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 Dancer Fitzgerald Sample (DFS and later DFS-Dorland) was a Madison Avenue advertising agency during the 20th century. It was founded in Chicago in 1923, and was acquired and merged into the Saatchi & Saatchi network in the 1980s. History The age ...

who had the account for the

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 ...

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

'', ''

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 ...

'', 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 pro ...

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

Production and Shows

Animation for Total Television was originally sourced from TV Spots, but would switch to being produced by

Gamma Productions Gamma Productions, or officially Producciones Animadas Gamma SA, was a Mexican animation studio founded in 1957 as Val-Mar Productions by Gustavo Valdez and Jesus Martinez Gracia. It is notable as being one of the first animation studios in Mexi ...

as ''

'' entered its second season (around 1961). Notable works under the Total Television banner include: *''

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 ...

'' commercials (1960–1969) *''

'' (1960–1963) **''

The King & Odie ''The'' is a grammatical article in English, denoting nouns that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The' ...

'' (1960–1964) **'' The Hunter'' (1960–1964) **'' Twinkles the Elephant'' (1960–1961) **''

Tooter Turtle ''Tooter Turtle'' is an American animated series, animated television series about a turtle which first appeared on TV in 1960, as a segment of the ''King Leonardo and His Short Subjects'' program. "Tooter Turtle" debuted on NBC, on Saturday, Oct ...

'' (1960–1961) *''

'' (1963–1966) **''

The Sing A Long Family ''The'' is a grammatical Article (grammar), article in English language, English, denoting nouns that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the ...

'' (1960's) *''

'' (1964–1967) **''

Commander McBragg Commander McBragg is a cartoon character who appeared in short segments (usually 90 seconds) produced by Total Television Productions and animated by Gamma Productions. These segments first appeared in 1963 on the animated series ''Tennessee Tuxedo ...

'' (1964–1966) **''

Go Go Gophers ''Go Go Gophers'' is an animated series set in the Old West that appears as a 4-5 minute long segment within 48 episodes of the ''Underdog'' TV series. The cartoon segments were produced in 1962 but were released several years later. It was then s ...

'' (1964–1966) *'' The Beagles'' (1966–1967) *''

Klondike Kat ''Klondike Kat'' is a cartoon produced by Total Television and originally aired as part of '' The Beagles'' on CBS-TV in 1966, and later found in the U.S. syndicated ''Underdog'' and '' Tennessee Tuxedo'' cartoon series, in between episodes as ...

'' (1966–1967) *''

Gene Hattree In biology, the word gene has two meanings. The Mendelian gene is a basic unit of heredity. The molecular gene is a sequence of nucleotides in DNA that is transcribed to produce a functional RNA. There are two types of molecular genes: protei ...

'' (1964) (pilot) *''

Cauliflower Cabby Cauliflower is one of several vegetables cultivated from the species ''Brassica oleracea'' in the genus ''Brassica'', which is in the Brassicaceae (or mustard) family. Cauliflower usually grows with one main stem that carries a large, round ...

'' (1964) *''

The Colossal Show ''The'' is a grammatical article in English, denoting nouns that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The' ...

'' (1960's) (pilot) Much of Total Television's library for post-network syndication was handled by

The Program Exchange The Program Exchange, Inc. was a syndicator of television programs. It was founded as DFS Program Exchange, Inc. in 1979, which became elongated to the DFS-Dorland Program Exchange, Inc. from 1986 to 1987. From 1986 to 2008, it was a division of ...

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

DreamWorks Classics DreamWorks Classics is an American entertainment company owned by DreamWorks Animation, a subsidiary of Universal Pictures, a division of NBCUniversal, which in turn is a subsidiary of Comcast. Founded as Classic Media in 2000 by Eric Ellenboge ...

DreamWorks Animation DreamWorks Animation LLC (DWA, also known as DreamWorks Animation Studios or simply DreamWorks) is an American animation studio, owned by Comcast's NBCUniversal as part of Universal Pictures, a division of Universal Studios, Inc, Universal Stud ...

(via

Universal Pictures Universal City Studios LLC, doing business as Universal Pictures (also known as Universal Studios or simply Universal), is an American filmmaking, film production and film distribution, distribution company headquartered at the 10 Universal Ci ...

and

NBCUniversal NBCUniversal Media, LLC (abbreviated as NBCU and Trade name, doing business as NBCUniversal or Comcast NBCUniversal since 2013) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational mass media and Show business, entertainment conglomerate (comp ...

Notes

External links

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

Production and Shows

See also

Notes

External links

Further reading