''The Beagles'' was a Saturday morning

animated television series An animated series, or a cartoon series, is a set of Animation, animated films with a common title, usually related to one another. These episodes typically share the same main heroes, some different secondary characters and a basic theme. Series ...

that aired on

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

from September 10, 1966, to January 7, 1967, with reruns continuing until September 2, 1967. The show was produced by

Total Television Total TeleVision productions was an American animation studio founded in 1959 by Buck Biggers, Chester "Chet" Stover, Joe Harris, and Treadwell D. Covington. They were executives in the advertising agency Dancer Fitzgerald Sample who had the a ...

, which created ''

King Leonardo and His Short Subjects ''King Leonardo and His Short Subjects'' (also known as ''The King and Odie Show'') is an American Saturday-morning animated television series that aired on NBC from October 15, 1960 to December 23, 1961; the original ''Short Subjects'' package ...

'', ''

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 pro ...

'', and ''

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 wikt:top dog, top dog. In the case where an under ...

''. The show was cancelled by CBS after one season, despite finishing in the top 10 for Saturday mornings. It then went into reruns on

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting * Aliw Broadcasting Corporation, Philippine broadcast company * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial American ...

from September 9, 1967, to September 2, 1968 before it quickly disappeared. It was also the last animated series produced by Total Television before it was dissolved in 1969.

Inspiration

It is widely assumed that the show drew inspiration from the rock band

the Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. The core lineup of the band comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are widely regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatle ...

, based on the similarity of the show's name. The two characters in the band, Stringer and Tubby, were spoofs of

Dean Martin Dean Martin (born Dino Paul Crocetti; June 7, 1917 – December 25, 1995) was an American singer, actor, and comedian. Nicknamed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, King of Cool", he is regarded as one of the most popular entertainers of ...

and

Jerry Lewis Jerry Lewis (born Joseph Levitch; March 16, 1926 – August 20, 2017) was an American comedian, actor, singer, filmmaker and humanitarian, with a career spanning seven decades in film, stage, television and radio. Famously nicknamed as "Th ...

. However, the music they played bore no resemblance to anything Martin & Lewis performed, and was clearly derived from the popular music coming out of Britain at the time, as was the show's title. In 1966, small children watching cartoons on TV were unlikely to remember Martin & Lewis, who broke up ten years earlier. The original masters of this series are in the possession of TTV artist Joe Harris, according to an interview Harris did for the book ''Created and Produced by Total Television Productions'' by Mark Arnold. However, it is unknown what became of those masters, as Joe Harris died in 2017. A soundtrack album, ''Here Come the Beagles'', was released on

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American reco ...

Harmony In music, harmony is the concept of combining different sounds in order to create new, distinct musical ideas. Theories of harmony seek to describe or explain the effects created by distinct pitches or tones coinciding with one another; harm ...

offshoot in 1967. The single "Looking For The Beagles/I Want To Capture You" was released on Columbia, as Harmony did not release singles.

Bio

''The Beagles'' were different from

The Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. The core lineup of the band comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are widely regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatle ...

in that ''The Beagles'' were a duo rather than a

quartet In music, a quartet (, , , , ) is an ensemble of four singers or instrumental performers. Classical String quartet In classical music, one of the most common combinations of four instruments in chamber music is the string quartet. String quar ...

and both members were

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 ...

dogs. Stringer (voiced by Sandy Becker impersonating

), the tall one, played

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

, while Tubby (voiced by

Allen Swift Ira J. Stadlen (January 16, 1924 – April 18, 2010), known professionally as Allen Swift, was an American actor, writer and magician, best known as a voiceover artist who voiced cartoon characters Simon Bar Sinister and Riff-Raff on the ' ...

impersonating

), short, fat and wearing

spectacles Glasses, also known as eyeglasses (American English), spectacles (Commonwealth English), or colloquially as specs, are Visual perception, vision eyewear with clear or tinted lens (optics), lenses mounted in a frame that holds them in front ...

, played

stand-up bass The double bass (), also known as the upright bass, the acoustic bass, the bull fiddle, or simply the bass, is the largest and lowest-pitched string instrument, chordophone in the modern orchestra, symphony orchestra (excluding rare additions ...

. They often got into trouble as a result of

publicity stunt In marketing, a publicity stunt is a planned event designed to attract the public's attention to the event's organizers or their cause. Publicity stunts can be professionally organized, or set up by amateurs. Such events are frequently utiliz ...

s planned by their manager, a

Scottish terrier The Scottish Terrier (; also known as the Aberdeen Terrier), popularly called the Scottie, is a dog breed, breed of dog. Initially one of the highland breeds of terrier that were grouped under the name of ''Skye Terrier'', it is one of five br ...

named Scotty (also voiced by Swift).

Episodes

All of the episodes of ''The Beagles'' with the plots.

Preservation status

According to Joe Harris, the editor of ''The Beagles'' died on the job and his widow accidentally threw out all the editing materials for the show, which included the master negatives. The series was feared lost until the original negatives and tracks were found decades later in a warehouse owned by

Golden Books *Western Publishing (1907−2001) — , magazines, and {{C, Children's book publishers, children's books publisher, formerly based in Racine, Wisconsin Racine ( ) is a city in Racine County, Wisconsin, United States, and its county seat. It is ...

; the films had apparently been shipped by mistake to Producers Associates of Television,

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

' TV film subsidiary, which owned all of Total Television's other series, and were only discovered after Golden Books had bought P. A.T.'s interests.

References

External links

Cast listing of first episode

{{DEFAULTSORT:Beagles (TV series), The 1960s American animated television series 1960s American children's comedy television series 1960s American musical comedy television series 1966 American animated television series debuts 1967 American television series endings American children's animated comedy television series American children's animated musical television series Animated musical groups Animated television series about dogs American English-language television shows Television series by Universal Television Total Television CBS animated television series American Broadcasting Company animated television series Children's television series about talking animals