Tooter Turtle
{{Short description|American animated television series}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}}
{{Infobox television
| image =
| image_size =
| alt =
| caption =
| runtime = 5 minutes
| creator =
| director =
| company =
| producer =
| executive_producer = Peter M. Piech
| voices = Allen Swift
Sandy Becker
| theme_music_composer =
| composer =
| country = United States
| language = English
| network = NBC
| first_aired = {{Start date|1960|10|15}}
| last_aired = {{end date|1961|07|22}}
| num_seasons = 1
| num_episodes = 39
}}
Tooter Turtle is an American 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, October 15, 1960, and ran for 39 original episodes through July 22, 1961.{{cite book |last1=Woolery |first1=George W. |title=Children's Television: The First Thirty-Five Years, 1946-1981 |date=1983 |publisher=Scarecrow Press |isbn=0-8108-1557-5 |url=https://archive.org/details/childrenstelevis0000wool |url-access=registration |accessdate=14 March 2020 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/childrenstelevis0000wool/page/165 165]-166}} These episodes were later rerun as backups on other cartoon shows,{{cite book|last=Brown|first=Arthur|title=Everything I Need to Know, I Learned from Cartoons!|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=X-oi8LiETHIC&pg=PA69|accessdate=3 December 2012|date=2010-12-01|publisher=Arthur Brown|isbn=9781435732483|pages=69–}} but no more original episodes were made.
The main premise is that Mr. Wizard will use his magic to send Tooter Turtle into time traveling adventures.
Plot
The plots followed the same general format.{{cite book|last=Vernezze|first=Peter J.|title=Socrates in Sichuan: Chinese Students Search for Truth, Justice, and the (Chinese) Way|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2WXa_y3cjTcC&pg=PT97|accessdate=3 December 2012|date=2011-04-30|publisher=Potomac Books, Inc.|isbn=9781597977487|pages=97–}}{{cite book|last=Woolery|first=George W.|title=Children's Television: The First Thirty-Five Years, 1946-1981: Part I: Animated Cartoon Series|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZjIbAQAAIAAJ|accessdate=3 December 2012|year=1991|publisher=Scarecrow Press|isbn=9780810815575}} Tooter (voiced by Allen Swift) calls on his friend Mr. Wizard the Lizard (voiced by Sandy Becker), an anthropomorphic lizard wearing a wizard cone hat, a robe, and pince-nez eyeglasses. Mr. Wizard lived in a tiny cardboard box at the base of a tall tree. The introductory segment had Tooter knocking on the cardboard box, having "another favor to ask." From inside the box, Mr. Wizard would shrink Tooter small enough to enter through the box's front door and invite him in. Mr. Wizard has the magic to change Tooter's life to some other destiny, usually sending him time traveling into the past or teleporting him to various locales.
As Tooter is fulfilling his destiny, Mr. Wizard narrates the story. When Tooter's trip finally became a catastrophe, Tooter would request help with a cry of "Help me, Mr. Wizard, I don't want to be X any more!" where X was whatever destiny Tooter had entered. Mr. Wizard would then rescue Tooter with the incantation, "Drizzle, Drazzle, Druzzle, Drome, time for this one to come home."{{cite book |last1=Hyatt |first1=Wesley |title=The Encyclopedia of Daytime Television |date=1997 |publisher=Watson-Guptill Publications |isbn=978-0823083152 |url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofda00hyat|url-access=registration |accessdate=19 March 2020|page=[https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofda00hyat/page/250 250]}} Then, Mr. Wizard would always give Tooter the same advice: "Be just what you is, not what you is not. Folks what do this has the happiest lot.""Mr. Wizard, get Me Out of Here," by S.D. Smith, The Rabbit Room (30 July 2009). Retrieved 13 May 2014.
