Total Television

Total Television was founded in 1959 by Buck Biggers, Chester "Chet" Stover, Joe Harris, and Treadwell D. Covington. They were executives in the advertising agency Dancer Fitzgerald Sample who had the account for the General Mills food corporation. Total was formed to create cartoon characters encouraging children to buy General Mills breakfast cereals and other products.

Product

The studio produced animated series from 1959-1984 at Gamma Productions, a primitive start-up company, which was contracted to produce the animation for Jay Ward Productions' output. Ward was never satisfied with the work performed at Gamma, being crude and substandard, sloppily done and very limited.

Total Television is the animation studio responsible for

• General Mills commercials (1959-1984)
• The King and Odie (1960-1963)
• The Hunter (1960-1963)
• Commander McBragg (1963-1966)
• Go Go Gophers (1966-1969)
• King Leonardo and His Short Subjects (1960-1963)
• Klondike Kat (1963-1966)
• Tennessee Tuxedo and His Tales (1963-1966)
• The Beagles (1966-1969)
• The Sing A Long Family (1964-1967)
• Tooter Turtle (1960-1963)
• Twinkles The Elephant (1960-1963)
• Underdog (1964-1967)
• Gene Hattree (1964)
• Cauliflower Cabby (1964)

Much of Total Television's library for post-network syndication is handled by The Program Exchange, while underlying rights are owned by DreamWorks Animation.

External links

• "Whatever Happened to Total TeleVision productions?," Hogan's Alley #15, 2009

Further reading

Mark Arnold (historian) * Arnold, Mark (2009). Created and Produced by Total TeleVision productions: The Story of Underdog, Tennessee Tuxedo and the Rest. BearManor Media. ISBN 9781593933456.