Seeking a new character to sell breakfast cereal to children, General Mills stuck to tradition in 1964, adding to the long list of anthropomorphic animals on Saturday morning cartoons. Along with King Leonardo and Tennessee Tuxedo came Underdog.
The theme, written by W. Watts Biggers, Treadwell D. Covington, Joseph B. Harris and Chester A. Stover, appeared in three different opening sequences for the show and was so memorable that several covers have been done, including one by the Butthole Surfers for the album Saturday Morning Cartoons’ Greatest Hits in 1995, a jazz version for Ted Kooshian’s Standard Orbital Quartet and one by the Plain White T’s for a 2007 film based on the heroic pooch.
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