Summary
Tracy employed a series of cartoony subordinate flatfoots to fight crime each week, contacting them on his two-way wristwatch radio. Everett Sloane voiced Tracy, while Mel Blanc and Paul Frees voiced many of the other characters, including:
- Joe Jitsu, a parody of Charlie Chan and Mr. Moto (featuring many stereotypes of Chinese and Japanese culture). He is an intelligent detective who fights with martial arts (repeatedly slamming his victim to the ground while saying "So sorry!... Excuse prease!... Begging your pardon!"). He is named after the Japanese martial art of jujitsu. Benny Rubin provided his voice throughout the series.
- Hemlock Holmes, a Cockney police bulldog (named in honor of Sherlock Holmes and with a voice patterned after Cary Grant) voiced by Jerry Hausner. He is backed up by his own police squad, The Retouchables (named after The Untouchables, but behaving more like the Keystone Kops).
- Heap O'Calorie, a parody of Andy Devine, Voice by "Uncle" Johnny Coons. Cop with a serious weight problem and a penchant for stealing apples from an outdoor fruit stand. Before setting out on an assignment, Heap would invariably get the "word on the street" from a bongo-pounding beatnik (named "Nick") who communicated solely by beating coded messages on his drums.
- Manuel Tijuana Guadalajara Tampico "Go-Go" Gomez, Jr., essentially a human version of Speedy Gonzales, another Blanc character, though Frees did his voice for most of the series.
A running gag had a gangster's bullet fired point-blank at one of the detectives, who would yell, "Hold everything!" The bullet would obediently screech to a halt and wait, while the detective called headquarters for further instructions. Action would resume only after the sign-off catchphrase, "Six-two and even, over and out" was spoken at the end of the call.
Villains included Pruneface, Itchy, Mumbles, Flattop, Cheater Gunsmoke, B-B Eyes, Stooge Viller, The Brow, Oodles, The Mole, and Sketch Paree. Usually, two villains teamed together, such as Flattop and B-B Eyes, Stooge Viller and Mumbles, or Pruneface and Itchy. Each pair of villains had at least one member who smoked either a cigar or a cigarette on an extender.
For reasons unknown, most of the villains were given voices that parody famous actors.(Flattop / Peter Lorre, Pruneface / Boris Karloff, B.B.Eyes /Edward G. Robinson, The Brow / James Cagney. )
Strangely, the cartoons seldom involved the title character. Tracy would always open each film in his office: "Okay, Chief! I'll get on it right away. Dick Tracy calling..." He would then hand the case over to one of his comic law-enforcement assistants, who would do all the work and take all the risks. Tracy showed up at the very end, usually by car or helicopter, to congratulate the assistant on a job well done.
Read more about this topic: The Dick Tracy Show
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