The New Adventures of Mighty Mouse and Heckle & Jeckle

The New Adventures of Mighty Mouse and Heckle & Jeckle is a 1979–1980 animated television series featuring newly produced Mighty Mouse and Heckle & Jeckle cartoons. The series was produced by Filmation, and aired from 1979 to 1980 on CBS with 96 episodes produced. It was the second Mighty Mouse cartoon series, following the original Mighty Mouse Playhouse from 1955 to 1967, and followed by Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures, which aired from 1987 to 1988.

Production

CBS was looking to bring Mighty Mouse back to television for the first time since Mighty Mouse Playhouse went off the air in 1967. They had purchased the Terrytoons studio back in 1955 and eventually closed it in 1972. Without an animation studio of their own to produce new content, they licensed out their works to Filmation.
In the Mighty Mouse segments, Mighty Mouse protected the world and his love interest, Pearl Pureheart, from the evil machinations of Oil Can Harry and his new bumbling henchman, Swifty, a fat cat who could still run extremely fast. Their encounters could happen in any time period, with Pearl and the villains adopting roles specific for the era, though Mighty Mouse remained the same. Several changes were made to the Mighty Mouse formula for Filmation's series. The characters' operatic dialogue from the theatrical shorts was removed because producer Norm Prescott did not think that it would be acceptable to contemporary audiences. It was also removed to reduce the necessity to hire additional actors that could sing for roles that producer Lou Scheimer would fill in the various episodes. Filmation also abandoned the faux serialization tradition of starting off each entry as if it were a continuation of some non-existent previous part. Instead, events would unfold as Mighty Mouse usually watched for trouble through a giant telescope from his fortress on a cheese-like planet in space. One all-new story, the science fiction serial "The Great Space Chase", was serialized across the entire season in 16 parts. In keeping with broadcast standards of the time, the violence was toned down or non-existent. For the Heckle and Jeckle segments, the magpies' antics were toned down to reduce their malevolent and sadistic nature, though they still remained somewhat madcap in their antics, particularly with fourth wall breaks. Jeckle was portrayed as the smarter of the pair. The series introduced a new segment, Quacula. Quacula was a pale blue vampire duck with a Daffy Duck-like bill and fangs, dressed in a blue jacket and a black cape with a red lining, who slept by day in a white egg-shaped coffin, in the basement of a house owned by an anthropomorphic bear named Theodore. Every night Quacula would rise from his coffin and try to terrify Theodore and others, but he would never really succeed; his antics tended to be more comical than frightening. Also, Theodore would come up with one plan after another to rid himself of Quacula, but always fail to do so. Each hour of The New Adventures of Mighty Mouse and Heckle & Jeckle consisted of two Mighty Mouse cartoons, two Heckle and Jeckle cartoons, one Quacula cartoon, and one episode of "The Great Space Chase". Also included were "Mighty Mouse Environmental Bulletins" and Heckle and Jeckle's "Homonyms".
Filmation hired several animators and artists, including storyboard artists John Kricfalusi, Tom Minton and Eddie Fitzgerald, and screenwriter Paul Dini, who got their start working on the show and other productions such as Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids ''The Brown Hornet. Kricfalusi, Kent Butterworth and other animators did not understand the limitations put on by network strictures and economic realities, and wanted to rebel against Filmation's mandates of reusable animation and their strict "on-model" policies. Fitzgerald, Minton and other storyboard artists drew some funny and lively boards as reference for the animators. As a result, the animation and art was a lot more energetic than the original Terrytoons. Fitzgerald storyboarded a scene in the episode "Movie Mouse" where Oil Can Harry does a wild take in response to Swifty telling him that he used handcuffs to tie up a snake. Scheimer and Prescott claimed that the scene could not be animated, but Butterworth insisted that it could, and spent a week working on it to prove it. The scene wound up in the finished episode. Kricfalusi, Fitzgerald, Minton and Butterworth would later go on to work on Ralph Bakshi's Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures, with Minton describing his work on that series as "revenge for what couldn't do at Filmation". When he was first hired, Paul Dini was lighting models for Filmation. His father was a friend of Prescott's. During college, Dini was doing freelance scripts for Filmation. He sent the studio a script, and was given some work, writing some Quacula and Heckle and Jeckle episodes.
A panel of children's television experts assembled by TV Guide criticized the series, referring to it as "mindless and monotonous" with "relentless violence-based humor". After the series premiered, cartoonist Scott Shaw filed suit against Filmation due to the fact that he had created a character named Duckula for the comic book Quack! #1, published by Star*Reach. Shaw! had been alerted by friends at Filmation that they had copies of Quack!'' on hand during production, and that Quacula's character model sheet seemed to be one of Bob Clampett's Daffy Duck with Duckula's features overlaid onto it. Additionally, Duckula had his own bear supporting character named Bearanboltz, a dim-witted pastiche of Frankenstein's monster. The matter was settled out of court by Filmation with Shaw! for $30,000, and after 16 episodes Quacula was dropped from the show. The show was shortened to a half-hour in 1980, and was moved to Sundays in its final season. In 1982, "The Great Space Chase" was re-edited into an 80-minute movie which had a limited release to theaters. It later appeared on home video.

