Super Chicken
Encyclopedia
- For the bluesman, see Super ChikanSuper ChikanJames "Super Chikan" Johnson is an American blues musician, based in Clarksdale, Mississippi. He is the nephew of fellow blues musician Big Jack Johnson....
Super Chicken is a segment that ran on the animated television series George of the Jungle
George of the Jungle
George of the Jungle was an American animated series produced by Jay Ward and Bill Scott, who created The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show. The character George was inspired by the legend of Tarzan. It ran for 17 episodes on Saturday mornings from September 9 to December 30, 1967, on the American TV...
. It was produced by Jay Ward
Jay Ward
J Troplong "Jay" Ward was an American creator and producer of animated television cartoons. He produced animated series based on such characters as Crusader Rabbit, Rocky & Bullwinkle, Dudley Do-Right, Peabody and Sherman, Hoppity Hooper, George of the Jungle, Tom Slick, and Super Chicken...
and Bill Scott, who earlier had created the Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoons. It debuted September 9, 1967 on ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
.
Series overview
Super ChickenChicken
The chicken is a domesticated fowl, a subspecies of the Red Junglefowl. As one of the most common and widespread domestic animals, and with a population of more than 24 billion in 2003, there are more chickens in the world than any other species of bird...
(voiced by Bill Scott in a Boston Brahmin accent
Boston Brahmin accent
The Boston Brahmin accent is a New England accent associated with the Boston Brahmins.In popular culture, users of this accent include the characters Charles Emerson Winchester on M*A*S*H, Walter Gaines on Cheers, Tracks on Transformers and George Feeny on Boy Meets World.-External links:*, from...
) and his lion
Lion
The lion is one of the four big cats in the genus Panthera, and a member of the family Felidae. With some males exceeding 250 kg in weight, it is the second-largest living cat after the tiger...
sidekick Fred (voiced by Paul Frees
Paul Frees
Paul Frees was an American voice actor and character actor.-Biography:He was born Solomon Hersh Frees in Chicago...
impersonating Ed Wynn
Ed Wynn
Ed Wynn was a popular American comedian and actor noted for his Perfect Fool comedy character, his pioneering radio show of the 1930s, and his later career as a dramatic actor....
) who wore a sweatshirt with a backwards "F" on the front, would usually begin their adventures with the battlecry that went something like: "Quick, Fred, to the 'Super Coupe,'" which was an egg-shaped air vehicle in which Super Chicken and Fred would fly to the rescue of innocent victims of crime.
Super Chicken's secret identity was well-to-do Henry Cabot Henhouse III (whose name was a play on Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr.
Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr.
Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. was a Republican United States Senator from Massachusetts and a U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, South Vietnam, West Germany, and the Holy See . He was the Republican nominee for Vice President in the 1960 Presidential election.-Early life:Lodge was born in Nahant,...
); Fred acted as his butler/servant, etc. When danger reared its ugly head, he would take his "Super Sauce" (often from a martini glass) and don his "Super Suit," which consisted of a plumed cavalier's hat, cape, Wellington boot
Wellington boot
The Wellington boot, also known as rubber-boots, wellies, wellingtons, topboots, billy-boots, gumboots, gummies, barnboots, wellieboots, muckboots, sheepboots, shitkickers, or rainboots are a type of boot based upon leather Hessian boots...
s, mask and a sword.
The first pilot featured an all-star comedy cast, including Bill Dana with Don Knotts
Don Knotts
Jesse Donald "Don" Knotts was an American comedic actor best known for his portrayal of Barney Fife on the 1960s television sitcom The Andy Griffith Show, a role which earned him five Emmy Awards...
as the voice of Super Chicken. The project was shelved and eventually recast.
Recurring gags
The cartoon had several running gagRunning gag
A running gag, or running joke, is a literary device that takes the form of an amusing joke or a comical reference and appears repeatedly throughout a work of literature or other form of storytelling....
s, including:
- To turn into Super Chicken, Henry would take a drink of "Super Sauce." However, the effect of the sauce was never the same each time. One time Fred added too much corn starch, and the sauce had to be eaten with a spoon. Another time, it was 'instant super sauce,' which just needed added water.
- Henry would have a violent reaction moments after drinking the "Super Sauce," nearly always stopping in mid-sentence to cluck loudly as the reaction hit him.
- To dash out to the scene of the action, Super Chicken would exclaim, "To the Supercoupe, Fred!", whereupon Fred would reply, "Roger Wilcox" (a malapropism of Roger Wilco).
- Fred would often ask Super Chicken why he didn't use his "super-vision", to which Super Chicken would respond with something to the effect of "If I had any supervision, do you think I'd be running around dressed like this?"
- In the course of a plan to defeat the bad guys, Super Chicken would suggest something dangerous for Fred's part, which Fred would be reluctant to carry out. When Fred voiced his reluctance, Super Chicken always reminded him, "You knew the job was dangerous when you took it, Fred!"
Original Pilot
The original concept for Super Chicken differed from the later 17 episodes.Super Chicken's mild-mannered identity was named Hunt Strongbird, Jr, and his voice was more 'smarmy' in nature. The Supercoupe did not resemble an egg, but appeared to be a wooden chicken coop with a glass canopy, airplane wings and a jet engine. Also absent was the need for Super Sauce to institute the change into Super Chicken.
