Details

Release year: 1964

Storyline

Animated series featuring Jim Backus's Mr. Magoo character in half-hour adaptations of classic stories for children. Praised by both critics and educators, and well-remembered by fans, the program won a prestigious George Foster Peabody award in 1965.

Top credits

Cast

Jim Backus — Mr. Magoo, Friar Tuck, Axlerod, Bartholomew, Cornelius, D'Artagnan, Dexter, Don Quixote de la Mancha, Eustace, Ferdinand, George, Captain Kidd, Cyrano de Bergerac, Dr. Watson, Gunga Din, Long John Silver, Long Jong Silver, Merlin, Noah, Paul Revere, Puck, Rip Van Winkle, Squinty Eyes, Victor Frankenstein, William Tell
Joan Gardner — Evil Queen Vain, Milady de Winter, Ali, Duchess, Good Wife, Japheth's Wife, Mrs. Noah, Rachel Revere, Wench #1
Marvin Miller — Magic Mirror, Demon, King Oberon, Lysander, Pruneface
Paul Frees — Little John, Sir Guy of Gisbourne, Athos, Capt. Plimpton, Frankensteins Monster, Gamblers, Sgt. Blevins, Sherlock Holmes, Valvert

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Did you know

• For the second half of its only season, NBC moved this TV series to Saturday evenings at 8:30 p.m. EST, opposite Gilligan's Island on CBS. Because of this, Jim Backus as Mr. Magoo was pitted against Jim Backus as Thurston Howell III. This remains one of the very rare cases in U.S. TV history in which an actor was regularly scheduled against himself on two U.S. TV networks.

• No matter what the plot, era or circumstances of each episode of the TV series was, the main villain of the piece was always depicted as a sharp-featured man with black hair and a black beard, as if he were a regular actor cast in the series.

• This NBC TV series was inspired by the enormous success of the earlier Christmas TV special Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol, which premiered on NBC on 18 December 1962.