The Adventures of Paddy the Pelican

The Adventures of Paddy the Pelican

The opening title card to "The Adventures of Paddy the Pelican" (1954)
Created by Sam Singer
Directed by Sam Singer
Voices of Helen York - Paddy The Pelican
Mary Frances Desmond - Pam [1]
Country of origin United States
Original language(s) English
No. of episodes 6 (Shorts)
Production
Running time 5 minutes
Production company(s) Tempe-Toons (referred to as "Medallion Productions" during the end titles)
Release
Original network WENR-TV (ABC)
Original release September 11 – October 13, 1950

The Adventures of Paddy the Pelican is an American animated television series that debuted on local stations in Chicago during the 1950s.[2] It is exceedingly rare, but has gained some fame for appearing on Jerry Beck's Worst Cartoons Ever. On the DVD, Beck states that he has not found any evidence that this particular animated adaptation was aired on TV, although there is evidence that the Paddy the Pelican character began in 1950 as a local TV puppet show on Chicago's WENR-TV (now WLS-TV).[2][3] Paddy's adventures were presented in comic strip drawings done by Sam Singer.[4][5] This show appeared on the ABC network in the fall of 1951, but for only one month.[2] The show aired on the ABC television network weekdays between 5:15 and 5:30pm from September 11, 1950 to October 13, 1950.[6] Singer had also started producing a newspaper, Paddy Pelican Junior Journal.[7] The animated episodes currently in existence all have copyright dates of 1954.

The show is notable and infamous for its shoddy pencil-sketch artwork, reused animation, rambling and apparently improvised voiceovers, muffled and poorly synchronized soundtrack, and general low-budget problems. The only music is a few chords played on an organ, although the title card is accompanied by a man making noises apparently intended to sound like a pelican squawking. Paddy was voiced by Helen York, while Mary Frances Desmond was the voice of Paddy's assistant, Pam.[6]

Singer, who worked for Disney and other Hollywood animation studios, also produced a local children's television show, based on the Marshall Field's character "Uncle Mistletoe", as well as other early animated shows.[8]

Recently in late October 2016, all the shorts were found on MySpleen and were uploaded to YouTube.[9] They were taken from their original 16mm and were transferred online.

Episodes

# Title Length
1"Piggy Bank Robbery"5:03
Paddy is observing Kenny Crow's odd banking habits. Kenny hides his savings in a piggy bank that is stashed in a secret panel of his house. But nasty Freddie Fox discovers the hiding place and conspires to steal the money while framing Paddy for the crime. Freddie plants pelican-shaped muddy footprints across Kenny’s floor – and Kenny reacts to the theft by throwing a brick at Paddy. So Paddy needs to figure out who the real culprit is before he is sent behind bars.[10]
2"Two Wet Bears"5:15
Amos and Buster are swimming in the ocean when they discover an abandoned boat. A thunderstorm comes and wrecks the boat on the island, where the boat's owner, Beachcomber Bill, threatens to eat the two bears for wrecking his boat. A passing Paddy assists the two bears in getting off the island and out of danger.[11]
3"The Land of More"5:17

A young kid wants to have a bigger balloon, so a mischievous elf makes it so big that it flies him all the way to "The Land of More", where things don't go the way he hoped.

  • This is the only short that doesn't feature Paddy.
4"Pirate Pete"6:01

Joco and Mary help out the Indians get their gold back from Pirate Pete

  • Paddy makes a brief cameo at the end of the short.
5"Swania Foiled Again"5:26
When the 50 ears of corn suddenly disappears on the day they were to repay the country Swania, Paddy does some detective work to find the culprit so they don't lose their land.
6"Plum Valley"5:39
Paddy and a pie maker goes to Plum Valley when there's a plum shortage, only to have trouble getting out of the village afterwards, so Paddy figures out a way to get them out of this.

References

  1. ↑ http://tvacres.com/birds_pelicans_paddy.htm
  2. 1 2 3 Hollis 2001, p. 100.
  3. ↑ "Forgotten Friends". ChicagoTelevision. Retrieved 6 February 2011.
  4. ↑ "Comic Art Collection-Coloring Books-Paddy the Pelican". Michigan State University. Retrieved 6 February 2011.
  5. ↑ Okuda and Mulqueen 2004, p. 227.
  6. 1 2 "Paddy the Pelican". TV Acres. Retrieved April 24, 2015.
  7. ↑ Moppet Tab Papers By-Product of TV. Billboard. 1 July 1950. Retrieved 6 February 2011.
  8. ↑ Cohen, Karl F., ed. (2004). Forbidden Animation: Censored Cartoons and Blacklisted Animators in America. McFarland. p. 238. ISBN 0-7864-2032-4. Retrieved 6 February 2011.
  9. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJXkiW6F6VsfhPXepUlTEdU6lP-jj5b39
  10. ↑
  11. ↑

Bibliography

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