Super Chicken

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Super Chicken was a cartoon produced by Jay Ward and Bill Scott, who earlier had created the Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoons. It ran with George of the Jungle and Tom Slick on ABC TV on Saturday Mornings from the late 1960s to the early 1970s.

Super Chicken (voiced by Bill Scott) and his lion sidekick Fred would usually begin their adventures with the battlecry that went something like: "Quick, Fred, to the Super Coop."

His secret identity was well-to-do Henry Cabot Henhouse III; Fred acted as his butler/servant, etc. But when danger reared its ugly head, he would take his "Super Sauce" (often from a martini glass) and don his "Super Suit," which consisted of a plumed cavalier's hat, cape, Wellington boots, mask and a sword.

An early pilot featured an all-star comedy cast, including Bill Dana with Don Knotts as the voice of Super Chicken. The project was shelved and eventually recast.

The cartoon had several running gags, including:

The "Super Sauce" apparently either tasted really bad or packed quite a punch when it kicked in, as Henry would have a violent reaction moments after drinking it, nearly always stopping in mid-sentence to cluck loudly as the reaction hit him.

Fred would often ask Super Chicken why he didn't use his "super-vision", to which Super-Chicken would respond with something to the effect of "If I had any supervision, do you think I'd be running around dressed like this?"

In the course of a plan to defeat the bad guys, Super Chicken would suggest something dangerous for Fred's part, which Fred would be reluctant to carry out. When Fred voiced his reluctance, Super Chicken always reminded him, "You knew the job was dangerous when you took it, Fred!" A later superhero fowl, Darkwing Duck, paid homage to Super Chicken by using the catchphrase in the series pilot.

During the January 27th, 2003 episode of Loveline, host Drew Pinsky revealed that as a child he had participated in the test marketing of the show. This followed a rendition of the theme song by guest Emma Caulfield and cohost Adam Carolla. He said "it looked retarded to me", and "I was like eight years old and they marketed that and [...] George of the Jungle and another -- it seemed to me more bizarre -- it's about "time" kind of thing: a guy gets frozen and comes back to life".