 26, 1964 to December 11, 1965, originally airing in black and white. Colorized versions of the episodes started airing on ABC in 1966, and continued reruns until September 7, 1969. It was an early Saturday morning cartoon. The show follows a jungle-dwelling lion king who ruled from his personal barber's chair. The character was created in 1959, by the Ed Graham advertising agency, originally as a series of ads for

General Foods General Foods Corporation was a company whose direct predecessor was established in the United States by Charles William Post as the Postum Cereal Company in 1895. The company changed its name to "General Foods" in 1929, after several corporate ...

Post Cereals Post Consumer Brands (previously Post Cereals and Postum Cereals; also known as simply "Post") is an American breakfast cereal manufacturer headquartered in Lakeville, Minnesota. The company, founded in 1895 by C. W. Post, owns a large portfoli ...

. At first, Linus the lion was the spokesman for the short-lived Post cereal "Heart of Oats" (a

Cheerios Cheerios is a brand of cereal manufactured by General Mills in the United States, consisting of pulverized oats in the shape of a solid torus. In some countries, including the United Kingdom, Cheerios is marketed by Cereal Partners under the ...

imitation). Eventually, the lion was redesigned and reintroduced in 1963, to sell

Crispy Critters Crispy Critters was a breakfast cereal manufactured by Post Cereals starting in 1963. The sweetened cereal, made of oats, consisted of animal-shaped pieces similar to animal crackers. Television commercials featured a cartoon lion, Linus the Lionhe ...

, which featured Linus on the box. The ads were so popular that a

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...

series was created in 1964, with General Foods as sponsor. The show ran on the

network until 1966, and reruns aired on ABC from 1966 to 1969.

History

In addition to Linus, a rather good-natured "King of the Beasts" who ruled from his personal barber's chair and was voiced by

Sheldon Leonard Sheldon Leonard Bershad (February 22, 1907 – January 11, 1997) was an American film and television actor, producer, director, and screenwriter. Early life Sheldon Leonard Bershad was born in Manhattan, New York City, the son of middle-cla ...

, there were other features as well, all based on characters representing other Post breakfast cereals. The best-known of these was

Sugar Bear Sugar Bear is the advertising cartoon mascot of Post Super Sugar Crisp (later Golden Crisp) cereal. History Sugar Bear originally appeared in the 1940s as the mascot of Sugar Crisp (later known as Golden Crisp), a cereal produced by General Foo ...

( Sugar Crisp), who sounded like

Dean Martin Dean Martin (born Dino Paul Crocetti; June 7, 1917 – December 25, 1995) was an American singer, actor and comedian. One of the most popular and enduring American entertainers of the mid-20th century, Martin was nicknamed "The King of Cool". M ...

and was voiced by actor Gerry Matthews. There was also a postman named Lovable Truly (

Alpha-Bits Alpha-Bits, also known as Frosted Alpha-Bits, was a brand of breakfast cereal made by Post Consumer Brands, which contained frosted alphabet-shaped multi-grain (whole-grain oat and corn flour) cereal bits. Post Cereals also started producing "Mar ...

), a young Asian boy named So-Hi (

Rice Krinkles Rice is the seed of the Poaceae, grass species ''Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice) or less commonly ''Oryza glaberrima'' (African rice). The name wild rice is usually used for species of the genera ''Zizania (genus), Zizania'' and ''Porteresia'', bo ...

), and Rory Raccoon (

Post Toasties Post Toasties was an early American breakfast cereal made by Post Foods. It was named for its originator, C. W. Post, and intended as the Post version of corn flakes. Post Toasties were originally sold as Elijah Elijah ( ; he, אֵלִ� ...

). A long-play record album was released as a premium tie-in in the year of the show's debut, featuring the characters (voiced by the same stars as the animated cartoon) singing familiar songs such as "Jimmy Cracked Corn" with rewritten lyrics. A

coloring book A coloring book (British English: colouring-in book, colouring book, or colouring page) is a type of book containing line art to which people are intended to add color using crayons, colored pencils, marker pens, paint or other artistic media ...

was also published which detailed the adventures of So-Hi going on a

scavenger hunt ''Scavenger Hunt'' is a 1979 American comedy film with a large ensemble cast which includes Richard Benjamin, James Coco, Scatman Crothers, Ruth Gordon, Cloris Leachman, Cleavon Little, Roddy McDowall, Robert Morley, Richard Mulligan, Tony R ...

in order to break a curse on a two-headed bird, who is then transformed into a human boy due to So-Hi's dedication.

