User Reviews

I'm extra sensitive to cultural stereotypes of old. I'm always dismayed at the pre-"Josie Wales" westerns where the "bad-guy" American- Indians are merely white actors in greasepaint, and broad portrayals of Eastern-Asians is especially unacceptable. I'm thinking here of things like Mickey Rooney in "Breakfast at Tiffany's". Really degrading stuff....

I only bring that up to bolster my claim that I don't find GGG particularly anti-American-Indian. I don't get the sense that the gophers are the last SURVIVING members of a tribe, merely the lone occupants of Gopher Gulch. I think that GGG properly casts the Army as being on the wrong side of things in the 'Westward expansion', and being completely idiotic and misguided. The gopher Indians are always smarter and quicker, and always win. Seems more like a vindication of history, in a tiny, cartoony way. History was commonly being challenged and re-thought in the 60's, and I think that revisionist spirit infuses the show. I'll concede that the chief's speech IS a bit stereotypical.....the voice-work overall is great though.

I was born in 1968, and enjoyed GGG (and the excellent Underdog show) quite a bit, as a child. When I saw the GGG DVD, I bought it, and it's one of my 3-year-old daughter's favorites, and one of the shows that I can watch with her, and both of us enjoy. Sometimes, when we're away from home, out somewhere, I'll ask her "What does Colonel Kit Coyote say?", to which she'll respond "Bully! Bully!", in her best, tiny-voiced imitation. That's one of those golden intersections of nostalgia and parental love that makes me smile. My daughter (and one- year-old son) WILL grow up with memories of the whole Underdog crew, even if none of their peers in school know what they are talking about.

It's funny and thank God, not politically correct. Not the greatest of all cartoons but it does have its charm.

Comedy and political correctness are mutually exclusive and this is not politically correct. The Cavalry is very intelligent but always outwitted by two feisty native American Indians. It is funny for kids to see how they outwit the Cavalry.

The Theme songs itself is unique in that it's under produced but still has so much character to it. One of the voices sounds like Burl Ives but I cannot find this information anywhere on who sang the theme. If anyone knows who sang this song that sounds like they were in a garage in the 60's, please post it here.

The cartoon is about the Go Go Gophers, two American Indians who live in Gopher Gulch, one who speaks English and the other doesn't. One Colonel Coyote, a Teddy Roosevelt type, is an idiot overly dependent on his rule book, and his purpose is to clear out the Gophers from Gopher Gulch with his US military force. As might be expected, no matter what he tries or what he uses, the Gophers always outwit and defeat him. His sergeant is in on the joke, telling the audience to wait for the next adventure, implying that the same story will be told.

My mother saw it and asked what the real Indians thought of the show. It was produced during the 1960's, a subversive time from a subversive cartoon studio. Yes, it was meant to mock the Westerns that were still made in that era, and the Indian characters were like the prey who could never be defeated, like Jerry Mouse of the Tom and Jerry cartoons. Forget modern-day junk like Disney's Pocahontas or Dances With Wolves, which the Indians themselves laugh at. This is more like how the real Indians were.

The production company for "Go Go Gophers" and "Underdog" is Total Television Productions or TTV, and not Terrytoons. FYI. Total Television also produced "Tennessee Tuxedo and his Tales", "The Beagles" and "King Leonardo and his Short Subjects". Some of the short subjects that appeared on TTV shows include "The World of Commander McBragg", "Klondike Kat", "The Hunter", "The Singalong Family", "Tooter the Turtle". Some people confuse TTV with Jay Ward ("Rocky and Bullwinkle") as the segments for both shows were sometimes interchanged when the series went into syndication, but this is also erroneous. Currently, the TTV properties (as well as Jay Ward's) are owned by Classic Media. Terrytoons produced shows like "Mighty Mouse", "Deputy Dawg" and "The Mighty Heroes" among others...

I was 4 or 5 when these cartoons aired around 1968 and 1969, but I saw them recently for the first time in years with adult eyes, and here goes.

I read somewhere that the GGG's were the first children's cartoons about genocide, and this is sadly true. Part of the theme song goes-

Two little Indians, no others near. Colonel he vows these two soon disappear. Fighting the army with soldiers galore. What can two Indians do? (Gibberish) Go go gophers, watch them go go go. (2X)

Here comes the colonel with his sergeant, Both are a-roarin' and a-chargin'. Go go gophers, watch them go go go. (2X)

Okay, to put all of this in context, two Indians of the Gopher Tribe are all that remain of their clan as the pompous and ignorantly arrogant Col. Kit Coyote (Carson?) and his Sergeant (the apparent voice of reason whose catchphrase is "Begging the Colonel's Pardon,") try to wipe them off the land of Gopher Gulch. One Indian, the silly looking Ruffled feathers, speaks in bizarre babbling (boolagoolaboolaboolagoolaboolagoo) which can only be translated by his friend Running Board (apparently the Chief), who speaks stereotypical Hollywood Indianspeak, ("Him heap upset" is a sample line). The show is essentially a series of Wile E. Coyote/Roadrunner type episodes of Kit Coyote & the Sergeant trying to get this twosome off of the land they covet.

While it could be argued that the Gopher Indians are shown as the heroes of the show as they constantly outwit Kit Coyote and his sergeant, many modern audiences, especially of the PC crowd, would read far more into this than what was probably intended. A lot of folks would now recoil in horror at the idea of a kid's cartoon taking a humorous look at the extermination of the American Indians from their land. This issue aside, the small children of 1968 and 1969 (such as myself) who watched this at the time had no such issues with this and laughed at Kit Coyote's stupidity AND Ruffled Feather's babbling. However, this is not likely to appeal much to modern children and the parents who get this DVD for nostalgic warm and fuzzies will quickly tire of the same story being told over and over in each episode. OK as a curiosity piece, but not much else.

Go Go Gophers had its good points and bad points.

The good points were the outstanding voicework of Kenny Delmar (A Total Television staple who voiced The Hunter, Baldy the Eagle and Commander McBragg), Sandy Becker, the former local New York kids show host and George S. Irving, who used a deeper voice than his narration for Underdog. There was also the outstanding theme song that went "Go Go Gophers, watch them go go go."

The bad points were that the plots were rather repetitive. In each episode Colonel Kit Coyote and Sergeant Okey Homa tried to drive the Indians out of Gopher Gulch, but each time they failed. That's why the show is best enjoyed as a five minute segment instead of a full half hour show. As for the other segment Klondike Kat, the plots were also repetiitious but the writing was really bad, relying so much on catch phrases like "I'll make mincemeat out of that mouse! Savoir Faire is everywhere! and Klondike Kat always gets his mouse!"

A pair of gophers (substituting for Native Americans) confounded the plans of two dogs (military officers at a fort) that tried to catch them week after week on the show. The episodes were short, and were originally shown as part of other Terrytoon shows such as "Underdog" and "Tennessee Tuxedo".