''The Woody Woodpecker Show'' is a long-running 30-minute

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

television series mainly composed of the animated cartoon shorts of

Woody Woodpecker Woody Woodpecker is an animated character that appeared in theatrical short films produced by the Walter Lantz Studio and distributed by Universal Studios between 1940 and 1972. Woody, an anthropomorphic woodpecker, was created in 1940 by ...

and other

Walter Lantz Walter Lantz (April 27, 1899 – March 22, 1994) was an American cartoonist, animator, producer and director best known for founding Walter Lantz Productions and creating Woody Woodpecker. Biography Early years and start in animation Lant ...

characters including

Andy Panda Andy Panda is a cartoon character who starred in his own series of animated cartoon short subjects produced by Walter Lantz. These "cartunes" were released by Universal Pictures from 1939 to 1947, and United Artists from 1948 to 1949. The title ...

Chilly Willy Chilly Willy is a cartoon character, a diminutive penguin. He was created by director Paul Smith for the Walter Lantz studio in 1953, and developed further by Tex Avery in the two subsequent films following Smith's debut entry. The character ...

The Beary Family ''The Beary Family'' (also known as ''The Beary's Family Album'') is an American animated series and cartoon animal theatrical series made by Walter Lantz Studios. Twenty eight shorts were made from 1962 to 1972, when the studio closed. The series ...

and

Inspector Willoughby Inspector Willoughby is a cartoon character created by Walter Lantz, and named after the Hollywood avenue which runs alongside the building where Lantz's office was housed (at 861 Seward Street). 12 cartoons were produced between 1960 and 1965. Hi ...

released by

Walter Lantz Productions Walter Lantz Productions was an American animation studio. It was in operation from 1928 to 1972 and was the principal supplier of animation for Universal Studios. The studio was originally formed as Universal Cartoon Studios on the initiative o ...

. The series was revived and reformatted several times, but remained popular for nearly four decades and allowed the studio to continue making theatrical cartoons until 1972 when it shut down. It also kept the Walter Lantz/Universal "cartunes" made during the

Golden Age of American animation The golden age of American animation was a period in the history of U.S. animation that began with the popularization of sound cartoons in 1928 and gradually ended in the late 1960s, where theatrical animated shorts began losing popularity to the ...

a part of the American consciousness. The ''Woody Woodpecker Show'' was named the 88th best animated series by IGN.

History

Movie theater owners in the 1950s were finding that they could release features with reissued cartoons, or no cartoons at all, and the audiences would still come. Because of the practice, the theatrical cartoon business was suffering and losing money. By 1956 there were only seven animation producers in the short-subjects field, and by the end of the decade that number would dwindle down to three. Walter Lantz and his distributor, Universal Pictures, knew that the only way to subsidize the rising costs of new shorts was to release their product to television. Norman Gluck from Universal's short-subjects department made a deal with the Leo Burnett Agency to release some older Lantz product on television. Burnett handled the Kellogg's cereal account, and Lantz soon met with the Kellogg's people to sign the contract. Lantz admitted that he was only working in the medium because he was "forced into TV" and "cartoons for theaters would soon be extinct." ''The Woody Woodpecker Show'' debuted on ABC on the afternoon of October 3, 1957. The series was shown once a week, on Thursday afternoons, replacing the first half-hour of the shortened ''

Mickey Mouse Club ''The Mickey Mouse Club'' is an American variety television show that aired intermittently from 1955 to 1996 and returned to social media in 2017. Created by Walt Disney and produced by Walt Disney Productions, the program was first televised fo ...

''. Lantz integrated his existing cartoons with new live action footage, giving the show an updated look that satisfied both viewers and Lantz himself. The live action and animation segments created for the show, called 'A Moment with Walter Lantz', featured an informative look at how the animation process for his "cartunes" worked as well as how the writers came up with stories and characters. The live-action segments were directed by Jack Hannah, who was fresh from the Disney Studio where he had done similar live-action/animation sequences for the Disney show. After the initial year on ABC, ''The Woody Woodpecker Show'' was syndicated until 1966. The "A Moment with Walter Lantz" segments were eventually replaced with "Woody's Newsreel" and "Around The World with Woody" which used footage of

Universal Newsreel Universal Newsreel (sometimes known as Universal-International Newsreel or just U-I Newsreel) was a series of 7- to 10-minute newsreels that were released twice a week between 1929 and 1967 by Universal Studios. A Universal publicity official, ...

s and featured voice-over commentary by Walter Lantz and Woody Woodpecker. In 1970, the show reappeared on network television, with 26 additional episodes assembled by Lantz for

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 ...

. The show ran on NBC until September 2, 1972, which is the same year the Walter Lantz Productions studio shut down. The show was revived again on September 11, 1976, featuring cartoons made from 1940 to 1965. The show ended its network run on September 3, 1977. Local stations continued to air ''The Woody Woodpecker Show'' for the next several years. In 1984, Lantz sold everything outright to

MCA/Universal MCA Inc. (originally an initialism for Music Corporation of America) was an American media conglomerate founded in 1924. Originally a talent agency with artists in the music business as clients, the company became a major force in the film ind ...

, though he remained active in overseeing how Universal handled his characters (for merchandise, TV, home video, theme parks, limited edition cels, etc.) up until his death in 1994. In 1987, MCA/Universal and

The Program Exchange The Program Exchange was a syndicator of television programs. It was founded as DFS Program Exchange in 1978, which became elongated to the DFS-Dorland Program Exchange from 1986 to 1987. From 1986 to 2008, it was a division of Saatchi & Saatch ...

returned the show to television with a new 90 episode package for

syndication Syndication may refer to: * Broadcast syndication, where individual stations buy programs outside the network system * Print syndication, where individual newspapers or magazines license news articles, columns, or comic strips * Web syndication, ...