Critical reception and impact
Mr. Wizard's phrase "Drizzle, Drazzle, Druzzle, Drome; Time for this one to come home" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6coPVnJSsPg, Uploaded on Oct 25, 2008, from Season One 1960 Episode "The Unteachables", troydog's original 16mm color film stock. is echoed in the phrase "Razzle, dazzle, drazzle, drone, Time for This One to Come Home" that was used later by the band The Replacements as a lyric in Hold My Life from the album Tim.{{cite book|last1=Burke|first1=Timothy|last2=Burke|first2=Kevin|title=Saturday Morning Fever: Growing up with Cartoon Culture|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NA7TxrK6FkcC&pg=PA94|accessdate=3 December 2012|date=1998-12-15|publisher=Macmillan|isbn=9780312169961|pages=94–}}
Created and aired during the Vietnam War, although before the Gulf of Tonkin Incident, the episode featuring Tooter traveling back to World War I as a fighter pilot ("Tailspin Tooter") includes what one historian has called some of "the most gruesome pro-war imagery" in cartoons of the period.{{cite book|last=Lehman|first=Christopher P.|title=American Animated Cartoons of the Vietnam Era: A Study of Social Commentary in Films And Television Programs, 1961–1973|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WlEjmDkdc08C&pg=PA14|accessdate=3 December 2012|year=2006|publisher=McFarland|isbn=9780786428182|pages=14–}}
The 1984 novel Bright Lights, Big City includes childhood recollections of the cartoon series by a narrator while in a similar predicament.{{cite book |title=Bright Lights, Big City |last=McInerney |first=Jay |author-link=Jay McInerney |publisher=Vintage Contemporaries |place=New York |year=1984 |page=33 }}
In the 1999 film The Matrix, Neo (Keanu Reeves) calls his operator Tank for an exit from the Matrix, saying, "Mr. Wizard, get me the hell out of here!".{{cite web |url=https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/e7bd2ba5-1349-4363-babc-189722b03cfd |title=Mr. Wizard, get me out of here! |website=Yarn |access-date=September 19, 2022 }}
List of episodes
(ran as part of King Leonardo & His Short Subjects from October 15, 1960 to July 22, 1961)
{{columns-list|colwidth=20em|
- Two Gun Turtle
- Tailspin Tooter (Plane Failure)
- Sea Haunt
- Highway Petrolman (Road Block-Head)
- Knight of the Square Table (The Joust and the Unjoust)
- Mish-Mash-Mush (Panting for Gold)
- The Unteachables (The Lawless Years)
- Kink of Swat (Babe Rube)
- One Trillion B.C. (Dinosaur Dope)
- Olimping Champion (Weak-Greek)
- Stuper Man (Muscle-Bounder)
- Buffaloed Bill (Custard's Last Stand)
- Moon Goon (Space Head)
- Robin Hoodwink (Thimple Thief)
- Steamboat Stupe (Captains Outrageous)
- Souse Painter (Brush-Boob)
- Railroad Engineer (Stupefied Jones)
- Quarterback Hack (Pigskinned)
- Drafthead (Overwhere?)
- Lumber-Quack (Topped)
- Jerky Jockey (Kenducky Derby)
- Fired Fireman (Hook And Batter)
- Sky Diver (Jump, Jerk, Jump!)
- Tuesday Turtle (Private Pie)
- Snafu Safari (Trackdown Tooter)
- Anti-Arctic (North Pole Nuisance)
- The Master Builder (Rivet Riot)
- Taxi Turtle (My Flag Is Down)
- Canned Camera (Peek-a-Boob)
- Muddled Mountie (One, Two, Buckle My Snowshoe)
- Duck Haunter (Decoy Drip)
- Bull Fright (Olay Down)
- News Nuisance (Sub Scribe)
- The Sheep of Araby (Beau Geste Goes West)
- Waggin' Train (California Bust)
- Anchors Awry (Nautical Nut)
- Vaudevillain (Song and Dunce Man)
- Rod and Reeling (Field and Scream)
- The Man in The Blue Denim Suit (Hay! Hay!)
}}
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- {{IMDb title|11427196|Tooter Turtle}}
- [https://archive.org/details/tooter-turtle-mr.-wizard-the-complete-series Tooter Turtle] at the Internet Archive
Category:1960s American animated comedy television series
Category:1960s American children's comedy television series
Category:1960 American animated television series debuts
Category:1961 American television series endings
Category:1960s American time travel television series
Category:American children's animated comedy television series
Category:Animated television series about turtles
Category:Children's television series about talking animals
Category:NBC animated television series
Category:Lizards in popular culture