Beanie and Cecil

Beany and Cecil
Characters from left to right: Crowy, Captain Horatio Huffenpuff, Cecil, Beany, Dishonest John.
Genre	Animation
Created by	Bob Clampett
Voices of	Jim MacGeorge Irv Shoemaker Bob Clampett as Cecil.
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	8
No. of episodes	26
Production
Running time	30 minutes
Release
Original network	ABC
Picture format	Academy ratio
First shown in	1959–1962
Original release	January 6, 1962 – June 28, 1969

Beany And Cecil was an animated television cartoon series created by Bob Clampett for the American Broadcasting Company. The cartoon was based on the television puppet show Time for Beany, which Clampett produced for Paramount Pictures company and its Paramount Television Network beginning 1949. The series was broadcast first as part of the series Matty's Funday Funnies during 1959, later renamed Matty's Funnies with Beany and Cecil, and finally Beany and Cecil in the USA. Another season was produced during 1988.

Although a children's show, it incorporated satirical references to current events and personalities which adults found entertaining, and the show also attracted adult viewers. Some of the plots and remarks were recognisable as lampoons of current political issues.

Along with The Jetsons and The Flintstones, it was one of the first three color television series by the ABC television network (the initial season, though, was originally shown in black and white, as ABC was unable to broadcast color programs until September 1962).

Beany and Cecil was created by animator Bob Clampett after he quit Warner Bros., where he had been directing short cartoon movies. Clampett allegedly originated the idea for Cecil when he was a boy after seeing the top half of the dinosaur swimming from the water at the end of the 1925 movie The Lost World.

Clampett originally created the idea as a television series named Time for Beany, which was broadcast from February 28, 1949 to 1955. Time for Beany, based on puppets, featured the talents of veteran voice actors Stan Freberg as Cecil and Dishonest John, and Daws Butler as Beany and Uncle Captain.

Clampett revived the series in animated form, though Freberg and Butler did not reprise their roles. On 11 October 1959, the animated series was introduced as Matty's Funday Funnies. named for "Matty Mattel" the animated spokesperson for its primary sponsor Mattel Toys company. The program was later retitled The Beany And Cecil Show, and was broadcast prime time Saturdays during the 1962 television season, by the ABC Television Network. The newer cartoons replaced the Famous Studios cartoons of Casper the Friendly Ghost and Little Audrey among other parts of Matty's Funday Funnies.