Beany and Cecil

History

Characters

Main characters

• Beany Boy – A young, cupid-faced boy with a propeller beanie cap that allows him to fly. Beany is a good-hearted lad. In most episodes, Beany would be kidnapped by a villain or get caught in a rough situation, crying "Help, Cecil! Help!" to which Cecil would reply "I'm a-comin', Beany-boy!" as he raced to the rescue. This has become something of a catchphrase. Beany was originally voiced by Jim MacGeorge for the 1960s series and by Mark Hildreth for the 1980s series.
• Cecil – A large green sea serpent with a slight lisp. He is fiercely loyal to Beany, but he's not very clever. Cecil's trusting good nature invariably results in him being taken advantage of by the bad people, and he often suffers a great amount of physical abuse, examples of cartoon physics. The end of Cecil's tail was never seen in most episodes; it always extended off-screen or was hidden behind an obstacle. This is likely a joking reference to the original Cecil, a hand puppet whose tail was likewise hidden. His neck often showed folds and creases like that of a sock puppet as well, another reference to the original Cecil. Cecil's tail did appear in "Beany and the Jackstalk" when his entire body got wound into the tension spring of a giant cuckoo clock. Cecil also has a superhero alter-ego known as Super-Cecil. In this guise, he wears a modified Superman shirt. It was Cecil who sang "A Bob Clam-pett car-tooooooo-OOOOOOOOON!" at the end of the opening song of each episode. Cecil was voiced originally by Bob Clampett for the 1960s cartoon and by Billy West for the 1980s cartoon.
• Captain Horatio Huffenpuff – Also called "Uncle Captain", he is Beany's kindly uncle and the captain of the ship Leakin' Lena, which takes the pals from one destination to the other. The Captain is always willing to instruct Beany and Cecil on their latest assignment, but is rather cowardly and refuses to put himself in any personal jeopardy, locking himself below the deck or under a box labeled "Capt. Huffenpuff's Hiding Box" for most of the episodes. Uncle Captain was voiced by Jim MacGeorge for both series.
• Mouth-Full-of-Teeth Keith – A cowardly, toothless and Xenophobic old lion that hid in the first jungle arrived at by the crew. Trying desperately to maintain his isolation from interlopers, Keith would roar threateningly at any passerby or invader of his territory. On the first encounter with Keith, the crew was terrified of the jungle beast. However, as the story unfolds, Cecil begins to suspect that Keith is really a "good guy" and fearful of strangers. After a few minor skirmishes, they all become good friends. Audience response to the gentle and maned feline giant was so great that Keith soon became a regular member of the troupe. For several episodes, he rescued the crew from peril in spite of his shy and reclusive nature.
• Crowy – The navigator of the ship Leakin' Lena. He is a crow, and unsurprisingly spends most of his time in the ship's crow's nest. He speaks with a squawky voice and tends to faint whenever the ship encounters some sort of hazard. Voiced by Jim MacGeorge.
• Dishonest John – A mobster villain and the main antagonist of the show. He is dressed formally like a Simon Legree character, and he is constantly scheming to foil Beany and Cecil's adventures. His catchphrase is his sinister laugh, "Nya-ah-ãhh!", and he occasionally refers to Cecil as a "tall toad", "worm" or "big salami". Whenever Dishonest John's schemes are revealed to the heroes, Cecil tends to respond with an aghast "What the heck! D.J., you dirty guy!". When Dishonest John receives his inevitable defeat, it is usually just as painful as the abuse Cecil has endured during the rest of the episode. Dishonest John also has a supervillain alter-ego known as The Bilious Beetle. In this guise, he can fly by his power and has a painful stinger. "D.J." also appeared disguised on occasion as the mechanical robotic octopus "Billy The Squid" usually in haphazard attempts to simulate sea storms to scare away the crew of the Leakin' Lena when on a treasure hunt. Dishonest John carried a business card that read: "Dirty deeds done dirt cheap. Special rates for Sundays and holidays". This was the inspiration for the AC/DC song "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap". DJ was originally voiced by Irv Shoemaker for the 1960s series and by Maurice LaMarche for the 1980s series.

