In 1984, political cartoonist Mike Peters wanted to branch
out and begin his own daily comedy strip. He always imagined it based on a dog
that acted like a real dog, unlike the anthropomorphic Snoopy over in Peanuts, because he found he could relate to a
dog. Mother
Goose and Grimm was centered
on Mother Goose who lived in a shoe (combining the fairytale Mother Goose
with The
Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe) with her dog, hyperactive yellow Bull Terrier
Grimmy (named after the Brothers Grimm),
dimwitted Boston Terrier Ralph, and belligerent purple cat Attila (named after Attila the Hun). They lived
in a world populated by a mix of fairy tale creatures and normal humans. The
strip is steeped in pop culture, often spoofing or referencing things that are
big at the time and notable fictional characters. When the muse descends, the
strip could abandon its core cast and continuing story in favor of stand-alone
one-panel gags. The strip debuted on October 1st and is distributed
by King Features Syndicate to over 800
newspapers.
 |
| The first Mother Goose & Grimm strip. |
At the height of the strip’s
popularity, Tribune Media decided the
time was right to try and duplicate the success fellow comic strip Garfield found in being translated to animation.
To hedge their bets, they contracted Garfield and Friends’ production
companies, Film Roman and Lee Mendelson Productions, to
produce the series, and the show’s story editor, voice director and primary
writer, Mark Evanier, to perform the
same duties (which also meant hiring a number of the same staff). Hell, they
even found a home for it on the same network--CBS--and
had commercials with
Garfield (Lorenzo Music)
promoting the show.
 |
| Grimmy and Attila. |
Mother
Goose and Grimm debuted on CBS on September 14, 1991. It starred husband
and wife team Charlie Brill and Mitzi McCall as Grimmy and Mother Goose,
respectively, with veteran voice actor Greg Burson as Attila. Wang Film Production
Company and Cuckoo’s
Nest Studios handled the animation and duplicated Peters’ style perfectly;
making it seem like the show jumped right off of the newspaper page. Peters
himself designed the series’ opening of Grimmy trying to elude overzealous
dogcatcher, Sven Rottweiler (Hal Rayle,
impersonating Arnold Schwarzenegger),
which was directed by producer Phil
Roman. Ron Grant
composed the series’ music.
 |
| Mother Goose and Ham. |
Each episode was broken up into two segments with Evanier writing most of
them. Gordon Kent and Earl Kress penned the remaining
ones. The strip’s sarcasm was toned down in favor of more traditional cartoon
slapstick, particularly centered around Grimmy’s fascination with household
appliances (a trait shared by his creator) and his love of fire hydrants and
garbage, as well as 4th wall-breaking humor reminiscent of Garfield. A recurring gag in the end
credits featured Peters’ wife Marian
performing a variety of imaginary functions on the show (like choreographer)
with a corresponding nickname (like “Flash Dance”).
 |
| Grimmy at the mercy of neighborhood bullies. |
Along with the normal (exaggerated) ordeals of a dog’s life, Grimmy
sometimes had to deal with a gang of neighborhood bully dogs on top of the
dogcatcher. A major recurring character on the show was Mother Goose’s neighbor
Ham (Eddie Deezen), one of the Three
Little Pigs (actually numbered four including a sister, all voiced by
Deezen) that was constantly afraid of the Big Bad Wolf (Gregg Berger) coming for them.
A silent fish named Lassie (named after the dog)
was Mother Goose’s other pet.
Unfortunately, despite duplicating nearly
all the components of Garfield and
Friends, the actual success of the series was not as easily duplicated. The
show struggled through its 13-episode run, although it did bring in respectable
enough ratings to be brought back for a second season of reruns. CBS conducted
research on its failings and determined that kids were put off by the title,
believing it to be just “nursery rhyme” stuff. They changed the name to simply Grimmy for the second season complete
with a new opening. The name change did the series no favors and it was permanently
cancelled by March of 1993.
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