When the city is in trouble, humble and loveable dog Shoeshine Boy turns into his alter-ego Underdog to stop a series of villains including Simon Bar Sinister and Riff Raff. TV reporter Sweet Polly Purebred often ends up getting into a situation, and must be saved by her hero, Underdog! This popular '60s cartoon canine superhero series ran on NBC from '64-'67, and continued in syndication until '73.
We were thrilled this past Thursday to
bring you the scoop that the complete series of
Underdog is coming to DVD at long last! Now we're equally thrilled to bring you additional info, which answers the questions many fans have had since our previous report. The official title of this release is shown on the package art we've posted for you below. "
Underdog - The Complete Collector's Edition" comes to you from the kings of TV-DVD nostalgia, Shout! Factory, on 9 discs with all 3 seasons of the show!
The long-awaited legendary cartoon arrives on DVD from Shout! Factory this coming
January 24th with every episode of
Underdog, plus original shorts featuring characters such as
Go Go Gophers, Klondike Kat and
Commander McBragg. This all comes enclosed in "high-end packaging" with all-new DVD extras that will entice fans to jump on this release! While Shout! hasn't finalized the supplements for the set, the preliminary info sent to retailers (may be subject to change!) shows these bonus items they hope to have will include:
Commemorative book; Bonus cartoons: Tooter the Turtle and The Hunter; Alternate episode openings and closings; Featurette; Commentaries with writer/producer/co-creator W. Watts Biggers, voice actor George S. Irving, producer Treadwell Covington, animation historian Mark Arnold and more…
Again, that list is NOT finalized, and could be subject to change. Stay tuned for the official Shout! Factory press release for all of the completed details about
Underdog - The Complete Collector's Edition 9-DVD set. Remember, as much as 70% to 80% of the material on this title has never been released on DVD before, so order yours today from Amazon.com at a nice discount from the $69.97 list price! Here's a button link to that listing, and the package art:
NOTE: Some of our readers have inquired with us about original music on this set, pointing out that some syndicated rebroadcasts in recent years have had replacement music, and hence such replacements were also seen on some of the previous home video releases. We asked the studio about this, and we were told in reply that Shout! Factory is *not* using syndicated masters of the episodes, so there is unlikely to be any replacement music on their DVD release. Our contact informs us that "
we are rebuilding the shows to their original television airing as best we can," pointing out that the cartoons were never saved that way (as a 22-minute show), but rather they were saved as the individual cartoons. So they are going to do their very best to re-create the original viewing experience!
ADDITIONAL NOTE: Fans have also been inquiring whether
Tennessee Tuxedo cartoons would be included on this
Underdog release. This is understandable, considering that many people saw
Underdog in reruns.
Tennessee Tuxedo, starring the voice of Don Adams (
Get Smart) as the title character, was originally seen as part of a pre-
Underdog stand-alone program,
Tennessee Tuxedo and His Tales. So it was actually not part of the original
Underdog broadcasts, but rather added in for the later syndicated reruns. Since Shout!'s goal is to re-create the ORIGINAL broadcast version of
Underdog, fans of
Tennessee Tuxedo shouldn't expect to see him on this January release. However, a separate "best of"
Tennessee Tuxedo DVD was
put out 5 years ago, and SF understands that fans would love to see the rest of the show on disc. Who know what the future will bring? Stay tuned!
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