February 18th, 2022 
Michael Lyons 
“So come on, kids, let’s flip our lids
Higher than the moon
‘Cause now here’s Beany and Cecil in…
(a whole half hour)
Bob Clampett Cartoo-ooooooon!”
– The opening theme song for the Beany and Cecil show.
So began the popular animated television series, created by legendary Warner Bros. director Bob Clampett. Created for kids, Beany and Cecil was a favorite among adults. Celebrating its 60th anniversary this year, Beany and Cecil is now remembered as one of the unique television offerings in animation history.
The show was the brainchild of Clampett, one of the architects of the Golden Age of Warner Bros. cartoons. He was behind the inception of such iconic characters as Porky Pig, Daffy Duck, and Tweety. Clampett left Warner Bros. in 1945 and four years later created a puppet show for children entitled Time For Beany. Broadcast locally in Los Angeles, the show eventually went national, where it was a hit, with a fan base that reportedly included Albert Einstein!
The show’s main characters were the puppets of Beany, a cute, cherub-cheek boy who wore a beany cap, and his friend Cecil, the Seasick Sea Serpent. There was also Beany’s Uncle, Captain Horatio K. Huffenpuff (whose ship is the “Leakin’ Lena”), and the villain, Dishonest John.
Time For Beany ran through 1955. After, Clampett revived the characters in animated form for theatrical shorts and on January 6, 1962, the characters came to television with brand new cartoons, under the title Matty’s Funday Funnies With Beany and Cecil. Mattel toys was the show’s sponsor, and the character Matty was their spokesperson. The title was shortened to Beany and Cecil one year later.
The show, which was broadcast in primetime on ABC, centered on the adventures of Beany (voiced by Jim MacGeorge) and Cecil (voiced by Clampett himself) and their experiences traveling with “Uncle Captain” Huffenpuff (MacGeorge) to strange, new destinations while being pursued by Dishonest John (Irv Shoemaker).
On their adventures, they meet some colorful characters, including a beatnik named “Go Man Van Gogh,” an insect who wore a coonskin cap and was named “Davey Cricket,” a sawfish called “Jack the Knife” and “Dinah Saur,” a performing dinosaur, who was a take-off on singer Dinah Shore, just to name a few.
The names of these characters point to the sharp writing, satire and puns that were a hallmark of Beany and Cecil and what has endeared the show to generations.
In one episode, Beany, Cecil, and the Captain venture to “The Island of Mad-Hattan,” which includes “Mad-Madison Ad-venue,” where one “notes the tracks of the fedora crested commuters.”
In others, there is a visit to the movie studio Citrus Pictures, whose slogan is “If it’s a Citrus Picture, it’s a lemon!” Robot aliens that arrive on earth are dining on the cereal “Grape Nuts…and Bolts.” And, on another adventure, they have to pass by “The Bridge of Bar-Dot,” to arrive at the island named “No Bikini Atoll.”
Beany and Cecil is part of a unique era in animation that gave us other sharp, adult-centered shows, such as The Flintstones, Top Cat, and Rocky and Bullwinkle. It was a time when television animation took chances and reached new audiences.
In 1988, there was an attempt at a revival, The New Adventures of Beany and Cecil, from DIC Animation City. Sadly, it was short-lived with only five episodes.
But, sixty years after its debut, the original Beany and Cecil holds a special place in the hearts of a generation who grew up with the show, where a Seasick Sea Monster’s adventures filled with witticisms, gags, quips, and wisecracks still live on in laughter and animation history.
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