The two-sided cover of an Underdog picture-sleeve from 1965.   I really liked Underdog as a kid and remember Sweet Polly Purebred fondly.   “There’s no need to fear, Underdog is here!” Wally Cox, TV’s mild-mannered Mr. Peepers, provided the voice of NBC-TV’s Underdog, a super-canine who talked in rhyme. Underdog was the alter-identity of Shoeshine Boy. He was usually called into action by his girlfriend, ace TV reporter Sweet Polly Purebred (voiced by Norma McMillan).   When he heard Polly’s singing plea of “Oh where, oh where has my Underdog gone?”, “humble, lovable” Shoeshine Boy would slip into a phone booth and emerge as the champion of justice. “When Polly’s in trouble I am not slow, it’s Hip, Hip, Hip and away I go !”

The Underdog Show began with a parody of Superman’s famous opening: “Look, up in the sky, it’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s a frog…a frog?” At that point, the canine would correct the observers with: “Not bird, nor plane, nor even frog, it’s just little ‘ole me, Underdog !” Like his human counterpart, Underdog was not infallible. While he didn’t have to contend with Kryptonite, occasionally his power would fade, causing him all kinds of trouble. For cases like that, the pooch would carry a revitalizing energy pill in a secret compartment in his ring.

Underdog’s main foes included underworld boss Riff Raff, and Simon Bar Sinister, an evil scientist who once created a Big Dipper Machine to steal the world’s water supply. He then enslaved the citizens and made them do as “Simon Says” just to get a drink.

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