Tennessee Tuxedo And His Tales - Complete Collection

Growing up, I enjoyed Tennessee Tuxedo quite a bit. I loved when Tennessee and Chumley would visit Mr. Whoopee as I knew I'd learn something interesting as well.

So, when this DVD set was announced, I immediately pre-ordered it.

This set gives you all 70 episodes of Tennessee Tuxedo, as well as some episodes of The King and Odie, Tooter Turtle, Klondike Kat, and The Hunter.

For most fans, this is all you need to know. But for those interested in the minute details that Amazon's blurbs tend to overlook, please read on.

While I would say this is likely the most thorough collection of Tennessee Tuxedo that we'll likely get, there are a number of issues that keep it from being the truly definitive collection fans had long hoped for.

The most obvious change that fans will notice immediately is the theme song that the first episode kicks off to is *not* the original recording - even though the visuals are correct.

The original theme features the voices of Tennessee and Chumley, as well as a chorus of male singers. The theme that starts more than half of the episodes here sounds like one taken from a children's record, with a female singer, *no* Tennessee & Chumley vocals, and no sound effects to go with the visuals (sound effects the original opening had).

Thankfully, the original audio *can* be heard as part of a collection of bumpers, promos, etc. that is on disc three. (This collection of various odd and ends is sourced from bootleg video tapes, so the quality ranges from mediocre to quite poor.) (Personally, I think it would have been nice if the producers of this set had added the original soundtrack audio to the clean visuals and used that to open each episode instead of the non-original theme, which gets old really fast...)

The alternate opening sequence (used on about half of the episodes) seems to have its original audio intact, but the visuals include an on-screen "bug" in the upper left corner. (A "bug-less" version of this alternate opening is on the aforementioned collection of bumpers/promos, but from a video source.)

The closing credits sequence uses the kiddie-record audio (with the female singer), but the original-audio version (an instrumental) is part of the promo/bumpers collection.

As for the episodes themselves, most seem to be taken from the original film masters, but one short ("Helecopter Hi-Jinx") was definitely sourced from video.

Twelve of the seventy Tennessee Tuxedo episodes are missing their original title cards.

Visually, the cartoons are quite colorful. However, each and every cartoon on this set (and the Underdog set too) suffers from very heavy-handed use of DVNR (digital video noise reduction).
(For those who don't know what DVNR is, it's a process companies use to remove film grain when they "restore" old footage. (For some reason, producers must think that film grain is inherently "bad".))

The problem when DVNR is overused - like it was here - details and lines (especially black lines on a white background) are often obliterated. When shots are over-processed, small things (like Chumley's whiskers, or the lines that make up Tennessee's eyes) are nearly processed away, and occasionally entire shots are ruined. (Towards the end of "Tell-Tale Telegraph" all that's left of the black telegraph wires is a series of jagged broken lines.)

In addition to the 70 Tennessee Tuxedo cartoons, this set also includes 11 Tooter Turtle episodes, 38 shorts featuring The King and Odie, 35 episodes of The Hunter, and 5 Klondike Kat cartoons. (The supporting cartoons seem to have all been mastered from film, but their openings are all mastered from bootleg videos (except Tooter Turtle's, although his closing segment was sourced from video.)

As with the Underdog set, there are a number of oversights and lapses in quality control that might be minor on the surface, but ones that make you wonder if the producers of this collection really did all they could to make it the best presentation possible.

The biggest oversight is the fact that a whopping *five* cartoons listed on the cases and in the booklet are not included.

In each case, a disclaimer pops up on the DVD telling us that the affected cartoon's audio could not be found after the packaging had already been printed. (For some reason, a sixth disclaimer also tells up about an *unlisted* cartoon being AWOL as well...)

In some instances, the affected cartoon was replaced with an alternate title, but mostly this was not the case. (Here's the list: (disc 1) "Big Birthday Blast" [The Hunter] (replaced with "Raquet Racket"); (disc 2) "Bye Bye Bees" [The King & Odie] (replaced with "Nose For The Noose"); (disc 3) "Record Rocket [The Hunter] (no substitution); (disc 5) "The Unteachables" [Tooter Turtle] (no substitution); (disc 6) "Lincoln Tunnel Caper" [The Hunter] (no substitution); (disc 6) a disclaimer for "Grand Canyon Caper" [The Hunter] not being included pops up, but this wasn't listed in the first place (no substitution).)

Lapses in quality control can also be seen with *many* titles being misspelled on the cases and in the booklet, and a few being totally misidentified. (For example, "Teddy Bear Trouble" was identified as "Koala Caper" in the booklet and on the DVD case.)

