Wally Gator

Wally Gator
Genre Animated
Comedy
Directed by William Hanna
Joseph Barbera
Voices of Daws Butler
Don Messick
Country of origin United States
Original language(s) English
No. of seasons 2
No. of episodes 52
Production
Producer(s) William Hanna
Joseph Barbera
Running time 24 minutes
Production company(s) Hanna-Barbera Productions
Distributor Screen Gems (original)
Warner Bros. Television Distribution (current)
Release
Original network ABC
Original release September 3, 1962 – August 30, 1963

Wally Gator is one of the segments from The Hanna-Barbera New Cartoon Series. The other segments that compose this trilogy are Lippy the Lion & Hardy Har Har and Touché Turtle and Dum Dum. The segment consisted of 52 episodes over two seasons.

Plot

Wally Gator (voiced by Daws Butler impersonating Ed Wynn) is an anthropomorphic Cajun alligator. He is more comfortable when he is at home in the city zoo. Mr. Twiddle (voiced by Don Messick) is the zookeeper who keeps a close watch on Wally because sometimes he escapes to check out what things are like outside of the zoo.

Analysis

Animation historian Christopher P. Lehman notes that Wally Gator follows the formula that Hanna-Barbera established in previous series, particularly the Yogi Bear series. The formula of these shows placed an animal character within a human-controlled environment and had these characters deal with the social boundaries placed and enforced by the humans.[1] In Yogi's case, he lives in a park and is under the care of a park ranger. In Wally's case, he lives in a zoo and is under the supervision of a zookeeper.[1]

The theme that drives the series is Wally's desire to escape the zoo and get to the outside world. This is derivative of the Top Cat series, where the titular character keeps trying to escape life in the alley.[1] Wally successfully escapes in each episode, but by the end of the episode he returns to the zoo. In some cases someone returns him there, in others he voluntarily returns. The end result is the same.[1]

Lehman notes an underlying theme in the series which is rather depressing. The zoo and life in captivity seems to be the proper place for Wally. No matter how much he struggles to fit in the society of the outside world, Wally remains an "Other" and is doomed to fail. The status quo is preserved following every unsuccessful attempt at change.[1]

Episodes

Cast

DVD release

A DVD set release of the series was originally announced for 2006 from Warner Bros. for the H-B classics collection but was later canceled due to the poor condition of the masters. In 2006, a Warner spokesperson said of the DVDs: "They were pulled because significant remastering work needed to be researched. We are exploring adding them back to the schedule next year." There has been no news since, but fans all over the world hope they do. The first episode is available on the DVD set Saturday Morning Cartoons 1960's Vol. 2.[2]

Wally Gator in other languages

Later appearances

Hanna-Barbera

Other appearances/references

International broadcast

Production credits

See also

Sources

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Lehman (2007), p. 27
  2. ↑ "tvshowsondvd.com". tvshowsondvd.com.
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