Tooter Turtle

Tooter Turtle is an American animated television series about a turtle which first appeared on TV in 1960, as a segment of the King Leonardo and His Short Subjects program. "Tooter Turtle" debuted on NBC, on Saturday, October 15, 1960, and ran for 39 original episodes through July 22, 1961.^[1] These episodes were later rerun as backups on other cartoon shows,^[2] but no more original episodes were made.

Tooter Turtle
Voices of	Allen Swift Sandy Becker
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	39
Production
Executive producer	Peter M. Piech
Running time	5 minutes
Original release
Network	NBC
Release	October 15, 1960 (1960-10-15) – July 22, 1961 (1961-07-22)

The main premise is that Mr. Wizard will use his magic to send Tooter Turtle into time traveling adventures.

Plot

The plots followed the same general format.^[3][4] Tooter (voiced by Allen Swift) calls on his friend Mr. Wizard the Lizard (voiced by Sandy Becker), an anthropomorphic lizard wearing a wizard cone hat, a robe, and pince-nez eyeglasses. Mr. Wizard lived in a tiny cardboard box at the base of a tall tree. The introductory segment had Tooter knocking on the cardboard box, having "another favor to ask." From inside the box, Mr. Wizard would shrink Tooter small enough to enter through the box's front door and invite him in. Mr. Wizard has the magic to change Tooter's life to some other destiny, usually sending him time traveling into the past or teleporting him to various locales.

As Tooter is fulfilling his destiny, Mr. Wizard narrates the story. When Tooter's trip finally became a catastrophe, Tooter would request help with a cry of "Help me, Mr. Wizard, I don't want to be X any more!" where X was whatever destiny Tooter had entered. Mr. Wizard would then rescue Tooter with the incantation, "Drizzle, Drazzle, Druzzle, Drome, time for this one to come home."^[5] Then, Mr. Wizard would always give Tooter the same advice: "Be just what you is, not what you is not. Folks what do this has the happiest lot."^[6]

Critical reception and impact

Mr. Wizard's phrase "Drizzle, Drazzle, Druzzle, Drome; Time for this one to come home" ^[7] is echoed in the phrase "Razzle, dazzle, drazzle, drone, Time for This One to Come Home" that was used later by the band The Replacements as a lyric in Hold My Life from the album Tim.^[8]

Created and aired during the Vietnam War, although before the Gulf of Tonkin Incident, the episode featuring Tooter traveling back to World War I as a fighter pilot ("Tailspin Tooter") includes what one historian has called some of "the most gruesome pro-war imagery" in cartoons of the period.^[9]

The 1984 novel Bright Lights, Big City includes childhood recollections of the cartoon series by a narrator while in a similar predicament.^[10]

In the 1999 film The Matrix, Neo (Keanu Reeves) calls his operator Tank for an exit from the Matrix, saying, "Mr. Wizard, get me the hell out of here!".^[11]

List of episodes

(ran as part of King Leonardo & His Short Subjects from October 15, 1960 to July 22, 1961)

• Two Gun Turtle
• Tailspin Tooter (Plane Failure)
• Sea Haunt
• Highway Petrolman (Road Block-Head)
• Knight of the Square Table (The Joust and the Unjoust)
• Mish-Mash-Mush (Panting for Gold)
• The Unteachables (The Lawless Years)
• Kink of Swat (Babe Rube)
• One Trillion B.C. (Dinosaur Dope)
• Olimping Champion (Weak-Greek)
• Stuper Man (Muscle-Bounder)
• Buffaloed Bill (Custard's Last Stand)
• Moon Goon (Space Head)
• Robin Hoodwink (Thimple Thief)
• Steamboat Stupe (Captains Outrageous)
• Souse Painter (Brush-Boob)
• Railroad Engineer (Stupefied Jones)
• Quarterback Hack (Pigskinned)
• Drafthead (Overwhere?)
• Lumber-Quack (Topped)
• Jerky Jockey (Kenducky Derby)
• Fired Fireman (Hook And Batter)
• Sky Diver (Jump, Jerk, Jump!)
• Tuesday Turtle (Private Pie)
• Snafu Safari (Trackdown Tooter)
• Anti-Arctic (North Pole Nuisance)
• The Master Builder (Rivet Riot)
• Taxi Turtle (My Flag Is Down)
• Canned Camera (Peek-a-Boob)
• Muddled Mountie (One, Two, Buckle My Snowshoe)
• Duck Haunter (Decoy Drip)
• Bull Fright (Olay Down)
• News Nuisance (Sub Scribe)
• The Sheep of Araby (Beau Geste Goes West)
• Waggin' Train (California Bust)
• Anchors Awry (Nautical Nut)
• Vaudevillain (Song and Dunce Man)
• Rod and Reeling (Field and Scream)
• The Man in The Blue Denim Suit (Hay! Hay!)