Here Comes the Grump

History

A tiny, irritable wizard cast a curse of perpetual dreariness over the kingdom ruled by Princess Dawn. To break the spell, the Princess and her companion Terry Dexter, a boy from our world, set out to locate the Cave of the Whispering Orchids and retrieve a magical crystal key. The Grump, riding a dragon named Dingo, constantly pursued them.

Their chases led the trio into odd and fantastic locales, like the Blabbermouth of Echo Island, where the mountains were formed from living Swiss cheese. The Princess owned a peculiar pet called Bip, which looked somewhat like a dog but had tentacle-like legs, tracked clues by sniffing like a hound, and could reverse its direction by retracting its head and tail and popping them out at opposite ends. Bip communicated using the sounds of a soprano bugle. For most of their journeys, the Princess and her friends used a flying car held aloft by a large balloon.

A running joke had the Grump nearly catching Princess Dawn, only for Dingo to sneeze and blast the little wizard with fire. The Grump’s design was borrowed from Yosemite Sam, a character also created by Friz Freleng. The dragon Dingo was modeled after the one Sam rode in Knighty Knight Bugs, complete with the same fiery sneezes directed at its master.

Broadcast

The show aired on NBC from September 6, 1969, to April 25, 1970, with reruns continuing until January 23, 1972. After its single season, the series later appeared on the Sci-Fi Channel in the mid-1990s. A complete DVD set was released on January 31, 2006.

In Spanish, it was known as Ahi viene Cascarrabias, airing on Televisa in Mexico through the 1970s and 1980s, with another rerun in 2006. In Brazil, it was called Grump, o feiticeiro trapalhão and was rerun by Rede Globo until 1993. The only known merchandise was a Halloween mask produced by Ben Cooper Costume Company for the 1969 holiday season.

Did You Know?

• A feature film adaptation was produced by Ánima Estudios in Mexico and GFM Animation, with animation at Prime Focus World in London.
• The film was released in Mexico on July 26, 2018, and in the US on September 14 under the name A Wizard's Tale.