Commander McBragg

Commander McBragg is a cartoon character who appeared in short segments (usually 90 seconds) produced by Total Television Productions and animated by Gamma Productions. These segments first appeared in 1963 on the animated series Tennessee Tuxedo and His Tales, then on the Underdog animated television show from 1964–1973, and have appeared in some syndicated prints of The Bullwinkle Show, Hoppity Hooper and Uncle Waldo's Cartoon Show.

The segments opened with an image of a revolving globe and the title "The World of Commander McBragg." The Commander, a retired British naval officer, would buttonhole a hapless member of his gentleman's club, and relate some story filled with unlikelihoods and outright impossibilities (as his name, Commander McBragg, would suggest), always concluding with a hairbreadth escape. For example, McBragg would point to a map on the wall (or globe) and say: "There! Zanzibar! Did I ever tell you about the time I ...?" His colleague would, despite his initial reticence ("NO, Commander, but I-"), become engaged in the exciting tale ("Good Heavens! What did you do?"), and at the conclusion would compliment the Commander on his cleverness—usually incorporating a terrible pun— to which the Commander would usually respond, "Quite."

The deep, gravelly voice of Commander McBragg was provided by veteran voice talent Kenny Delmar, best known for his stammering non-stop talking as "Senator Claghorn" (of which Foghorn Leghorn, the Looney Tunes character, is a parody) on The Fred Allen Show.

The character of McBragg is based on English actor C. Aubrey Smith – from the 1939 motion pictures The Four Feathers ("War was war then") and Another Thin Man – who often played roles in films similar to the exploits related by McBragg. The stories, more often than not, were taken from or were imitations of the Baron Munchausen stories of Rudolf Erich Raspe. The Englishness of the commander, the reluctance of his audience to listen to his far-fetched stories, and the commander's insistence on telling them, suggest the influence of P.G. Wodehouse's "Oldest Member" golf stories as well. Other influences include the early animated character Colonel Heeza Liar, the subject of a number of animated shorts created by John R. Bray and directed by Walter Lantz, who was later known for the Woody Woodpecker franchise.

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