User Reviews

"Q.T. Hush" was a cartoon adventure serial that ran in syndication on American TV. It was never transmitted in Britain, although several episodes were brought over to London in the mid-1960s by an American TV executive who hoped to syndicate them in Britain. I saw these episodes whilst I was working at Broadcasting House for the BBC. I mis-heard the title character's name as 'Cutey Hush', but the syndication executive explained to me that the character's name was part of an American slang phrase: to do something 'on the Q.T.' is to keep it quiet, softly-softly.

'Q.T. Hush' is a detective, so of course he wears a deerstalker cap and smokes a calabash pipe. (Was this cliché ever funny?) He also looks a lot like Elmer Fudd. Hush (a private eye) is assisted by a 'private nose' ... namely, his bloodhound Seamus, who also wears a deerstalker and walks on his hind legs. They travel to their stakeouts in Hush's yellow jalopy.

The most amazing thing about Hush is that his shadow has a mind of its own, and can detach itself from Hush's body. Hush's shadow is named Quincy. Q.T. Hush is short and plump, but his shadow Quincy is tall and thin. The shadow wore a trenchcoat and a trilby (wot, no deerstalker?), and smoked a stinky cigar. Quincy had no face, or perhaps his face was shrouded in the depths of his trenchcoat. Being an animated shadow, Quincy was able to slip under doorcracks, flatten into two dimensions, and do all sorts of other things that Q.T. and Seamus couldn't do. Quincy had his own office at the Finkerton Detective Agency, which is only fair: he was definitely an autonomous figure in his own right, and not dependent on Q.T. Hush. I wonder if this character was inspired by the Shadow from the old 1930s radio serials. Frankly, I couldn't understand why Q.T. Hush was the main character in this series, since he is upstaged by his own shadow: Quincy is a much more interesting (and more versatile) character.

The Q.T. Hush cartoons were meant to be funny, but I found them rather eerie, due to the presence of the spooky faceless Quincy. If Hush's shadow could detach itself from his body and move about independently, mightn't the rest of us lose our shadows too? Why don't Quincy (the shadow) and Seamus (the private nose) ditch Q.T. Hush and set up their own detective agency? They could call it the Shadow Nose.

Q.T. Hush was one of those (fictional) private eyes who are constantly called in by the police to solve cases that baffle the police force. (This hardly ever happens in real life.) A typical Hush nemesis was Dr Tickle, who drank something called 'Meany Mix' that turned him into the monstrously evil Mr Snide. (Tickle and Snide, geddit?) There was also a jewellery thief named Baffles (geddit?) and a gang called the Scavenger Hill Mob: these are British-based puns which I should think would be completely over the heads of American children, and they would likely be over the heads of most British children too.

Like 'Rocky and Bullwinkle', Q.T. Hush's adventures were serialised cliffhangers: each adventure ran for 10 instalments. 'Hush' was better-drawn and better-animated than 'Bullwinkle', and also had much more elaborate backgrounds. (Interestingly, the interior shots of the police station often featured a carefully-drawn American flag.) However, 'Bullwinkle' was much better-scripted and is definitely funnier than 'Q.T. Hush'.

'Q.T. Hush' is not one of the all-time great cartoons, but it's much better (and more intelligent) than most of the brainless and unattractive animations that are polluting children's television nowadays. I can't understand the tremendous popularity of a cartoon series like 'Scooby-Doo', in which every single episode has exactly the same plot and the same 'surprise' ending. 'Q.T. Hush' at least showed some imagination and intelligence, and some glimmerings of wit. Someone should revive this show and take 'Scooby-Doo' off the air.

I grew up with QT, watching on local TV as a 9 year old...At the time I wasn't so picky about animation...I remember Quincy, Hushes' assistant and Shamus, a hound replete with deerstalker hat, Hushes' "private nose"......There were character villains like "Al Cologne" (as in Al Capone) as well as an Asian goon named "Won Ton" (as in one ton) because of his size.....

Like I said, I wasn't so picky at the time....We had other stuff like this including "Spunky and Tadpole" a rather crude but humorous series about a kid and a bear detective that predated the Scooby-doo bit by over 10 years - but I digress.

Recently I had the chance to view several episodes on tape and was amazed by how cheesy the whole mess looked.

I guess my biggest problem with the series overall was that Dal Mc Kenna did ALL the damn voices....ALL of 'em!........And every one of them sounds the same! Dal's a talented man but even Mel Blanc couldn't pull off doin' everything himself.....

If you want to see something from about 7 years later that was so dumb it was funny, try Batfink.

I remember watching Q.T.HUSH in 1961 when it was shown around dinner time. I thought it was so cool. But then again, I was only 7.

In 1971, Q.T.HUSH was aired on WUTV Channel 29 from Grand Island, NY. Being older and wiser, I understood the tongue-in-cheek humor in the plots involving criminals with names like "Al Cologne". The episodes were short 10-minute cliff hangers which were to be continued. This idea would later be used with BATMAN in 1966.

Q.T.HUSH had the same silliness as ROCKY & BULLWINKLE, though the humor of Q.T.HUSH got lost in the artwork, which unlike ROCKY & BULLWINKLE was not "so bad that it was good". The artwork of Q.T.HUSH was dark and eerie (even though the animation was simple). The background images were well drawn and detailed. For example, the blinds in the police station looked old and in need of replacement. The street lights cast an eerie glow on the seedy city streets. And the music was done in a style that was clearly a jazz/blues fusion that was just too cool for words.

While watching a few episodes, I recognized the voice talents of the late great Dal McKennon. The vocal style of Q.T.Hush would be used for "Mr, Weatherbee" on the ARCHIE cartoon and the vocal style of "Seamus" would be used for "Archie" himself.

In spite of the flaws in the series, one must remember that it was intended to be a filler between a local program that ended with time to spare and the local news. Still, it was an entertaining feature that would generate quite a bit of interest as a DVD set. And, like it or hate it, Q.T.HUSH is better than the garbage being made today. There's no comparison!