Deputy Dawg

Admittedly as a nipper, I knew very little of the Terrytoons shorts, only when they used to air during lunchtimes or after-school (before there was even a YouTube of which to find the originals online). The earliest sources I had then were from a handful of VHS cassettes - which included Filmation's Heckle and Jeckle (and the awful Quackula), Ralph Bakshi's Mighty Mouse: the New Adventures, and then this guy;

Out of the three mentioned, Deputy Dawg has remained a personal favourite. Even as a made-for-TV star, everything about this series worked: The voices by Dayton Allen, the ol' Southern scores by Phil Scheib, and the hilarious writing by Larz Bourne (who had previously written for Famous Studios, and would later contribute story ideas for DePatie-Freleng and Hanna-Barbera). Even the animation, while still limited, had that extra "pep" that Hanna-Barbera seemed to have lost around the time D.D came along in the mid '60s.

It's still a great surprise that, while so many often recall this show, no one has thought of putting it to DVD yet. There's obviously big demand going by the vast amount of episodes that keep popping up online. Sure, busybodies are going to worry of the stereotypic Southerners causing offence - heck to that, it's small potatoes these days than what Fox's Family Guy cut-outs have been doing on a regular basis.

In fact, if it hadn't been for ol' Deputy Dawg, Ralph Bakshi may never have gotten his big break by starting out here as an inbetweener - nor would the Astronut (an unusual regular in the series) have earned a spin-off series of his own overtime.

So, t'would be nice to see the episodes below restored and uncut for ev'rybody to see again. If anyone still feels that this would "offend" people, do us a favour: don't watch and don't complain. Simple as.

LINKS OF INTEREST:
Check out some Terrytoons memrobillia at Jerry Beck's Cartoon Research!
And see another Terrytoons series set in the South - Possible Possom!