Mister Magoo, the crotchety, nearsighted, lovable old coot who first appeared in the 1949 UPA short "Ragtime Bear", has been in the news lately. UPA has licensed Walt Disney Pictures to produce a live-action feature based on the character, with Leslie Nielsen in the title role. In July 1997, The National Federation of the Blind responded to the forthcoming movie by issuing a statemnent which said that the Mr. Magoo character demeans blind people. The organization failed to note the fact that the character of Magoo is not blind, just severely near-sighted, and that he simply refuses to wear glasses.The Magoo character almost never was. UPA was a struggling animation studio in the mid 1940's. UPA founder Stephen Bosustow, in an effort to remain in business, signed a contract with Columbia Pictures in the late 1940's to produce animated shorts utilizing the Columbia owned Fox and the Crow characters. John Hubley, a supervising director at UPA, wanted to get away from producing funny animal cartoons, and proposed a story to Columbia utilizing a human character named Magoo. Columbia reluctantly agreed, but only because, in addition to the human characters, the story included an animal and was titled after an animal,"Ragtime Bear".
The initial appearance of Magoo was one of a cranky, cantankerous old coot. This effect was heightened by the delightful ad-libbing of Jim Backus in the title role. John Hubley directed the initial two Magoo shorts, but tired of the character. He was replaced in 1950 by director Pete Burness. Mr. Magoo's character was softened by Burness, making him more appealing to mass audiences. The first Magoo short directed by Burness, Trouble Indemnity, was nominated for an Academy Award. The Burness Magoo shorts went on to win two Academy Awards.
After the failure of UPA's first full-length feature, 1959's 1001 Arabian Nights, Bosustow sold the studio to producer Henry G. Saperstein. Saperstein discarded UPA's reputation for quality and actively entered the made-for-TV cartoon market. Saperstein produced 130 cheaply made Mr. Magoo cartoons which premiered in syndication on November 7, 1960. The character later appeared in a successful holiday special, Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol on NBC, which led to an unsuccessful NBC prime time series, The Famous Adventures of Mr. Magoo.
In 1977, DePatie-Freleng licensed the character for a 13 episode series, What's New, Mr. Magoo for Saturday mornings on CBS-TV. The series paired the nearsighted Magoo with a nearsighted talking dog, McBarker. The series ran through September 9, 1979.
For more information on Mr. Magoo, including the theme songs to his television series, see Toon Tracker's Mr. Magoo Page.