W. Watts Biggers - Animation

Animation

At Dancer Fitzgerald Sample in 1960, Biggers teamed with Chester Stover, Treadwell D. Covington and artist Joseph Harris to create TV animation in formats devised to sell General Mills breakfast cereals. Leaving Dancer Fitzgerald Sample, Biggers relocated to Cape Cod to form his company, Total Television (TTV), with animation produced at Gamma Studios in Mexico. TTV created and produced a variety of animated TV series, including King Leonardo and his Short Subjects (the studio's first program), The Hunter, Tooter Turtle, Tennessee Tuxedo and His Tales, Go Go Gophers, The World of Commander McBragg, Klondike Kat and Underdog. For these series, Biggers co-wrote more than 500 scripts and composed all theme songs, words and music. The highly successful Underdog originally was telecast on NBC from 1964 to 1966, followed by a run on CBS (1966–68) and a return to NBC (1968–70 and 1972–73).

Total TeleVision folded when General Mills dropped out as the sponsor in 1969. Biggers moved back to New York as VP Promotion and Creative Services for NBC, heading a 90-person department for five years. He returned to Cape Cod for a 12-year career as a freelance writer, contributing to TV Guide, Family Circle and Reader's Digest. Biggers and Stover collaborated on the television news column, TV Tinderbox, which ran in 200 newspapers, syndicated by the Chicago Tribune-New York Daily News and later by Dallas' Tel-Aire Syndicate and King Features Syndicate.
In 1995, Biggers, Stover, Covington and Harris sold their creations to Lorne Michaels, who sold the rights to Little Golden Books, which published Underdog and the Disappearing Ice Cream. For BearManor Media, Biggers co-authored How Underdog Was Born (2005).