The Alvin Show

The Alvin Show
Title card from The Alvin Show.
Genre	Comedy Musical Sitcom
Created by	Ross Bagdasarian, Sr.
Based on	Alvin and the Chipmunks by Ross Bagdasarian, Sr.
Written by	Ross Bagdasarian, Sr. Jack Cosgriff Al Bertino Tedd Pierce Bill Danch Chris Jenkyns Jan Strejan Dale Hale Cal Howard Dale Hale Bob Kurtz Ed Nofziger Leo Salkin Dick Kinney Jim Rivind Carol Beers Eddie Rehberg Ken Hultgren Rosemary O'Connor Jack Miller Milt Schaffer Ralph Wright Joe Grant Walter Schmidt Harvey Toombs Noel Tucker Joseph Stewart Raymond Jacobs Jack Kinney Tom Hix Nick George Osmond Evans Dennis Fraser Warren Bennett Tony Benedict Ruben Apodaca Jerry Nevius Wesley Bennett Joe Siracusa Cliff Millsap
Directed by	Osmond Evans Rudy Larriva Alan Zaslove Gil Turner Hal Ambro Jack Kinney
Voices of	Ross Bagdasarian, Sr. Shepard Menken June Foray Lee Patrick Bill Lee Johnny Mann Don Messick Joe Besser Mel Blanc
Theme music composer	Ross Bagdasarian, Sr. Neal Hefti Carl Stalling
Composer(s)	Ross Bagdasarian, Sr. Johnny Mann
Country of origin	United States
No. of episodes	26
Production
Executive producer(s)	Herbert Klynn
Running time	30 minutes per episode (7½ per segment)
Production company(s)	Bagdasarian Film Corporation Format Films
Distributor	CBS Films
Release
Original network	CBS
Picture format	Color (originally telecast in Black-and-white)
Original release	October 4, 1961 (1961-10-04) – September 12, 1962 (1962-09-12)
Chronology
Followed by	Alvin and the Chipmunks (1983–1990) ALVINNN!!! and the Chipmunks (2015–)

The Alvin Show is an American animated television series that aired on CBS from October 1961, to September 1962. It is the first series to feature the singing characters Alvin and the Chipmunks. The Alvin Show aired for one season in prime time and originally sponsored by General Foods (Jell-O, Post cereals). The series was initially telecast in black and white. A color version began airing syndication in the fall of 1965.

The series rode the momentum of creator Ross Bagdasarian, Sr.'s original hit musical gimmick and developed the singing Chipmunk trio as rambunctious kids–particularly the show's namesake star–whose mischief contrasted to his tall, brainy brother Simon and his chubby, gluttonous brother Theodore, as well as their long-suffering, perpetually put-upon manager-father figure, David Seville. The animation was produced by Herbert Klynn's Format Films. The pilot episode, an early version of the fifth episode "Good Neighbor", was written and produced to sell the show to CBS.^[1] The actual show featured a re-worked version, which aired as part of the 5th episode.

Characters

• The Chipmunks: The main characters of the series
  • Alvin: The talented troublemaker of the group.
  • Simon: The intelligent realist and the most responsible of the group.
  • Theodore: The cute and innocent member of the group who often giggles and likes to eat a lot.
• David "Dave" Seville: The Chipmunks' adoptive father, songwriter and manager, Dave's patience is tested nearly every day by Alvin, usually to the point where he yells his trademark yell "ALVIN!!!". Despite all this, he loves all of his boys equally.

Clyde Crashcup

Aside from the seven-minute Chipmunk segments, in which David Seville was portrayed as a hapless bachelor who managed and mentored the three singing rodents, the show also had segments featuring a character called Clyde Crashcup (voiced by Shepard Menken impersonating Richard Haydn's Edwin Carp character), a scientist/inventor. Each segment was introduced by Alvin, who was told by Dave that he was introducing a great inventor and was dumbfounded when he heard of Clyde Crashcup.

Clyde's "inventions" were really items that had already been invented, but with his own personal touches. His "creations" often backfired on him until his silent, level-headed assistant, Leonardo (diminutive, balding and perpetually whispering in Crashcup's ear) saved him from any further self-destruction.