. This ''Woody Woodpecker Show'' featured a complete overhaul of the series format. Gone were the newsreels, "Around the World" segments, and live action scenes with Walter Lantz, replaced by vignettes known as "Musical Miniatures", in which new musical compositions were played over montages of classic cartoon footage. New commercial bumpers were added and a new opening sequence was created. This one featured Woody, Andy Panda, Chilly Willy, Smedley the Dog, and Inspector Willoughby along with Woody's nemeses Buzz Buzzard, Gabby Gator, and Wally Walrus as they caused chaos in a small town. Episodes of this ''Woody Woodpecker Show'' typically consisted of two Woody cartoons bookending another Lantz cartoon (typically a

cartoon). The series continued airing in syndication until 1998. Around that time,

Cartoon Network Cartoon Network (often abbreviated as CN) is an American cable television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. It is a part of The Cartoon Network, Inc., a division that also has the broadcasting and production activities of Boomerang, ...

picked up rerun rights and aired ''The Woody Woodpecker Show'' for several months, after which the series disappeared from television. After

dropped ''The Woody Woodpecker Show'', Universal revived most of the Lantz characters in ''

The New Woody Woodpecker Show ''The New Woody Woodpecker Show'' (titled ''The Woody Woodpecker Show'' on-screen) is an American animated comedy television series based on the animated short film series created by cartoonist and animator Walter Lantz. It was developed by ani ...

'' with

Billy West William Richard Werstine (born April 16, 1952), known professionally as Billy West, is an American voice actor. His voice roles include Bugs Bunny in the 1996 film ''Space Jam'' and several subsequent projects, the title characters of ''Doug'' ...

voicing Woody, which ran from 1999 to 2002 as part of the

Fox Kids Fox Kids (originally known as Fox Children's Network and later as the Fox Kids Network; stylized as FOX KIDS) was an American children's programming block and branding for a slate of international children's television channels. Originally a jo ...

Saturday morning lineup.

Episodes

Cartoons with an '*' are repeats.

Series 1 (1957—1958)

Series 2 (1963—1964)

From Series 3 onward, the episode include four cartoons instead of three.

Series 3 (1970—1971)

Series 4 (1971—1972)

Series 5 (1976—1977)

Broadcast history

Does not include reruns * October 3, 1957 — September 25, 1958 ( ABC) (original animation with bridge animation)* * 1964 — 1965 (

Syndication Syndication may refer to: * Broadcast syndication, where individual stations buy programs outside the network system * Print syndication, where individual newspapers or magazines license news articles, columns, or comic strips * Web syndication, ...

) (original animation with bridge animation)* * September 12, 1970 - September 2, 1972 (

) (new 26 episodes without bridge animation) * 1958 — 1966 (

) (reruns) * September 11, 1976 - September 3, 1977 (NBC) (reruns only) * 1987 — 1997 (

) (reruns only) * 1997 — 1998 (

) (reruns only) * 1998 — 2001 (

Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (often shortened to Nick) is an American pay television channel which launched on April 1, 1979, as the first cable channel for children. It is run by Paramount Global through its networks division's Kids and Family Group. It ...

) (reruns only) * 2011 — 2015 (

Teletoon Retro Teletoon Retro was a Canadian specialty channel that was owned by Corus Entertainment that was based on the Teletoon programming block. The service was dedicated to broadcasting classic animated television programs as well as some live-action s ...

) (reruns only) (*) = total of 59 episodes with original animation

Home media

In the early 2000s, a series of mail-order ''Woody Woodpecker Show'' VHS tapes and

DVDs 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 kind ...

were made available through

Columbia House Columbia House was an umbrella brand for Columbia Records' mail-order music clubs, the primary iteration of which was the Columbia Record Club, established in 1955. The Columbia House brand was introduced in the early 1970s by Columbia Records ...

. Each volume featured "cartunes", bumpers, and 'A Moment with Walter Lantz' or Newsreel segments set in the 1957-1977 format of ''The Woody Woodpecker Show'', though Volumes 11-15 hardly feature any "Moments" or "Newsreels". There were complaints about cuts made to the shorts, which ranged from shorts from restored and intact prints to severely cut TV edits. In 2007, Universal Studios Home Entertainment released ''

The Woody Woodpecker and Friends Classic Cartoon Collection ''The Woody Woodpecker and Friends Classic Cartoon Collection'' is a three-disc DVD collection of theatrical cartoons produced by Walter Lantz Productions for Universal Pictures between 1930 and 1956. The set was released by Universal Studios Home ...

'', six behind-the-scenes segments from ''The Woody Woodpecker Show'' and a 1964 episode that contained the cartoon "Spook-a-Nanny" were released on the collection as bonus features. The following year, '' The Woody Woodpecker and Friends Classic Cartoon Collection: Volume 2'' was released, featuring twelve behind-the-scenes segments and two pilot cartoons, "The Secret Weapon" and "Jungle Medics" from ''The Woody Woodpecker Show''.

References

External links

Toontracker.comThe Walter Lantz Cartune EncyclopediaList of episodes ABC season
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Woody Woodpecker Show, The 1957 American television series debuts 1958 American television series endings 1950s American animated television series 1950s American anthology television series American Broadcasting Company original programming American children's animated anthology television series American children's animated comedy television series American television series with live action and animation NBC original programming Television series by Universal Television English-language television shows Animated television shows based on films Animated television series about birds