The Alvin Show

The Alvin Show
Title card from The Alvin Show.
Format	Animated series
Created by	Ross Bagdasarian
Voices of	Ross Bagdasarian Shepard Menken June Foray Lee Patrick Bill Lee Johnny Mann Don Messick
Theme music composer	Ross Bagdasarian Neil Hefti Carl Stalling
Composer(s)	Ross Bagdasarian
Country of origin	United States
No. of episodes	26 Alvin and the Chipmunks episodes, 26 Clyde Crashcup episodes, and 52 musical segments
Production
Executive producer(s)	Herbert Klynn
Running time	30 minutes per episode (7½ per segment)
Production company(s)	Bagdasarian Film Corporation Format Films
Broadcast
Original channel	CBS
Picture format	Color (originally telecast in Black-and-white)
Original run	October 4, 1961 (1961-10-04) – September 12, 1962 (1962-09-12)

The Alvin Show is an American animated television series. It was the first to feature the singing characters Alvin and the Chipmunks, although a series with a similar concept The Nutty Squirrels Present had aired a year earlier. It lasted for one season in prime time (October 4, 1961 – September 12, 1962) on CBS [Wednesdays, 7:30-8pm Eastern], originally sponsored by General Foods (Jell-O, Post cereals), and initially telecast in black and white (color prints of the episodes were not seen until the series entered syndication in the fall of 1965).

The series rode the momentum of creator Ross Bagdasarian's original hit musical gimmick and developed the singing Chipmunk trio as rambunctious kids–particularly the show's namesake star–whose mischief contrasted to his tall, brainy brother Simon and his chubby, gluttonous brother Theodore, as well as their long-suffering, perpetually put-upon manager-father figure, David Seville. The animation was produced by Herbert Klynn's Format Films.

Clyde Crashcup

Aside from the seven-minute Chipmunk segments, in which Bagdasarian's David Seville was portrayed as a hapless bachelor who managed and mentored the three singing rodents, the show also had segments featuring a character called Clyde Crashcup (voiced by Shepard Menken impersonating Richard Haydn's Edwin Carp character).

Clyde was an inventor who essentially re-invented various items and took credit for dreaming it up in the first place. His "creations" often backfired on him until his silent, level-headed lab assistant, Leonardo (diminutive, balding, and perpetually whispering in Crashcup's ear) saved him from any further self-destruction.

Afterlife

CBS reran the series on Saturday mornings for a few years after the show's prime time run ended, and segments from the show were syndicated in the mid and late 1960s under the package title Alvin and the Chipmunks (this first syndicated package consisted of the individual show segments only, including the Alvin and Clyde Crashcup cartoons, and Chipmunk musical segments, not in the form of half-hour shows). The series later was revived on NBC-TV, again promoted under the title Alvin and the Chipmunks (with the introductory Alvin Show title card cut off the beginning of the show opening) Saturday mornings between March 10, 1979 and September 1, 1979.

Ross Bagdasarian had died of a heart attack in January 1972, precluding any future Chipmunk activity. Years later, his son Ross, Jr. picked up on a disc jockey's joke and produced the hit Chipmunk Punk album in 1980, which spurred new interest for a brand new animated series with an updated look to The Chipmunks and David Seville (now voiced by Ross Bagdasarian, Jr.). In fall 1983, coinciding with the launch of Ruby-Spears' newly-produced Alvin and the Chipmunks series on NBC, The Alvin Show was again syndicated, this time by Viacom Enterprises.

In 1990, The Alvin Show versions of the Chipmunks and Clyde Crashcup reappeared in an episode of The Chipmunks Go To the Movies entitled "Back to Our Future" (a spoof of the 1985 movie, Back to the Future).

Nickelodeon picked up US broadcast rights to The Alvin Show sometime in 1994 and ran the episodes daily until early 1995. During this time, as well as for sometime after, the individual cartoons and musical segments were inserted into episodes of Weinerville. By the end of that year, however, Nickelodeon stopped showing The Alvin Show altogether and it has not been seen anywhere in the United States since then.

