Time for Beany

Time for Beany
Characters from left to right: Beany, Capitan Huffenpuff, Dishonest John, Hopalong Wong, Honey Bear, Cecil
Created by	Bob Clampett
Starring	Daws Butler Stan Freberg
Country of origin	United States
Production
Running time	15 minutes
Release
Original network	Paramount Television Network
Original release	1949 – 1955

Time for Beany is an American television series, with puppets for characters, which aired locally in Los Angeles starting in 1949 and nationally (via kinescope) on the improvised Paramount Television Network from 1950 to 1955. It was created by animator Bob Clampett, who later reused its core characters in the animated Beany and Cecil series. The show won three Primetime Emmy Awards for best children's show.

The principal characters were Beany, a plucky young boy who wears a beanie; the brave but dimwitted Cecil the Seasick Sea Serpent, who claimed to be 300 years old and 35 feet 3 inches tall; another serpent named Common Dragon (named after Carmen Dragon, a famous conductor); Beany's uncle, the pigheaded Captain Horatio K. (for Kermit) Huff'n'puff (whose name is a play on Horatio Hornblower), who would blow on the sails of the Leakin' Lena (see below) to make it go faster, familiarly called Uncle Captain; Dishonest John, a/k/a "D.J." whose cape and handlebar mustache clearly identified him as the villain; another sometimes villain named Dudley Nightshade (named after Deadly Nightshade, a poisonous member of the Solanaceae family); Tear-a-long the Dotted Lion (who always had a fast entrance and whose name is in obvious reference to "tear along the dotted line"); Mouth Full of Teeth Keith (a lion with false teeth); and Hopalong Wong (a Chinese version of Hopalong Cassidy, a rough and tough cowboy actor). Another character, a circus clown aptly named Clowny, appeared in early episodes but was later dropped.

The principal voice actors and puppeteers were Daws Butler and Stan Freberg. The writers were Charles Shows, Bill Scott, and Lloyd Turner. The puppets, created by Maurice Seiderman, were presented against simple sets or crude background drawings. After Butler and Freberg left the show in 1952 or 1953 Jim MacGeorge and Irv Shoemaker handled the voice work and puppeting duties.