Syndication

CBS reran the series on Saturday mornings for a few years after the show's prime time run ended and segments from the show were syndicated in the mid- and late 1960s under the package title Alvin and the Chipmunks (this first syndicated package consisted of the individual show segments only, including the Alvin and Clyde Crashcup cartoons and the Chipmunks musical segments, not in the form of half-hour shows). The series later was revived on NBC-TV, again promoted under the title Alvin and the Chipmunks (with the introductory Alvin Show title card cut off the beginning of the show opening) Saturday mornings between March 10, 1979 and September 1, 1979. Superstation WGN Chicago 9 began airing the show in September 1983 (replacing The Pink Panther Show), lasting until mid-1985. Another Superstation, WTBS Atlanta, picked up the show in 1986.

Ross Bagdasarian, Sr. died of a heart attack on January 16, 1972. Years later, his son, Ross Bagdasarian Jr., picked up on a disc jockey's joke and produced the album Chipmunk Punk in 1980. The success of Chipmunk Punk spurred renewed interest a new animated series, which launched in fall 1983 on NBC and was titled Alvin and the Chipmunks, with Ross, Jr. taking over for his father as the voices of Alvin, Simon and Dave Seville. His wife, Janice Karman, voiced Theodore, as well as The Chipettes, who are the Chipmunks' female counterparts. To coincide with the new series, Viacom Enterprises distributed reruns of The Alvin Show to local stations.

In 1981 Clyde Crashcup made an appearance during a dream sequence in A Chipmunk Christmas. During recent network airings of the special, the sequence has been cut out, due to network time constraints concerning commercial ad time.

In 1990, The Alvin Show versions of the Chipmunks and Clyde Crashcup reappeared in an episode of The Chipmunks Go To the Movies entitled "Back to Our Future" (a spoof of the 1985 movie, Back to the Future).

A majority of the songs and clips from The Alvin Show were featured in the Alvin and the Chipmunks Sing Along Songs VHS's that were released in the mid-1990s. The songs, however, were slightly remastered.

Nickelodeon picked up US broadcast rights to The Alvin Show sometime in 1994 and ran the episodes daily until late 1995. During this time, as well as for sometime after the full episodes stopped airing, the individual cartoons and musical segments were inserted into episodes of Weinerville. In 1996, Nickelodeon stopped showing The Alvin Show segments altogether and no television station has aired them since then.

Voice cast

• Ross Bagdasarian, Sr. - Alvin Seville, Simon Seville, Theodore Seville, David Seville, Sam Valiant; additional voices
• Shepard Menken - Clyde Crashcup; additional voices
• June Foray - Daisy Bell, Mrs. Frumpington; additional voices
• Bill Lee - Additional voices
• Johnny Mann - Additional voices
• Lee Patrick - Mr. Frumpington; additional voices
• Don Messick - Additional voices (uncredited)
• Joe Besser - Additional voices (uncredited)
• Mel Blanc - Additional voices (uncredited)

Episodes

26 episodes each were produced for the Alvin and the Chipmunks and Clyde Crashcup segments, along with 52 musical segments.

General Foods was the show's main sponsor; as such, Dave Seville and The Chipmunks appeared in several humorous half-minute commercials for Jell-O and Post Cereals.

