The Gerald McBoing-Boing Show
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The Gerald McBoing-Boing Show is an animated television series, based on the Dr. Seuss character, Gerald McBoing-Boing, who speaks through sound effects instead of spoken words. It aired for one season (1956 – 1957) on CBS, produced by the United Productions of America, and narrated by well-known radio announcer Bill Goodwin. Howard Morris provides Gerald's boings and other sound effects in this series. Run at 5:30 p.m. on Sunday evenings, it was a showcase for television broadcasts of UPA's cartoons, including Dusty of the Circus, the Twirlinger Twins, and Punch and Judy. The program proved too expensive, and lasted only three months. The episodes were repeated on Friday nights in the summer of 1957. As a result, The Gerald McBoing-Boing Show apparently became the first cartoon series to air regularly during prime time, preceding The Flintstones by two seasons.
In 2005, Cartoon Network began a "pre-school" block of television similar to Nickelodeon's "Nick Jr." It consists of short, often seven-minute shows aired multiple times during the block. One such show was a reincarnation of "The Gerald McBoing-Boing Show" entitled simply "Gerald McBoing-Boing". The show's star is a young boy named Gerald McCoy who, like his predecessor, speaks through sound effects rather than words.
