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The Alvin Show

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The Alvin Show
Title card from The Alvin Show.
Created byRoss Bagdasarian, Sr.
Based onAlvin and the Chipmunks By Ross Bagdasarian, Sr.
Written byRoss Bagdasarian, Sr.
Directed byRoss Bagdasarian, Sr.
Voices ofRoss Bagdasarian, Sr.
Shepard Menken
June Foray
Lee Patrick
Bill Lee
Johnny Mann
Don Messick
Theme music composerRoss Bagdasarian, Sr.
Neil Hefti
Carl Stalling
ComposersRoss Bagdasarian, Sr.
Country of originUnited States
No. of episodes26 Alvin and the Chipmunks episodes,
26 Clyde Crashcup episodes,
and 52 musical segments
Production
Executive producerHerbert Klynn
Running time30 minutes per episode (7½ per segment)
Production companiesBagdasarian Film Corporation
Format Films
Original release
NetworkCBS (1961-1962)
ReleaseOctober 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, Sr.'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.

The Pilot, an early version of "Good Neighbor", was written and produced to sell the show for CBS.[1] The actual show featured a re-worked version, which aired as part of the 5th episode.

Characters

  • The Chipmunks: The main characters of the series
    • Alvin: The talented troublemaker of the group.
    • Simon: The intelligent realist and the most responsible of the group.
    • Theodore: The innocent member of the group.
  • David "Dave" Seville: The Chipmunks' adoptive father, songwriter and manager, Dave's patience is tested nearly every day by Alvin. Despite all this, he loves all of his boys equally.

Clyde Crashcup

Aside from the seven-minute Chipmunk segments, in which 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), a scientist/inventor. Each segment was introduced by Alvin, who was told he was introducing a great inventor and was dumbfounded when he hears of Clyde Crashcup.

Clyde's "inventions" were really items that had already been invented, but with his own personal touches. 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. TBS also reran the show sometime in the 1980s as well.

Ross Bagdasarian, Sr. had died of a heart attack in January 1972. Years later, his son, Ross Bagdasarian, Jr., picked up on a disc jockey's joke and produced the Chipmunk Punk album in 1980. The success of Chipmunk Punk spurred renewed interest a new animated series, which launched in fall 1983 on NBC and was titled Alvin and the Chipmunks, with Ross, Jr. taking over for his father as the voice of the Alvin and Simon, and Dave Seville His wife, Janice Karmen, voiced Theodore.. To coincide with the new series, Viacom Enterprises distributed reruns of The Alvin Show to local stations.

In 1981 Clyde Crashcup made an appearance during a dream sequence in A Chipmunk Christmas. During recent network airings of the special, the sequence has been cut out, due to network time constraints concerning commercial ad time.

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 full episodes stopped airing, the individual cartoons and musical segments were inserted into episodes of Weinerville. In 1996, Nickelodeon stopped showing The Alvin Show segments altogether, and no television station has aired them since then.

Voice cast

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

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 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, along with two "modern" specials. Future "Complete Series" DVD sets of the series are not yet planned. In 2014, "The Brave Chipmunks" musical sequence was released as a bonus feature on The Chipmunk Adventure Blu-ray and DVD combo pack. In 2015, three complete episodes (#01, #04, and #10) were released together as The Alvin Show on Blu-ray and DVD.[2]

International Broadcast

  • Chile Chile
    • TVN (1969-1973)

See also

References

  1. ^ http://animationresources.org/story-alvin-show-pilot-board/
  2. ^ http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/news/Alvin-DVD-Update/20668

Template:Prime time animated television series

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