The bottom line is that if you want every episode of Tennessee Tuxedo, this is the set that you would have to get.

But, the non-original theme song, overuse of DVNR, AWOL episodes, and lapses in quality control keep it from being the absolute superlative collection fans had long hoped for.

(For those people who also buy the Underdog DVD set, here's a tally of the TTV cartoons you'll get when combined with this one:
Tennessee Tuxedo - all 70 episodes (TT set); Underdog - all 124 episodes (UD set); Go Go Gophers - all 48 episodes (UD set); Commander McBragg - all 48 episodes (UD set); Tooter Turtle - 23 of 39 episodes (12 episodes on UD set, 11 episodes on TT set); The King and Odie - 38 of 104 episodes (TT set); The Hunter - 35 of 65 episodes (35 episodes on TT set (the UD set has two episodes, but both are also on the TT set); Klondike Kat - 19 of 26 episodes (14 on UD set, 5 on TT set)

My first viewing of these cartoons were when it was already in syndication as part of The Underdog Show on Nickelodeon in the 90's, and later on Cartoon Network and Boomerang. I had watched every episode of Underdog several times over, and I originally thought I had seen all of the episodes of Tennessee Tuxedo. Little did I know that there were only about 25 or so episodes that were shown with Underdog, while there were actually 70 created in total! I had special VHS episodes of Tennessee here and there that had extra episodes not shown in syndication, but even those only got the episode count up to 30 to 35. I searched and searched for years for other episodes on the internet to no avail. The actual Tennessee Tuxedo show seems to have rarely been shown in its original form in years, and these other 30 or so episodes seemed lost to me.

Needless to say, I preordered both this DVD set and the Underdog set, distributed by Shout Factory. I have yet to watch the entire set, but i've already spent the last several hours watching these "lost' episodes today. Everything here is of exceptional quality. Unlike previous DVD releases, these episodes come with the original theme songs and original title cards. this set also includes several episodes of other TTV creations such as Tooter Turtle and the King Leonardo and Odie, which are two other hard-to-find cartoons....especially the latter.

As far as the cartoon itself, for those that don't know, it's about an anthropomorphic penguin and walrus that live in a Zoo, and get into all sorts of hijinx, usually in the course of trying to better their own lives but with questionable results. In every episode, they seek advice about a topic from the man with all the answers, Mr. Whoopie! This is where the cartoon takes the time to actually teach the viewer about a topic. Such topics covered are how the human heart works, the solar system, metabolism and exercise, how honey is made, how to build a house, etc. It's a very fun way to learn while watching an entertaining cartoon. Granted, many of these episodes are outdated when they talk about technology since this is a rather old series, but it's still educational.

For fans of the series from years ago, pick this set up! I can almost guarantee that even if you have watched these in syndication in the last few years, that over half the episodes on here are ones that you haven't seen before, or havent seen in decades! For newcomers, this show will be entertaining for both adults and kids alike, and kids will actually be learning as they watch. Many times, sets like these do not have very long print runs, so pick this up ASAP as this amazing price on Amazon, and while you are at it, go and pick up the Underdog Complete collection as well! It's the same great quality as this set : )

***Added 3/11/12
I still have yet to go through the other cartoons aside from Tennessee Tuxedo in their entirety, but I would read through Michelle's review above for some of the negatives on this set. I didn't sit down and write out the flaws like that person did, but I can definitely confirm some of what was mentioned. I'm rather surprised so many typos and mistakes got through QA. Personally, I only bought this set for Tennessee, and I only remember one episode (I believe it was Helicopter Hijinx but I'm not positive) being of what appeared to be VHS quality, which surprised me because the episode that it was is not even a rare episode. Surprisingly though, all of the rare episodes are DVD quality. Due to the fact that this appears to have been a rushed product, I have to rate this down to 4 stars. Overall though, as far as the quality of the main show it's featuring, I think they did a better job on this one than the Underdog set. This set is very well worth picking up. I sincerely doubt you will be able to find most of these episodes out there from a source even half as good.

In the set I bought, the episode "Monster from Another Planet" on Season 2, Disc 2, is incomplete. When Tennessee & Chumley decide to see Mr. Whoopee, the screen goes black for a commercial break and the episode just ends without showing the conclusion. The timer on my DVD Player has the episode listed as being over 5 minutes instead of over 9 minutes like the other cartoons. Does anyone else have this problem, or do I just have a defective set?

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 7 reviews  3.3 out of 5 stars