Crispy Critters

{{short description|Breakfast cereal made by Post}}

Crispy Critters was a breakfast cereal manufactured by Post Cereals starting in 1963. The sweetened cereal, made of oats, consisted of animal-shaped pieces similar to animal crackers. Television commercials featured a cartoon lion, Linus the Lionhearted, voiced by Sheldon Leonard, with the slogan "The one and only cereal that comes in the shape of animals,"[http://www.lavasurfer.com/cereal-post.html Topher's Breakfast Cereal Character Guide - Post] sung to the tune of "Trepak" from Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker ballet. The next year, Linus was spun off into a Saturday-morning cartoon show, which ran for two years on the CBS network, then rerun on the ABC network for three more until 1969. After a decline in popularity, the cereal was discontinued.

Post made an unsuccessful revival attempt of the cereal in 1987.{{Cite web |url=http://x-entertainment.com/articles/0725/ |title=X-entertainment article |access-date=2013-02-09 |archive-date=2013-02-09 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130209202815/http://x-entertainment.com/articles/0725/ |url-status=live }} This time, the commercials featured a puppet mascot named "Crispy" with pom-pom antennae, a pom-pom tail and a furry yellow body, resembling a moose. Crispy used an impersonation of Jimmy Durante including the nonsense phrase "Ah-cha-cha-cha". This puppet interacted with a child actor and was accompanied by smaller puppets that resembled the individual pieces of cereal. Together, these puppets spoke the cereal's tagline: "It's indubitably delicious."