''Tom Terrific'' is a 1957–1959

animated Animation is a filmmaking technique whereby image, still images are manipulated to create Motion picture, moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on cel, transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and e ...

series on American

television Television (TV) is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. Additionally, the term can refer to a physical television set rather than the medium of transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...

, presented as part of the ''

Captain Kangaroo ''Captain Kangaroo'' is an American children's television series that aired weekday mornings on the American television network CBS for 29 years, from 1955 to 1984, making it the longest-running nationally broadcast children's television program ...

children's television Children's television series (or children's television shows) are Television show, television programs designed specifically for Child, children. They are typically characterised by easy-going content devoid of sensitive or adult themes and are ...

show.

Production

Created by

Gene Deitch Eugene Merril Deitch (August 8, 1924 – April 16, 2020) was an American illustrator, animator, comics artist, and film director who was based in Prague from the 1960s until his death in 2020. Deitch was known for creating animated cartoons ...

under the

Terrytoons Terrytoons, Inc. was an American animation studio headquartered in New Rochelle, New York, which was active from 1929 until its closure in December 1972 (and briefly returned between 1987 and 1996 for television in-name only). Founded by Paul Te ...

studio (which by that time was a subsidiary of CBS, the network that broadcast ''Captain Kangaroo''), ''Tom Terrific'' was made as twenty-six stories, each split into five episodes, with one five-minute episode broadcast per day. The first thirteen stories were filmed in 1957, with the second set in 1958. ''Captain Kangaroo'' continued to rerun the episodes for many years. Starting in 1962, ''Captain Kangaroo'' broadcast ''Tom Terrific'' every other week, alternating with Terrytoons' ''Lariat Sam''. It was drawn in a simple

black-and-white Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white to produce a range of achromatic brightnesses of grey. It is also known as greyscale in technical settings. Media The history of various visual media began with black and white, ...

style reminiscent of children's drawings. Some of the dialogue was written by cartoonist

Jules Feiffer Jules Ralph Feiffer ( ; January 26, 1929 – January 17, 2025) was an American cartoonist and author, who at one time was considered the most widely read satirist in the country. He won the Pulitzer Prize in 1986 for Pulitzer Prize for Editori ...

. Gene Deitch adapted the feature from his earlier newspaper

comic strip A comic strip is a Comics, sequence of cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often Serial (literature), serialized, with text in Speech balloon, balloons and Glossary of comics terminology#Captio ...

, "Terr'ble Thompson!" distributed during the 1950s by the

United Features Syndicate United Feature Syndicate, Inc. (UFS) is a large American editorial column and comic strip newspaper syndication service based in the United States and established in 1919. Originally part of E. W. Scripps Company, it was part of United Media ( ...

. Terr'ble Thompson was a six-year-old boy who imagined himself to be the "Hero of Hist'ry" and freely time traveled to assist historical figures. An illustrated book reprinting the adventures of this precursor to Tom Terrific was published by

Fantagraphics Books Fantagraphics (previously Fantagraphics Books) is an American publisher of alternative comics, classic comic strip anthologies, manga, magazines, graphic novels, and (formerly) the Erotic comics, erotic Eros Comix imprint. They have managed sev ...

. All the voices were performed by Lionel Wilson (who later voiced Eustace Bagge from the

Cartoon Network Cartoon Network (CN) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the Cartoon Network, Inc., a sub-division of the Warner Bros. Discovery Networks division of Warner Bros. Discovery. It launched on ...

series ''

Courage the Cowardly Dog ''Courage the Cowardly Dog'' is an American animated comedy horror television series created by John R. Dilworth for Cartoon Network. It was produced by Dilworth's animation studio, Stretch Films. The eponymous character is an anxious dog who li ...

'').

Plot

The show features a gee-whiz boy hero, Tom Terrific, who lives in a

treehouse A tree house, tree fort or treeshed, is a platform or building constructed around, next to or among the trunk or branches of one or more mature trees while above ground level. Tree houses can be used for recreation, work space, habitation, a ha ...

and can

shapeshift In mythology, folklore and speculative fiction, shapeshifting is the ability to physically transform oneself through unnatural means. The idea of shapeshifting is found in the oldest forms of totemism and shamanism, as well as the oldest exist ...

into anything he wants, thanks to his magical

funnel A funnel is a tube or pipe that is wide at the top and narrow at the bottom, used for guiding liquid or powder into a small opening. Funnels are usually made of stainless steel, aluminium, glass, or plastic. The material used in its constructi ...

