Tom Terrific with Mighty Manfred the Wonder Dog
Tom Terrific was an early animated series, created by Gene Deitch under the Terrytoons studio. It made its debut as part of a series of 5-minute cartoons on the Captain Kangaroo children’s television show in 1952. From 1959 to 1962, it became a regular part of the show, and starting in 1962, it was broadcast alternatively every other week. Often, it would be paired with another Terrytoons creation, Lariat Sam.
The show's premise was simple yet creative. It featured a young boy named Tom Terrific, who, with the help of his intelligence-boosting funnel/thinking cap, could transform into anything he could imagine. This unique ability allowed Tom to embark on all sorts of adventures alongside his comic sidekick, Mighty Manfred the Wonder Dog. Remarkably, all the voice work on the show was provided by Lionel Wilson, who might be familiar to modern audiences as the original voice of Eustace Bagge on the Cartoon Network animated series Courage the Cowardly Dog.
While there are several episodes of the show available online, it's somewhat surprising that Tom Terrific has been overlooked for a DVD release. This is a missed opportunity, considering that the show was rich in creativity and played a role in influencing later children’s programming.
Watch the intro to Tom Terrific with Mighty Manfred the Wonder Dog
They also published a comic book for Tom and a series of Wonder Books. Retroist Image Pool regular, wackystuff, posted a scan from one of the covers of the book. Now I kinda want it…
