Calvin and the Colonel: Clever TV cartoons

Calvin and the Colonel is an animated cartoon television series in 1961 about Colonel Montgomery J. Klaxon, a shrewd fox and Calvin T. Burnside, a dumb bear. Their lawyer was Oliver Wendell Clutch, who was a weasel (literally). The colonel lived with his wife Maggie Belle and her sister Sue, who did not trust the colonel at all. Colonel Klaxon was in the real estate business, but always tried get-rich-quick schemes with Calvin's unwitting help.

The series was an animated remake of Amos 'n' Andy [or, more or less, "Andy and The Kingfish"] and featured the voices of Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll from the radio series (in fact, several of the original radio scripts by Joe Connelly & Bob Mosher were adapted for this series). Using animals avoided the touchy racial issues which had led to the downfall of Amos 'n' Andy.

Because of low ratings, the show was cancelled after two months, but returned two months later to complete the first season contract (and to fulfill Lever Brothers' agreement to sponsor the program; they originally sustained The Amos 'n' Andy Show on radio during the 1940s). For a year afterward reruns were seen on Saturday mornings, and eventually syndicated through the 1960s. It was also adapted as a comic book by Dell Comics, and as such the first of two issues was the final installment in the company's extremely prolific (more than 1,300 issues published) Four Color anthology series.

A brief sequence from the show was seen on a television set in a 1966 episode of The Munsters ("A Visit From Johann"), which was also produced by Connelly and Mosher.

Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calvin_and_the_Colonel

Comments by the Blog Author

Wikipedia’s entry on Amos ‘n’ Andy notes:

In 1961, Gosden and Correll attempted one last televised effort, albeit in a "disguised" version. They were the voices in a prime time animated cartoon, Calvin and the Colonel, featuring anthropomorphic animals whose voices and situations were almost exactly those of Andy and the Kingfish (and adapting several of the original "Amos 'n' Andy" radio scripts). This effort at reviving the series in a way that was intended to be less racially offensive ended after one season on ABC, although it remained quite popular in syndicated reruns in Australia for several years after the fight.

At the ripe old age of ten years old, I watched this show on television regularly.  Because the characters were cartoon animals, it did not occur to me to categorize them as white Southerners or black Southerners.  The show was clearly, obviously, about universal characteristics of human nature, presented in a wry and funny episodic way.

Surely this is what Gosden and Correll were trying to do: amuse the television audience with a raceless version of their immortal characters Amos ‘n’ Andy.  They had never meant to insult black Americans nor portray their complex characters as foolish and despicable, though other radio shows in that era were regularly presenting black characters in a racist light.

Calvin and the Colonel was a clever cartoon show didn’t get high enough ratings to survive.  But over 50 years later, three multi-expisode CDs are available at Amazon.com.  The show did have a fantastic, hypnotic introduction in the form of a catchy, peppy, joyful Dixieland introductory theme song (written by Disney music director George Bruns).  It was perhaps the very last nationwide, coast-to-coast Dixieland hit, though it was followed by Kenny Ball’s Dixieland version of the Russian folk song Midnight in Moscow two years later.

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George Bruns’ Career

George Edward Bruns was born July 3, 1914 in Sandy, Oregon, and went to college at Oregon State University, where he was a member of Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity, graduating in 1936. In the 1930s he worked as a musician with various groups in the Portland, Oregon area. In 1946 he was appointed musical director at radio station KEX in Portland, Oregon, and also was the bandleader for the Rose Bowl room of the Multnomah Hotel. From 1947 to 1949 he performed and recorded on trombone with Portland's Castle Jazz Band, led by banjoist Monte Ballou.

In the late 1940s he moved to Los Angeles, where he did studio work, and performed and recorded with trombonist Turk Murphy's Jazz Band. In 1953 he was hired by Walt Disney as an arranger, eventually becoming Disney's musical director, a position he held until his retirement in 1976. Despite his retirement he continued to work on Disney projects.

Among his work is the song "Yo Ho (A Pirate's Life for Me)" (which he co-wrote with Xavier Atencio), used in the Disney theme park attraction Pirates of the Caribbean and the movies based on that ride. He also co-wrote "The Ballad of Davy Crockett" with Tom W. Blackburn, as well as the song "Love" for the Disney animated film Robin Hood. During the mid-1950s, he adapted the music from Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty ballet for use as background score in the 1959 Disney film version. He also composed the score for The Jungle Book, and provided Herbie the Love Bug with his sprightly theme song, featured prominently throughout the series.

During his tenure with Disney Studios, Bruns continued to play dixieland jazz, leading his Wonderland Jazz Band on two recording sessions [Bruns album Deep in the Heart of Dixieland is available as an mp3 file from Amazon.com], and playing and recording occasionally with the Disney "house" band, the Firehouse Five Plus Two.

Bruns retired from Disney in 1976 and moved back to Sandy, Oregon. He taught part-time at Lewis & Clark College and continued to play and compose music, including recording at least one locally distributed album of jazz.

Death

Bruns died of a myocardial infarction (heart attack) on May 23, 1983 in Portland, Oregon. Bruns was named a Disney Legend in 2001.

Link:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Bruns