Tom Terrific

Tom Terrific is a 1957–1959 animated series on American television, presented as part of the Captain Kangaroo children's television show.<ref name=Woolery>Template:Cite book</ref>

Production

Created by Gene Deitch under the Terrytoons studio (which by that time was a subsidiary of CBS, the network that broadcast Captain Kangaroo), Tom Terrific was made as twenty-six stories, each split into five episodes, with one five-minute episode broadcast per day. The first thirteen stories were filmed in 1957, with the second set in 1958. Captain Kangaroo continued to rerun the episodes for many years. Starting in 1962, Captain Kangaroo broadcast Tom Terrific every other week, alternating with Terrytoons' Lariat Sam.<ref name=Terrytoons>Template:Cite book</ref> It was drawn in a simple black-and-white style reminiscent of children's drawings. Some of the dialogue was written by cartoonist Jules Feiffer.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Gene Deitch adapted the feature from his earlier newspaper comic strip, "Terr'ble Thompson!" distributed during the 1950s by the United Features Syndicate.<ref>Terrible Thompson strip</ref> Terr'ble Thompson was a six-year-old boy who imagined himself to be the "Hero of Hist'ry" and freely time traveled to assist historical figures. An illustrated book reprinting the adventures of this precursor to Tom Terrific was published by Fantagraphics Books.

All the voices were performed by Lionel Wilson (who later voiced Eustace Bagge from the Cartoon Network series Courage the Cowardly Dog).

Plot

The show features a gee-whiz boy hero, Tom Terrific, who lives in a treehouse and can shapeshift into anything he wants, thanks to his magical funnel-shaped "thinking cap", which also enhances his intelligence. He has a comic lazybones of a sidekick, Mighty Manfred the Wonder Dog, and an archenemy named Crabby Appleton, whose motto is, "I'm rotten to the core!"<ref name=Perlmutter>Template:Cite book</ref> Other foes include Mr. Instant the Instant Thing King, Captain Kidney Bean, Sweet Tooth Sam the Candy Bandit, and Isotope Feeney the Meany.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Episodes

Each episode was shown in five installments, one per day, Monday through Friday.

Episode	Title	Air Date<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}Template:Dead linkTemplate:Cbignore</ref>
1	The Nasty Knight	Template:Start date
2	The Pill of Smartness	Template:Start date
3	Sweet Tooth Sam	Template:Start date
4	Snowy Picture	Template:Start date
5	Crabby Appleton's Dragon	Template:Start date
6	Captain Kidney Bean	Template:Start date
7	The Gravity Maker	Template:Start date
8	Scrambled Dinosaur Eggs	Template:Start date
9	Who Stole the North Pole	Template:Start date
10	Instant Tantrums	Template:Start date
11	Track Meet, Well Done	Template:Start date
12	The Great Calendar Mystery	Template:Start date
13	Elephant Stew	Template:Start date
14	The Missing Mail Mystery	Template:Start date
15	The Prince Frog	Template:Start date
16	Isotope Feeney's Foolish Fog	Template:Start date
17	Moon Over Manfred	Template:Start date
18	Go West, Young Manfred	Template:Start date
19	The Silly Sandman	Template:Start date
20	Crabby Park	Template:Start date
21	The Million Manfred Mystery	Template:Start date
22	The Flying Sorcerer	Template:Start date
23	The Big Dog Show-Off	Template:Start date
24	The End of Rainbows	Template:Start date
25	Robinsnest Crusoe	Template:Start date
26	The Everlasting Birthday Party	Template:Start date

Reception

The character Tom Terrific was ranked #32 by TV Guide magazine on its 2002 list of "50 Greatest TV Cartoon Characters".<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Home video

Template:As of, there has not been an authorized VHS, DVD or Blu-ray release of the series.

In popular culture

• The character also appeared in a comic book published by Pines Comics for six issues from Summer 1957 to Fall 1958, with some stories drawn by Ralph Bakshi.
• Tom Terrific appeared in a few Wonder Books, an imitation of Little Golden Books.
• Crabby Appleton was the name of a rock group, which used the character's image on a 1971 album, Rotten to the Core.
• In the introduction to his book, The Great Big Book of Tomorrow, Tom Tomorrow (Dan Perkins) says that he chose his pseudonym through misremembering the name of Tom Terrific.
• Tom Terrific appeared in the 1999 pilot Curbside, voiced by Haley Joel Osment.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}Template:Dead linkTemplate:Cbignore</ref>

• American football player Tom Brady attempted to trademark the phrase for himself, but was turned down in August 2019, to prevent confusion with baseball player Tom Seaver.<ref>New York Post: "Tom Brady denied Tom Terrific trademark" Aug. 23, 2019</ref>

Further reading

• Kevin Scott Collier. The Amazing Transformations of Tom Terrific. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2017. Template:ISBN

External links

• [https://www.imdb.com/{{#if: 0283224

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• Theme song