Total Television was an American animation studio founded in 1959 by Buck Biggers, Chester "Chet" Stover,p.478 Erickson,Hal ''Television Cartoon Shows: An Illustrated Encyclopedia, 1949 through 2003'' McFarland & Co., 2005 Joe Harris, and Treadwell D. Covington. They were executives in the advertising agency Dancer Fitzgerald Sample who had the account for the

General Mills General Mills, Inc., is an American multinational manufacturer and marketer of branded processed consumer foods sold through retail stores. Founded on the banks of the Mississippi River at Saint Anthony Falls in Minneapolis, the company or ...

food corporation. Total was formed to create cartoon characters encouraging children to buy General Mills breakfast cereals and other products. The company mostly created cartoons for television networks such as NBC. ''

Underdog An underdog is a person or group in a competition, usually in sports and creative works, who is largely expected to lose. The party, team, or individual expected to win is called the favorite or top dog. In the case where an underdog wins, the ...

'', '' King Leonardo and His Short Subjects'', and ''

Tennessee Tuxedo and His Tales ''Tennessee Tuxedo and His Tales'' is an animated television series that originally aired Saturday mornings on CBS from 1963 to 1966 as one of the earliest Saturday morning cartoons. It was produced by Total Television, the same company that prod ...

'' were among the most popular series made by the studio.

Production and Shows

The studio produced animated series from 1959 to 1969 at Gamma Productions, a primitive start-up company, which was contracted to produce the animation for

Jay Ward Productions Jay Ward Productions, Inc. (sometimes shortened to Ward Productions) is an American animation studio based in Costa Mesa, California. It was founded in 1948 by American animator Jay Ward. The Jay Ward Productions library and rights were previou ...

' output. Ward was never satisfied with the work performed at Gamma. Gamma Productions is the animation studio who is notable for their work on ''Underdog'' (1964), ''Tennessee Tuxedo and His Tales'' (1963), ''Commander McBragg'' (1963) and ''Go Go Gophers'' (1964). *''

Cocoa Puffs Cocoa Puffs is an American brand of chocolate-flavored puffed grain breakfast cereal, manufactured by General Mills. Introduced in 1956, the cereal consists of small orbs of corn and rice flavored with cocoa. Cocoa Puffs have the same shape as K ...

'' commercials (1960-1969) *'' King Leonardo and His Short Subjects'' (1960–1963) *''The Hunter'' (1960–1963) *'' Commander McBragg'' (1963–1965) *'' Go Go Gophers'' (1964-1966) *'' Klondike Kat'' (1963–1965) *''

'' (1963–1966) *'' The Beagles'' (1966–1967) *''The Sing A Long Family'' (1962) *'' Tooter Turtle'' (1960–1962) *''Twinkles the Elephant'' (1960–1967) *''

'' (1964–1967) *''Gene Hattree'' (1964) *''Cauliflower Cabby'' (1964) *''The Colossal Show '' (1964) Much of Total Television's library for post-network syndication was handled by

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 ...

, until the company shut down in 2016. The rights are currently owned by

DreamWorks Classics Classic Media, LLC, doing business as DreamWorks Classics, is an American entertainment company owned by DreamWorks Animation, which is a subsidiary of Universal Pictures and a division of Comcast's NBCUniversal. It was founded as Classic Media ...

DreamWorks Animation DreamWorks Animation LLC (DWA, also known as DreamWorks Animation Studios and simply known as DreamWorks) is an American animation studio that produces animated films and television programs and is a subsidiary of Universal Pictures, a divisio ...

(via

Universal Pictures Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Americ ...

and

NBCUniversal NBCUniversal Media, LLC is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate corporation owned by Comcast and headquartered at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, United States. NBCUniversal is primar ...

Notes

External links

"Whatever Happened to Total TeleVision productions?," ''Hogan's Alley'' #15, 2009

Production and Shows

Notes

External links

Further reading