Go Go Gophers

Go Go Gophers is a western/comedy animated series that originally appeared on the Underdog series from 1966 to 1968 before being briefly spun off as a separate series on CBS in 1968 and 1969. It was apparently created as a parody of F Troop, a western/comedy series that aired from 1965-1967.

History

The series is set in the late nineteenth century in the American west. There the commandant of a local United States Army fort, one Colonel Kit Coyote (voiced by Kenny Delmar) and his Sergeant Okey Homa (voiced by Sandy Becker) who is rarely called by his name. They make attempts to secure the town of Gopher Gulch by wiping out the last two surviving Gopher Indians (depicted as upright, personified gophers): Ruffled Feathers (also voiced by Becker) and Running Board (voiced by George S. Irving). However, the Gophers prove to be very clever and always manage to foil Coyote's plans.

Usually Ruffled Feathers would be the Gopher who would devise the plan to waylay the U.S. Army. The plan was communicated to Running Board in supposed Indian language. Running Board would smile and get excited as the plan was revealed to him and utter one of two catch-phrases: "Whoopee Doopee! We have fun!!" or "Whoopee Doopee! You-um genius!!". The uttering of the catch-phrase signaled a scene transition to the Gophers building of the trap to foil Colonel Kit Coyote and his men.

Some episodes would feature General Nuisance (voiced by George S. Irving), Colonel Kit Coyote and Sergeant Oakey Homa's superior who would often assign them important missions. Usually when Colonel Kit Coyote and Sergeant Oakey Homa end up botching up the important mission thanks to the Gophers' interference, General Nuisance would often have Kit and Oakey thrown into the Guard House.

Sergeant Oakey Homa would often be the one to close out every episode as a way of "breaking the fourth wall" when talking to the viewers.

The character voices were patterned after celebrities; Kit Coyote was strongly influenced by Theodore Roosevelt, while the Sergeant had a voice much like John Wayne's. Running Board spoke a stereotypical heavily accented English while Ruffled Feathers spoke in what sounded like babbling.

External links

• Go Go Gophers – Don Markstein's Toonopedia.