Credits

• "The Alvin Show" · © 1961 Bagdasarian Film Corp. All Rights Reserved
• Produced by Format Films, Inc.
• Executive Producer: Herbert Klynn
• Producers: Jules Engel, Jack Kinney
• Associate Producer: Leo Salkin
• Art Director: Jules Engel
• Production Executive: Bud Getzler
• Direction: Osmond Evans, Rudy Larriva, Alan Zaslove, Gil Turner, Hal Ambro, Jack Kinney
• Story: Leo Salkin, Cal Howard, Bob Kurtz, Ed Nofziger, Dale Hale, Jan Strejan, Al Bertino, Jack Cosgriff, Bill Danch, Chris Jenkyns, Dick Kinney, Tedd Pierce, Jim Rivind, Carol Beers, Eddie Rehberg, Ken Hultgren, Rosemary O'Connor, Jack Miller, Milt Schaffer, Ralph Wright, Joe Grant, Walter Schmidt, Harvey Toombs, Noel Tucker, Joseph Stewart, Raymond Jacobs, Jack Kinney, Tom Hix, Nick George, Osmond Evans, Dennis Fraser, Warren Bennett, Tony Benedict, Ruben Apodaca, Jerry Nevius, Wesley Bennett, Joe Siracusa, Cliff Millsap
• Animation: Ed Friedman, Bob Goe, Fred Grable, Chuck Harriton, Leroy Cross, Chuck Downs, Frank Braxton, Ken Hultgren, Hal Ambro, Fred Wolf, Stan Wilkins, Amby Paliwoda, Ruth Kissane, Ruben Apodaca, Doris Collins, Jim Fletcher, Roy Abel, Hank Smith, William Luckey, Harvey Toombs, Volus Jones, Eddie Rehberg, Abe Levitow, Eric Cleworth, Bill Keil, Murray McClellan, Phil Duncan, Hugh Fraser, Rudy Larriva, Alan Zaslove, Osmond Evans, Gil Turner
• Assistant Animation: Don Selders, Ric Gonzales
• Production Design: Sam Weiss, Vern Jorgensen, Ernie Nordli, Dale Barnhart, Cullen Houghtaling, Raymond Jacobs, Ray Aragon
• Layout: Ken Hultgren, Vern Jorgensen, Robert Givens, Raymond Jacobs, Eddie Rehberg, Bruce Bushman, Jerry Nevius, Noel Tucker
• Background: Rosemary O'Connor, Bob McIntosh, Boris Gorelick, Ervin Kaplan, Jules Engel, Vern Jorgensen, Connie Matthews, Peggy Morrow, Raymond Jacobs, Noel Tucker
• Supervising Editor: Joe Siracusa
• Editors: Joe Siracusa, Roger Donley, Cliff Millsap
• Voices: Ross Bagdasarian, Shepard Menken, Mel Blanc, June Foray, Bill Lee, Johnny Mann, Lee Patrick, Don Messick, Joe Besser
• Musical Direction and Arrangements: Johnny Mann
• Music by: Ross Bagdasarian, Charles E. King, Ken Lowman
• Production Manager: Ray Thursby
• Production Associate: Nick Draklich
• Final Colorist: Richard Garibaldi
• Title Design: Herbert Klynn
• Ink and Paint: Vera McKinney
• Checking: Paul Marron, Pat Helmuth, Moley McColley, Christine Decker, Evelyn Sherwood, Rollie Greenwood, Grace McCurdy, Ruth Tompson, Jane Philippi, Buf Nerbovig, Barbara Ruiz
• Camera: Jack Eckes, Dick Blundell, Bill Kotler, Jack Buehre
• Sound Engineers: Marne Fallis, Ted Keep
• Sound: Ryder Sound Service
• Recording: Glen Glenn Sound
• This Picture Made Under the Jurisdiction of IATSE-IA Affiliated with A.F.L.
• A Presentation of Bagdasarian Film Corporation

Home media releases

Other than the two VHS releases from Buena Vista Home Video, both of which featured 11 songs from The Alvin Show, up until recently, the show has never been released on DVD. However, on September 8, 2009, Paramount Home Entertainment released the first episode of the show, along with two "modern" specials. A future "Complete Series" DVD set of the series has not yet been planned. In 2014, "The Brave Chipmunks" musical sequence was released as a bonus feature on The Chipmunk Adventure Blu-ray and DVD combo pack. In 2015, three complete episodes (#01, #04, and #10) were released together as The Alvin Show on Blu-ray and DVD.^[2]

International broadcast

• Australia
  • Network Ten
  • Nickelodeon
• Chile
  • TVN (1969–1973 & 1975–1979)
• Russia
  • Channel One Russia (1992–1996)
  • Russia-1 (1996–1998)
• United Kingdom
  • Nickelodeon (1995–1997)
  • Cartoon Network (1997–2000)
  • Toon Disney (2000–2004)
• France
  • France 3 (1976–1982)
  • TF1 (1982–1990)

See also

• Alvin and the Chipmunks (1983 TV series)
• Alvin and the Chipmunks (2015 TV series)

References

External links

• Alvin and the Chipmunks page at Toonopedia
• The Alvin Show at the Big Cartoon DataBase
• The Alvin Show on IMDb
• The Alvin Show at TV.com