''The Famous Adventures of Mr. Magoo'' is an American

animated Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most ani ...

television series A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, or cable, excluding breaking news, advertisements, or trailers that are typically placed be ...

produced by

United Productions of America United Productions of America, better known as UPA, was an American animation studio active from the 1940s through the 1970s. Beginning with industrial and World War II training films, UPA eventually produced theatrical shorts for Columbia Picture ...

that aired for one season on

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

from September 19, 1964 to April 24, 1965. The television series was based on the original cartoon of the same name, with

Jim Backus James Gilmore Backus (February 25, 1913 – July 3, 1989) was an American actor. Among his most famous roles were Thurston Howell III on the 1960s sitcom ''Gilligan's Island,'' the father of James Dean's character in '' Rebel Without a Cause, ...

reprising the

voiceover Voice-over (also known as off-camera or off-stage commentary) is a production technique where a voice—that is not part of the narrative (non- diegetic)—is used in a radio, television production, filmmaking, theatre, or other presentations. ...

of the role he did on TV: while doing this show, he continued with the prime time TV show ''

Gilligan's Island ''Gilligan's Island'' is an American sitcom created and produced by Sherwood Schwartz. The show's ensemble cast features Bob Denver, Alan Hale Jr., Jim Backus, Natalie Schafer, Tina Louise, Russell Johnson and Dawn Wells. It aired for th ...

''. This was a follow-up to the original '' Mister Magoo'' series which aired from 1960-1961. Unlike the theatrical cartoons, which focused on the extremely nearsighted Quincy Magoo's bumbling, the show featured the Magoo character as an actor in adaptations of such literary classics as ''

Don Quixote is a Spanish epic novel by Miguel de Cervantes. Originally published in two parts, in 1605 and 1615, its full title is ''The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha'' or, in Spanish, (changing in Part 2 to ). A founding work of West ...

'' and "

Gunga Din "Gunga Din" () is an 1890 poem by Rudyard Kipling set in British India. The poem is much remembered for its final line: "You're a better man than I am, Gunga Din". Background The poem is a rhyming narrative from the point of view of a Briti ...

". Each of these roles was played seriously, with few if any references to Magoo's nearsightedness; however, introductory segments in each program featured Magoo backstage stumbling into scenery and talking to props, thus connecting the older cartoons to this series. Some stories were contained in a single half-hour episode, but others ran for two and even four episodes. As UPA did not have its own studio facility, the production was farmed out to the Grantray-Lawrence and Format Films studios. Among the most ambitious adaptations mounted in this format were the four-part ''

Robin Hood Robin Hood is a legendary heroic outlaw originally depicted in English folklore and subsequently featured in literature and film. According to legend, he was a highly skilled archer and swordsman. In some versions of the legend, he is dep ...

'', in which he took the role of

Friar Tuck Friar Tuck is one of the legendary Merry Men, the band of heroic outlaws in the folklore of Robin Hood. History The figure of the jovial friar was common in the May Games festivals of England and Scotland during the 15th through 17th centur ...

; ''

Treasure Island ''Treasure Island'' (originally titled ''The Sea Cook: A Story for Boys''Hammond, J. R. 1984. "Treasure Island." In ''A Robert Louis Stevenson Companion'', Palgrave Macmillan Literary Companions. London: Palgrave Macmillan. .) is an adventure no ...

'', in which he played the villainous

Long John Silver Long John Silver is a Character (arts), fictional character and the main antagonist in the novel ''Treasure Island'' (1883) by Robert Louis Stevenson. The most colourful and complex character in the book, he continues to appear in popular cult ...

; and a version of ''

Snow White "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" is a 19th-century German fairy tale that is today known widely across the Western world. The Brothers Grimm published it in 1812 in the first edition of their collection '' Grimms' Fairy Tales'' and numbered as T ...

'' in which he portrayed all seven of the Seven Dwarfs (much easier in an animated setting, with no trick photography needed). The series was inspired by the success of the 1962 television special ''

Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol ''Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol'' is a 1962 animated musical holiday television special produced by UPA. It is an adaptation of Charles Dickens' 1843 novella ''A Christmas Carol'', and it features UPA's character Mr. Magoo as Ebenezer Scrooge. ...

,'' a serious remake of the

Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian er ...

classic novel with Magoo playing

Ebenezer Scrooge Ebenezer Scrooge () is the protagonist of Charles Dickens's 1843 novella '' A Christmas Carol''. At the beginning of the novella, Scrooge is a cold-hearted miser who despises Christmas. The tale of his redemption by three spirits (the Ghos ...

. The series was re-shown in the early 1970s on early Saturday mornings and the early 1980s as part of certain channels' weekday afternoon cartoon blocs. Certain episodes were released on VHS, but these have since gone out of print. The series was originally shown in prime time and not as part of an animated

block Block or blocked may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting * Block programming, the result of a programming strategy in broadcasting * W242BX, a radio station licensed to Greenville, South Carolina, United States known as ''96.3 ...

for juvenile viewers; therefore, certain more mature elements were present. These included death threats (''William Tell'', ''Robin Hood'', ''Don Quixote'', ''The Three Musketeers'', ''Sherlock Holmes''), children in danger (''Treasure Island'', ''Gunga Din'', ''William Tell''), insanity (''Don Quixote'', ''Moby Dick''), heroic self-sacrifice (''Gunga Din''), religious themes (''Noah's Ark''), and realistic, although mostly bloodless, violence; including swordplay, shooting, clubbing, drowning and character deaths in most of the episodes.

Episodes

Home video

On November 8, 2011,

Shout! Factory Shout! Factory is an American home video and music company founded in 2002 as Retropolis Entertainment. Its video releases include previously released feature films, classic and contemporary television series, animation, live music, and comedy ...

released ''Mr. Magoo: The Television Collection 1960-1977'' on DVD in Region 1. This 11-disc collection contains all the episodes from all three Mr. Magoo television series, including all 26 episodes of ''The Famous Adventures of Mr. Magoo''.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Famous Adventures of Mr. Magoo 1960s American animated television series 1964 American television series debuts 1965 American television series endings American animated television spin-offs American children's animated comedy television series Mr. Magoo English-language television shows NBC original programming