Magilla Gorilla

Magilla Gorilla
The Magilla Gorilla Show character
First appearance	"The Big Game"
Created by	William Hanna Joseph Barbera
Voiced by	Allan Melvin
Information
Species	Gorilla
Gender	Male

Magilla Gorilla is a fictional gorilla and the star of The Magilla Gorilla Show by Hanna-Barbera that aired from 1964 to 1967.

Character description

Magilla Gorilla (voiced by Allan Melvin) is a gorilla who spends his time languishing in the front display window of Melvin Peebles' pet shop, eating bananas and being a drain on the businessman's finances. Peebles (voiced by Howard Morris and later by Don Messick) marked down Magilla's price considerably, but Magilla was invariably only purchased for a short time, typically by some thieves who needed a gorilla 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 Peebles to refund their money. Magilla often ended each episode with his catchphrase "We'll try again next week."

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.

The only customer truly interested in obtaining the trouble-prone Magilla was a little girl named Ogee (voiced by Jean Vander Pyl and pronounced "Oh Gee!"). During the cartoon's theme song, "We've Got a Gorilla for Sale", she asks hopefully, "How much is that gorilla in the window?" a twist on the old standard, "(How Much Is) That Doggie in the Window?"), but she was never able to convince her parents to let her keep Magilla.

The trials of Magilla mirrored the attitudes that American citizens had towards racial integration during the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. The Magilla Gorilla Show perpetuated the idea that non-whites should be segregated, with Peebles selling Magilla to white customers who would invariably return him to the pet shop by the end of each episode.

In Yiddish, a "megillah" is a long tedious or embroidered account, from the Hebrew "megillah", a story written in a scroll. One episode has Magilla saying, "Such a megillah over a gorilla."

Episodes

#	Title	Summary
1	Big Game	Peebles sells Magilla to J. Whimple Dimple, who is intent on hunting the gorilla for his taxidermy collection.
2	Gridiron Gorilla	Peebles gives Magilla away to a football coach, who recruits him as a fullback in the Pennsyltucky Lions team against the Wabash Cannonballs.
3	Private Magilla	Magilla has been assigned with the military as a private. He bests the army and is about to be sent on a mission to the moon. Credited Animator: Kenneth Muse
4	Bank Pranks	Peebles sells Magilla to a couple of thieves, who are hoping to make use of him, but Magilla foils their robbery attempt. Credited Animator: Irv Spence
5	Groovey Movie	The director of Grotesque Pictures buys Magilla for his newest motion picture, but the showbiz proves to be painful for Magilla.
6	Airlift	Magilla drinks Professor Skiball's anti-gravity formula, making him float up in the air, and some advertisers take advantage of this. Credited Animators: Dick Lundy, William Keil
7	Come Blow Your Dough	A little girl called Ogee buys Magilla. Upon bringing him home, Ogee's parents reject Magilla and call the police.
8	Mad Scientist	Peebles sells Magilla to a scientist, who takes the gorilla to his laboratory to perform some sinister experiments on his brain. Credited Animators: George Goepper, Kenneth Muse
9	Masquerade Party	Magilla is invited to a dressing up party, where a couple of thieves are attempting to steal Mrs. Richley's diamond necklace.
10	Come Back Little Magilla	Upset that she can't have Magilla, Ogee runs away and Magilla goes after her, thinking of her safety.
11	Fairy Godmother	Magilla's fairy godmother grants Magilla three wishes. The first to go to the jungle, the second to go back and the third to get a lot of bananas. Credited Animators: Dick Lundy, William Keil
12	Planet Zero	Inhabitants from Planet Zero, take Magilla to their home planet, where he makes them too afraid to invade earth.
13	Prince Charming	Ogee visits Magilla, who entertains her with various fairy tales involving the masked stranger and Prince Charming. Credited Animators: George Goepper, George Nicholas
14	Motorcycle Magilla	Magilla drives off with Peebles in his motorcycle all over the town, until they plunge off a waterfall and get rescued by a helicopter. Credited Animators: Ed Parks, George Goepper
15	Is That Zoo?	Peebles sends Magilla to the City zoo where he has to follow the rules, but he takes them a bit too seriously. Credited Animators: Irv Spence, George Nicholas, Ed Parks
16	Bird Brained	Peebles brings to Magilla a lovebird, which attempts to escape. Magilla chases the bird to take him back before Peebles gets back with a mate for him.
17	Circus Ruckus	Magilla runs away to join a circus after Peebles scolded him. Soon Magilla misses Peebles and goes back to the pet shop.
18	Camp Scamps	Magilla mistakenly thinks Peebles is going to get rid of him, so he joins the junior rangers of Camp Kitchy Gooney. Credited Animators: Jerry Hathcock, Kenneth Muse
19	The Purple Mask	Ogee gets upset as she can't prove the existence of the Purple Mask to Hector. Magilla takes the place of the superhero to help Ogee. Credited Animator: Kenneth Muse
20	Love at First Fight	Magilla is taken to the City zoo to keep a lonely gorilla called Matilda company, but she becomes madly in love with him.
21	Pet Bet	Ogee visits Peebles' pet shop to take Magilla to her school pet contest. A dog called Horatio is all who stands between Magilla and the trophy prize.
22	Makin' With the Magilla	Magilla goes on a long surfing stunt at the beach and as a result becomes the Surfer King.
23	High Fly Guy	While out shopping, Magilla rides an airplane ride, but accidentally sends it into the sky and he has hard time making a touchdown.
24	Deep Sea Doodle	Peebles sends Magilla to take his goldfish Phoebe to the Oceanland doctor. During the check up, Magilla gets tangled in the aquarium. Credited Animators: Hugh Fraser, Ed Parks, Don Patterson, Carlo Vinci
25	That Was the Geek That Was	Magilla delivers to Peebles a rare pet bird, but it vanishes. Magilla tries hard to catch the slippery bird.
26	Montana Magilla	In order to help a bankrupt Peebles, Magilla enters a cowboy contest under the name Montana Magilla to win the money he needs.
27	Magilla Mix-Up	During an errand for Peebles, Magilla is mistaken for a secret agent in a secret hideout and is tailed by a villain on a secret delivery service.
28	Wheelin' and Dealin'	Magilla accidentally drives off with a man's sports car, causing a commotion and getting himself in trouble with the police. Last Appearence of Ogee, Don Messick provides the voice of Mr. Peebles after Howard Morris Left the Role. Credited Animator: Don Patterson
29	Mad Avenue Madness	Peebles rents Magilla to some Advertisers from Madison Avenue to accomplish their advertising campaign of a Huffmobile.
30	Beau Jest	Feeling unwanted, Magilla leaves Peebles and becomes involved with the French Legion, sent on a mission to capture the bandit Abu Ben Hakim.
31	Super Blooper Heroes	Inspired by Super Magnificent on TV, Magilla and Peebles become crime fighting heroes. Unfortunately they pick the wrong guys to fight.

