Type | Private |
---|---|
Industry | Animation |
Founded | 1959 |
Founder | Treadwell D. Covington W. Watts Biggers Chester "Chet" Stover Joe Harris |
Defunct | 1969 |
Successor | Library: DreamWorks Classics |
Headquarters | New York, New York, USA |
Products | Television shows Television commercials |
Owner | Dancer Fitzgerald Sample |
Total Television was an American animation studio founded in 1959 by Buck Biggers, Chester "Chet" Stover,[1] Joe Harris,[2][3] and Treadwell D. Covington.[3] 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. The company mostly created cartoons for television networks such as NBC. Underdog, King Leonardo and His Short Subjects, and Tennessee Tuxedo and His Tales were among the most popular series made by the studio.
The studio produced animated series from 1959 to 1969 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.[citation needed]
Gamma Productions is the animation studio who is notable for their work on Underdog (1964), Tennessee Tuxedo and His Tales (1963), Commander McBragg (1963) and Go Go Gophers (1964).
Much of Total Television's library for post-network syndication was handled by The Program Exchange, until the company shut down in 2016. The rights are currently owned by DreamWorks Classics/DreamWorks Animation (via Universal Pictures and NBCUniversal).