The Alvin Show is an American animated television series that aired on CBS in the early 1960s. This was the first series to feature the singing characters Alvin and the Chipmunks. The Alvin Show aired for one season, from October 4, 1961, to March 28, 1962 and was originally sponsored by General Foods through its Jell-O gelatin and Post Cereal brands. Although the series was created in color, it was initially telecast in black and white. It was later rebroadcast in color from 1962–65 for Saturday mornings on CBS and again Saturday mornings on NBC in 1979.

The series rode the momentum of creator Ross Bagdasarian Sr.'s original hit musical gimmick and developed the singing Chipmunk trio as rambunctious kids—particularly the show's namesake star—whose mischief contrasted to his tall, brainy brother Simon and his chubby, gluttonous brother Theodore, as well as their long-suffering, perpetually put-upon manager-father figure, David Seville. The animation was produced by Herbert Klynn's Format Films. The pilot episode, an early version of the fifth episode "Good Neighbor", was written and produced to sell the show to CBS. The actual show featured a re-worked version, which aired as part of the fifth episode. With producer Fred Calvert (who would later work on The Thief and the Cobbler) calling them in, the opening sequence was animated by Bobe Cannon and assistant animated by Iwao Takamoto.

Each episode consisted of a Chipmunks and Clyde Crashcup segment, both of them seven minutes long. Following each segment was a musical number with Dave and the Chipmunks. Most of the songs came from the first three albums that had already been released by the time the show premiered (Let's All Sing with The Chipmunks, Sing Again with The Chipmunks, and Around the World with The Chipmunks). By the second half, all the songs from the new fifth album, The Chipmunk Songbook, were also featured. In addition to the non-album Alvin for President, "Maria from Madrid", which was previously released as a non-Chipmunks B-Side to "Judy" in 1959 under Bagdasarian's stage name of David Seville, and two unreleased Chipmunk covers, "Clementine" and "Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair", rounded out the remaining song segments.

The show was followed in 1983 by another Chipmunks series, Alvin and the Chipmunks which aired on NBC.

Syndication

CBS reran the series on Saturday mornings after the show's prime time run ended in 1962.

In the mid to late 1960s, the individual show segments were culled together and sold as a syndication package under the title Alvin and the Chipmunks. The original episodes began airing under the Alvin and the Chipmunks title on NBC Saturday mornings in 1979 for a short period.

Ross Bagdasarian Sr. died of a heart attack on January 16, 1972, seemingly bringing to an end any further Chipmunk productions. Years later, his son, Ross Jr., picked up on a disc jockey's joke and produced the album Chipmunk Punk in 1980. The success of Chipmunk Punk spurred renewed interest in a new animated series by Ruby-Spears, which launched in September 1983 on NBC and was titled Alvin and the Chipmunks, with Ross Jr. taking over for his father as the voices of Alvin, Simon, and Dave Seville. His wife, Janice Karman, voiced Theodore, as well as The Chipettes, who are the Chipmunks' female counterparts.

The chances of the complete series ever being released to DVD, however, are currently zero. In other words, due to legal hurdles and copyrighted song issues, it is currently highly likely that under no circumstances will this show get a complete series DVD

International broadcast

  • Australia
  • Network Ten (1973 & 1997-2001)
  • Nickelodeon (2002-2004)
  • Canada
  • CBMT (1966)
  • Chile
  • TVN (1969–1973 & 1975–1979)
  • Russia
  • Channel One Russia (1992–1996)
  • Russia-1 (1996–1998)
  • United Kingdom
  • BBC (1962)
  • Nickelodeon (1995–1997)
  • Cartoon Network (1997–2000)
  • Toon Disney (2000–2004)
  • Italy
  • Hiro (1980)
  • Italia 7 (1980)
  • Brazil (Unconfirmed)
  • TV Rio (1968)
  • Record TV (1969)
  • TV Piratini (1970)

Syndicated stations

  • WTBS-TV - Atlanta, Georgia
  • WGN-TV - Chicago, Illinois
  • WNEW-TV - New York City (first station to run the show as a syndicated series on weekday afternoons in 1965, shortly before CBS cancelled its run as a Saturday Morning program)
  • KTVU-TV - San Francisco, California
  • WSFL-TV - Miami, Florida
  • WXIX-TV - Cincinnati, Ohio
  • KXTX-TV - Dallas, Texas
  • WVTV-TV - Milwaukee, Wisconsin
  • WGBS-TV - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
  • WXNE-TV - Boston, Massachusetts
  • WTXX-TV - Hartford, Connecticut
  • WTOP-TV - Washington, District of Columbia (aired on Sunday mornings from January until September 1970)
  • WFTY-TV - Washington, District of Columbia
  • WPTT-TV - Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
  • WTTE-TV - Columbus, Ohio
  • WKBF-TV - Cleveland, Ohio
  • WOIO-TV - Cleveland, Ohio (aired weekday mornings in the mid-1980s)
  • WKBD-TV - Detroit, Michigan
  • WPTF-TV - Raleigh, North Carolina (aired on Sundays in the mid-1980s)
  • KZKC-TV - Kansas City, Missouri
  • WISH-TV - Indianapolis, Indiana (ran as a syndicated program before CBS's Saturday Morning block in the early 1990s)
  • WFTS-TV - Tampa, Florida
  • WTZA-TV - Kingston, New York
  • WOLF-TV - Scranton, Pennsylvania
  • WSAZ-TV - Huntington, West Virginia (ran as a syndicated program before NBC's Saturday Morning block in the early-1980s)
  • KLRT-TV - Little Rock, Arkansas

Further reading

References

  • Alvin and the Chipmunks page at Toonopedia