Channel Umptee-3

alt name	Umptee-3
genre	Comedy
creator	Jim George
director	Chris Hedrick Don Jurwich Mike Peraza David Schwartz Bob Seeley
developer	Jim George Norman Lear John Baskin
voices	Gregg Berger Greg Burson Alice Ghostley Jonathan Harris Rob Paulsen David Paymer Neil Ross Susan Silo
theme music composer	Jim George
open theme	"Channel Umptee-3 Theme" performed by Rob Paulsen, David Paymer, and Jonathan Harris
end theme	"Channel Umptee-3 Theme" (instrumental)
composer	Walter Murphy
country	United States
language	English
num seasons	1
num episodes	13
executive producer	Jim George Norman Lear John Baskin Richard Raynis Everett Peck
producer	Jeff Kline Peggy George Bob Seeley
runtime	21 minutes
network	The WB (Kids' WB)
company	Adelaide Productions Act III Productions Enchanté George Columbia TriStar Television
first aired	October 25, 1997
last aired	February 20, 1998

Channel Umptee-3 (also known simply as Umptee-3) is a Saturday morning animated television series created by Jim George and produced by Norman Lear.[1] It aired on The WB as part of the Kids' WB programming block from October 25, 1997 to February 20, 1998.[2][3] The one-season cartoon was designed to teach children to appreciate the wonders of everyday things, such as sleep and water. The title is derived from the fictitonal number "umpteen". It was also the last television series that Lear was involved in as an executive producer (and the last to feature an original story) until the 2017 revival of One Day at a Time.

Format

Ogden Ostrich, Holey Moley (a mole), and Sheldon S. Cargo (a snail) drive around the world in a van with their own underground pirate television station.[4]

Characters

The Umptees

Ogden O. Ostrich (Rob Paulsen) – An excitable yellow ostrich who first came up with the idea for a television program to show everyone that "the world is a magical place" after pulling his head out of the ground one day and looking at the world around him. At the start of every episode, Ogden comes running up the camera yelling "Hey!" over and over.
Holey Moley – A pantomime character. He is a large mole who carries a number of portable holes that allow him and his friends to go anywhere.
Sheldon S. Cargo (David Paymer) – A large pink snail whose shell is fitted with a unicycle-like wheel to help him get around. Sheldon is the serious, professional member of the team; he tries his best to hold the show together, despite Ogden's almost hyperactive behavior. His name is derived from the French word "escargot".
Professor Edwin I. Relevant (Greg Burson) – The station's resident expert on everything. Ogden and the others turn to Professor Relevant for information on the day's topic in almost every episode.
Test and Polly (Neil Ross and Susan Silo) – two newscasters who work for Channel Umptee-3.

The Frumps

Stickley Rickets (voiced by Jonathan Harris) – The elderly president of a corporation that produces boxes. Because the "Umptee-doodies" (as he calls them) encourage people to take things out of boxes and look at them in a new way, he sees them as a threat to his business. So he constantly plots to shut them down and "put them in a box, where they belong."
Pandora Rickets (voiced by Alice Ghostley) – Stickley's wife. She isn't nearly as obsessed as her husband where the Umptees are concerned. Pandora even likes to watch some of the shows, although she does not want Stickley to find out. Her name is derived from "Pandora's box".
Ed and Bud (voiced by Neil Ross and Gregg Berger) – Two black-suited henchmen who carry out Stickley's orders and are almost never successful. Ed is the taller one, and Bud is the shorter, balding one.

Other voices

Other voice actors who appeared on the show included:

Charlie Adler
Susanne Blakeslee
Jeff Bennett
Liz Georges
Jason Graae
Maurice LaMarche
Pat Musick
Julie Payne
Patrick Pinney
Roger Rose
Tara Charendoff
Laura Summer
Ron Taylor
Frank Welker

Channel Umptee-3

Format

Characters

The Umptees

The Frumps

Other voices

Crew

Episodes

Episode status and streaming

External links

References