-shaped "thinking cap", which also enhances his intelligence. He has a comic lazybones of a

sidekick A sidekick is a close companion or colleague who is, or is generally regarded as, subordinate to those whom they accompany. Origins The first recorded use of the term dates from 1896. It is believed to have originated in pickpocket slang of ...

, Mighty Manfred the Wonder Dog, and an

archenemy In literature, an archenemy, (sometimes spelled as arch-enemy) or nemesis is the main enemy of the protagonist — or sometimes, one of the other main characters — appearing as the most prominent and most-known enemy of the hero. Etymolog ...

named Crabby Appleton, whose

motto A motto (derived from the Latin language, Latin , 'mutter', by way of Italian language, Italian , 'word' or 'sentence') is a Sentence (linguistics), sentence or phrase expressing a belief or purpose, or the general motivation or intention of a ...

is, "I'm rotten to the core!" Other foes include Mr. Instant the Instant Thing King, Captain Kidney Bean, Sweet Tooth Sam the Candy Bandit, and Isotope Feeney the Meany.

Episodes

Each episode was shown in five installments, one per day, Monday through Friday.

Reception

The character Tom Terrific was ranked #32 by ''

TV Guide TV Guide is an American digital media In mass communication, digital media is any media (communication), communication media that operates in conjunction with various encoded machine-readable data formats. Digital content can be created, vi ...

'' magazine on its 2002 list of "50 Greatest TV Cartoon Characters".

Home video

, there has not been an authorized

VHS VHS (Video Home System) is a discontinued standard for consumer-level analog video recording on tape cassettes, introduced in 1976 by JVC. It was the dominant home video format throughout the tape media period of the 1980s and 1990s. Ma ...

DVD 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 ki ...

Blu-ray Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of high-defin ...

release of the series.

In popular culture

* The character also appeared in a comic book published by

Pines Comics Standard Comics was a comic book imprint of American publisher Ned Pines, who also published pulp magazines (under a variety of company names that he also used for the comics) and paperback books (under the Popular Library name). Standard in ...

for six issues from Summer 1957 to Fall 1958, with some stories drawn by

Ralph Bakshi Ralph Bakshi (; born October 29, 1938) is a Mandatory Palestine-born American retired animator and filmmaker, known for his fantastical animated films. In the 1970s, he established an alternative to mainstream animation through independent anim ...

. * Tom Terrific appeared in a few Wonder Books, an imitation of

Little Golden Books The Little Golden Books is an American series of children's books, published since 1942. '' The Poky Little Puppy'', the eighth release in the series, is the top-selling children's book of all time in the United States.. Many other Little Golden ...

. * Crabby Appleton was the name of a rock group, which used the character's image on a 1971 album, ''Rotten to the Core''. * In the introduction to his book, ''The Great Big Book of Tomorrow'', Tom Tomorrow (Dan Perkins) says that he chose his

pseudonym A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true meaning ( orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individual's o ...

through misremembering the name of Tom Terrific. * Tom Terrific appeared in the 1999 pilot ''Curbside'', voiced by

Haley Joel Osment Haley Joel Osment (born April 10, 1988) is an American actor. Beginning his career as a child actor, Osment's role in the comedy-drama film ''Forrest Gump'' (1994) won him a Young Artist Award. His breakthrough came with the psychological thr ...

. * American football player

Tom Brady Thomas Edward Patrick Brady Jr. (born August 3, 1977) is an American former professional American football, football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 23 seasons. He spent his first 20 seasons with the New Engla ...

attempted to trademark the phrase for himself, but was turned down in August 2019, to prevent confusion with baseball player

Tom Seaver George Thomas Seaver (November 17, 1944 – August 31, 2020), nicknamed "Tom Terrific" and "the Franchise", was an American professional baseball pitcher who played 20 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB). He played for the New York Mets, Cin ...

.New York Post: "Tom Brady denied Tom Terrific trademark" Aug. 23, 2019
/ref>

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, 0283224
Theme song
1957 American animated television series debuts 1959 American television series endings 1950s American animated television series American children's animated comedy television series Animated television series about children Animated television series about dogs Television series about shapeshifting Television series by Terrytoons Terrytoons characters Television characters introduced in 1957 CBS animated television series Television series created by Gene Deitch Animated characters introduced in 1957 Television shows based on comic strips