Inception

As pointed out on the Rhino Records' CD liner notes for their collection of Hanna-Barbera theme tunes, part of Magilla's purpose was to sell likenesses of himself. The show was sponsored by Ideal Toys, which produced a Magilla stuffed toy.

Other appearances and media

• Magilla Gorilla appeared on both Yogi's Ark Lark and Yogi's Gang where he would run the treadmill that powers the Ark as long as there were plenty of bananas.
• In Yogi Bear's All Star Comedy Christmas Caper, Magilla Gorilla (alongside Wally Gator and Yakky Doodle) was unable to help Yogi and his friends locate J. Wellington Jones.
• In the "Fender Bender 500" segment of Wake, Rattle, and Roll, Magilla Gorilla was partnered with Wally Gator as they rode a monster truck called the Swamp Stomper.
• Magilla made a cameo appearance as a HB reporter in The Good, the Bad, and Huckleberry Hound in 1988.
• Magilla appeared in Yogi's Treasure Hunt.
• Magilla appeared as a teenage gorilla on Yo Yogi! (as superstar Magilla Ice, a reference to Vanilla Ice).
• Magilla Gorilla appeared as Sinbad on Scooby-Doo! in Arabian Nights (1994).
• In the X-Men comics, Hank McCoy (Beast), was nicknamed "Magilla Gorilla" in High School.
• Howard Stern Show co-host Robin Quivers was nicknamed Magilla Gorilla by comedian Bob Levy.
• Comedian Rondell Sheridan has repeatedly joked about his resemblance to Magilla Gorilla, dating back to being teased for it as a child.
• In the second season finale of Lost, Sawyer refers to Hurley and Kate as "Magilla Gorilla and Pippi Longstocking".
• In the Australian National Basketball League, the Hobart Devils import Jim Havrilla in 1993, was nicknamed 'Magilla the Gorilla', due to his force in smashing backboards with his slam dunks.
• Magilla Gorilla made a cameo in a 2012 MetLife commercial entitled, "Everyone".
• In one episode of Harvey Birdman: Attorney At Law Magilla is kidnapped by radical animal rights activists but is quickly abandoned by them after they grow sick of his many puns. During the course of the episode Mr. Peebles confesses to having grown attached to Magilla
• Magilla and Mr. Peebles make cameos in the film Scooby-Doo! Mask of the Blue Falcon as images in the Hanna-Barbera convention.

Magilla Gorilla in other languages

• Brazilian Portuguese: Maguila, o Gorila
• Spanish: Maguila Gorila
• Japanese: ゴリラのゴンちゃん (Gorira no Gon-chan)
• Finnish: The same as in English
• Hungarian: Maguilla Gorilla
• Italian: The same as in English
• Polish: Goryl Magilla (pronouncing with double "l")
• Persian: گوريل انگوري (Gooril angoori) - Gooril angoori is Grape Ape.