January 15, 1964 (1964-01-15) – December 30, 1967 (1967-12-30)
The Magilla Gorilla Show is an American animated television series starring Magilla Gorilla. The series was produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions for Screen Gems, and was originally sponsored in syndication by Ideal Toys from 1964 through 1967.[1] The show had other recurring characters, including Ricochet Rabbit & Droop-a-Long and Punkin' Puss & Mushmouse. In syndication, the main and supporting characters from the Peter Potamus show were also added. Prior to the show's launch, the show made an interview on their "upcoming" series in between the middle-and-late December 1963 on first-run syndication entitled Here Comes A Star.[2] Like many of Hanna-Barbera's animal characters, Magilla Gorilla was dressed in human accessories, sporting a bow tie, shorts held up by suspenders, and an undersized derby hat.[3] After a year on airing its original runs, repeats of all 31 episodes were aired between 1966 and 1967 during ABC-TV's Saturday morning schedule and on Sunday mornings the following season.[4]
The show aired on Boomerang until July 22, 2012. After an eight-year wait, The Magilla Gorilla Show returned on Boomerang for four days during November 26 until November 30, 2020 including the opening and closing themes and titles. During the four-day broadcast, neither Punkin' Puss & Mushmouse nor Ricochet Rabbit & Droop-a-long were aired.
Magilla Gorilla (voiced by Allan Melvin[3]) is an anthropomorphicgorilla who spent his time languishing in the front display window of a pet shop run by Melvin Peebles (voiced by Howard Morris in 1964–1965, and Don Messick in 1966-1967), eating bananas and being a drain on the businessman's finances. Mr. Peebles marked down Magilla's price considerably, but Magilla was invariably only purchased for a short time...for example, by thieves who needed to break into a bank or by an advertising agency looking for a mascot for their new product. The customers always ended up returning Magilla, forcing Mr. Peebles to refund their money. Magilla often ended each episode with his catchphrase "We'll try again next week." Magilla's only friend was an adorable, admiring little red headed girl named Ogee (voiced by Jean Vander Pyl), who asked, "How much is that Gorilla in the window?" during the show's opening theme song.[5]
Ricochet Rabbit (voiced by Don Messick) works as the sheriff of Hoop N' Holler with his slow as molasses deputy Droop-a-Long Coyote (voiced by Mel Blanc). In addition to his super-speed, Ricochet Rabbit uses an arsenal of trick bullets (for example, one with a skull bashing mallet that pops out of the shell) to help him take down criminals. He would introduce himself as "Sheriff Bing! Bing! Binnnng! Ricochet Rabbit!"
The show made its first premiere on January 15, 1964, on first-run syndication. When The Magilla Gorilla Show first aired on television, the show was not broadcast on the same day of the week or the same time, in every city's affiliation. For its original run until 1965 in syndication, some of the major markets in cities such as New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Indianapolis, and Dallas aired The Magilla Gorilla Show on independent stations, such as WPIX, KCOP, KTVU, WGN, WTTV, and KTVT. Overlands and overseas, the show aired on CBC Television in Canada at the time since its debut; and in Australia, The Magilla Gorilla Show didn't air in Australia until April 6, 1965, when Network TEN ran the entire series. During 1965, new episodes and reruns of the earlier episodes then began airing on ABC's Saturday Morning schedule until its last run on December 30, 1967. In Canada and Australia, the show continued its reruns until 1969. After the reruns were mostly canceled in America, Only a few stations continued their portion to rerun The Magilla Gorilla Show. Chicago's WFLD once carried The Magilla Gorilla Show during the early-1980s in their morning schedule, and one of the longest-running stations to air The Magilla Gorilla Show, New York City's WPIX, continued to rerun The Magilla Gorilla Show for more than a decade until 1984. At the time, no local station in America has aired them since then. Apparently in the United Kingdom, Yorkshire Television reran the series in the early 1980's; and in Australia, Nine Network reran the show during the mid-1980s. Both channels reran The Magilla Gorilla Show for a short period of time. Back in America, the show was then returned on cable-only USA Network later on during the decade, and Cartoon Network began running the series when it launched years later on October 1, 1992. Cartoon Network's run lasted until 2004 due to its sister station Boomerang at the time airing the show since Boomerang's early years. Boomerang continued to air The Magilla Gorilla Show until July 22, 2012. The show made a return on November 26, 2020 for four days until November 30, 2020, on a Boomerang Thanksgiving weekend containing episodes of various classic Hanna-Barbera shows. During the run, both Punkin' Puss & Mushmouse or Ricochet Rabbit & Droop-a-Long segments were not aired during the four-day period; which was replaced by another Magilla Gorilla segment to fill the schedule instead, with both opening theme and closing theme/credits intact throughout every segment. Out of the 31 Magilla Gorilla segments in total, only 20 of them were aired.
The episode "Come Blow Your Dough" was released as part of the "A Sample of Boomerang" tape, from Cartoon Network's sister channel, Boomerang.
Warner Home Video released the Classic Collection of the Magilla Gorilla Show consisting of 31 episodes of Magilla Gorilla, together with the 23 Ricochet Rabbit & Droop-a-Long and 23 Punkin' Puss & Mushmouse shorts in a boxed DVD collection on August 15, 2006.[6] The DVD set does not include the original Magilla Gorilla Show main/end title sequences and the cartoons are not restored, drawing heavy criticism from fans.
A "Diamond Collection"[7] of the complete series was released on June 6, 2017. All 23 Ricochet Rabbit and all 23 Punkin' Puss shorts are included as they were on the previous release. The opening and closing titles are still not included.
^Erickson, Hal (2005). Television Cartoon Shows: An Illustrated Encyclopedia, 1949 Through 2003 (2nd ed.). McFarland & Co. pp. 522–523. ISBN978-1476665993.
^Perlmutter, David (2018). The Encyclopedia of American Animated Television Shows. Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 376–377. ISBN978-1538103739.