Vocal talent

The show was perhaps best noted for its abundance of well-known vocal talent. In addition to Leonard,

Carl Reiner Carl Reiner (March 20, 1922 – June 29, 2020) was an American actor, stand-up comedian, director, screenwriter, and author whose career spanned seven decades. He was the recipient of many awards and honors, including 11 Primetime Emmy Awards, ...

voiced several characters, most notably Linus' friend Billy Bird;

Ruth Buzzi Ruth Ann Buzzi ( ; born July 24, 1936) is an American actress, comedian, and singer. She has appeared on stage, in films, and on television. She is best known for her performances on the comedy-variety show '' Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In'' from 196 ...

voiced an old witch who'd befriended Lovable Truly, as well as Sugar Bear's sometime nemesis, Granny Goodwitch; and veteran

Bob McFadden Robert McFadden (January 19, 1923 – January 7, 2000) was an American singer, impressionist, and voice-over actor perhaps best known for his many contributions to animated cartoons. His most popular television cartoon characters included Mil ...

voiced So Hi, Rory and Lovable Truly. Jonathan Winters made a number of guest appearances, as did

Jerry Stiller Gerald Isaac Stiller (June 8, 1927 – May 11, 2020) was an American actor and comedian. He spent many years as part of the comedy duo Stiller and Meara with his wife, Anne Meara, to whom he was married for over 60 years until her death in 2015 ...

and his wife

Anne Meara Anne Meara Stiller (September 20, 1929 – May 23, 2015) was an American actress and comedian. Along with her husband Jerry Stiller, she was one-half of the prominent 1960s comedy team Stiller and Meara. Their son is actor, director, and producer ...

. Also credited was the later " Maytag Repairman," Jesse White.

End theme

As opposed to the cartoon's jaunty, upbeat, fast-paced opening, which promoted "Linus the King, Linus the Star, Linus the Lionhearted," the end theme, likely by the

Johnny Mann Singers John Russell Mann (August 30, 1928June 18, 2014) was an American arranger, composer, conductor, entertainer, singer, and recording artist. Career Johnny Mann's began his music career in the late 1940s in his hometown of Baltimore before servin ...

, was slow and melancholy in tone. As it played, the cartoon's five principal characters—Linus, Lovable Truly, Rory Raccoon, So Hi, and Sugar Bear were depicted loading the series' "props" into a trunk under a spotlight. As the song progressed and with the trunk filled, closed, and now in Linus' hand, the characters, with big tears in their eyes, were all sadly forced to wave goodbye, turned, and faded away into darkness as they walked out of the spotlight. As the song concluded, Billy Bird "mopped up" the white spotlight circle of tears until it faded to black for the week: ''"Linus and his friends must go, so we leave you with a song.'' ''We're all kind of sad to go, glad to know it won't be long.'' ''Lion-hearted friendships don't end, we'll all be back, and then'' ''Linus and his friends will go on with the show again!''"

Cancellation

The

FCC The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdictio ...

made a ruling in 1969 that forbade children's show characters from appearing in advertisements on the same program and ABC was forced to cancel reruns.

Episode list

Segments

* C = The Company (i.e., wraparound segment)- 39 segments * LK = Linus, King of Beasts- 39 segments * LT = Lovable Truly- 35 segments * R = Rory Raccoon, Hometown Hero- 19 segments * SH = So-Hi- 37 segments * SB = Sugar Bear- 22 segments

Season 1 (1964–65)

Season 2 (1965)

Credits

Season 1

*Supervising Director: Irv Spector *Production Supervision: Lew Irwin *Character Models: George Cannata *Head Writer: Bill Schnurr *Associate Producer: Rick Herland *Produced and Directed by Ed Graham, Jr. *Animation Directors: John Freeman, Clyde Geronimi, Rube Grossman, Ed Rehberg, George Singer, Marvin Woodward,

T. Hee Thornton Hee (March 26, 1911 – October 30, 1988) was an American animator, director, and teacher. He taught character design and caricature. Career Hee worked at Leon Schlesinger Productions from 1935–36 as a character designer. He d ...

*Layouts: Corny Cole, Bob Dranko, Burt Freund, Dave Hanan, Homer Jonas, Tony Rivera, Sam Weiss, Osmond Evans,

Bob Singer Bob Singer (born 1928) is an American animation artist, character designer, layout and background artist and storyboard director of animated television programs, most memorably of several Hanna-Barbera productions such as ''The Flintstones'', ''Jonn ...

, Gerard Baldwin,

Fred Crippen ''Roger Ramjet'' is a 1965–1969 American animated television series, starring Roger Ramjet and the American Eagle Squadron. The show was known for its simple animation, frenetic pace, and frequent references to pop culture which appealed to ad ...

, Mordicai Gerstein, Alex Ignatiev, Victor Haboush, Elmer Plummer, Ray Jacobs, Ron Maidenberg, Marty Murphy *Storyboards: Tom Dagenais, Art Diamond,

Bob Givens Robert Herman Givens (March 2, 1918 – December 14, 2017) was an American animator and character designer, responsible for the creation of Bugs Bunny. He was the leading character designer for Leon Schlesinger, creating over 25 successful c ...

Cal Howard Calvin Henry Howard (March 24, 1911 – September 10, 1993) was an American cartoon story artist, animator and director mostly remembered for his work at Walter Lantz Productions and Warner Bros. Cartoons. He was also the voice actor of Gabby Goat i ...

