Sunday, September 1, 2013

Toons You Might've Missed: Hector Heathcote (1959)

I first discovered Hector Heathcote when reruns of his shorts aired on WPIX as part of the Heckle & Jeckle syndicated package in the 70's. However, Hector's origins, as with backup features Silly Sidney & Hashimoto-San, date back to 1959.

The story is that Hector was a modern day scientist who used a time machine to take him to the days of the American Revolution. However, I've never seen an "origin story" backing up this claim, as every episode I've seen has Hector well settled into colonial times. As we outlined last time, NBC picked up The Hector Heathcote Show for a 2 year run (1963-5), and the only other time they did business with Terrytoons was when they acquired reruns of Heckle & Jeckle & Deputy Dawg in the early 70's to fill time due to a lack of original programmng.

Anyway, let's scope out "Peace Pipe":



Rating: B-.

2 comments:

magicdog said...

I remember Hector Heathcoat fondly!

I don't remember him being a time traveler (perhaps that was in the series bible before it went to air), as most eps he was in pertained to the American Revolution. There was at least one episode which was set in the late 1800s and working on building the transcontinental railroad.

hobbyfan said...

Maybe if it ever comes out on DVD, the rest of the story can be told.