Tooter Turtle was a cartoon about a rather dopey-looking turtle who first appeared on TV in 1960, as a segment, along with The Hunter

The Hunter (cartoon)

The Hunter is a short animated film by Walter Lantz Productions, and stars Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. It is the 48th Oswald short of the Lantz era and the 100th in the entire series.-Plot:...

(a Senator Claghorn

Senator Claghorn

Senator Beauregard Claghorn of Charleston, South Carolina, was a popular radio character on the "Allen's Alley" segment of The Fred Allen Show beginning in 1945...

ish detective dog), as part of the King Leonardo and His Short Subjects

King Leonardo and his Short Subjects

King Leonardo and his Short Subjects was an animated cartoon series released in 1960 by Total Television , sponsored by General Mills.-Characters and story:...

program.

Tooter debuted on NBC, on Saturday, October 15, 1960, and ran for 39 original episodes through July 22, 1961. These episodes were later rerun as backups on other cartoon shows, but no more original episodes were made.

Plot

This segment was always a simple morality play. A simple-minded, straw boater-hat wearing, anthropomorphic turtle named Tooter (voiced by Allen Swift

Allen Swift

Ira Stadlen , known professionally as Allen Swift, was an American voice actor, known for playing characters including Simon Bar Sinister and Riff-Raff on the Underdog cartoon show...

 to sound similar to Mortimer Snerd

Edgar Bergen

Edgar John Bergen was an American actor and radio performer, best known as a ventriloquist.-Early life:...

) calls on his friend Mr. Wizard the Lizard (voiced by Sandy Becker

Sandy Becker

George Sanford Becker , who was known professionally as Sandy Becker, was a television announcer, actor, and comedian who hosted several popular children's programs in New York City...

 with a Mittel-European accent

German phonology

This article is about the phonology of the German language based on standard German. It deals with current phonology and phonetics as well as with historical developments thereof, including geographical variants .Since German is a pluricentric language, there are a number of different...

), an anthropomorphic lizard wearing wizard cone hat, robe, and pince-nez

Pince-nez

Pince-nez are a style of spectacles, popular in the 19th century, which are supported without earpieces, by pinching the bridge of the nose. The name comes from French pincer, to pinch, and nez, nose....

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 (although disturbed from sleep, he was apparently always delighted to see Tooter) would shrink Tooter small enough to enter through the box's front door, and eagerly invite him in. Mr. Wizard has the magic to change Tooter's life to some other destiny, usually sending him back in time and to various locales. He usually accompanied his request with the phrase "Please, Mr. Wizard; it's what I want to be!" Since none of Tooter's alternate lives ever worked out, the moral of each segment was always the same: "Be just vhat you is, not vhat you is not."

As Tooter is doing his destiny, Mr. Wizard narrates about it. When Tooter's trip finally became a catastrophe, he always called out the same thing, the famous, "Help me, Mr. Wizard!" Mr. Wizard would rescue him with the incantation, "Drizzle, drazzle, druzzle, drome; time for zis one to come home." Then, Mr. Wizard would always give Tooter the same advice: "Be just vhat you is, not vhat you is not. Folks vhat do zis are ze happiest lot." Tooter never learned, though.

Episode List

(Every Saturday from Oct 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
• 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?)
• Lumberjack (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)
• Slowshoe Mountie (One, Two, Buckle My Snowshoe)
• Duck Haunter
• 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!)