The Half-Hour Version of Deputy Dawg

On the internet, there is a lot of misinformation about some of the old cartoons we used to watch.  Whether it be from a young soul attempting to fill in the gaps for information that they don't know about, or a vandal trying to intentionally spread misinformation, these false facts end up being easily spread around the web, with everybody taking them at face value and nobody verifying them to see if they hold some water. 

Let me be as blunt as I can be, some of the people who have contributed to the Deputy Dawg Wikipedia page got some of their facts wrong or worded some of their facts very poorly. Some of the ones I've noticed are:

1. "The Deputy Dawg Show first ran weekly [on] January 1, 1960"

Checking a couple of Newspaper listings, there are no listings for Deputy Dawg between January and April 1960. There is one listing for a May 22, 1960 airing in Warren, Pennsylvania (possibly as a preview, but I'm not certain), and then a whole bunch of listings in August and September 1960 (the earliest I've been able to find is August 25, 1960)

2.  "A wilder addition to the cast was the "space varmint" Astronut, a mischievous alien visitor who was later given his own spin-off show."

Astronut wasn't an addition. He appeared in the second episode of the show (The Space Varmint, if you're wondering). An "addition" would mean that he appeared much later in the series (probably around Season 2 or 3 would qualify for an addition).

But this one I've noticed is the most interesting of all:

3. "Each episode has a Deputy Dawg cartoon, followed by Sidney the Elephant" and "packaged three at a time and shown as a half-hour program"

So, what's the problem? Well, if you think about it for a while, that doesn't make a whole lot of sense. 1. There were only around 5-10 Sidney the Elephant cartoons when Deputy Dawg made his TV debut in the fall of 1960 and 2. None of the Terrytoons shows around that time (Mighty Mouse Playhouse, Farmer Alfalfa and His Terrytoons Pals etc.) used the 3 shorts format, instead containing 4 shorts per half-hour. It wouldn't be till the debut of The Hector Heathcote Show in 1963 that the episodes would contain 3 shorts per half-hour (and even then, it sometimes varied from week to week). 

So, as you see, Sidney the Elephant couldn't have aired on The Deputy Dawg Show all the way back in 1960. Checking some newspapers shows that, he DID however show up in the NBC run in 1971 (alongside TerryToons Classics featuring the Terry Bears and Gandy Goose (put a pin on him, we'll come back to him later)). 

So, if Sidney the Elephant didn't show up on The Deputy Dawg Show in 1960, what were the other shorts shown on it way back in 1960 (besides Deputy Dawg I mean)? Checking some old newspapers from 50 years ago tell us our answer. 

While yes, Deputy Dawg WAS aired in syndication and therefore didn't air the same way in every station (durring my reaserch, i even found listings of a Deputy Dawg and Mr. Magoo show that aired in Flordia!), a close comparison between multiple newspapers in different cities shows that some of the shorts did consistently air with some of the other shorts that usually aired as part of Deputy Dawg. That's not proof that EVERY city aired them that way, but they did sometimes air like that in places like Miami, Los Angeles and parts of Australia alongside some smaller cities. 

So now, here is a partial episode list of the Half-Hour format of the first 26 episodes of Deputy Dawg (only the first 26 as it has been hard to research the Half-Hour version of Deputy Dawg after that). Do note that a couple listings of the show (not all) placed the "Deputy Dawg" segment first or in the middle. For consistency's sake, i've put all of those segments at the end of the episode (much like how Mighty Mouse Playhouse and The Heckle and Jeckle Cartoon Show initially did).

