After revolutionising children’s programming with public TV’s long-running Sesame Street in 1969, the Children’s Television Workshop finally made its first commercial Saturday morning TV series for ABC.
Each show began with Phil (voiced by Jim Cummings), a woolly mammoth revived in the modern day, recounting an adventure applicable to a dilemma faced by his saviours, scientist Dr C – for Cecilia (April Ortiz) – and her teenage trainee aide Mike (Jussie Smollett).
A flashback to the Ice Age showed Phil’s 11-year-old pal Cro (voiced by Max Casella who was Vinnie on Doogie Howser MD) – an intelligent and highly-evolved Cro-Magnon boy who lived with a slow-witted Neanderthal family consisting of Nandy (voiced by Ruth Buzzi), Gogg (Frank Welker), and Ogg (Jim Cummings), and their ape pal Bob – working out a similar problem using scientific theories or mechanical principles such as levers and pulleys with the help of young woolly mammoth Pakka (Candi Milo) and her mother Ivanna (Laurie O’Brien).
By the end of each episode, Phil, Dr C and Mike had applied what they had learned – like the aerodynamics of flying – to their situation.
Also seen were Earle (Frank Welker) and Mojo (Charlie Adler), woolly mammoths conniving against the Neanderthals; Selene (Jane Singer), a seductive, purple, yellow-eyed Smilodon (sabre-toothed cat) and Big Red (voiced by Charlie Adler), the conniving leader of a menacing pack of bumbling dire wolves.
Cro took 18 months of planning before reaching the air. The principal background source was David Macaulay’s 1988 book The Way Things Work.
Cro
Max Casella Ogg
Jim Cummings Gogg
Frank Welker Nandy
Ruth Buzzi Phil
Jim Cummings Dr Cecilia
April Ortiz Mike
Jussie Smollett Pakka
Candi Milo Steamer
Charlie Adler Earle
Frank Welker Mojo
Charlie Adler Esmeralda
Tress MacNeille Ivanna
Laurie O’Brien Selene
Jane Singer Big Red
Charlie Adler Sooli
Cree Summer
Episodes
Just a Stone’s Throw Away | No Time for Steamer | Destroy All Buckies | It’s Snow Problem | Let Me Help | The Legend of Big Thing | Laugh Mammoth, Laugh | Pakka’s Cool Invention | Here’s Looking at You, Cro | No Way Up | Adventures in Miscommunications | Escape from Mung Island | Pulley for You | Things That Eat Mung in the Night || Meal Like a Pig | What That Smell | Play It Again, Cro Not! | Lever in a Million Years | Turn Up the Heat | They Move Mammoths, Don’t They?
Video
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Each show began with Phil (voiced by Jim Cummings), a woolly mammoth revived in the modern day, recounting an adventure applicable to a dilemma faced by his saviours, scientist Dr C – for Cecilia (April Ortiz) – and her teenage trainee aide Mike (Jussie Smollett).