Super Chicken's sidekick Fred was relatively untouched, except that instead of sneakers, he wore black boots.
Theme song
Lyrics to the famous theme song are as follows:The Super Chicken Theme Lyrics
When you find yourself in danger,
When you're threatened by a stranger,
When it looks like you will take a lickin', (cluck, cluck, cluck, cluck)
There is someone waiting who
Will hurry up and rescue you,
Just call...for Super Chicken! (cluck, awk!)
Fred, if you're afraid, you'll have to overlook it,
Besides, you knew the job was dangerous when you took it! (cluck, awk!)
He will drink his super sauce
And throw the bad guys for a loss
And he will bring them in, alive and kickin' (cluck, cluck, cluck, cluck)
There is one thing you should learn
When there is no one else to turn to
Call...for Super Chicken! (cluck, cluck, cluck, cluck)
Call...for Super Chicken! (cluck, awk!)
Appearances in other media
In 1969, Gold Key ComicsGold Key Comics
Gold Key Comics was an imprint of Western Publishing created for comic books distributed to newsstands. Also known as Whitman Comics, Gold Key operated from 1962 to 1984.-History:...
published two issues of a George of the Jungle comic book. Each issue contained a story featuring Super Chicken. The artist and writer of the stories was not credited.
In an episode of Darkwing Duck
Darkwing Duck
DarkWing Duck is an American animated television series produced by The Walt Disney Company that ran from 1991–1992 on both the syndicated programming block The Disney Afternoon and Saturday mornings on ABC. It featured the eponymous anthropomorphic duck superhero whose alter ego is mild-mannered...
, Darkwing references a line from the Super Chicken series. When approaching a dangerous target, Darkwing tells his sidekick, "It's like the chicken said, Launchpad--I knew the job was dangerous when I took it."
During the January 27, 2003 episode of Loveline
Loveline
Loveline is a syndicated radio call-in program in North America, offering medical and relationship advice to listeners, often with the assistance of guests, typically actors and musicians. Its flagship station is KROQ-FM in Los Angeles....
, host Drew Pinsky
Drew Pinsky
David Drew Pinsky , best known as Dr. Drew, is an American board-certified internist, addiction medicine specialist, and radio and television personality. He has hosted the nationally syndicated radio talk show Loveline since the show's inception in 1984. On television, he hosts the talk show Dr...
revealed that as a child he had participated in the test marketing of the show. This followed a rendition of the theme song by guest Emma Caulfield
Emma Caulfield
Emma Caulfield is an American actress best known for her role as ex-demon Anya Jenkins on the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, as well as Susan Keats, a love interest of Brandon Walsh's on the television series Beverly Hills, 90210.-Early life:Emma Caulfield was born Emma Chukker in San...
and cohost Adam Carolla
Adam Carolla
Adam Carolla is an American radio personality, television host, comedian, and actor. He currently hosts The Adam Carolla Show, a talk show distributed as a podcast on the ACE Broadcasting Network...
. He said "it looked retarded to me", and "I was like eight years old and they marketed that and [...] George of the Jungle and another – it seemed to me more bizarre – "It's About Time" kind of thing: a guy gets frozen and comes back to life".
Jerry Seinfeld
Jerry Seinfeld
Jerome Allen "Jerry" Seinfeld is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer, and television and film producer, known for playing a semi-fictional version of himself in the situation comedy Seinfeld , which he co-created and co-wrote with Larry David, and, in the show's final two seasons,...
referenced Super Chicken in a "Bee Movie
Bee Movie
Bee Movie is a 2007 computer animated family comedy film starring Jerry Seinfeld, Renée Zellweger, Matthew Broderick, Megan Mullally, John Goodman, Chris Rock, Kathy Bates, and Patrick Warburton. Produced by DreamWorks Animation, it is directed by Simon J...
TV Junior", in which he recites the Super Chicken theme song.
The late historian Kenneth Cmiel (Ph.D, University of Chicago, 1986; professor of history and American studies at the University of Iowa and director of the U.I. Center for Human Rights until his death in 2006) opens his Democratic Eloquence: The Fight over Popular Speech in Nineteenth-Century America (New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc., 1990) with the famous quote, "You knew the job was dangerous when you took it," which is found on the dedication page.
In the Jerry Pournelle
Jerry Pournelle
Jerry Eugene Pournelle is an American science fiction writer, essayist and journalist who contributed for many years to the computer magazine Byte and has since 1998 been maintaining his own website/blog....
and Roland Green (author) science fiction novel "Clan and Crown"
Janissaries II: Clan and Crown
Janissaries II: Clan and Crown is a novel by science fiction authors Jerry Pournelle and Roland J. Green, the second book of Pournelle's Janissaries series . It was originally published in 1982, and like the first book in the series, was richly illustrated by comics artist Bermejo...
, part of the Janissaries series
Janissaries series
The Janissaries series of military and political-based science fiction novels are set in an interstellar confederation of races, in which humans are a slave race entrusted with military affairs and law enforcement, written by Jerry Pournelle....
, the mercenary Ben Murphy is in a tight situation and says to himself, "But what the hell, you knew the job was dangerous when you took it, Fred...", a clear reference to the Super Chicken theme song. No character named Fred occurs elsewhere in the novel.