, Bob Kurtz, Mike Smollin, Dave Detiege, Jim Mueller, Ken Mundie, Jack Miller *Backgrounds: Bill Butler, Boris Gorelick, Erv Kaplan, Bob McIntosh, Lorraine Morgan, Curt Perkins *Editors: Hank Goetzenberg, Jerry MacDonald, George Mahana *Sound Engineer: Gil Arion *Ink and Paint by Connie Crawley, Dea Shirley *Character Layouts: Stan Green *Special Music Arrangements: Johnny Mann *Production Assistants: Ruth Kennedy, Armand Shaw *Animators: Ray Abrams, Frank Andrina, Gerard Baldwin, Tom Baron,

Warren Batchelder Warren Batchelder (April 18, 1917 – February 12, 2007) was an animator on many Warner Bros. and DePatie-Freleng cartoons. He also worked as animation director on the '' Dungeons and Dragons'' cartoon show., He also did the animation for the ...

, Bob Bentley, Dan Bessie, Frank Braxton, Brad Case,

, Jim Davis, Ed Friedman, Bob Goe, Frank Gonzales,

Manny Gould Emanuel Gould (May 30, 1904 – July 19, 1975) was an American animated cartoonist from the 1920s to the 1970s, best known for his contributions as a director, writer and animator for Screen Gems, and solely an animator for Warner Bros. Cartoons ...

, Bill Hajee, Ken Hultgren, Tom McDonald, Dan Mills, Chic Otterstrom,

Amby Paliwoda Ambrozi "Amby" Paliwoda (December 20, 1909 – June 9, 1999) was an American animator. Early life and education An American of Ukrainian descent, Paliwoda grew up in the Tremont neighborhood of Cleveland, Ohio. Paliwoda graduated with honors from ...

, Manuel Perez,

Virgil Ross Virgil Walter Ross (August 8, 1907 – May 15, 1996) was an American artist, cartoonist, and animator best known for his work on the Warner Bros. animated shorts including the shorts of legendary animator Friz Freleng. Biography Early yea ...

, Frank Smith, Ed Solomon, Russ von Neida, Ray Young,

Rudy Zamora Joaquin Rudolfo Zamora (March 26, 1910 – July 29, 1989) was a Mexican-American animator and a prolific animation director. His credits include ''The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show'', ''The Jetsons'', ''The Smurfs'', '' The Biskitts'', ''Peanuts'', ...

Season 2

*Direction: Gerard Baldwin, Clyde Geronimi, George Singer, Marvin Woodward *Music:

Hoyt Curtin Hoyt Stoddard Curtin (September 9, 1922 – December 3, 2000) was an American composer and music producer, the primary musical director for the Hanna-Barbera animation studio from its beginnings with '' The Ruff & Reddy Show'' in 1957 until his re ...

*Head Writer: Bill Schnurr *Character Models: George Cannata Jr. *Production Supervision: Lew Irwin *Production Assistants: Henry Hof III, Ruth Kennedy, Armand Shaw *Film Editing: Hank Gotzenberg, George Mahana *Sound Engineer: Gil Arion *Inking & Painting: Connie Crawley *Storyboards: Tom Dagenais, Tom Henderson,

Lee Mishkin Lee Mishkin (February 5, 1927 – June 19, 2001) was an American animator and director. He directed the short animated film '' Is It Always Right to Be Right?'', which won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film in 1970. He was the founde ...

, Irv Spector *Layout: Stan Green, Burt Freund, Don Jurwich, Tony Rivera, Sam Weiss *Animation: Bob Bentley, Ted Bonnicksen, Herm Cohen, Ed Friedman, Bob Goe,

, Bill Hajik, Ken Hultgren, Fred Madison,

, George Rowley, Ed Solomon, John Walker,

*Background: Erv Kaplan, Curt Perkins *Associate Producer: Rick Herland *Produced and Directed by Ed Graham Jr.

Voices

- Billy Bird, Dinny Kangaroo and various other characters *

- Linus the Lionhearted *

- So Hi, Rory Raccoon, and Lovable Truly *Gerry Matthews - Sugar Bear * Jesse White - Claudius Crow *

- Granny Goodwitch *

Paul Frees Solomon Hersh "Paul" Frees (June 22, 1920November 2, 1986) was an American actor, comedian, impressionist, and vaudevillian. He is known for his work on Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Walter Lantz, Rankin/Bass, and Walt Disney theatrical cartoons during ...

- various supporting characters *"Bashful Bigshots" (various big name guest stars, usually not credited) ** Jonathan Winters **

Tom Poston Tom or TOM may refer to: * Tom (given name), a diminutive of Thomas or Tomás or an independent Aramaic given name (and a list of people with the name) Characters * Tom Anderson, a character in ''Beavis and Butt-Head'' * Tom Beck, a character ...

** Stiller & Meara

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Linus The Lionhearted 1964 American television series debuts 1969 American television series endings 1960s American animated television series American Broadcasting Company original programming American children's animated comedy television series CBS original programming Post Foods characters Male characters in animation Male characters in advertising Black-and-white American television shows English-language television shows Animated television series about lions Television series by CBS Studios