Voice cast and their characters

Alan Oppenheimer – Mighty Mouse, Oil Can Harry, Swifty, Narrator, Additional Voices
Diane Pershing – Pearl Pureheart, Additional Voices
Frank Welker – Heckle, Jeckle, Quacula, Theodore H. Bear, Additional Voices
Lou Scheimer – Additional Voices
Erika Scheimer - Additional Voices

Episodes

No.	Original air date	Title	Written by:
1	September 8, 1979	Mouse of the Desert	Sam Simon
1	September 8, 1979	The Great Space Chase: Chapter 1
1	September 8, 1979	Stop...Pay Troll	Sam Simon
1	September 8, 1979	Goldfeather	Bill Danch
1	September 8, 1979	Star Boars	Ted Pedersen
1	September 8, 1979	The Golden Egg	Dan DiStefano
2	September 15, 1979	Planks a Lot	Sam Simon
2	September 15, 1979	The Great Space Chase: Chapter 2
2	September 15, 1979	The Exercist	Marc Richards
2	September 15, 1979	The Heroes	Ron Card
2	September 15, 1979	House for Sale	Ron Card
2	September 15, 1979	Cavebirds	Ted Pedersen
3	September 22, 1979	The Star of Cucamonga	Ron Card
3	September 22, 1979	The Great Space Chase: Chapter 3
3	September 22, 1979	Gypsy Mice	Ted Pedersen
3	September 22, 1979	Show Business	Bill Danch
3	September 22, 1979	Weird Bear	Bill Danch & Ted Pedersen
3	September 22, 1979	Spurs	Ron Card
4	September 29, 1979	Loco Motivations	Dave Bascom
4	September 29, 1979	The Great Space Chase: Chapter 4	Buzz Dixon
4	September 29, 1979	Cats and Robbers	Bill Danch
4	September 29, 1979	Birds of Paradise	Ted Pedersen
4	September 29, 1979	Monster Mash	Ted Pedersen
4	September 29, 1979	The Open Road	Ted Pedersen
5	October 6, 1979	Blimp with the Wind	Dave Bascom
5	October 6, 1979	The Great Space Chase: Chapter 5
5	October 6, 1979	Catula	Bill Danch
5	October 6, 1979	Robot Factory	Creighton Barnes
5	October 6, 1979	Uncle Ferenc	Ron Card
5	October 6, 1979	Farmer and the Crows	Ted Pedersen
6	October 13, 1979	Mouserace	Bill Danch
6	October 13, 1979	The Great Space Chase: Chapter 6
6	October 13, 1979	The Sun Harnesser	Ron Card
6	October 13, 1979	Foreign Legion Birds	Dan DiStefano
6	October 13, 1979	The Magic Lamp	Ron Card
6	October 13, 1979	Mail Birds	Creighton Barnes
7	October 20, 1979	Movie Mouse	Sam Simon
7	October 20, 1979	The Great Space Chase: Chapter 7
7	October 20, 1979	Mick Jaguar in Concert	Buzz Dixon
7	October 20, 1979	The Malcon-tents	Ron Card
7	October 20, 1979	Room for Rent	Ron Card
7	October 20, 1979	Bellhops	Nancy Schipper
8	October 27, 1979	Pheline of the Rock Opera	Bill Danch
8	October 27, 1979	The Great Space Chase: Chapter 8	Buzz Dixon