  Minor characters

• Davey Cricket – A cricket with a coonskin cap who lives in the backwoods of Eight-Nine-Tennessee. A parody of Walt Disney's wildly popular segments on the Disneyland television show based on the life of American frontiersman Davey Crockett. In Cricket's self-titled episode, Dishonest John tries unsuccessfully to sign Davey to a lucrative Hollywood movie contract. He appeared in the episode: Davey Cricket's Leading Ladybug.
• Go Man Van Gogh – A stereotypical cartoon beatnik/wild man who lives in the jungles of Wildsville on the Hungry I-Land. He often paints various things with his paintbrush, including paintings, vines to swing on, and fake backdrops to fool enemies. He also often plays a set of bongo drums, does scat singing, and speaks with various beatnik stereotype slang. Though he did not appear in many episodes, he was somewhat recurring. He was voiced originally by Lord Buckley in "The Wildman of Wildsville" and then by Scatman Crothers after Buckley's death during 1960.
• Harecules – A rabbit version of Hercules who accessed super mental powers by wearing a helmet called a Thinking Cap and traveled in the Guided Muscle, a rocket-shaped like a muscle man's arm with a clenched fist.
• Jack the Knife – A friendly, jazz-singing sawfish with a heavy French accent; a parody of singer Bobby Darin and his 1959 recording of the song "Mack the Knife". His sawlike nose is used as a sword to help Cecil defeat Dishonest John in the episode "Hero by Trade". He usually sang to the tune of a jazzy rendition of My Darling Clementine.
• Little Ace From Outer Space – An astronaut mouse. In his self-titled episode, he was used by the people at Cape Banana Peel to discover "whether or whether there was any weather." Cecil and Dishonest John competed to get Little Ace back to the cape for a cash reward. In the episode "Rat Race From Space," he was sent in a rocket to be the first mouse on the moon only to end up in the ocean. Voiced by Paul Frees.
• Tear-A-Long the Dotted Lion – A muscle-bound lion obsessed with exercise and vitamins, a possible parody of fitness guru Jack La Lanne, who had a popular television exercise show about the same time as Beany and Cecil. His name is a pun of the phrase "Tear along the dotted line", but Tear-A-Long himself wasn't spotted. He spoke with a Southern U.S. accent similar to the Warner Brothers animated character Foghorn Leghorn. One of the original characters on the Time for Beany puppet show. Voiced by Daws Butler.
• Careless the Mexican Hairless – Cecil's jovial pet Chihuahua, introduced in the episode "Cecil Gets Careless" and so named because of his tendency to knock things over when he happily jumps and dances. He sings to the tune of the Mexican folk song "El Jarabe Tapatio". He is called a Mexican Hairless for comic effect; the actual breed aka Xoloitzcuintli is much larger.
• William Shakespeare Wolf – an actor wolf who was the foil for Little Quacker, a duckling he desired to eat, and Rin Tin Can, a robot dog.
• Beepin' Tom – A diminutive alien who flew about in an open-top flying saucer. Named for his habit of making beeping sounds. When he spoke, he would hum the first line of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and then sing his phrase to the tune of the next line. A high pitched, accelerated voice similar to the Chipmunks was used for the character and the words he sang/spoke appeared as a rebus in a word balloon over his head. Appeared in the episode Ain't I a Little Stinger?.
• Shlepalong Catskill – A frog wearing a cowboy hat who walked with a limp similar to that of Dennis Weaver's "Chester" on the TV show Gunsmoke and spoke with a Yiddish accent. His catchphrase was "Hey Shmendrick! Would you like a cup of coffee?" The character was voiced by Yiddish comedy singer Mickey Katz.
• Peking Tom – A Siamese alley cat who sang about being a "very hungry guy; I've got to get some food 'cause I'm too egg-foo-young to die."
• Cora the Clinging Vine – A vine who has a crush on Cecil while singing "groovy" and Jazz scats to him.
• Venus the Meanest and Venice the Menace – Two space robots from Venus who at first were reported to be invading Earth but came down for a picnic. Venice the Menace's name is a play on Dennis the Menace, and acts like Linus Van Pelt from Peanuts including his thumb sucking and "dirty old" blanket.
• The Robot Ants – A group of ants brought by Venus the Meanest to be part of her picnic on Earth. They sing a march based on the children's song "This Old Man".
• The Boo Birds – A gang of mischievous ghost birds that haunt an abandoned castle where Cecil stayed. They sing a tune "Filet of Soul " based on the song "When the Saints Come Marching In".
• Edgar Allen Po's Shadow – A shadow man who owns the Haunted Retreat Mansion in the episode Beany and Cecil meets the Invisible Man. He is based on Alfred Hitchcock and speaks with an accent like that of the cartoon character Elmer Fudd.
• So What and the Seven What-Knots – A dixie jazz band who performed in a jazz club in Las Vegas, Nevada. They are based on the fairy tale, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
• Stogie Bear – A detective bear who Beany and Cecil helped to arrest the gangster bears in the episode, The Warring 20's.
• Double Trouble Bubble Beast – A weird underwater creature who appeared in Ain't That a Cork in the Snorkel and Make a Sea-Serpent Sore!

  Music

Influence

The artists

• Executive Producer: A.C.R. Stone
• Producer: Bob Clampett
• Animation Directors: Jack Hannah, Dick Kinney
• Story Material/Storyboards: Bob Clampett, Eddie Maxwell, Al Bertino, Jack Bonestell, Dale Hale, Lloyd Turner
• Layout: Terrell Stapp, Willie Ito, Tony Sgroi, Homer Jonas
• Master Animator: Art Scott
• Animators: Lou Appet, Harry "Bud" Hester, Bill Nunes, Al Stetter, Frank Gonzales, Bill Southwood, Carl A. Bell
• Backgrounds: Curtiss Perkins, Robert Abrams, Marie Reed
• Music Underscore: Bob Clampett, Sody Clampett, Hoyt Curtin, Jack Roberts
• Music Published by Merrifield Music Co., Inc.
• Production Assistants: Dick Elliott, John Soh, Jeanne Thorpe, Mike Sweeten
• Voice Talents of Jim MacGeorge, Irv Shoemaker and Bob Clampett as Cecil.
• A Bob Clampett Production, in association with Television Artists and Producers Corporation

Episode list

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