Voice cast

• Ross Bagdasarian, Sr. - Alvin, Simon, Theodore, David Seville, Sam Valiant
• Shepard Menken - Clyde Crashcup
• June Foray - Additional voices
• Johnny Mann - Additional voices
• Lee Patrick - Mrs. Frumpington; additional voices
• Don Messick - Various voices
• Joe Besser - Various voices

Episodes

26 episodes each were produced for the Alvin and the Chipmunks and Clyde Crashcup segments, along with 52 musical segments.

#	The Chipmunks	Musical Segment 1	Clyde Crashcup	Musical Segment 2
1	Good Neighbor	Buffalo Gals	Invents Jokes	America The Beautiful
2	Ostrich	Mexico-the Brave Chipmunks	Invents Self-Preservation	Yankee Doodle
3	Squares	Italy-Oh, Gondaliero!	Invents Glass	I Wish I Could Speak French
4	Sam Valiant, Private Nose	August Dear	Invents the Chair	Working on the Railroad
5	Overworked Alvin	When Johnny Comes Marching Home	Invents the West	Swanee River
6	Alvin's Curse	Old MacDonald-Cha, Cha, Cha	Invents the Baseball	Switzerland-the Magic Mountain
7	Alvin's Alter-Ego	Japanese Banana	Invents the Bathtub	The Pidgin English Hula
8	Stanley the Eagle	Stuck in Arabia	Invents the Wife	I Wish I Had A Horse
9	Fancy	Chipmunk Fun	Invents Flight	Good Morning Song
10	Sam Valiant: Real Estate	Alvin for President	Invents the Baby	Home on the Range
11	Dude Ranch	Witch Doctor	Invents the Stove	Lilly of Laguna
12	Camping Trip	Spain	Invents Music	Row, Row, Row Your Boat
13	Bentley Van Rolls	Swing Low, Sweet Chariot	Invents First Aid	Comin' Thru' The Rye
14	The Whistler	Coming Around the Mountain	Invents Electricity	Pop Goes the Weasel
15	Love Sick Dave	If You Love Me (Alouette)	Invents Egypt	Maria from Madrid
16	Jungle Rhythm	Alvin's Orchestra	Invents the Bed	The Little Dog
17	Theodore's Dog	The Chipmunk Song	Invents the Telephone	Alvin's Harmonica
18	Hillbilly Son	Three Blind Mice	Invents Do-it-Yourself	Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star
19	Little League	Clementine	Invents the Time Machine	Sing A Goofy Song
20	Eagle in Love	Bicycle Built For Two	Invents the Shoe	On Top of Old Smokey
21	Alvin's Studio	Whistle While You Work	Invents Physical Fitness	Ragtime Cowboy Joe
22	Haunted House	My Wild Irish Rose	Invents the Ship	The Band Played On
23	Sir Alvin	Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair	This is Your Life, Clyde Crashcup!	Funiculi-Funicula
24	Good Manners	Git Along, Little Doggies	Invents the Birthday Party	The Man on the Flying Trapeze
25	Eagle Music	Polly Wolly Doodle	Invents Self Defense	Down in the Valley
26	Disc Jockey	The Alvin Twist	Invents Crashcupland	While Strolling in the Park

General Foods was the show's main sponsor; as such, Dave Seville and The Chipmunks appeared in several humorous half-minute commercials for Jell-O and Post Cereals.

Home Media Releases

Other than the two 1994 VHS releases from Buena Vista Home Video, both of which featured 11 songs from The Alvin Show, up until recently, the show has never been released on DVD. However, on September 8, 2009, Paramount Home Entertainment released the "first" episode of the show (actually the Chipmunks short from episode 8, the Crashcup short from episode 6, and the musical segments from episode 3), along with two "modern" specials. Future "Complete Series" DVD sets of the series are not yet planned.

International Broadcast

• Chile
  • TVN (1969-1973)

See also

• Alvin & the Chipmunks

External links

• Toon Tracker's The Alvin Show web page
• Alvin and the Chipmunks page at Toonopedia
• The Alvin Show at the Big Cartoon DataBase
• The Alvin Show at the Internet Movie Database
• The Alvin Show at TV.com