Beany 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
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 cartoon series created by Bob Clampett for the ABC Television Network. The cartoon was based on the television puppet show Time for Beany, which Clampett produced for Paramount Pictures beginning in 1949. The animated series first appeared in Matty's Funday Funnies in 1959, later renamed Matty's Funnies with Beany and Cecil and finally Beany and Cecil in the USA. Another season was produced in 1988. In its original form with hand puppets, the show conveyed a greater sense of personal communication than did the animated series that followed. The hand puppets were extensively marketed and sold well.

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 were easily recognisable as thinly veiled lampoons of current political issues. Snarky side remarks by Beany, Cecil and the rest of the cast often alluded to embarrassing public fiascos or personages, on which the adult audience immediately picked up.

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

Beany and Cecil was created by animator Bob Clampett after he left Warner Bros., where he had been directing theatrical cartoon shorts. Clampett 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 film The Lost World.

Clampett originally created the series as a puppet show called Time for Beany, which ran from February 28, 1949 to 1954. Time for Beany featured the talents of veteran voice actors Stan Freberg as Cecil and Dishonest John, and Daws Butler as Beany and Uncle Captain.