If you’re a Baby Boomer you probably remember the TV show The Banana Splits but what you may not remember quite so easily is a show that ran from from 1966 to 1968 called The Beagles.
According to the Toon Tracker website:
The Beagles featured a singing and guitar-playing canine duo known as Stringer and Tubby. The dog stars of the series worked catchy, British-Invasion style rock n' roll songs into the action of each episode. Before a new number joined the duo's repertoire, their manager placed them in an exciting situation where they could experience what the song was all about. Each week the performing pooches were put through their paces, all for the sake of their rock n' roll art! Presented on CBS-TV in serialized adventures, The Beagles were an obvious attempt to cash in on the sound-alike name of the Fab Four from Liverpool, who began their own show the year before on ABC-TV. When The Beagles series failed to generate high ratings, it was canceled by CBS. It was repeated the following season on ABC before it quickly disappeared.
Mort Marshall played Tubby and Allen Swift played Stringer. I don’t know if they also supplied the singing voices for the characters whose music sounds more like Chad and Jeremy that The Beatles and I’m sure the music was performed by session musicians as was appropriate for the times or for cartoon characters in general.
These costumed characters don't even try to lip sync
The show was produced by Treadwell Covington and I don’t know if that means The Beagles were his idea or if he just got hired on to produce the show. Thinking about these shows makes me wonder if there are any musical cartoon shows on the air today?
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