Wally Gator is an American animated television series produced by Hanna-Barbera that originally aired as one of the three segments from the syndicated block The Hanna-Barbera New Cartoon Series.
Wally Gator appears in the HBO Max series Jellystone!, where he is portrayed as the town ditz and voiced by Jeff Bergman.
Plot
Wally Gator (voiced by
Daws Butler impersonating
Ed Wynn) is an
anthropomorphic, happy-go-lucky
alligator who wears a collar and a pork pie hat. Although his catchy theme song describes him as a "swingin' alligator of the
swamp," his home is in the city
zoo.
Mr. Twiddle (voiced by
Don Messick) is the
zookeeper who keeps a close watch on Wally, who likes to check out what life is like in the outside world.
Analysis
Animation historian Christopher P. Lehman noted that
Wally Gator follows the formula that Hanna-Barbera established in the previous series, such as the
Yogi Bear series. The set up in which these shows placed an animal character within a human-controlled environment and had these characters deal with the social boundaries placed and enforced by humans.
[Lehman (2007), p. 27] An example being: Yogi lives in a park under the care of a park ranger; Wally lives in a zoo under the supervision of a zookeeper. The theme that drives the series is Wally's desire to escape the zoo, a derivative of the
Top Cat series, where the titular character keeps trying to get away from life in the alley.
Lehman notes a rather depressing underlying theme: the zoo and life in captivity seem to be the proper place for Wally. No matter how much he struggles to fit in the society of the outside world, Wally remains an "Other" and is doomed to fail. The status quo follows every unsuccessful attempt at change.
Episodes
Voice cast
Home media
Episodes of
Wally Gator were released on VHS many times. A DVD set release of the complete series was originally announced for 2006 from Warner Bros. for the Hanna-Barbera Classic Collection but was later canceled due to the poor condition of the masters and was delayed. In 2006, a Warner spokesperson said of the DVDs: "They were pulled because significant remastering work needed to be researched. We are exploring adding them back to the schedule next year." The first episode is available on the DVD set “Saturday Morning Cartoons 1960s Vol. 2”.
The show was released on iTunes video in 2017 as part of Hanna-Barbera's 60th anniversary and was released on a made-to-order DVD set from
Warner Archive on June 25, 2019.
It was released on Blu-ray by Warner Archive on December 16, 2025.
See also
-
List of works produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions
-
List of Hanna-Barbera characters
-
The Hanna-Barbera New Cartoon Series
-
Lippy the Lion and Hardy Har Har
-
Touché Turtle and Dum Dum
Sources
External links
