Crusader Rabbit
| Crusader Rabbit | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Created by |
Alexander Anderson Jay Ward |
| Starring |
First series: Lucille Bliss Second series: Ge Ge Pearson Russ Coughlan Both series: Vern Louden Roy Whaley |
| Opening theme | "Rabbit Fanfare" (adapted from "The Trail To Mexico") & "Main Title Rabbit" (adapted from "Ten Little Indians") |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 3 |
| No. of episodes | 455 195 (black and white) 260 (color) |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) |
Jerry Fairbanks (1950–52) Shull Bonsall (1956–59) |
| Running time | 4 minutes |
| Production company(s) | Television Arts Productions (1950–52) Jerry Fairbanks, Inc. (1950–52) Capital Enterprises/TV Spots (1956–59) |
| Release | |
| Original network |
syndicated (1950–1979) WNBC (1950–1967) and KNBH (1949) (NBC's Owned-and-operated station in New York, and Los Angeles) (1949–1967) |
| Picture format |
4:3 480i (SDTV) Black and White (1947–1952) Color (1956–1959) |
| First shown in | 1947-1948 |
| Original release | September 1, 1950 – December 1, 1959 |
Crusader Rabbit is the first animated series produced specifically for television. Its main characters were Crusader Rabbit and his sidekick Ragland T. "Rags" Tiger, and their nemesises Dudley Nightshade and Bilious Green. The stories were 4-minute-long satirical cliffhangers.
The concept was test marketed in 1948, while the initial episode – Crusader vs. the State of Texas – aired on KNBH (now KNBC) in Los Angeles on August 1, 1949. The program was syndicated from 1950 to 1952 for 195 episodes, then was revived in 1959 for 260 color episodes. Jay Ward, who went on to create The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show, was involved as business manager and producer.
The concept of an animated series made for television came from animator Alex Anderson, who worked for Terrytoons Studios. Terrytoons turned down Anderson's proposed series, preferring to remain in theatrical film animation. Consequently, Anderson approached Jay Ward to create a partnership – Anderson being in charge of production and Ward arranging financing. Ward became business manager and producer, joining with Anderson to form "Television Arts Productions" in 1947. They tried to sell the series – initially presented as part of a proposed series, The Comic Strips of Television, which featured an early incarnation of Dudley Do-Right – to the NBC television network, with Jerry Fairbanks as the network's "supervising producer". NBC did not telecast Crusader Rabbit on their network, but allowed Fairbanks to sell the series in national syndication, with many NBC affiliates, including those in New York and Los Angeles, picking it up for local showings. WNBC-TV in New York continued to show the original Crusader Rabbit episodes from 1950 through 1967, and some stations used the program as late as the 1970s.
The original series employed limited animation, appearing almost as narrated storyboards with frequent cuts and minor movement by the characters, much in the style of another early NBC "animation" program Tele-Comics. This was due to the limited budget that producers Jay Ward and Alex Anderson worked with to film the series. In 1948 Clarence E. Wheeler created the original opening and closing theme for the animated series, adapting and arranging the folk melodies The Trail to Mexico (known on cue sheets as "Rabbit Fanfare") and Ten Little Indians (known as "Main Title Rabbit").
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