1. Peace-Time Football/?/The Frog and the Princess/The Yolk's on You         

2. Back to the Soil/Rover's Rescue/Gandy's Dream Girl/The Space Varmint 

3. Tricky Business/The Billy Goat's Whisker's/The Frameup/Shotgun Shambles

4. Night Life in the Army/The Timid Rabbit/Barnyard Baseball/Seize You Later, Alligator

5. Fisherman's Luck/A Mountain Romance/Songs of Erin/Lil' Whooper

6. Light's Out/Edgar Runs Again/Slap Happy Hunters/Welcome, Mischa Mouse

7. Post War Inventions/The Ice Carnival/Barnyard Actor/Cotton-Pickin' Picnic

8. The Covered Pushcart/Beat Me Kitty, Eight To the Bar/Wide Open Spaces/Henhouse Hassle

9. The One Man Navy/Willful Willie/The Watch Dog (1939)/Law and Disorder

10. Who's Who in the Jungle/Ickle Meets Pickle/Hook, Line and Sinker/Rabit Rebel

11. The Exterminator/Rupert the Runt/Africa Squawks/Friend Fox

12. Flying Fever/The Stork's Mistake/Aesop's Fable: The Mosquito/Deputy Dawg's Nephew

13. Dream Walking/Swiss Ski Yodelers/The Big Build-Up/Dog-Gone Catfish

14. Aladdin's Lamp (1943)/Hare and Hounds/Spring Fever/National Spoof Day

15. ?/?/?/Aig Plant

16. G-Man Jitters/Uncle Joey Comes to Town/Fishing Made Easy/Creek Mud Monster

17.  Sham Battle Shenanigans/The Prize Guest/Doomsday/Duped Deputy

18. ?/?/?/Home Cookin

19. ?/?/?/Penguin Panic

20. A Bully Romance/Sheep in the Meadow/Hairless Hector/People's Choice

21. Fortune Hunters/?/Dingbat Land/Kin Folk

22. ?/?/?/Lynx, th' Jinx

23. The Home Guard/All's Well That End's Well/The Golden Hen/The Bird Burgler 

24. What a Little Sneeze Will Do/Tire Trouble/It Must Be Love/Watermelon Watcher

25. Mother Goose Nightmare/A Close Shave/The Chipper Chipmunk/Dragon, My Foot

26. The Hot Spell/Goose Flies High/It's All In the Stars/Star for a Day

One interesting thing to note with this is how all of the B/W Terrytoons are from 1936-1942. This is important to note because most of the shorts here that currently circulate online around that time that were aired here have THIS TV title card layout.  I presume that this title card layout had first appeared in the Mighty Mouse Playhouse show, as most (if not all) of those shorts that i've checked that have that title card layout aired on both this show and that show. Those B/W shorts had all left around 1959, presumably explaining how they ended up here (some of the other shorts here currently circulate with THIS TV title card layout, seen on Farmer Alfafla and His Terrytoons Pals. I presume that those shorts had also been taken out of that package around the time Mighty Mouse Playhouse began phasing out the B/W shorts).

You'll also notice a lot of Sourpuss and Gandy Goose (told you that pin was necessary!). Almost every episode contains at least one of their shorts. Gandy Goose and Sourpuss WERE both taken off the Heckle and Jeckle Cartoon Show around the same time the B/W shorts were taken off, so I presume that explains how they are here in such a great degree.

Oh and if you are wondering, here are a couple of incomplete episode lists for the aformentioned Deputy Dawg with Mr Magoo (from Florida) and the NBC run from 1971 - 1972:

Deputy Dawg and Mr Magoo (Florida): 

October 1, 1961 - Ten Strike Magoo/Riding Hood Magoo/Law and Disorder

February 7, 1965 - Henhouse Hassle/Home Cookin/Short Order Magoo/Magoo Goes Shopping

NBC Run (1971 -1972):

September 11, 1971 - Th' Two Inch Inchworm/?/?/?

September 18, 1971 and March 18, 1972 - Safe An Insane 4th/?/?/?

September 25, 1971 and March 25, 1972- Rebel Trouble/?/?/?

October 2, 1971 - Oil Tycoons/?/?/?

October 16, 1971 - Mr Moose/?/?/?

October 23, 1971 - The Fragrant Vagrant/?/?/?

October 30, 1971 and April 29, 1972 - Echo Park/?/?/?

November 6, 1971 - Lynx the Jinx

November 13, 1971 - Star for a Day/?/?/?

November 20, 1971 - Nobody's Ghool/?/?/?

December 4, 1971 - Little Red Fool House/?/?/?

December 11, 1971 - Astronut/?/?/?

December 18, 1971 - Creek Mud Monster/?/?/?

January 1, 1972 and June 24, 1972 - Dagnabbit Rabbit/On the Lam with the Ham/Tree Spree/Elusive Louie

January 8, 1972 and July 8, 1972 - Cartoon where Deputy Dawg faints when he learns that the bear he fought is not Muskie and Vincent in disguise/?/?/?

January 22, 1972 - Noise Annoys/?/?/?

February 5, 1972 and July 22, 1972 - Physical Fatness/?/?/?

February 19, 1972 and August 12, 1972 - Rabit Rebel/?/?/?

May 27, 1972 - Beaver Battle/?/?/?

July 29, 1972 - Peanut Pilferer/?/?/?

August 12, 1972 - Deputy Dawg's Nephew/?/?/?

August 26, 1972 - Home Cookin/Royal Southern Dismounted Police/Dream Walking/The Governer's Guide

Also, here are some ads i've found in newspapers for airings of the show:

NOTE: Sorry for the lack of updates on here recently, i've been busy.