Mighty Mouse Playhouse
The show that put Saturday morning cartoons on the map.
Mighty Mouse Playhouse was a CBS Saturday morning anthology that aired Mighty Mouse cartoons from 1955 to 1967. The show made the character a pop culture phenomenon and helped establish Saturday morning cartoons as a television staple.
Quick Facts
- Runtime
- 30 minutes
- Voices
- Tom Morrison
- Arthur Kay
- Carol Lawrence
- Country
- United States
- Company
- Terrytoons
- Network
- CBS
- First aired
- 10 December 1955
- Last aired
- 2 September 1967
Facts from the source article.
Background
Mighty Mouse was a moderately successful Terrytoons character in theaters, but his real fame came from television. By the 1950s, most animation studios were struggling as audiences shifted to TV and cheaper, limited animation gained ground. Many sold or licensed their old films to broadcasters. In 1955, Paul Terry sold the entire Terrytoons studio to CBS. That December, CBS launched Mighty Mouse Playhouse, a Saturday morning anthology of the character’s old shorts. The show ran for nearly twelve years, adding The Mighty Heroes in its final season. It turned Mighty Mouse into a pop culture icon and helped establish the Saturday morning cartoon format. The cartoons remained a fixture of children’s TV for more than three decades, from the 1950s into the 1980s.
End of the Mighty Mouse film series
Terrytoons, under CBS ownership, produced only three further Mighty Mouse theatrical cartoons in the 1959–1961 time frame. This was in marked contrast to other animated cartoon lines such as Looney Tunes, Tom & Jerry and Woody Woodpecker, all of which continued to produce new film shorts for nearly a decade after licensing their library to television. The company evidently believed that the existing library of shorts was enough to keep youngsters tuning into CBS every Saturday morning; the library consisted of 80 shorts, enough for 26 half-hour episodes.
Frequently Asked Questions
When did Mighty Mouse Playhouse first air?
Mighty Mouse Playhouse first aired on 10 December 1955.
When did Mighty Mouse Playhouse end?
Mighty Mouse Playhouse last aired on 2 September 1967.
More in 1950s American Animated Television Series
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