8	October 27, 1979	Captain Nemo-oh-oh	Bill Danch
8	October 27, 1979	Sphinx!	Ted Pedersen
8	October 27, 1979	Morgana La Duck	Paul Dini
8	October 27, 1979	Hang Two	Ted Pedersen
9	November 3, 1979	Snow Mouse	Ted Pedersen
9	November 3, 1979	The Great Space Chase: Chapter 9
9	November 3, 1979	Haunted House Mouse	Bill Danch
9	November 3, 1979	Witch Way Outta Here	Dan DiStefano
9	November 3, 1979	Return of Star Boars	Ted Pedersen
9	November 3, 1979	C.B. Birds	Nancy Schipper
10	November 10, 1979	Cat Ness Monster	Creighton Barnes
10	November 10, 1979	The Great Space Chase: Chapter 10	Sam Simon & Buzz Dixon
10	November 10, 1979	Rugged Rodent	Buzz Dixon
10	November 10, 1979	Shopping Center	Ted Pedersen
10	November 10, 1979	Time and Before	Ted Pedersen
10	November 10, 1979	Where There's a Will	Ron Card & Bill Danch
11	November 17, 1979	Gorilla My Dreams	Bill Danch
11	November 17, 1979	The Great Space Chase: Chapter 11
11	November 17, 1979	Cattenstein	Bill Danch
11	November 17, 1979	Identity Problem	Creighton Barnes
11	November 17, 1979	Bungled Burglary	Paul Dini
11	November 17, 1979	Time Warped	Paul Dini
12	November 24, 1979	Cat of the Baskervilles	Sam Simon
12	November 24, 1979	The Great Space Chase: Chapter 12
12	November 24, 1979	Pearl of the Jungle
12	November 24, 1979	Invisible Birds
12	November 24, 1979	Shanghai Salty	Ted Pedersen
12	November 24, 1979	Marathon Bird	Nancy Schipper
13	December 1, 1979	Moby Whale	Buzz Dixon
13	December 1, 1979	The Great Space Chase: Chapter 13
13	December 1, 1979	Big Top Cat
13	December 1, 1979	Supermarket	Ted Pedersen
13	December 1, 1979	Pyramid	Ron Card & Bill Danch
13	December 1, 1979	Flowered Knighthood	Ted Pedersen
14	December 8, 1979	The Disorient Express	Sam Simon
14	December 8, 1979	The Great Space Chase: Chapter 14
14	December 8, 1979	The Maltese Mouse	Buzz Dixon
14	December 8, 1979	Astrobirds
14	December 8, 1979	Haunted House	Ron Card
14	December 8, 1979	Apartment Birds
15	December 15, 1979	Beau Jest	Bill Danch
15	December 15, 1979	The Great Space Chase: Chapter 15
15	December 15, 1979	Curse of the Cat
15	December 15, 1979	The 25th Century
15	December 15, 1979	Magic Duck	Ron Card
15	December 15, 1979	Safari Birds	Sam Simon
16	December 22, 1979	Around the World in 80 Ways	Ted Pedersen
16	December 22, 1979	The Great Space Chase: Chapter 16
16	December 22, 1979	Tugboat Pearl
16	December 22, 1979	Wonderland
16	December 22, 1979	The Fantastic 2½	Ted Pedersen
16	December 22, 1979	Arabian Nights and Days