Beagles, The

1 9 6 6 – 1 9 6 8 (USA)
36 x 30 minute episodes

This cartoon series from Leonardo Productions related the misadventures of two rock musician pups, Stringer and Tubby, who acted more like a comedy team.

Stringer was the tall extroverted guitarist who usually had to rescue his shorter, chubbier and more neurotic partner Tubby, the bass player. Typically, Tubby would get caught in some disaster and would bellow ‘String-gaah!’ in his Noo Yawk Jewish accent, summoning his taller buddy.

The Beagles were managed by Scotty, a mercenary Scottish terrier who was always trying to squeeze one more hit song out of his overworked clients, and constantly dreaming up bizarre publicity stunts that triggered most of the dangers for The Beagles.

The songs performed in each adventure by Tubby and Stringer were surprisingly good, ranging in musical style from soft-rock to gentle ballads, with intelligent lyrics.

After the series finished in the top 10 for Saturday mornings in 1966-67, easily beating Magilla Gorilla on ABC, CBS somewhat surprisingly did not renew it, and the series went into repeats on ABC the following season – ironically preceding Magilla Gorilla reruns.

A soundtrack album, Here Come the Beagles, was released on Columbia Records’ Harmony offshoot in 1967.

Stringer
Mort Marshall
Tubby
Allen Swift
Scotty
Allen Swift
Narrator
Kenny Delmar

Video